<p>Just got back from orientation. Classes are the standard Calc, Chemistry, Engr Explor, English, and Linear Algebra. Chem lab was moved to next semester. I am looking for a 3 credit elective that is interesting, EASY, and will fill a hole for graduation. Note: I'm not an artsy person. Any suggestions out there?</p>
<p>American Indian Studies with Dyer.</p>
<p>Thanks, But it looks like all the classes are full already!</p>
<p>I thought the second semester of american history was really easy, but that probably depends on your professor.</p>
<p>Intro to Humanity, Science and Technology is one that’s not that tough, and I thought Urban Planning was easy but I took it later in my college career so I don’t know how it’d be as a freshman.</p>
<p>World Regions? Maybe take vector geometry to get it out of the way? Linear Algebra, Enge 1024, and English most likely won’t give you much trouble.</p>
<p>I need help finding an elective or do i even really need one?</p>
<p>General Chemistry- 3 credit hours 2-3:15 TR (Trivedi)
Engineering Expl.- 2 credit hours 9:05-9:55 M (Staff)
Additional Times 8-9:50 R (Staff)
Freshman English- 3 credit hours 1:25-2:15 MWF (Scanlon)
Elementary Linear Algebra- 2 credit hours TBA (Jerri England)
Calculus- 3 credit hours 12:20-1:10 MWF (Staff)
Free Time 7-9:50PM R (Staff)</p>
<p>It seems like everything i tried to sign up for as an electrive i wasnt elegible for, was full or at the same time of something im already taking. Any Suggestions?</p>
<p>elective as in General Elective/Area requirement course or a technical elective? technical electives are usually for your junior and senior years for your specific major but Area ones are good to knock out right away. If you mean Area/general ed requirements then try to go for the easier ones your somewhat interested in to help your GPA. For example I took like 2 different philosophy courses, intro to psychology, a religion course, ect. which were interesting and only required some reading.</p>
<p>Anyway your schedule looks mostly the same as mine was 4 years ago although I only had to take one semester of Chemistry and lab my first semester as a freshman and did terrible (mostly because I only studied the night before the tests) but still passed where as I did better in physics. I never liked chemistry. </p>
<p>Anyway Engineering Exploration is considered one of the major weed out courses that I have known. I remember seeing the HW/ problem sets my friends would get in that and it was insane and test averages in the D range are normal. Just a heads up.</p>
<p>I took that at a community college for credit without a problem, it’s far easier and less trouble since that course is BS anyway unless it’s changed since 4 years ago. It probably hasn’t. So just be alert and stay on top of things in there, a lot of students think it’s an easy “intro” hey this is engineering type course when it’s only meant to drop/scare people out of the major for what reason I don’t know.</p>
<p>For physics 2305 I think, I had Chang. Get Chang! no questions asked. His tests are really hard but there’s no reason why not to get A’s on his homework and take home quizzes which are big parts of your grade. I didn’t try as hard as I could and got a B so A’s are very reachable. </p>
<p>For physics 2306 all the professors are terrible, but I heard Slawny curves a lot. I had Kim and really advise you to stay away from him or prepare to work hard and not understand his accent if you get him.</p>
<p>Calc 1205 was pretty straight forward if you’ve been exposed to Calc in high school. Calc 1206 was a bit harder since I only took differential calculus in high school but I got through both first try. </p>
<p>linear algebra or math 1104 when I took it I found personally to be my easiest math course. All the grades are Math Emporium based and everything is teach yourself. For that particular course it was pretty easy since it’s all like solving systems of linear equations and matrices ect. No calculus involved. </p>
<p>I just watched a bunch of videos, read the material. Took tons of practice quizzes (the tests are compiled quiz questions) and got an B+ no problem. </p>
<p>English is typical. </p>
<p>Good luck! let me know if you have questions.</p>
<p>Our son just signed up for World Regions for an elective – yikes 2700 spots in the class, 400 still available. He said he heard at orientation that it was a good class and the teacher is a hoot. Wonder if that is the largest class at VT.</p>
<p>That puts our son (engineering major) at 15 credits first semester. I’d like him to put in 1 more, but he’s resisting a little. He’s still hoping that the chemistry lab will open up to engineering majors at the last minute, which would give him 16 credits. There are a few chem lab openings, just not allowed to take them if you are an engineering major.</p>
<p>CronusMom, Who is the professor your son has for World Regions?</p>
<p>My younger brother had that class last year when it had 3000 or so students in it. That was an experiment at the time, however I don’t think it will ever be that large again. At the time it met one day a week for 4 hours (5pm to 9pm) with a break in between. I don’t remember him saying the course was challenging (usually an easy A). </p>
<p>I’d leave him at 15. I started at 15 credits and made it through my freshman year passing although resticting partying to only one weekend a month maybe twice if I was lucky but mostly with B’s and C’s and personally found it to be difficult at 15 credit hours. It varies by student and their high school background/study habits ect. However I found as I got to 2000/3000 level courses (2nd/3rd year) the courses get significantly harder and more labs/projects. Some semesters I only take 12 credit hours if they are particularly hard time consuming courses. I figured out that I can only at maximum ever take 15 credit hours at a time after trying 17 once and then needing to drop a course and almost failed another because I couldn’t find a way to manage the time to adequately focus on one course after the other even with no free time. </p>
<p>Then again I ran into a double major sophomore in CS this past spring who regularly takes 21 credit hours at a time and get’s A’s in them. That is a rare exception although when I asked him how he did it, he said he suffer’s from insomnia and doesn’t sleep often and he wasn’t joking. So I guess it obviously varies to each individual but yeah the average is 15 for engineering and that itself is challenging for 80-90% of students.</p>
<p>Jaguar, the instructor is Boyer for World Regions.</p>
<p>yea i was gonna take world regions but its at the same time as my english class.</p>
<p>My son took an entomology class last year as an elective (ENT2004) Insects and Human Society. He enjoyed it. You are given a bug and you have to take care of your bug during the semester!</p>
<p>I think you should look for something that’s not just a simple mindless grade boosting blowoff. Enge 1024 is a COMPLETE joke and if you have a pulse you shouldn’t get anything worse than a B. I don’t know what it used to be like, but homework is pretty easy and you’ll always have people around to talk it over with.</p>
<p>As always: Chang for Phys 2305 and it doesn’t matter who for 2306. They say Kim’s the worst but he’s really a nice guy if you get to know him by going to office hours for help. Nobody ever goes and he’s always happy to have people come and get help. Get some slightly thicker skin because his comments can occasionally come across as rough 
You’ll have to work harder in 2306 than you’ve probably worked harder in your life for a course, but put the time in and you’ll see the results. Chang’s tests aren’t that difficult considering you’ll have basically SEEN THE PROBLEM before. You’ll just have to solve for a different variable. And just be aware of who you’re asking Chang: anyone who took his class in spring 2010 was part of his worst class average in a long time.</p>
<p>As far as credit load goes, all numbers aren’t created equal. Different people will have different limits, but try to find out where you can operate when focused. The advice to always sign up for “1 extra or so” class(es) and then drop something during the first week is something I’d recommend. If you don’t like it, then drop it and there’s no harm.</p>
<p>There’s really no penalty to keeping a class until the “free drop” period other than it showing up as attempted hours not completed (I think?) Tech requires you to complete a certain percentage of hours you attempt and I think it shows up on your transcript…but chances are that you’re not going to be anywhere near the minimum.</p>
<p>Plenty of students do well without insomnia and by no means do you need to study for more than a few hours a day, if that. Pay attention in class, study smarter (not longer) and you’ll be fine :-)</p>
<p>Sevmom, our son saw that Insects and Human Society class and thought that would be fun! He has always liked bugs – went to bug camp as a child. That is so funny, he would be given a bug to take care of. I have a vision in my head of my Cadet son walking around campus in uniform with a little plastic critter cage. Hahahaha.</p>
<p>Yes, CronusMom, It was pretty funny. Most kids probably take the care of the bug fairly seriously and name their bugs. Each bug has different dietary requirements! He had a milkweed and even brought it home at Thanksgiving so he could feed it. He released it from its’ plastic cup over winter break in January.</p>
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<p>I think one thing that contributes to this is that everyone at this point has heard about Chang and his hype, and may let their guard down after hearing about his class policies (formula sheet for tests, open-note quizes, etc.) and don’t study as much as they should. That said, scores did improve as the course went on, and people learned some of the more common tricks such as going to Chang’s homework review sessions.</p>
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<p>If you drop a class, I don’t think there’s any indication that you were ever enrolled. I’m pretty sure that the “hours attempted” quota applies more towards withdrawing from classes.</p>
<p>So if engineering freshmen have electives then does this mean the “area 6” and “area 2” spot in the path sheet (see link) is an elective of our choosing? Its color coded as humanities so I guess what ever that class is needs to be a humanities course. </p>
<p>I know this is technically the mechanical path sheet but if ALL freshman have the same guidelines for first year engineering then I think its safe to assume they account for that in their path sheets individually.
<a href=“http://www.me.vt.edu/academic_programs/undergraduate/Path2012to2013.pdf[/url]”>http://www.me.vt.edu/academic_programs/undergraduate/Path2012to2013.pdf</a></p>