<p>I think that has something to do with the way courses in different departments are taught and the kinds of skills you need to do well in those courses. It can also reflect the need to test for students who might speak the language at home but don’t have strong reading/writing training in that language. </p>
<p>Anyway, don’t stress about the placement tests, the goal is not to do well on them, the goal is just to see what you know off the top of your head.</p>
<p>Fencing is a perfect fifth class.</p>
<p>On the Grad School forum, I asked about the two-language requirement for PhD programs. I’m not going to try to paraphrase what the English prof/admissions chair of a highly ranked PhD program said, although he eventually said my daughter’s advisor’s recommendation was valid. I’ve included the link below:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/945637-timing-language-requirements-english-ph-d-programs.html?highlight=carolynb[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/945637-timing-language-requirements-english-ph-d-programs.html?highlight=carolynb</a></p>
<p>Bio has intro and core classes - you have to take the core classes even if you bypass the intro classes. Economic Botany which I believe is intro level turned out to be one of my D’s favorite classes - they made perfume and spent a lot of time in the Greenhouses between lectures so you never no what you might miss by trying to test out.</p>
<p>That was a great response from Jingle, Carolyn. I had hoped that you would have gotten more takers, though. He did say:</p>
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</p>
<p>And the Smith English Department says:</p>
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<p>As Jingle and others have pointed out, reading knowledge is very different from actually knowing the language, and it requires a lot less time and work. The German reading course that Mini mentioned sounds like it will be important for your daughter. </p>
<p>Your daughter has time. She should take a wide variety of literature courses to decide what she likes so she can start to hone in on her specialty junior year and senior fall. If she decides that she wants to study a particular subfield that has nothing to do with Spanish, then she might want to take a foreign language reading course sooner rather than later.</p>
<p>Joined today so I could post in this discussion! :)</p>
<p>First, if you guys don’t mind, I’d like to have some general feedback for the course schedule that I’ve figured out so far. I’m hoping to be able to double major in Government and Film Studies (and if that’s not possible, then a Government major with a minor in Film Studies):</p>
<ol>
<li>Accelerated Elementary French</li>
<li>Making of Modern Middle East OR Children’s Literature</li>
<li>Intro to Film Studies</li>
<li>Intro to Political Thinking</li>
</ol>
<p>Anyone have any experience with these classes? </p>
<p>Also, with this schedule, my best option for the Film Studies class would be one that meets from 7:00-11:00 PM. I go to bed at a fairly late time (anywhere from 1:00 AM to 3:00 AM), so it’s not like it’s near my bedtime so I won’t be drowsy, but I’ve never taken a class that late so any opinions regarding later classes would be great as well (did you like it, dislike it, etc). Thanks!</p>
<p>What’s the course number on Intro Political Thinking? There’s a couple of courses I tend to confuse with each other, one’s pretty easy and the other was one of the toughest courses D took at Smith.</p>
<p>Btw, welcome to the board. A lurker emerging from the shadows?</p>
<p>The course number is 100. </p>
<p>Haha I certainly am a newly emerged lurker! I figured that this was the best place to ask my question since everyone is so friendly and helpful. :)</p>
<p>From my D, who took Intro to Film: it was one of her easiest courses. She was somewhat disappointed that it was a lecture class instead of a discussion class, but, all in all, she enjoyed it.</p>
<p>Thanks, Momwaitingfornew! I’ll keep that in mind…and cram like there’s no tomorrow before that placement exam!</p>
<p>Sara, Gov 100 should be fine.</p>
<p>I checked my old e-mails from D…it was Gov 264, American Political Thought with Pat Coby…<em>great</em> prof, according to D…that was the challenge. Fits the profile of a class to take with your chin-strap buckled if you’re a first-year.</p>
<p>Citoyenne, no need to cram. My D didn’t study at all – she just used the knowledge she already had. Believe me, once you hit Smith and preorientation, you’ll be busy doing other stuff before classes start.</p>
<p>TheDad: Thank you for the info! I’ll keep that class and teacher in mind. I don’t mind a challenge. :)</p>
<p>Momwaitingfornew: Thank you as well! I don’t mind that it’s a lecture class since it will be my first film class. I’d like to get down at least a bit of a foundation before I try discussing anything. </p>
<p>It seems that two of my classes will be rather easy. Would it be wise to keep my half of my course load light like this, or should I try for something more a little more difficult in my first year? Obviously, in the end, it’s up to my discretion, but I don’t want to feel like I’m taking the easy way out (but I don’t think I should be too ambitious, either!)</p>
<p>Then again, I’m sure an “easy” college class is nothing like an easy high school class, haha.</p>
<p>I think, particularly first semester, there’s nothing wrong with staying within yourself. You’ll have a lot to adapt to and a lot of demands on your time…you may pare down various activities eventually but between trying activities, house meetings, being away from home, and in general figuring out which way is “up,” I see no reason to overload if you don’t have to, e.g., there are a number of pre-reqs you <em>have</em> to take. You might consider adding a two-unit “fun” class if something strikes your fancy.</p>
<p>Having a few “extra” units in the bank isn’t a bad idea if you’re thinking of doing the Picker Washington program at some point.</p>
<p>I think that it is a fine thing to keep your first semester somewhat light – or rather, half-light. The only other semester that’s worth pulling back a bit is your final semester, when you’ll be doing everything for the last time and should allow yourself time to enjoy your final days at Smith.</p>
<p>Re. Cell Biology, my D ended up being the only first year taking the course in a class of around 60. This can be either intimidating or exhilarating depending on your personality. I felt she handled it well because she was prepared for it. You have to read classic papers from the primary literature and summarize them (this she could do from a specific precollege course she took) and you have to design and execute your own enzyme kinetic experiments in lab (again she had worked in a lab so routinely making up solutions or using a pipetman were fine). The level of detail and amount of material covered were very challenging, and the exam questions were hard. On the other hand, if you’ve done well in AP Biology, I suspect that the intro level course will be too easy. If you don’t mind potentially getting a respectable B (!), then go for Cell Bio. If anyone has specific questions about the course, PM me and I’ll direct them to D. Hope this helps!</p>
<p>I asked my D what she would recommend for a first-year who tested out of Intro Bio. She highly recommends taking a biology elective instead of Cell Bio that first fall, just to get a taste of college-level biology before tackling Cell Bio. The reason the class is so difficult is that students must have a solid conceptual grasp of the material because the exam questions always demand that they take that knowledge to the next level. That is, the exams don’t test on the material taught in class, or even in the textbook, as much as they test the students’ ability to expand that knowledge to a situation/experiment not previously covered. The class quickly divides into those just trying to hang on and those who are determined to take things to that next level. </p>
<p>The skills you learn in Cell Bio are essential to your development as a biology/science major; however, you must already have excellent time management skills, writing ability, and scientific discipline from the get-go. Although my D did well in that class, she had to work like a dog to get the grade she did. As she gets ready to start a PhD program, she’s glad the course was as brutal as it was since it taught her how to review the literature and how to teach herself difficult concepts not specifically covered in class. The analytical side helped her greatly when taking the GRE writing since that tests less writing skill than argument analysis. But she says she does not wish that course on any first-years. :)</p>
<p>
Or possibly a bit of both. Another example of a class where you’re one of few first-years. See also, “beware the Jabberwock…”</p>
<p>@sara: I think you’re letting the schedule confuse you a little with regards to film studies. The 7-11 PM time listed is not actually a separate film studies class, that’s the time that’s set aside for film screenings. So you take the regular lecture course Monday and Wednesday afternoons and then on Thursday nights the class screens the film that will be discussed the following week. You need to be able to go to the Monday/Wednesday lecture in order to take the course. You do not however need to be able to go to the evening screenings, as the films are all available at the library on reserve so you can watch them in your own time. HOWEVER, going to the screenings is a lot easier. You don’t have to “make time” to watch the movie and you don’t have to compete for the one copy on reserve with all the other students who didn’t go to the film screening (intro to film studies is always a big class). </p>
<p>GOV 100 is worthwhile only if you’re planning on being a government major. It’s the required basis of the gov major, but it’s not required in order to take some of the upper level government courses. It’s interesting in that it gives you a basic overview of the major schools of political theory and all the major theorists. So you go through Plato, Machiavelli, Marx, Hobbes, Mills, and so on. and the purpose is that you understand the major schools of thought in political theory so that when you get to your upper level courses and your professors and the other students are dropping references to the “Hobbesian Man” or the differences between Marx and Hegel, you’ll know what that means and be able to analyze accordingly. It gives everyone a common vocabulary for the major. But if you’re not planning on majoring in Government, I would actually skip it and see if you can’t take some other course that’s more interesting.</p>
<p>General comments though Sara, I think that’s a good schedule. Personally, I’d take Making the Modern Middle East (aka the course that changed my entire life, so I’m a bit biased) over Children’s Literature. Making the Modern is a fascinating and essential (IMO) tour through the events that shaped the Middle East today but that took place long before we were alive to remember them and are mostly not covered by your regular school curriculum. You’ll also learn a little bit about Islam (differences between Sunnis and Shia for one thing) and the pre-modern Middle Eastern world. And by Modern, please understand that is “modern” in the historians terms: from the French Revolution through the end of the Cold War, does not mean contemporary Middle East. It’s a serious historical studies course. </p>
<p>And Children’s Lit, I mean it’s fine and everything, but it’s full of seniors who want an easy course (it’s a very very large course always) and the professor’s main focus of study is how Children’s Literature is really full of sexual imagery and symbolism that we just don’t notice as kids but that she is more than happy to describe in full detail. So if you want to never be able to read any of your favorite classics the same way again, then that is the class for you.</p>