<p>Not a big deal- it's actually kind of a nice break to have a phys. ed. class instead of a lecture.</p>
<p>I would recommend waiting until sophomore year before taking 5 4-credit courses unless you really feel strongly about it. Not only does your workload increase a lot, but typically your freshmen year classes have discussion and lab components, which will mean the extra class would add at least 4 hours of class time a week. It's a good idea to make sure you've really adjusted to college before taking the plunge.</p>
<p>sorry- that rule might just be for the College of Arts and Sciences. And it doesn't include 2 credit courses.</p>
<p>kitkat-
If you choose to do divisional studies, your first semester schedule might look like this:
Intro class in major
Writing seminar
Divisional class
Foreign language</p>
<p>optional phys. ed. or music course</p>
<p>Engineering schedules aren't reeeally 5 classes freshman year.
First semester you take:
Calc 1 (or 2)
Chemistry
Writing
Matlab
EK100-- but this isn't a real class. You get assigned to a group of 12ish other freshmen in your major and an SA (student advisor...a junior or senior of that major) and then you also get a faculty advisor. One Friday you meet with your EK100 group, the next Friday all the freshmen engineers meet in a big lecture hall. It's like an intro to engineering seminar kind of thing. It's 0 credits.</p>
<p>So you still end up taking 16 credits like everyone else.</p>
<p>I know this varies with different teachers and professors, but how are assignments given out. I imagine it definitely isn't like high school where teacher assigns it and then walks around and collects the next day. Is it more like you have a week to do x amount of work and hand it in on the due day?</p>
<p>I got a 760 on the SAT II Spanish and a 5 for an AP score. Does that mean I still take a placement test?</p>
<p>Q I already took the AP or the SAT-II in my foreign language. Does that fulfill the requirement?</p>
<p>A. Yes, if your score met CAS requirements. An AP score of 3 (in Latin, a 4; in Japanese, a 5; Chinese TBD) or an SAT-II score of 560 in a language fulfills the CAS requirement. But if you’re that good already, why not take another course or two and pursue genuine fluency? Or try your hand at a new language, something completely different. Our classes are fun, your progress will be dramatic, and you’ll be opening a whole new door to the world.</p>
<p>what would the schedule of a COM student look like? i don't think i'm going to register for a history or science class at orientation for the first semester because i'll still be waiting on my IB scores to come in. so should i fulfill my philosophy requirement for first semester? and i want to be fluent in spanish by the time i leave college, so how does that work? should i sign up for spanish for first semester as well? or instead of spanish should i take an english course? i'm so confused lolol :]</p>
<p>Your COM schedule has COM101 and a discussion section. That's set in stone. You'll also have a writing class - really some form of literature class. Likely WR100. There are many WR100 sections, but you do want to take a class you find interesting and, ideally, one with a professor rated highly (ratemyprofessor.com). The rest pretty much depends on what you have as credits as you try to fit what you want in with your distribution requirements.</p>
<p>aznmatrix, it does vary from class and professor. Something you can usually count on is you'll probably have homework every night in foreign language classes that are checked at least for completion, if not accuracy. </p>
<p>Some classes in math and computer science assign hw regularly, but it really depends on the professor whether it's graded or not. My experience has been that the exams were highly similar to the problem sets, so it's to your benefit to do the work even if it's not graded. Science lab classes often have, well, labs.</p>
<p>Basically the biggest difference from high school is that there won't really be "busy work." For example, you'll be doing a lot of reading, but you won't have a handout with questions you have to answer and turn in to prove you did it. You do the reading and then contribute in a discussion section. That's how you get graded. Most of my classes' grades have been entirely based on a couple midterms, a participation grade, and a final. Another variance might be midterm-paper-participation-final. And for writing classes, just papers and participation.</p>
<p>Thank you Heather for explaining the engineering seminar thing.</p>
<p>Thanks. I hate classes that are entirely grades based. Another question, AP courses are supposed to be "College Level", so does that mean that every course is about AP level because if so, well I am going to have to study very hard.</p>
<p>matrix, AP courses are intended to be "college level" courses. Nonetheless, in most schools, AP courses such as microeconomics are offered throughout the entire year as opposed to the one semester you may spend on it in college. Indeed, the AP testing process may be college level, but everything else about learning the material is not. (i.e. the number of times you have class a week, the size of the classes, the accessibility of your teacher/professor- you're pretty much left to fend for yourself more in college with regards to learning the material)</p>
<p>i can't wait until college. haha</p>
<p>Yes and no. Depending on the course, you may have the same kind of memorization you had in AP. Or you may be required to think more. It totally depends.</p>
<p>You will be required to write better, especially if you're in COM.</p>
<p>Thanks guys. At least in my school, about everything except for tests in my AP classes are supposed to be grade boosters since no one does well on tests anyway. I really hope the difficulty of tests are reasonable and not on stuff that is barely covered.</p>