<p>Hello fellow commodores,
I'm really curious about what classes people are taking, or considering taking, and how they're choosing and balancing out hours. I think I'm interested in a biology major, but I'm intimidated about having to take a biology course and lab, a chemistry course, lab, and recitation, and a calculus course all freshman year, and then finding something else/a freshman seminar that fits into that schedule. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>Ah, it would seem that I’m in much a similar situation as you, though without your particular brand of ambivalence (for I’ve already decided to take Calc 175, Chem/Bio w/ Labs, a seminar, and a fifth course that I’ve not entirely decided upon yet). I imagine that if it’ll end up being too much for me to handle (which I rather doubt, given that these are intro courses designed for freshmen and so tend to fall on the easy side of the spectrum), I can always drop something within the first week of classes.</p>
<p>I’m also a bio major and am taking bio, chem, calc, and spanish first semester. I’ve set it up pretty nicely in that schedule worksheet so that most of my afternoons are free. I think I will take a freshman seminar in the spring though.</p>
<p>I at least have my courses NARROWED DOWN. lol.</p>
<p>Calc 175</p>
<p>Italian or Arabic</p>
<p>FYWS - I want Seven Wonders of the Ancient World VERY badly. I have some other backups though, whichever fits into the schedule…</p>
<p>One of the Earth Science classes with lab (totally not a science-y person. lol.) OR the Astronomy course with lab (but I do not think that fills the required lab science for AXLE… dunno why it wouldn’t though)</p>
<p>Either… Intro to Philosophy, Intro to Archaeology, Intro to Anthropology, Greek or Roman Civilization, Photography, Painting</p>
<p>That’s 18 hours, which everyone advises against, but I don’t care. I’m excited.</p>
<p>to the last poster, dont bother signing up for greek or roman civ, u will very likely not get into it, I would recommend intro to philosophy, I took it and it was an awesome class, and astronomy does fulfill the science requirement and is an awesome course, make sure to get it with stassun if he is teaching it, he is the man.</p>
<p><a href=“for%20I’ve%20already%20decided%20to%20take%20Calc%20175,%20Chem/Bio%20w/%20Labs,%20a%20seminar,%20and%20a%20fifth%20course%20that%20I’ve%20not%20entirely%20decided%20upon%20yet”>quote</a>. I imagine that if it’ll end up being too much for me to handle (which I rather doubt, given that these are intro courses designed for freshmen and so tend to fall on the easy side of the spectrum),
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</p>
<p>Putting it nicely… …do yourself a favor and do NOT assume that these are easy intro classes.</p>
<p>There’s no harm in doing so, from what I can tell, given our ability to drop classes if we don’t like them…</p>
<p>
Thanks. You are sure astronomy (with lab) fulfills the science LAB requirement? That’s the only thing I’m worried about. In the AXLE booklet, it says “The basic astronomy course for physics-astronomy majors is Astronomy 102, which can be taken during the sophomore year.” So I can’t take it freshman year? I mean, it’s a 102 course… and as the lab portion of the course is Astr 103, I see that under the Math & Natural Sciences section (in course distribution), 103 isn’t listed. It actually isn’t listed anywhere.
I am confused. lol.</p>
<p>You don’t receive AXLE MNS credit for 103, although you still need at least one lab for AXLE MNS portion.</p>
<p>^Ah, that’s lame… thanks for giving a definitive answer though.</p>
<p>^^ But… none of the science labs say that they give AXLE credit!! I thought you had to take three MNS classes and then a lab on the side of one of them?</p>
<p>I think that that rule means that you can’t just take a lab - 1 credit - and expect an axle requirement to be met, they want you take take a lecture course that meets three times a week to get all your bases covered. However, labs provide valuable experience so they want you to take one, but it’s not enough to stand on its own. Does that make any sense? </p>
<p>Inveniamviam, your classes look really interesting but I think that 18 course hours in your freshman fall will kill you. There’s a rule of thumb - 1 hour of class, 2-3 hours of homework, and your freshman fall you need to have some social life too to get settled into the new environment and meet people. I’m having the same problem with too many cool classes to choose from, though!</p>
<p>And Moodrets, Vandy’s a tough school, I don’t think that any of us will be able to sleep through the freshman level classes lol</p>
<p>I will have to talk to my adviser I guess about the astronomy course. I’m sure the course itself gives AXLE credit for MNS, but I’m still wondering if, when taken along with the lab course, it fulfills the 1 lab science credit. Bah. Speedy_mouse, yeah that makes sense, but I looked at the other labs and they’re listed in the booklet, whereas astr 103 is not (or at least I couldn’t find it. lol).</p>
<p>And yeah, I have been reconsidering doing 18 hours (haha. I haven’t even heard of any other freshman vaguely considering 18 for first semester…). So, to narrow down the hours, I’d be doing Calc 175, probably Italian, FYWS, and astronomy+lab. That’s 15 hours I believe, which is do-able for sure. Oh well. I don’t know.</p>
<p>I am almost sure that id does fulfill the requirement, but cant hurt to ask your advisor, i could be wrong.</p>
<p>^Okay thank you! I guess I will ask still, just to make sure, haha.</p>
<p>Is it beginning Italian? That’s class has a major time commitment. D’s roommate took it & it met more than any other class. I don’t know the details, though (sorry).</p>
<p>D wants to take beginning Russian! She only took Latin in high school and even though she could probably exempt some of her language requirement if she took Latin, she cannot stomach it anymore. I recall her telling me that class meets 5 days a week. I am trying to find out if the profs are good or bad or hard to understand as I think it is a small department at Vanderbilt. Can anyone shed some light on this? Thanks</p>
<p>My son wants to take Arabic and I saw that met 5 days per week. We would also be interested in knowing how time consuming the intro language classes are? I imagine he would do this his Sophmore year, since as a MCB major, he would take Chem, Bio, Math, and Writing seminar.</p>
<p>Yes I’m looking at either beginner Italian or beginner Arabic. I know Arabic meets 5 days a week and I’m assuming Italian does as well, but I don’t have a problem with that. I have mostly decided against the 18 hours first semester, I guess, though (depending on how first semester goes, of course) I’m definitely thinking about it for 2nd semester.</p>
<p>I was thinking of taking Spanish… but all their intro classes are taught purely in Spanish! does anyone else think that that’s super intimidating?</p>