<p>I am an entering freshman at the LSA Honors Program. My orientation is at the end of the month. I have got advice on choosing courses from two people, one conservative and one aggressive. One suggests me to take Math 295 and Econ 401 while the other suggests Math 285 and Econ 101 with Econ 108. I want to apply to Ross at the end of my freshman year. I scored 5 in BC Calculus and I am pretty good at math. But I am not a math genius, getting an honorable mention award in MMPC. I am also going to take Great Books 191 the first semester. Because I spent most of my life in China, English is not my strength. In my situation, what do you suggest for Math and Econ? How about the timing, as I dont have to take all of them in the first term? Plus, I am still open for one more course. Any suggestions? Thank you!</p>
<p>P.S. I heard it's wise to take one more class than you need at first and then drop the one you most dislike. Is there a way to use this strategy is my case?</p>
<p>If you plan on attending the Ross school I think the Econ 401 class will give you the background you need to place out of the business economics requirement so this class is useful. The requirements may have changes since I went there so I am not sure they are the same. Also you don’t say whether you have taken any econ before. Econ 401 could move pretty quickly if you have never taken any econ before. Having a good background in simple calculus is a big help for this class.</p>
<p>Math 295 will be extremely theorhetical. I don’t know if this is what you are looking for. You would probably know after the first week of class if it is for you. It is much different from the traditional math class. The math 285 class would be more of a typical class with honors acceleration.</p>
<p>For the extra class you can look at Anthro 101 or Class Civ 352. Both are interesting classes that will keep your difficult schedule more in balance. Also Physics is a good class or a good math student with some background in calculus. I would take the class the engineering students sign up for rather than the pre-meds.</p>
<p>One of my roommates used to take a multitude of classes (either by signing up for them or waitlisting them) until the drop add deadline. He turned this into an obsession I would recommend against. One extra class until the drop add deadline is probably OK.</p>
<p>With a late orientation you may be limited in what is available even though they try to hold spaces. You may find that your choice is made by scheduling availability even though with persistence you can get off the waitlist.</p>
<p>Thank you so much, res ipsa! I haven’t taken any econ classes before. According to what you said, maybe econ 101 would be a good class for me to start with. And for math, Math 295 is probably not what I expected. How about Math 285 - Honors Calculus III vs. MATH 256 - Applied Honors Calculus IV? What are the differences?</p>
<p>Also, could you mention some of the popular teachers teaching these courses? Thank you!</p>
<p>Well, 256 isn’t Calc 3, though you can take Math 255 which is the same series in Winter. But the 156/255/256 series is meant for Engineers really (atleast that’s what they told us in Engineering). They described that series as one where you use Calculus to solve engineering type problems. </p>
<p>I don’t really know how it compares to 285, but I assume 285 is harder because it has a higher number.</p>
<p>I think they really just expect you to take the regular series (115/116/215/216) since they only require Calc 1. If you’re very good at math and want to try and seperate yourself from others, I would think 285 would be the one to take. Perhaps someone who has taken it can give you more information about it.</p>
<p>The homework in Math 285 took me between 35 minutes per week and 3 hrs (when he assigned topics from his research as homework -.-) per week. The homework in Math 295 took me 6-15 hours per week.</p>
<p>You pay the same price as long as it’s under 18 credits, so if you’re under that, you might as well. Otherwise it’s like you’re throwing money away.</p>
<p>Thanks guys! I heard that Econ 101 does not have a good instructor. Is it true? Are there good alternatives for Econ 101/102 that still satisfies Ross’s requirement for first year students? I have never taken Econ before.</p>