<p>Since son may have to take at least the second semester of English, I perused the course offerings and saw a variety of types.</p>
<p>I know there’s the English 103, Honors, but we’d prefer to steer clear of that one.</p>
<p>But under the Eng 102, which I guess is second semester English, though it is offered in the fall, there are general English classes, and there are several “themed” classes.</p>
<p>So, I am intrigued. Anyone have any experience with these? Would you recommend for or against them, ie, class size, better suited for major?</p>
<p>Son will be a mechanical engineering major, and some of the other colleges he looked at offered a technical writing course as their second semester English comp class, so we would like to maybe explore that option.</p>
<p>I think the themed classes are tied to specific “freshman learning communities”. The CRN will have the “FLC” designation if so. Seats in those classes are limited if available at all.</p>
<p>Just an update, as son redid his schedule this morning to get that English class.</p>
<p>He was able to register for one of the themed English 102 classes.</p>
<p>It’s a subject he’s interested in, and he only had to move one class to fit it in.</p>
<p>He did have to call the English department to get an override for it, since his AP for ENG 101 had not yet been recorded, but they were able to do it over the phone for him.</p>
<p>He’ll have to run across the quad to get to CBH lab on time, but it’s doable.</p>
<p>Montegut: I would strongly recommend that your son tell the instructor for CBH that he does have a class just before the lab. That way, it covers him. Last year, there were two young men who had chem just prior to CBH lab. They made sure that the instructor was aware that they had a class that was a distance from their lab.</p>
<p>With respect to overrides for ENG 101, when we visited Bama last March we spent time with an academic advisor in Commerce and Business Administration, who said my son would be granted an override for this course based on his SAT scores (not AP scores–he had no relevant AP classes for this). </p>
<p>He was advised to enroll in ENG 103. Yesterday I spoke to another advisor in CBA who said that if he completes ENG 103 he will be granted retroactive credit (3 credits, recorded as a grade of P) for ENG 101, but that until then DegreeWorks will continue to show that he needs to complete ENG 101. As she stated, “DegreeWorks isn’t always 100% accurate.”</p>
<p>Yet another example of how Bama rewards and promotes student performance. With the recent addition of AP Environmental Science and this retroactive English credit, my son will now effectively begin the fall semester with 25 college credits, not the 18 we thought he’d have only a week ago. He’s now seriously considering a double major because it looks like he can do it and have a life (college being so much more than the purely academic component).</p>
<p>I share this info for those of you who are in an ENG 101 override situation and, like us, may not have known you’d receive retroactive credit for the course.</p>
<p>If you are in the honors college, I believe you should take 103 because it really is not that different from the lower level classes and the honors credits are very helpful. If anything, you may have to do more writing in the lower classes because there are two of them. </p>
<p>Also, there is a book called A Writer’s Reference by Diana Hacker. It is a custom edition for UA, and every English class I’ve seen “requires” it. Do not buy this until the teacher asks for it in class. I bought it for $75 and it is still in the shrink wrap. I attempted to return it, and the SupeStore said they could not give me any money for it.</p>
<p>Malanai: Does your son plan to take a foreign language? If so, he could receive back credit for the lower level. For example, my son tested into Spanish 201. When he completed the class, he could petition for the Spanish 103 credit, which is worth four hours. I’m not sure if he plans to do so. It’s his call. He will have to see if the extra credit hours is helpful at registration time.</p>
<p>^^^Thanks for the tip, momreads. At this point he’s not planning to take a foreign language. On the other hand, he’s considering a year abroad in Italy, which would mean he better start studying Italian ASAP. What can I say? It’s a fluid situation.</p>
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No way, BB. Even with 130 credits he’s not willing to miss all that great football in front of him. Priorities, man! :)</p>
<p>Malanai: If your son does a year abroad, no Alabama football. Keep that in mind. So, with that said, maybe he wants to do the intensive language study during the summer months in Italy.</p>