<p>ok so im a little confused on how prefrosh choose courses. Do we meet with an advisor during Orientation or something?</p>
<p>Yes, you'll have a meeting with your advisor in which you'll discuss your course options. There's also a short presentation given one day, called core something-or-other, in which the professors of the freshman classes give brief presentations about their courses and the people who should take them.</p>
<p>Honestly, I think the core classes presentation and talking with upperclassmen will probably be more useful than meeting with your academic advisor.</p>
<p>I agree with mollie. Talking to your advisors to register is more just about meeting them and finalizing everything. I know that when I went in to meet with my advisor last year, I had already decided everything and was just making sure it worked. </p>
<p>The best place to go to find out information on classes is upperclassmen(preferably sophomores, since they will remember best). The core blitz is good for getting facts and seeing who will be teaching the classes, but upperclassmen can give you more "inside" information, like which classes are easier or more interesting or what you will be prepared for based on high school work.</p>
<p>I heard that the classes with more numbers after the decimal were harder. I was wondering about chemistry... I noticed that beginner chemistry was 5.111... is there are reason why there are three digits behind the decimal as opposed to two? Is that the basic, easy beginner chemistry, or is there something else I'm missing?</p>
<p>Are we allowed to audit classes (I'd like to audit a language...)? I'm guessing we probably can, but is it generally an unadvised, I'm-a-stupid-prefrosh-who's-too-stupid-to-believe-in-the-credit-limit thing to do?
Also, how do prerequisites work if we haven't formally satisfied them? Are they just a general guide, or would we actually have to prove that we know the prereq stuff? Similar question for taking grad classes instead of undergrad versions...<em>feels very stupid prefroshy</em></p>
<p>Thanks so much.</p>
<p>Regarding 5.111 etc -- several years ago, there was only one intro chem class taught by the chem department, and it was called 5.11. But people who didn't have two years of high school chemistry clearly weren't doing as well, so they split it into two classes, 5.111 (for people with only one year of HS chem) and 5.112 (for people with two years). (By the way, these are pronounced "five-eleven-one" and "five-eleven-two" rather than "five-one-eleven"/"five-one-twelve", which makes their derivation a little more clear.)</p>
<p>Generally speaking, 3.091 is the easiest intro chem course, 5.111 is intermediate, and 5.112 is the most difficult.</p>
<p>With regard to auditing... you are allowed to audit classes (and I know that the intro language classes have a lot of auditors), but I'm not really sure what hoops you have to jump through in order to be registered as an auditor. </p>
<p>How strictly prerequisites are enforced depends entirely on what class/department you're talking about. Generally, freshman classes tend to be a little stricter about prereqs than upper division classes -- if you think you're going to take 5.12 without taking 5.111, or 18.02 without having credit for differential/integral calculus, you probably have another think coming; if you want to take (as I did) 7.23 (Immunology) without 7.06 (Cell Bio), no one cares. What class specifically were you thinking of?</p>
<p>To take most grad classes, you have to have the "permission of the instructor", but unless it's a limited enrollment course or you clearly don't have enough background, professors are usually pretty cool about letting you take grad classes. (I think that's what you mean. If you mean "can I sign up for 6.431 -- the grad version of 6.041-- rather than 6.041", no, because they're the same class.)</p>
<p>i dont know if i should use my math credit....</p>
<p>Wow, thanks mollie! :) Yep, that's what I meant by taking grad classes. For the prerequisites thing, I wasn't thinking of anything in particular...Just noticed that a few math and comp sci classes have, for example, 18.100 or "Mathematics for Computer Science" as prereqs, which I think I have a strong enough background in.
Just one more question!: for those classes that require "permission of the instructor", do we actually need to meet with the instructor beforehand and prove we're capable of taking the class? o<em>O ></em>< <em>hopes not</em></p>
<p>Thanks again.</p>
<p>I would assume you'd just need to email the prof. Some of them might want to meet in person... but I'm willing to bet that a lot of them would just be like "yeah, awesome, see you in class" because they're too lazy to give it further thought. ;)</p>
<p>As for 18.100 -- I know I've heard people complain mightily about 18.100B, so it's probably not a cakewalk. Still, you could always sign up for whatever class requires it, and if it's too tough, just drop. (Drop date, as you may or may not know, is always ridiculously late -- maybe 2 or 3 weeks before the end of term. This is so people can take classes, then if they overestimated their capabilities, they can drop without penalty.)</p>
<p>For people who may have that same question about the chem classes, I agree pretty much with mollie with just a small add on.</p>
<p>5.112 is definitely the most difficult chem you can take of the three, but when it comes to the other two, it's more of a personal choice. 3.091 is probably easier in the most general sense as in the material is not as hard to learn for the first time, but it is also much different than the high school AP curriculum which makes it a new subject (the beginning is all the same though). You end up learning about glasses and semiconductors and a lot of different things. 5.111 may be "harder" but it closely follows the AP topics with of course a lot of add-ons and more in-depth material. So I guess what I am saying is that if chem is not your thing but you took and did well in AP chem, 5.111 may be actually easier than 3.091 as it is not as new of material.</p>
<p>i heard 3.092 is more geared towards material science majors. would it be more beneficial, then, for a course 2 major to take this course (for structural engineering, stress, etc)?</p>
<p>I assume you meant 3.091, but either way, what chem class you choose won't really matter in terms of a course 2 major (someone correct me if I am terribly wrong). 3.091 is definitely the way to go if you are planning on course 3 as it will give you an idea of some of the material to come, just as if you are planning on course 5 or 10 or the like, 5.111 or 5.112 is the way to go.</p>
<p>Course 2, at least the beginning, is largely mechanics so the chem class will no be too much of a factor, but you will learn a lot of that in 8.01, and then relearn with more emphasis when you take 2.001. My recommendation would be that as long as you are not planning on going course 3 or a course that requires 5.12 (organic chem - in which case, take one of the course 5 chems), choose your chem class based on what you learned in high school and what seems interesting now.</p>
<p>hey mollie, quick question about 7 prequisites. Given what you just said, is there a chance that if I take 7.06 before 7.05, no one will really care?</p>
<p>Most likely no one will check up on it. Course 7 is strict in some ways (ie they wouldn't let someone take 7.02 without credit for 7.01x), but they're pretty lax about prereqs for upperclassmen. (I personally took 7.23 without 7.06, and took 7.29 concurrently with 7.05, neither of which should have been allowed.)</p>
<p>I'm trying to decide whether or not I would recommend that particular course of action... I guess it might be okay, although you might have to take some of 7.06 on faith instead of really understanding the reactions between amino acids etc. At any rate, drop date is late enough that you could try it out, and if it's not working after the first test, you can drop. (Incidentally, most of the people taking 7.06 are juniors, so putting 7.06 off until your junior year wouldn't be bad -- were you thinking of taking 7.06 sophomore year and 7.05 junior year?)</p>
<p>It may well have changed, but I certainly remember the Law of the Extraneous Digit, which roughly stated says "Never take an extraneous digit without a really good reason for doing so." So if you are debating between 8.01, 8.011, and 8.012 all of which appear as Physics I, always take 8.01 absent COMPELLING reasons to do otherwise. Whim doesn't usually cut it.</p>
<p>For example, if you really liked math in High School, you may be tempted into "Calculus with Theory", which is a great subject for some math majors (and I have an undergraduate math degree from the Institute), but think carefully about this. And remember:
a) There are very few students who complain about the lack of difficulty and intellectual rigor in the more common 18.01.
b) You are competing against lots of students almost all of whom did well in High School math just to get there.
c) Piling on extra difficulty does not necessarily get you very far.</p>
<p>This is not to say you should never take an extraneous digit, just think carefully before you do so.</p>