<p>S&P, that is one heckuva recommendation for the Children’s Lit course! 
I would definitely would never want to take it!</p>
<p>S&P, good comments on the Children’s Lit course. Maybe it should be titled Not-Children’s Lit. With no sexual imagery at all, I always found THE RUNAWAY BUNNY very creepy though I like GOODNIGHT MOON very much.</p>
<p>Sara is leaning towards a Gov major so Gov 100 is spot on. I avoided some of the basic theory classes when I was in college and now I’m sorry I did. I put off a comparative ideologies class until the last quarter of my senior year. I was asked to compare Marx and Lenin and I said that Groucho’s jokes were great but John’s lyrics were a little weak.</p>
<p>^ The Runaway Bunny IS very creepy. And I should emphasize that Children’s Lit is a good course, and the professor is very serious about the subject matter. Sexual imagery in children’s literature is basically her research forte she’s written at least one book on it. It’s really like any English (or Film Studies) class, in that once you take it you gain much greater insights into something you love, but the class completely ruins your ability to enjoy that thing on a surface level ever again. Which kind of sucks.</p>
<p>TD and S&P, I agree with you about THE RUNAWAY BUNNY; it IS creepy. It would be interesting to know if she includes the Brothers Grimm in her course. As a kid, the original versions of Brothers Grimm were very disturbing to me with all the gruesome violence; I always thought their surname was really appropriate. To understand them better, years ago I bought Bruno Bettelheim’s THE USES OF ENCHANTMENT: THE MEANING AND IMPORTANCE OF FAIRY TALES but I have never been a big fan of Freud, so I never made it all the way through the book, it was so depressing. I’m sure, S&P, that the Children’s Lit course is excellent, it’s just a matter of whether you’re willing to have the scales fall from your eyes.</p>
<p>Well, S&P, I"m glad I’m not the only one who feels that way about THE RUNAWAY BUNNY. I’ve never read THE GIVER but D’s description evoked a strong “Ooh, ick!” response too and LOVE YOU FOREVER nearly prompted my pancreas to stop working.</p>
<p>Too much knowledge about anything can change an experience. I’m often more aware than is ideal about the structure of novels and movies as I’m reading/watching them. Occupational hazard of being a writer. Needless to say, the better the writer/filmmaker is at what they’re doing, the more they suck me in so that I lose track. </p>
<p>There’s one novel that has an elegant framing device and I went back to see how the writer did it and read the novel at least three times because I kept forgetting to note the transition from frame to interior.</p>
<p>TV is the worst. The set-ups are too transparent and I can say, Hmm, they’ve got to do X now.</p>
<p>I LOVE the Giver, but it’s a disturbing vision of the future, to say the least. Still, very interesting for children and adults. It’s unfortunately too short to be made into much of a movie, but it’s quite cinematic. </p>
<p>And as for “Love You Forever” it can be pretty sickeningly sweet, unless you hear the author read it aloud. The way he does it, rather than being diabetic coma inducing, it’s actually gut bustingly funny.</p>
<p>S&P: Oh wow thank you for all the info! I’m glad you pointed out that film studies mistake for me! I don’t remember what class it interfered with, but I’m going to look again and see if I can find some way to make it work. If not, there’s always the next semester to take it. :)</p>
<p>As TheDad said, I actually am planning on majoring in Government, so I think the intro course will be a good footing for later courses.</p>
<p>And regarding the Middle East class v. the Children’s Lit, I was leaning toward the former, but I think my decision is concrete now, haha. I’ve always enjoyed history courses more than literature ones anyway. </p>
<p>Again, thank you very much to everyone! This has been more helpful than you can imagine!</p>
<p>not to be the naysayer but please remember that by the time the first years sign up s lot of classes can be full so keep your options open!</p>
<p>^ That’s true. Though in Sara’s case, the courses she’s chosen are all lecture courses/intro courses so they won’t have caps, except for French and the upper level language classes usually have so many sections you can make something work. </p>
<p>But everyone should keep in mind while they’re imagining their dream schedule that you might get to the classroom and find you hate that class and want to drop it, which can lead to juggling and tweaking. Be flexible and remain calm, and you will avoid the First Year Freak Out. Also remember that if a class is full and you really want to get in, you should still go to that class on the first day or for the first couple of classes and see if upperclasswomen drop. That happens frequently and will open up slots. And if you are lucky enough to get into a class with a limited number of slots you should make sure that YOU show up on the first day, or else the professor may give away your space to someone who is there.</p>
<p>
This bears repeating. So I did.</p>
<p>S&P, have you thought of put podcasts up on the internets?</p>
<p>I love this thread. I def. do not have a dream schedule. The only two things I REALLY want to take are Arabic and Calculus, then I have like 100 other classes I would be super happy with. I’m glad that Smith is pretty good with add/drops, because I think that-coupled with some flexibility, will the key to happiness</p>
<p>I agree with r6l. There are a bunch of classes I really want to take, and I’m just trying to get at least a couple of them in in my first semester. Your advice has been great, especially the thoughts on specific classes!</p>
<p>Question: I’m currently debating how I should continue my language studies at Smith. </p>
<p>It’s kind of been a lifelong dream of mine to take Arabic. However, I’m worried about how applicable this might be to…my life. It would also be the fourth language I’ve taken since preschool, and I’m not sure if I even want to study abroad in the Middle East. </p>
<p>My other strong option would be to start taking Spanish again. I started learning in preschool, have good comprehension skills, a basic vocabulary and a negligible accent (because I learned so early), but I haven’t taken it since I was eleven. However, it might be much more applicable/useful later in life and would give me more options when it came to studying abroad. </p>
<p>Thoughts? Is taking two elementary language courses simultaneously just asking for extreme stress, even if I have taken two languages simultaneously before, and dealt with it very well?</p>
<p>Is there any way I can take a very basic singing course at Smith? I looked up Music classes on the course catalog but found the descriptions confusing.</p>
<p>Is FYS 186 Israel: Texts and Contexts a good one? It sounds very interesting. If I do get it, would it be crazy to combine it with CLT202: Western Classics in Translation my first semester? It’s just that I’m thinking of majoring in Comp Lit and it’s recommended that I take that class as soon as possible.</p>
<p>I’ve read this entire thread and it’s so helpful, thank you.</p>
<p>Widget - the issue with two elementary languages is that they usually meet 4 -5 times a week each so even of the work load isn’t overwhelming the scheduling might be tough.</p>
<p>General question, but do you think scheduling a class that begins ten minutes after another one ends is too risky? Should I try to budget more time in between?</p>
<p>Hi phanatic, I haven’t posted in quite a while, so you might not remember me, but I’m in the class of 2013. I’ve had classes ten minutes apart, and it didn’t pose much of a problem–the main concern I would have would be if one of them (ESPECIALLY the first one) were a dance or ESS class, since you would want time to change. Other than that, it’s important to evaluate how well you can keep up your mental energy. Some people need a little more time than others to process and shift gears. Logistics wise, however, Smith’s campus is small enough that you can get just about anywhere in ten minutes. :)</p>
<p>@ Widget - Arabic 1 meets 3 times per week for almost two hours each session, with a lot of homework in between. And for the first year you need to take two semesters of Arabic in order to get credit for either semesters (so when you complete two semesters you get eight credits, if you drop after the first semester you get zero credits for that semester, so you’re 4 credits in the hole) It’s definitely a tough class (I took Arabic for three years in college, switching over from Smith. Two years at Smith, one year study abroad) and to be honest the study abroad opportunities in Arabic are pretty limited, though the potential for Peace Corps opportunities and of course the great potential for jobs in general with even basic Arabic is enormous. </p>
<p>If you’ve already had some Spanish, it’s unlikely you’ll be put in the intensive 5 day per week Spanish 1. That’s for people who have had literally no Spanish at all, other than ordering off of a Mexican burrito place menu (and sometimes not even that much). You’ll probably be put in low intermediate Spanish or the equivalent which meets twice per week for a shorter amount of time. So it is do able with Arabic, but I wouldn’t recommend it. A second option might be to take regular Spanish but then take Mentored Arabic. For some rare languages (Arabic, Swahili, Bengali, etc) you can take a “mentored” class offered through the five colleges. Basically you study on your own and then you meet 1-2 times per week with a native-speaking instructor, usually a grad student at UMASS. You dont acquire as much language skill as in a formal class, and the rules for credit are really weird and complicated, but if you just want to get a feel for the language without a huge committment, that’s an option. You’ll get a flyer about it early on in the semester. Make sure you read the fine print regarding rules for earning credit before signing up. </p>
<p>I think taking two elementary language courses at the same time is, yes, asking for extreme stress. You have to imagine that what you covered in 1 year in middle or high school language classes, you will cover the equivalent of that material in 1 semester, sometimes in half a semester, in college. THe pace is greater, and I think especially with unrelated languages (Spanish is a romance language, Arabic is a semitic language) there’s going to be a lot of unneccessary trauma. If you’re just interested in taking Arabic for intellectual curiosity, maybe the intense course is not for you.</p>
<p>@ Quasiprofound – in order to take a singing class for credit at Smith you have to audition and they don’t take beginners. So if you haven’t already had vocal lessons/are a fairly good singer with some technical training, you won’t be allowed to take vocal lessons for credit. You might be able to find a vocal major or grad student who could teach you, or there’s a community singing school in Northampton that you could take lessons at. </p>
<p>As for your other classes, I think an FYS with CLT202 would probably be fine. It will be a lot of reading, and depending on your FYS prof (is it Donna Divine?) a lot of writing, but not totally impossible. FYS’ are not super demanding and the profs really hold your hand since the class is all first years.</p>
<p>@phanatic- I actually prefer scheduling classes “back to back” (i.e. with just 10 min in between) because then all of my classes are in blocs and my free/study time is also in consecutive blocs without classes randomly popping up to interfere with them. When I would have 30 minutes or 1 hour plus in between classes it would just be obnoxious. Not worth it to go home and relax, but too much time to hang around the building. I liked to go to class in a bunch of blocs and then be done with it for the day.</p>