<p>Hey. Just wondering if Davidson Class of 2013 is successful in choosing classes with the whole web tree setup. I personally am having trouble picking classes because of all the options. I think I really want something from the humanities program but i dont know whether i want western tradition or cultures and civilizations. does any one have any suggestions or advice? and if u dnt know how to swim, is it possible to skip the orientation swim test and just sign up for a swim class now?</p>
<p>Hey! Webtree is a difficult program to get used to (still takes me up to two hours to put it together) and it’s weird assembling your own schedule, especially with so many choices! If you need help with the Webtree program, I made an extensive post in the Davidson Class of 2013 Facebook group. If you’re still having trouble figuring it out, feel free to PM me and we can either talk about it on AIM or Facebook or something…</p>
<p>I have heard mixed reviews on the Humanities program (hence forth, “Humes”). On the one hand, it is really thorough, in that you will read EVERYTHING. On the other, because it is essentially a survey course, you don’t have the time you need to devote to truly study some of the masterworks.<br>
I didn’t do it because my high school had really strong history and English programs and emphasized reading primary sources…so I read the vast majority of the stuff that you would read in Humes.
On the one hand, Humes is a great program for getting your requirements out of the way. Through it, you can cover your history requirement, sometimes your cultural diversity requirement, your W-course requirement, and your literature requirement. On the other, if you have 4s and 5s on your AP history and English courses, you can probably already exempt those requirements, if you want. So it might not be worth it. If you sign up for Humes, you are BOUND into either the one-year or the two-year program. So it makes your scheduling options less flexible. You have to remember it’s also going to be a huge time commitment because it’s a LOT of reading. You will have sometimes 100 pages assigned per class, just to get through it all. Not to mention, there will be papers and projects and tests on the material. You will have rotating professors, which can prove diverting and make things interesting, but you also can’t count on consistency in teaching.</p>
<p>This is your one and only time to sign up for Humes, so if it really does interest you, you should do it. I simply urge you to think about it.</p>
<p>My recommendation for picking courses for freshmen year is to go with picks that you know will be EASY for you, while also getting requirements out of the way. If you’re not a math person, DON’T take Calculus…take “Applying Mathematical Concepts” or whatever it is. If you’re not into science, take baby science! They have baby bio (plants, human, etc.) and baby physics (astronomy, environment), and even baby chemistry (110, offered in the fall). If you’re not into English, don’t take a scary looking course. Take Young Adult Lit or something similarly tame-sounding. You get out of up to four requirements with your APs/IBs. Choose carefully which ones to apply.<br>
Also, I can tell you from experience that if you’re NOT historically good at math and science, you should NOT try premed, because those early classes (Bio 111, Chem 115) are designed specifically to weed out people who are not left-brained. I was drowning in Bio 111. It is seriously the hardest class I’ve ever taken. Interesting. But hard. And my GPA for all of freshmen year is a 3.0 to speak for it (Bio 111: C, Math 130 w/ prev exp.: C). I’ve heard Chem 115 will take over your life.</p>
<p>As for swimming…</p>
<p>Do you want to take a swimming class? Because you’re no longer required to take a water sport…you just need two lifetimes and they encourage you to take one that is a water sport. I promise you the swim test is not bad. I was really nervous about it and even had my cousin teach me how to do the basic strokes over the summer. But they really don’t care if you just doggy paddle the whole 100m (it’s exhausting, but you can do it), and you only have to be able to tread water for 2 minutes, which isn’t too bad. Obviously, they’d “like” to see you do side stroke, freestyle, breast stroke, and backstroke in the test, but they’re barely watching you. You’ll be in a single lane with sometimes three or four others and they’re mostly just interested in getting you done and out of there. They incorporate it into the fun and competitive Freshmen Olympics, which you’ll do with your hall…it’s a lot of fun, like being at summer camp! And it’s single-sex. No guys watching the girls; no girls watching the guys. Also, everyone’s a bit self-conscious, so you’re definitely not alone. Unless you have an illness or something, they’re going to make you just bite the bullet. I had chronic swimmer’s ear and they still made me do it, just because it’s more trouble for them if you wait. Bring goggles. And if you wear contacts, remember that you have them on before opening your eyes under water haha. No one does.</p>
<p>Thanks. this was so helpful</p>
<p>Haha ive been diving into trying to figure out what classes to do also (i assume everyone has lol). i was also pretty interested in the cultures and civilizations humanities track… what are some of the bad things people say about it? is it just that its too much reading/work? how does it compare in that aspect to other classes?
im almost positive you can, but just to make sure, you can change some courses if you need to when you get to davidson, right? im using my gut feelings about a few AP tests to help choose some of my classes, and of course, my gut feelings might be wrong.</p>
<p>I don’t know a whole lot about the specific tracks, but I think the primary complaint is just that you’re stuck in the track…either for a year or two years, and if you decide mid-way through first semester that you really don’t like it, you’re stuck until at least the following spring. Although, I’ve heard really good things about the discussion groups. I’ve heard the discussion groups get really tight-knit and close with each other. I would imagine that humanities is a lot of reading and work, but probably not much more so than if you were taking, say, a literature survey course (Eng 240, 260, 280, 290, for example). Taylor, if you want to talk to people who have done humanities, I can probably give you some names.</p>
<p>You definitely can do add/drop when you get to Davidson, and you won’t be the only one in this position. Typically a lot of the super-hot classes are filled by the time add/drop comes around, especially considering most of the upperclassmen really know already what they want/need to take and are less likely to use add/drop. But most classes should still be open, and sometimes professors will raise the cap number if you badly want to be in a class. To do this, you’ll log into shirley.davidson.edu with your Davidson id number and your pin (think the default is your birthday and you’ll change it to something else with six digits) and go to the add/drop section. Always ADD before you DROP…that way you don’t accidentally end up with three classes. Also, as soon as Add/Drop starts, GO FOR IT. Don’t waste any time. Same with PE. The minute Davidson 101 and PE classes open, register for the ones you want.</p>
<p>sweet. id love to ask a few people who took/are in humanities to give me some feedback about it :). if i did humanities i’d take the shorter one (cultures & civs), which gives you lit, comp and the diversity requirement… but i think i should have the lit req. out of the way and i want to take other classes that’ll satisfy the diversity one, so the getting requirements out of the way wouldn’t really be a draw for me. the only thing it would satisfy would be the W course… which might be nice because the offerings this semester don’t really interest me…</p>
<p>also do they open up registration for PE classes sometime after we register for regular classes? also… priority for getting classes doesn’t depend on how soon you turn your tree in, does it? haha i hope not.
now after figuring this all out i need to try and decipher this tree deal… haha i’ll have to check out your facebook post</p>
<p>As you can see from my newly updated status, I’m asking around! Haha…I’ve also actually asked individuals, so hopefully someone will offer soon! It’s really up to you, just to get your requirements out of the way. And then some people take the course for real, sincere, personal reasons: they want to study this fascinating history and literature. That’s even better :)</p>
<p>PE registration will open probably after orientation when we start arriving on campus. You’ll register online at vincent.davidson.edu. I have to say, for PE, DO FLICKERBALL with your hall, so you don’t have to worry about your team sport later. Flickerball makes it so easy. And it’s a lot of fun–you get to bond with your hall! That you don’t have to register for. Also, if you don’t do any lifetime sports first semester, please don’t forget to sign up for your Davidson 101s. Get it over with fast and don’t try to get out of it by showing up late, because sometimes you won’t get credit. Make sure they get your name…especially you, since there are two people with your name in the class. They had trouble with me because a boy graduated the year before my arrival and he’d had the same username. I had to go talk specifically to the PE department people and get it cleared up and verified that I was in fact there…you could have this problem, too. So just…nip it in the bud quickly if it comes up. Try to get it out of the way…I took the first class of each type offered. Boring but you have to do it. At least most of them are pretty informative and they try to make it worth your while.</p>
<p>Webtree is not at all first-come-first-serve. You’re pre-assigned lottery numbers at random for each class. Doesn’t matter if you submit on June 1st or June 30th…you’ve already got your order by the time they run the program. I submitted like…June 4th last year and was mad that it wasn’t first-come-first-serve haha.
I’m mad right now because my lottery numbers for next semester are not that great…still ahead of the freshmen, but I’ll be middle-to-end in the sophomore class. <em>sigh</em></p>