Freshman schedule

<p>How difficult is to have a 4-day schedule as a freshman, e.g. Fridays off?</p>

<p>Have you been accepted to Swarthmore yet, or are you thinking of applying in the fall of 2012?</p>

<p>This is a curious question from someone who has been accepted at Swat or is thinking of applying.</p>

<p>For whatever my statistical sample size of two students is worth, they never had a three (3) day weekend at Swat.</p>

<p>It’s easier to have a three day schedule or a two day schedule with a break in the middle.</p>

<p>There are three basic class schedules. There are MWF (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) classes that meet for 50 minutes per day. There are TTH (Tuesday, Thursday) classes that meet for 75 minutes per day. There are seminars, which meet one day of the week for 3+ hours. Other kinds of schedules, like MW, are idiosyncratically available, especially for first-year students.</p>

<p>Any student could choose to only have classes on Tuesday and Thursday, and thus have four day weekends with a break on Wednesday. However, for most students, the schedules of the classes that they want to take don’t miraculously align into four day weekends. For my next semester, I recently had to choose not to take 3 TTH classes and a Wednesday seminar because I want to begin studying Japanese, and the classes are only available on a MWF schedule. Currently, I’m taking 2 MWF classes, a Monday seminar, and a Friday seminar, which means that my Tuesdays and Thursdays are totally free.</p>

<p>On the other hand, I’m a current rising junior and have had one 4-day semester (with Fridays off) without even trying. It wasn’t that useful for me, personally. I’m also taking my second-ever MWF class next fall in my 5th semester… total coincidence. (I’m even a science major, albeit not your typical science major or science course sequencing.) I just happened to take a lot of seminar-style courses and TTH courses.</p>

<p>okay, thanks guys - so I understand it is possible, but will depend on specific classes you take. I guess there is no specific system to give students a free Friday (e.g. “Internship Fridays”). yes?
@momof3sons - can you please elaborate? If you feel that my question shows that I am not going to be compatible with Swat’s system - please let me know as soon as possible - ideally before May 1 :)</p>

<p>My son had Fridays off last semester (he’s a junior)! He had 3 seminars, one of them double credit. His first class started at 1:00. Piece of cake right? He worked his tail off! Hardest semester of his college career.</p>

<p>Thanks, just want to clarify my question: it is not about an easy schedule, it is about flexibility of not attending classes on Fridays.</p>

<p>I’ve never heard of anything like “Internship Fridays.”</p>

<p>other colleges have it</p>

<p>I have heard of “Internship Friday”-type programs, and no, Swat does not have it.</p>

<p>giants86,
With your clarification, I now understand your question. As others have said, Swarthmore does not specifically arrange classes so that students have Fridays off. There are many classes which meet M/W/F and many on a T/Th schedule. If you end up in the Honors program as a junior and have a semester where you are taking two double-credit seminars, you may end up with a couple of weekdays free.</p>

<p>Thanks @momof3sons. BTW, it is not as I see a HUGE problem with having an easy schedule once in a while, but it was not my question.</p>

<p>Most of my friends at Swarthmore encouraged me to choose 4 day weekends. Swatties need breaks too.</p>

<p>I took one 11:30–12:20 MWF class and three 3-hour seminars on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this semester, meaning I had Monday afternoons and Tuesdays completely off, and it was fantastic. Having the day off closer to the beginning of the week works better for me.</p>

<p>do you mean, on your freshman year?</p>

<p>Yes.
10char.</p>

<p>Great, I did not realize you can take that many seminars. Is your seminar experience much different from regular classes?</p>

<p>giants86-seminar size is pretty strictly capped, so while you want to take multiple seminars, you may not be able to register for multiple seminars.</p>

<p>that’s why I was surprized…Is it decided by a lottery?</p>

<p>Seminars which are oversubscribed may be decided by lottery, yes. There are many freshman-only seminars and if you do not get into one first semester, you are usually given some priority to be admitted into one second semester.</p>