My daughter is interested in Emerging Scholars. A professor advised her to begin Spring Semester instead of Fall so that she’s have the summer between the two semesters to work on research, as otherwise the Freshman holiday “break” gets intense with research pressure. That seems like a good argument to delay beginning until Spring. Anyone have any other insights into pros/cons of beginning right away vs delaying a semester?
Much of it could depend on what she wants. DS was in emerging scholars and had been scheduled to start in the spring because he was in marching band. He knew research time would be critical to his plans past Bama so he asked to be moved to the fall semester. That allowed him to start research second semester freshman year and he has been in the same lab ever since.
If she is interested in something where research is critical, I would say go for the fall term. If not, I don’t know that it would be really important.