Choosing Courses

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
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<p>Hi everyone, I'm new to collegeconfidential (browsing or posting). My friend referred me here after I told him I was having trouble choosing courses and about college stuff in general.
I'm attending UPenn next year, with my major in Computer Science at the School of Engineering. </p>

<p>I'm kind of confused as to how, where, and when to choose courses. I've been looking on some of the forums threads, and from what I've gathered, there is an Advanced Course registration period from June 28th to mid-July? Is that when we are supposed to register for our classes, or do we wait until the NSO in September? </p>

<p>Also, being new to college, I was wondering how one goes about choosing classes to take. Are there like general guidelines or tips for incoming freshman? I want to know more, but I don't really know where to look on the school website. </p>

<p>I was wondering if anyone could maybe point me to some sites, or maybe anyone currently a computer science major could recommend any classes for me to take my first year. I don't have a huge background in programming, but I am planning on self studying over the summer. </p>

<p>I don't know anyone else who is or has attended UPenn, and so I don't really have anyone to ask for advice on taking courses. I really appreciate any helpful posts :).</p>

<p>PS: I'm also not sure if I was supposed to post this in the 2014 section or the main forum so sorry if it's in the wrong place.</p>

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<p>Hey there! Welcome to CC and more importantly, welcome to Penn!</p>

<p>I’ll answer as much as I can, which is little since I’m not an engineer. </p>

<p>Advance Registration for courses starts June 28th and goes through mid-July, like you said. THIS is the time that you will register for classes through PennInTouch. It is NOT a first-come/first-served system, so you can register at any time during that period and have the same chances of getting into classes as every other freshman. Sometime in August, you will receive your schedule on Penn In Touch, which may or may not be different than what you registered for, based on limited space. At that time you can drop courses that you no longer want to take and add courses that you find interesting at that time, so long as they are ‘open’ (have space available). At times, you might be able to register for a class in this period that you didn’t get after advance registration because somebody else dropped their place. In this case, everything is first-come/first served. </p>

<p>Hopefully that made some sense. </p>

<p>Here’s a tutorial video that The College has put on their website. Some of the information may not be relevant to you as you are not in the College of Arts and Sciences, but some of it may be helpful.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.college.upenn.edu/registration/video_tutorial.php[/url]”>http://www.college.upenn.edu/registration/video_tutorial.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>My peer adviser emailed me two days ago with about 8 pages of info. So that should be coming soon to you also. You should have received the Class of 2014 Handbook in the mail, read through it all. That’s where i found all these answers. I believe the end date is July 23rd for Adv Registration, but dont quote me on that.</p>

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<p>That handbook and that advising system is through the College of Arts and Sciences, so that doesn’t apply to luhbra. SEAS has their own advising system.</p>

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<p>Thanks for all the help. I think I’ve gotten most of it down.
My peer advisor hasn’t contacted me, so I sent her an email regarding other course-specific questions, so that should be everything I need. I haven’t received the handbook either, so I’m guessing it is specific to CAS. Thanks though.</p>

<p>If any engineering students see this, would you suggest skipping CIS-110 and directly taking CIS-120?</p>

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<p>Although I’m not a computer science major, I am a fellow engineer (CBE). I took CIS110 last semester. It was time consuming but not too hard (I received an A). However, if you know how to program Java or know about loops, recursion, inheritance, etc, you should skip 110 and take 120 for sure. </p>

<p>Let me know if you have any questions. I don’t check here too often. Facebook groups for SEAS 2014 are available for help and they are checked pretty often.</p>

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<p>Is there any site that gives accurate ratings on difficulty of class/average grade breakdown/professor rating?
I found <a href=“University Life – University of Pennsylvania”>University Life – University of Pennsylvania, and was wondering if that was the main one open to students, or if there was another that most people used.</p>

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<p>That’s the one.</p>

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<p>there’s penncoursereviewed.com (made by students) but i dont think its used as much anymore…</p>

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<p>GAAAAAH! I’m having such a horrid time selecting courses :(</p>

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<p>Relax. Chances are that you’ll switch out of half your courses anyway, so just pick some classes that seem interesting and run with it!</p>

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<p>About how many groups of primary and alternate courses should we be registering for? I have six right now but I’m wondering if that’s enough to ensure me a full schedule.</p>

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<p>You might want to sign up for an extra class and then drop whichever one you don’t like or don’t need. Also, it helps to sort of plot out your courses for all four years so you can see the progression and understand the prereq’s.</p>

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<p>Worst case you can always add/drop classes during the add/drop period which lasts until mid-October.</p>