<p>When we pick classes during orientation, is it for the whole year or do we pick classes on a term by term basis?</p>
<p>Courses are selected term by term. You will be allowed to do a brief assessment on your selected courses in the beginning of each term. You can choose to drop and add courses before a set deadline if you find any of them is not for you or you decide to take it later.</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity, can we sign up for four classes (is that even advisable?) If we can, should one be a PE?</p>
<p>When I went for Dimensions, a current student told me that you can sign up for four but the most advisable would be three because you will become so busy with classes and different activities and each term is 10 weeks so the workload is heavy.</p>
<p>I'm not really sure...but I would think it's all based on your personal preference and your limitations....</p>
<p>I also read that the requirement is two PE classes but if you are on a sports team you are excused.</p>
<p>Can a current student explain this more?
Do they mean 2 PE classes yearly or term wise?</p>
<p>You will be required to complete 3 PE classes and a swim test over the course of your 4 years in order to graduate. The PE classes in addition to the 35 courses you need to complete your degree.</p>
<p>You will have the 3 opportunities to take a 4 class term with out incurring additional tuition.</p>
<p>Signing up for four classes is a good idea so you can reserve a spot in all the classes. Freshmen are the last on the totem pole to get into classes, so it can be smart to try to get in to as many possible. </p>
<p>This doesn't mean that you have to take all four classes, however. You can get more opinions on classes before they start, or attend all four and pick your fav three. A lot of people "shop" for classes this way. Definitely use saguide Course</a> Guide | Student Assembly Online to help you pick classes and profs.</p>
<p>I really recommend taking three relatively easy classes your first term. You want to spend your time meeting people and making friends those first few weeks, not being bogged down with reading and papers. I made a mistake and took Govt 3 my freshmen fall with a prof who assigned 200 pages of reading every two days. I'm a slow reader and I spent way too much time in the library instead of meeting people and having fun.</p>
<p>Each PE class lasts one term and like Sybbie said, you only need to take 3 to graduate. Skiing/snowboarding and horseback-riding have been my fav PE classes. There are a lot of awesome dance troupes and you can get PE credit for dancing with most of them. And you sign up for PE classes separately from academic classes, so you can still sign up for four academic classes and a PE class if you wish to.</p>
<p>BigGreenJen - Would you say that skiing/snowboarding or horseback riding is a good class for a beginner?</p>
<p>I was also thinking of ice skating but since I have little experience with that....I'm not sure whether I should go for it.</p>
<p>They're both good PE classes for all levels. All of them have beginning, intermediate, and advanced classes that you can sign up for. I took the beginning skiing class and had a blast. We were divided into small groups so we had 1-2 instructors keeping an eye out on us. They could also tailor the lessons and pick which slopes best fit our level. </p>
<p>I also took beginning horseback-riding and there were only three students to one instructor. I took it during the summer term and it was so fun to be out in the nice weather with the horses. </p>
<p>Both classes started out with stuff like how you put on your skis and boots and how you tack up a horse. Even though I had skied before, I'm glad I took the beginning class because the Dartmouth slopes were very icy that winter and they weren't like the powdery slopes I had skied on before.</p>
<p>Sign up for four classes and attend classes that you're not enrolled in for the first few days. Take a look at the class syllabi, the sizes, overall feel, etc. before finally deciding on your courses. One word of caution though: sometimes class-shopping can leave you unmotivated and left behind during the first few weeks because you'd keep thinking that if you screw up one class you could just drop it and join another. Also, there is a deadline (10 days after classes start, I think) for you to establish a 2-, 3-, or 4-course load. You can't change your course load after that, but you can switch courses. If you've established a 3-course load, dropping a course after the deadline will give you a W on your transcript. If you've established a 4-course load, dropping a course will not leave a W but you will have used up one of your 3 free chances to take 4 courses. Watch out for the deadline. I missed it once (because I didn't know there was such a deadline), and got stuck with 4 courses when I only wanted to take 3 that term.</p>
<p>Hey BigGreenJen, does signing up for skiing/snowboarding or horseback riding cost anything extra? If so, how much?</p>
<p>yes,
I am going to say that there is a cost associated with horseback riding but i know for a fact that there is an extra cost for skiing as you pay for equipment rentals, transportation and lift tickets. </p>
<p>When you register it will list the cost of the course which is billed to you parents.</p>
<p>Got a q: </p>
<p>For classes such as Gen. Chem or Gen. Bio, are these only 10 week term classes? Or are such courses broken up into two/three parts (like most universities where Gen Chem is semester 1+semester 2) . I'm a bit confused as to how many terms a general introductory course takes up.</p>
<p>Depending on your placement test results, if you are looking to do the gen chem track, you will take either chem 5 in the fall or winter (10 weeks), cHEM 3 in winter and chem 6 in the spring (10 weeks)</p>
<p>^ Does everyone take the test? I read something somewhere and it suggested that only kids who score a 5 on the AP test get to take the test (I got a 4. :/)</p>
<p>anyone who wants to take it and wakes up at the right time can take the test... they aren't going to be like "oh, no, you can't take this"</p>