<p>If any of you guys are placing into ECON306, I highly suggest you take it with Professor Paz. I'm taking it with him now; he's got a slight accent, but he's a funny guy that does it straight from the book. I took the Midterm on Tuesday and it wasn't bad at all.</p>
<p>Great info! Thanks! </p>
<p>So if I want to room with a friend - we have to meet up before we hit the registration table at Cole - right? Or do we have to show up at a dorm together?</p>
<p>What dorm(s) were you in and did they have AC? So do we need a fan or not?</p>
<p>Do we turn in our immunization forms at orientation? What were the "documents that you need for meeting with campus staff" that they list in the orientation brochure?</p>
<p>I have a sweet schedule worked out that I think I can stand - I'm crossing my fingers on one class that appears to be closed - but it's a chem class that shows 20 seats - while all previous sessions have 40 - so I'm guessing its one of the ones that has seats reserved for freshmen science majors.</p>
<p>I checked the profs on Pick-a-Prof and Rate Your Prof - I looked at the map and the walks between classes are dooable - I have #2 pencils and a non-graphing calculator for the math test - and I'm waiting til next week to review - just got back from senior week and can't face it yet. </p>
<p>No I've not dug out my sleeping bag but yes I'm anal retentive - but I've wanted to the a Terp for so long - that I feel like a kid the week before Christmas - who saw the new sled in the back of the closet and can't wait for snow and Dec 25th!</p>
<p>We're coming from near the MD/PA line - and my Mom makes the run to DC every day for work and she knows there's no way in hell I'll get out of the house to make it to Cole by 7:55 - so we're staying in the conference center on campus the night before - mini vacation - I can handle it. Then she'll head off to her orientation thing and then on to work. Bye Mom - Hello College Park!</p>
<p>You have to meet up and queen anne's dorm with your rommate. They will assign you a room either in queen annes, anne arundell, or dorchester. They all do have air conditioning. I don't think anyone was in anyother dorm but I could be wrong. Don't bring a fan. </p>
<p>I did not have my immunization form but there is a line to turn it in right when you enter cole field house. As for other documents, I didn't bring anything and didn't need anything. They will give you a calculator and pencils(atleast my proctor did). </p>
<p>I wonder if you can do your schedule before going. I don't know what exactly would be stopping anyone from doing that. Maybe there is a block till your orientation? Otherwise it is just online site that is accessable at home. I just used their computers to do it but there is no difference. But I am not sure if you are meant to do it until you go to orientation. </p>
<p>You are going to love it there. We finally can be terps and be part of maryland. Its great.</p>
<p>The AC was broken in my dorm room on orientation night (4th floor AA)...like the only room where it didn't work. So me and my friend ducked out during this parent/student reception before dinner to drive to his house (3 minutes from campus) to pick up a fan and "stuff" for the night. Orientation was a blast....by the way, Cheapseats, what section are you in for Engl243--I signed up for that class too.</p>
<p>I am in 0101 but I am going to switch to 0105 real soon. I am going to watch if 0103 opens up because of its location but that is not to big of a deal. </p>
<p>I have a quesiton. There seems to be, for every class with 3 credits, 2 days that they meet at the same time and place but then one day that it meets for shorter amounts of time at a different place. I think the two are labelled LEC, i guess lecture, but the other one is DIS. Is that discussion. Are these completely other things? </p>
<p>For example all of the ENGL243 classes meet at the same time and place two days a week. Then there is another session at a different time and place for each session. 0103 meets at TYD on friday 12-12:50 but 0105 meets at the same time but at KEY. Who is teaching the class? The teacher can't be at two places at once.</p>
<p>The answer I got on this for a math class was that the lecture sessions are a large class and then there is another meeting of a smaller group that is led by a graduate student - TA. Apparently we'll have common tests in the large section class and quizzes in the small section that are factored in to our overall grade. From what I hear the discussion classes usually suck because the TA's don't give a rat's butt.</p>
<p>As of yesterday - there are NO open sections for my chem class or lab - I sure hope that business about saving seats in majors is true - or I'm really out of luck!</p>
<p>discussions also suck because they are usually the ones you have to go to while you can skip lecture and it wont matter. TA's vary a lot, some are really good while some dont speak any english or just suck. the TA basically gives you your grade so try not to antagonize them.</p>
<p>How does the TA "basically" give you your grade if your tested in the 3X week classes and only attend a discussion once a week?</p>
<p>the TA is the one in charge of actually looking over all of your grades and submitting them. you may take the test in lecture but the professor doesnt have time to look over 200+ grades, so the TA's do it.</p>
<p>in regards to class/prof selection, ratemyprofessors pales disgustingly in comparison to pickaprof.com, which is quite possibly the most useful tool ever created for college students. ever. you have to pay (its $5 a semester) and they have access to the GRADE HISTORIES, so you can pick the easy profs (people say its more about the learning and all that garbage but i dont care, its the same material, and if i can take a professor who gives 89% of the students A's in an honors seminar, why not?</p>
<p>and btw i am in no way affiliated with or employed by pickaprof, this is not an ad. i paid for it myself, bought a four year subscription and it is amazingly useful. </p>
<p>plus, im just a stat geek so i like looking at the grade distributions :)</p>
<p>Are there enough reviews from UMD students on pickaprof? I heard some schools don't have many reviews. I think I am going to get it. Lindz recommended it in another thread too. I think $35 is worth it if it helps out. And it is about the learning. If 25% of a class fails that just shows both the teacher is hard and 25% of the students learned nothing. Classes with lots of As just show that the teacher teaches the subject well and we all pay too much to go to college and not learn anything. Thats the way I see it.</p>
<p>pickaprof does look way better than ratemy, but ratemy was useful enough before orientation. The OA is really the best person to ask for teacher suggestions, though. Like in 157, my OA said Smead is where it's at, so I opted for a 9 AM just for the teacher. My only 9 AM though and I have Friday's off, so it's managable!</p>
<p>I did pick-a-prof based on lindz' suggestion as well - and if anything it lets you rule out who you don't want to get stuck with - although the reviews aren't plentiful enough to be "statistically significant" - hah hows that for my AP Stat class - I figure if a prof is soooooo bad that several people will bother to rave against them - and the story is consistent - e.g. never prepared for class - exams inconsistent with material taught - etc. - then somethings wrong. I do wonder about some of the positive reviews - sounds like someone got paid to write them or the prof wrote them themselves - ha!</p>
<p>Of course - since it appears that my sections are closed - won't make a damned bit of dif anyway......why didnt I go to orientation instead of senior week ....oh yeah I vaguely remember now - because SW was more fun</p>
<p>Hey GGT or anyone else with pickaprof, could you please quickly lookup Veisz? I am going to pay for it, but just not right now and I'd like to know how he/she is.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Testudo,</p>
<p>There is no information on Veisz on pickaprof. What course are you taking with that professor? My ENGL211 course is being taught by Veisz in the fall.</p>
<p>I shall see you in class then. I am taking British Lit before 1800 next year as well.</p>
<p>Testudo - neither of the profs, neither Singer nor Veisz, are shown as having taught ENGL211 before. The collective grade stats for other profs teaching the class to 349 students in 9 classes are approx 23% "A" 37% "B" 25% "C" 5% "D" and 9% "E". The average of all grades was a C+ and about 8% dropped the class.</p>
<p>Veisz has a history for teaching freshman English 3 times to 70+ students, but no one has left any comments on her. Her average grade for the class was 2.79 with a drop rate of about 6% versus an overall grade for the whole group (12,500+ students) was 2.56 with a drop rate of about 9%. There are a ton of profs rated for freshman english - guess they rotate new people through that class on both sides of the desk. Good luck to both of you!</p>
<p>BigJ - I gave the ethernet cable info to my Dad and yesterday he came back with a 50ft CAT5e "snagless patch cable" RJ45 male/male 350+mh made by Belkin. Sound okay to you?</p>
<p>Well, all pick a prof has me thinking is I'm going to go blind from the amount of reading all my profs are supposedly going to expect of me.</p>
<p>50 ft is HUGE! You really only needed about 25 ft, if that. Basically you want it long enough so that you can use your laptop at any position in your room, and the rooms are so small, 25 feet would have sufficed.</p>
<p>Looks like the correct cable, RJ45 is the right connection type. Don't know what CAT5e means, but it looks correct.</p>
<p>Here's my full schedule:</p>
<p>Mon - HIST157, KEY, 1100-1150 ; CCJS100, TYD, 400-450</p>
<p>Tue - ENGL211, HBK, 1100-1215 ; MATH220, PHY, 1230-145</p>
<p>Wed - HIST157, KEY, 900-950 (Dis) ; HIST157, KEY, 1100-1150 ; MATH220, MTH, 200-250 (Dis) ; UNIV101, BPS, 300-450</p>
<p>Thurs - ENGL211, HBK, 1100-1215 ; MATH220, PHY, 1230-145 ; CCJS100, KEY, 300-350</p>
<p>Fri - Nothing</p>
<p>Basically, if any of the current students could look at this and give me any feedback, good or bad, that would be great. Walking time problems, workload, etc. etc. I am a little nervous about Tues and Thurs because I have one class in which I don't know what to expect and then Calc, which will probably be tough.</p>
<p>Also, because we start on Wednesday, and my first class is a Discussion, do we have the class?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>