<p>My daughter and I just returned from session C of orientation. Overall, a great job by the administration and student volunteers. One word of advice- bring a thick blanket as it gets cold in the dorms at night. Daughter signed up for the following classes on Friday and I am looking for some feedback on her schedule.</p>
<p>ITAL 1010 Elementary Italian (4 credits)
FREN 3031 Intensive French Grammar (3 credits)
EVSC 2900 Beaches, Coasts, and Rivers (3 credits)
HISA 2002 History and Civilization of Medieval India (3 credits)
HIEU 2152 History of the Russian Empire 1700-1917 (3 credits)</p>
<p>She was unable to enroll in several classes that she wanted and had to make some quick decisions on the history classes. She has AP credits for PLCAP 1000T, HIST2000T, MATH 1310, and EVSC 1010 so she is not that worried about completing the core requirements in the first two years. After conducting some research yesterday, she plans on dropping the HIEU 2152 class (reducing the class load to 13 credits) and a) possibly finding a spot off the wailtlist for one of the classes that was full at orientation, b) picking up a one credit seminar (COLA), or c) picking up a one credit physical education class. She is undecided about her major but her interests are in history, foreign languages, foreign affairs, environmental sciences, and the classics. Any thoughts or comments would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Given her interest I think she has a schedule that fits the paths she may want to take. I agree with dropping the HiEU class for now. Have her consider a course in the politics department if one opens up she has an interest in taking. The COLA classes actually have some professors from that department teaching them. I only mention this since she seems to have environmental science, history and foreign language covered that are listed for her interest. </p>
<p>As an FYI-from the UVa politics website:
Transfer of Credit</p>
<p>No advanced placement (AP) or dual enrollment credit will count toward the 30 hours of PL coursework required for the major or for Foreign Affairs Related Courses credit.</p>
<p>I just wanted to share this with you since she has an interest in foreign affairs. S2 has FA as one of his majors and loves it! </p>
<p>If she is interested in classics, has she thought about doing greek or latin instead of learning another modern language? The intro class for each is only offered in the fall and she would need greek, latin, and likely french/german/italian etc for any kind of classics work. Or just taking a history class on classics-related history instead. I only say this because the timeline is short and she would need to hurry up if she wants anything to do with that major. Though congrats on getting into Italian… I have heard great things about that class so if she’s not super into classics I would recommend staying with Italian first year at least.</p>
<p>I know foreign affairs classes are hard to get into, and they will open up as she moves up the academic ladder, but some kind of government class/etc might be more useful than that many histories.</p>
<p>Finally something she should look into is creating her own major - you can do this if your GPA is high enough. You could make a killer thesis using “history, foreign languages, foreign affairs, environmental sciences, and the classics.”</p>
<p>Keep in mind history classes have hundreds of pages of reading every week, so I would not recommend 2 of those her first semester at least. The languages (definitely take 2 if she is so interested), envi sci, and 1 history will balance nicely with something else (government, etc).</p>
<p>Thank you very much for your feedback. I will encourage her to look into a government or politics class to replace the Russian History. She loved the 3 AP History classes that she took in high school and looked like a kid in a candy store while perusing through all of the history courses that UVA offers. She has a tendency to overextend herself and I imagine that she will struggle with this at UVA. My daughter has wanted to study Italian since this language was lost in our family several generations ago. Hazelorb thanks for the advice on the intro classes for Latin and Greek. I can see her possibly starting a third language next fall.</p>