<p>When everyone always suggests to take 4 courses your first semester, are they including a freshman seminar? I definitely want to take one but I already have four classes I know I should take and one I could add. How much work is a freshman seminar compared to other courses? Thanks.</p>
<p>yes, the four classes includes the freshmen seminar. the amount of work depends on the freshmen seminar. they generally tend to be easy with less work than other classes (at least for me it was), just sort of easing you into college. i suggest you only take 4 classes including the freshmen seminar, no more than 4.5 credits. your freshmen counselor probably wouldn’t sign a schedule with more than 5 credits.</p>
<p>D took 5 credits her first semester, including a freshman seminar. Her adviser signed off on it, and she did just fine. That said, D says that looking back she realizes how crazy it was for her to take on that much work at the beginning…but she loved all the courses and is glad she did it. YMMV.</p>
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<li><p>The workload of freshman seminars depends on the seminar. Mine had a workload of reading/writing comparable to some of the upper-level seminars I’ve taken since (read: a lot). Others, I’ve heard, are pretty easy. Read the evaluations online to get a better idea.</p></li>
<li><p>For your own sake don’t be set on 4 classes before you even set foot in New Haven. I did this freshman year and it was a HUGE mistake. Shopping period is amazing – take advantage of it. In my case, I was sure I “loved” econ because I enjoyed AP Macro in high school. So, I knew going into freshman fall that I would take Intro Micro, and signed up for it even though I was less than impressed with it during shopping. It ended up being my least favorite class at Yale, and taking up time that I could have filled with a class that interested me much much more. </p></li>
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<p>So unless you’re pre-med or in DS, there aren’t any classes you “need” to take freshman year. Use first semester as a time to branch out and explore your interests – take classes in anthropology, political science, chemistry and WGSS. Enjoy first semester-- you’ll have 7 more to focus in on particular interests.</p>
<p>I’m glad to hear people made it with 5 classes! I just have a wide range of interests I’d love to explore once I get to Yale. Thanks for the advice, mocha, I could see myself signing up for a class I didnt like hoping it would improve. I just am getting excited looking at the descriptions with the OCI lol 
I’m so glad we have shopping period!</p>