exploring our interests

<p>I've heard that we should "go nuts" our freshman year and pick classes from economics, psychology, philosophy, etc. to see what we are really interested in. If we are in Pratt, for our first year, we can only pick one Humanities class for the year, so how are we supposed to explore what we don't know? So for example, instead of taking Chemistry 21L first semester, could we take that some other time next semester or next year and replace it with a humanities class that we think might be interesting. It just seems that first year year Pratt is all Chem, Physics, Math, EGR 10, and EGR53L with just one humanities class. We have already studied math, chem, physics in high school but now the more obscure classes or econ, etc. And thoughts? Sorry for the double post, btw.</p>

<p>if you're pre-med, you should probably take chem. sorry ultimate, but in general, if you're an engineer, you'll find that you have many more required courses and will have less electives to explore than a Trinity kid does. however, you will still get electives and can take what you're interested in.</p>

<p>Yeah-- you've already made the choice to be in a more "focused" curriculum because of your academic strengths and interests. Take courses in the various disciplines of Pratt (based on what you can take in your first year, it's really a foreign world to me), and see which field of engineering you're most excited about.</p>

<p>Who says you can only pick one humanities class? That's the recommended schedule, you can take more or rearrange it however you want.</p>

<p>So can I delay all of my math/chemistry classes until sophomore year and take 5 humanities freshman year?</p>

<p>If you want - I got away with taking a lot of humanities freshman year and will continue to get away with it because I have 13 credits from APs. This means I don't need to take biology or chemistry at Duke, only need one semester of physics, and only need 4 semesters of math.</p>

<p>Keep in mind that you should probably continue with math, because it ends up being a prereq for a lot of later classes, and it does build up, so taking a long break from math could make things pretty difficult.</p>

<p>For the rest of the stuff, so long as they're general ed requirements and not prereqs for any later classes, do them whenever you want. I know one senior who just graduated who didn't finish his chemistry requirement until his senior year.</p>

<p>If you want, there are excel templates for scheduling on the ECE department's website to make sure that you'll fulfill all of the requirements in 4 years.</p>

<p>I was planning on taking Math 103 in the fall. Could I just take that 2nd semester and take something like Econ or Psychology instead. </p>

<p>I also don't want to take Chem21L 1st semester, so could I replace the lecture, 21L9, and 21R with another social science/humanities class. The problem is BME students have to take another Chem in the spring, and I would need 21L as a prerequisite, so I would kind of mess things up.</p>

<p>I'm a bit confused by your questions - are not sure if you still want to be in Pratt? Because there are quite a few people who start out in Pratt but then switch to Trinity, so if so, that is perfectly okay. </p>

<p>As far as your questions, it really does not make any sense to delay your sciences, math, or engineering classes to later years. Because engineers get fewer electives, you'll want to spread these all out and make your course load more manageable (and also for the sake of variety). Taking just humanities courses during you first semester doesn't make sense - you'll most likely regret it later.</p>

<p>But what if I find a humanities class that I love so much that I decide to change my major to it; like economics. I won't have to worry about any more engineering classes later on then. And since I took it freshman year, I wouldn't be losing that much time in completing the major. If I ended up taking it junior year, then I would be screwed because I would have to stay at school for many more years to complete. I'm just not sure that I want to do BME, and I hate the fact that some chem/egr classes have recitation, lab, AND lecture all as one class and thus counting as one credit. That is soo much work for one class!</p>

<p>I feel the same way, but I've decided to start BME with an open mind and hopefully I'll enjoy the engineering classes. If not, I'll meet with an advisor and figure out what I'm going to do from there.</p>

<p>Keep in mind, also, that Trinity majors are much different than Pratt majors. Most majors only require 10 classes - a few require a bit more than that - so if you take the class in the fall of your Junior year, for example, you still have 12 classes left in college that you could devote to your new major. This is with a normal courseload - if you overload each semester and take classes over the summer, you then have 19 classes. Plenty of time. Not only that, but if engineering truly wasn't your calling, you probably wouldn't have waited until Junior year to figure that out -- not enjoying your Engineering classes in freshman and sophomore year probably would have tipped you off to the fact that you should switch to Trinity and start exploring other options.</p>

<p>Just a note about the whole engineering classes having three parts and only one credit:</p>

<p>Most of them have three parts (lab, recitation, lecture), but for most of the courses, these parts only meet once a week each. So you will only have to go to the class three times a week (maybe 4 if there are two lectures), which is often about the same as a typical humanities class. Also, the seemingly marathon labs can get out early, if you're lucky</p>