<p>I know there are similar questions but I wanted an honest opinion from current students</p>
<p>In the fall I will be taking</p>
<p>Lit Hum
Frontiers of Science
Intro to American Government
Intro to Comparative Government</p>
<p>should I take a 5th political science class that might be [POLS W3280] 20th Century American Politics, [POLS BC1001] Dynamics of American Politics or [HIST BC1302] European History since 1789. </p>
<p>Or should I stick to the first 4 classes? Again thank you and I appreciate the help</p>
<p>Only take a fifth class if a) it’s a class you really want to take (especially if you’re not certain when it will be offered again), or b) it’s a class you need as a foundation for a major or a prospective major, i.e., if you have any inkling you want to major in a science, you might as well take chem, and if all else fails, that’ll just fulfill your science requirement. Given the classes you have listed, you might register for the one you like best, and then drop it if you’ve overwhelmed. And given all the intro classes you’re taking (and Frontiers. ugh.), you might want to take one “fun” class, since intro classes are sometimes dull, LitHum is a roll of the die and can range from super awesome amazing fun to dull waste of time, and frontiers sucks. So a fun class might be in order. Now, whether or not a polysci or history class is a fun class for you is another question entirely, lol. It’s really a question of how you want to spend your time and if you can handle the fifth class. If you’re taking it and it’s no problem easy to handle, then keep it. Maybe it’ll make it easier to study abroad later on or something. If it’s taking up too much of your time that you’d rather be spending doing something else that’s caught your attention, drop it. That’s my advice.</p>
<p>frankly, i think this is a terrible schedule. 1. you have no room for exploration in this schedule. overloading yourself on poli sci classes so early could foreclose the discovery of other areas of interest, and could even lend you the wrong impression of poli sci at the university level. 2. there’s absolutely no reason to take 2 intro to poli sci classes first semester–there’s no reason to take 2 intro to poli sci classes first year. if you have some sort of anxiety about fulfilling the requirements for the major, i would suggest spreading the intro classes out over two semesters. but 3. the requirements for the poli sci major are extremely easy to meet over 4 years, there’s absolutely no rush, especially if you’re not double majoring. and most importantly:
4. most people try to begin meeting the other core requirements their freshman year–the 2 sciences and 2 global cores. there’s no reason to jump ahead in the poli sci major when you’ll eventually have to slow down to meet the core. you make a major sacrifices in balance and efficiency in the core for a negligible advantage in meeting major requirements. bad decision.</p>
<p>virtually everyone i knew took 5 classes. if you are academically adroit, it should not be an issue.</p>
<p>from what i understand [HIST BC1302] European History since 1789 does not meet any political science requirements and is not a political science course. i may have misread your original post.</p>
<p>I agree - don’t overload yourself with PoliSci classes the first semester, even the first year. I’m a PoliSci major, and I only took one class (intro to comparative) my first year. And I’m not remotely worried about fulfilling my requirements. </p>
<p>Also, don’t depend on your schedule working out - my first semester I couldn’t get into a single PoliSci intro course, so you’ll be incredibly lucky to get into two of them. </p>
<p>pwoods I am exempt from the language requirement. Thank you all for the help. I agree with you all, I’m thinking that I might just take one intro if I can sign up and then take a history/global course and an astronomy or what not to cover up the science requirement and learn a bit about that. I’ll prob sign up for 5 and measure the workload the first week. Again thanks for all the insight.</p>