<p>Hi guys,</p>
<p>Can you tell how hard those courses will be for freshman to tackle? </p>
<ol>
<li>Social analysis (EC 10)</li>
<li>Math 1b probably (btw, where one will be placed in if one's correct answers on the first portion of placement test is gonna be around 25 out of 30?)</li>
<li>Expository writing 10/20 (it also depends on placement).</li>
<li>Freshman seminar.</li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Not hard. Ec 10 and Math 1b are both reasonable (neither too easy nor too strenuous) freshman courses. Expos isn’t particularly challenging unless you come into it as an affirmatively bad writer or have trouble with your English. Freshman seminars are almost never much work; even if they are, they’re all graded sat-unsat. Doesn’t sound like a bad way to ease into college. (Although I will say that, for scheduling reasons, many people choose to take their freshman seminar in the semester they are not assigned to Expos. That gives you some extra room each semester rather than not much one semester and more the other.)</p>
<p>Thank you for your refulgent answer, exultationsy.
I guess this kind of schedule is neither easy nor tough.
But can you just presume in which math class one will get placed, if one hasn’t taken calculus, answering around 25 questions on the first portion of the math placement test?
II AND III parts consist of concepts that are covered by calculus.</p>
<p>maybe more 
something like 27-30 out of 30.
p.s. I’ve just bothered you already :)</p>
<p>You should have a back-up for the seminar; when my daughter was a freshman, she was shut-out of all the seminars she wanted to take during both semesters.</p>
<p>@agree, gibby. It was a good note.
But what can be a back-up plan? I mean, if I don’t take a freshman seminar, which kind of classes will be available for me?
Can they be from the concentration I’m not gonna major in?</p>
<p>^^ Take a general ed requirement; it’s best to get all those out of the way before your senior year anyway.</p>
<p>As a synopsis, since I want to concentrate in economics, I’ll need to take Social Analysis (EC 10), the math (not sure which one it’ll be), expos 10/20, and freshman seminar/general education requirement (in fact, as I hear, freshman seminar is much more alluring, because students possess the chance to work closely with faculty members).
It’s gonna be a balanced course load, right? I mean, today I’ve been checking the site for freshmen of Harvard, and it is frequently recommended to properly and carefully choose classes.
Thank you again my fellow users. Any more suggestions? You’re more than welcome!</p>
<p>This sounds balanced. The freshman seminars are taken pass/fail, which takes a lot of stress off. The work for Expos is spread out among 3 essays, and various small writing pieces during the semester so nothing too hard. Although I haven’t taken Ec10, I have heard it is a good amount of work, but don’t quote me on it. I suggest taking Stat 104 to count as your math and kill 2 birds with one stone - getting rid of both your stat and math requirement for Ec.</p>
<p>Are you asking over the course of a first year (or fall semester)? Not sure how much things have changed since I was a first year, but there’s no guarantee for expos in the fall semester (but I know more placements are now handled online). Math 1b is not terribly difficult, but this is all relative. What are you plans for a concentration? My guess from your courseload is Ec or something Social Sciences. If not, definitely consider something more field related to be certain that you actually like your department. I definitely left one department slightly late realizing that it was not a good match.</p>
<p>With respect to choosing Math and Expos, the results of the placement test aren’t too important. I think the choice between starting in Expos 10/20 is more of a personal decision as to how comfortable you would feel jumping into Expos 20, given your experience with writing in high school.</p>
<p>Even more so, the results of the first part of the Math placement test should have no bearing in determining whether one should take Math 1b. The first part of the test measures knowledge of precalculus, but says nothing of knowledge of calculus. If you received, for example, a 30/30 on the first section, your suggested placement would be Math 21/23/25/55, even if you’ve never studied calculus. Because you have yet to take a calculus course, but you appear to have scored well on the precalc portion of the placement test, you should probably start out in Math 1a. Math 1b, on the other hand, presupposes the knowledge one would pick up taking Calc 1 (Math 1a or AP Calculus AB).</p>
<p>In any case, I think you should look for three good courses outside of Expos and the Freshman Seminar for the Fall semester, because if you are placed into Spring Expos, you will need to take all of these classes. If you have a Fall Expos, you can then choose not to take one of those three courses or the Seminar based on your experiences in shopping week.</p>
<p>Thank you guys for your help!</p>
<p>Yes, I do want to choose courses for the fall semester, and as you presumed, I meant to concentrate in econ.</p>
<p>@via, should I take statistics together with other course in math? </p>
<p>If I take Expo 10, what should be other courses in your opinion?
I think I’ve bothered you too much, but are here any econ concentrators who can just share their experience?</p>
<p>Thank you again!</p>
<p>I am a bit confused. You say you have not taken any calculus before??
Then you should be in Math 1a. Period.
You need to understand calculus well if you are going to really understand economics.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t go by the placement test. I’d go by your course background in high school. If you only took precalc, take 1a, period. If you took AB, you’ll probably want to take 1b. If you took BC, you’ll probably want to take 21a, unless you want some reinforcement by taking 1b.</p>