<p>What are some fun and easy electives that you have taken? Do all freshmen take electives in their freshman year? How many electives does one need to take each year and throughout their Stony education? What is Freshmen Learning Communities Program? Has anyone taken it? Was it helpful? What do you do there? Are there any exams or homework? Thanks.</p>
<p>Electives are just the stuff that you fill in your schedule with that no one's forcing you to take, so freshmen take electives if their schedule has room, and you need to take enough electives to make sure you have enough overall credits and upper division credits to graduate. DECs you don't fill through your major(s) would also be filled with "electives".</p>
<p>I'd say as a freshman, if you have room for it in your schedule take a class or two in things you've always been curious about (and which ideally fills a DEC!). You never know whether a class will be the one you fall in love with... I ended up majoring in linguistics because my first semester I decided to take a random class in something I couldn't have studied in high school, registered for LIN 201, and ended up becoming hooked!</p>
<p>As far as electives I've enjoyed... a lot of the electives I've taken were upper division and had a prereq of U3/U4 standing or required intro courses I filled through APs, so I don't know how helpful my recommendations will be for an incoming freshman. But I'll list some of my favorite classes anyway:</p>
<p>LIN 345 Writing Systems of the World
WST/POL 330 Gender in the Law
LIN 346 Language and Meaning
RLS 310 New Testament Theology
PSY 250 Biopsychology
ARB 111 Intro Arabic
BIO 320 Genetics</p>
<p>Learning communities is a program where you're in a group of other freshmen who're all taking the same courses as you are; usually a cluster of related normal SB classes plus a Learning Communities specific seminar that fills a DEC. I didn't do it, so my perspective is limited, but I inadvertently ended up in a chem recitation my 1st semester that was all learning communities people except for me, so I knew a bunch of people who did it. It seemed like a nice way to meet people if you're afraid of being overwhelmed at a big school, since you've got a ready-made peer group to study with, commiserate with, etc.</p>
<p>Thanks. Your replies are extremely helpful as always.</p>