<p>I think you've got it. Three courses in math/science/engineering. Three courses in the humanities (language, English, art, music, classics, history, etc.). Three courses in the social sciences (poli sci, econ, psych, sociology, etc.</p>
<p>Two of the three courses in each group must be taken at Swat. The three courses in each group must be spread over at least two departments. By and large, APs count as one of the distribution requirements, but it varies from department to department.</p>
<p>The Writing requirment is a non-issue. It would be almost impossible to not take the three required writing-intensive courses. In fact, I would strongly recommend the freshman Writing course (which fulfills an English/Humanities requirement).</p>
<p>Now as a practical matter, the goal of freshman year should be to sample as many departments as you can and preserve as many options for a major as you can. For example, it would be nearly impossible to major in Physics without taking Physics and Math freshman year. So if Physics is on your list of four or five potential majors, that locks in at least two courses both semesters.</p>
<p>Here's what I would recommend. Write down the departments that you may already be thinking about for potential majors. Look through the course catalog to get a handle on the requirements for those majors and jot down the courses you need to take freshman year.</p>
<p>Now, curl up with the course catalog and just skim through the courses in each department. Are there any departments that you want to add to your potential major list? Or, if not as a major, are there course that strike your fancy as interesting, fun electives? If so, what are the pre-reqs in that department? Is there an intro freshman course you have to take first?</p>
<p>Keep in mind that sometime this summer you will receive a printed list of several dozen freshman seminars being offered next year, many of which will be interesting.</p>
<p>With all this in mind, you will probably come up with a list of a dozen or more courses you wouldn't mind taking freshman year. From this list, you will pick eight. Don't worry, the extras will come in handy, because it is almost guaranteed that you won't get all four of your first choice courses in a semester. The freshman seminars will mostly go into "lottery" as will some of the more popular sections of Poli Sci, English, etc. No big deal. You've already got another half dozen courses on your list, so you just subsitute one of those and take the original course the following semester. Once you've lost out in the lottery, you get first dibs the following semester, so it all evens out in the wash.</p>
<p>My daughter got lotteried out of her first choice freshman seminar (some ultra-popular Poli Sci thing, I can't remember what), ended up taking a seminar in a different department. Loved it, is now taking two more seminars in that department, and will probably end up majoring in that department. Funny how things work.</p>
<p>She got lotteried out of the Writing course fall semester, so she took Intro Psych, which was on her list of pre-reqs for potential upper level electives. Worked out fine. She's taking the Writing course now, taught by the head of the Swat Writing Associates Program (the prof who is busy teaching the Writing Associates in the fall). She got lotteried out of a stats course this spring, so she substituted Art History, which was on her list of "fun" courses she wanted to take sometime or another.</p>