<p>like playa678 said, are there any super easy Writing/FRS teachers? I wanna “A” and less work :D</p>
<p>Also, what % of Freshman take these seminars? I, personally, am lazy. Will it look bad if I don’t take any?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I actually think that statement is bogus. I have not actually heard anyone state that, and honestly, unless you personally can see a huge advantage to taking two classes with totally different subject matter at the same time, I wouldn’t even take it into account.</p>
<p>OP, I’ve been wondering the exact same thing! Does anyone know whether the slight “edge” in the spring is given to (a) someone who didn’t take a fall seminar or strictly to (b) someone who applied for fall seminar(s) but wasn’t assigned one? Thanks (:</p>
<p>ChairmanGuo, I don’t think you’d look bad at all. Take it if you want to or don’t if you don’t, just like any other class. At least that’s my impression from reading the seminars book.</p>
<p>The freshman seminars are just other classes- the only difference is that they are open to only freshman, whereas most other seminar type classes are 300 and 400 level classes. You get to interact with great professors in a small class, but you definitely don’t need to take one if you don’t want to. I don;t see why it would be helpful to take the writing seminar and the frosh seminar at the same time.</p>
<p>Sorry one more question- will grad school or job look at FRS as an easy alternative to a class (similar to PDF)? It looks “better” if I just take a real class right?</p>
<p>Chairman Gao</p>
<p>Freshman seminars ARE real classes and I can’t imagine any situation in which you would be judged negatively for taking one.</p>
<p>bump. sorry if this is convoluted, but does anyone know who the “some preference should you apply” applies to specifically? is it to people who applied in the fall but didn’t get a seminar, or to anyone who didn’t end up taking a seminar in the fall, for whatever reason?</p>
<p>I took a freshmen seminar both semesters, and got my first choice both times. I think that they use a computer to put people into seminars (probably in the spring giving preference to people who didn’t take one in the fall), but then they give the professors the list of people in the class and all the essays and the professors can switch around who’s in the class. So putting some effort into your essay really does make a difference. They aren’t necessarily easier than other classes, and definitely wouldn’t be seen as taking the easy way out. I don’t think coordinating with your writing sem really matters. Neither of the ones I took are offered next year, but I’ll tell you a bit about them anyway to help you get a sense for what they’re like.
In the fall, I took a seminar on cinema and philosophy. We all sat around a table and discussed readings and films for 3 hours. It was incredibly interesting. Our professor took us to NYC and we went to a bunch of galleries and had dinner at his house. We had a midterm paper, a final paper, and a presentation about a film clip. In the spring I took a seminar on urban education. We also spent 3 hours a week discussing the readings and our ideas for education reform. We wrote 2 papers and did group presentations at the end in which we presented ideas to the superintendent of trenton public schools. It was also a really interesting class that opened up the world of education reform for me. I would really encourage you to try a freshmen seminar one or both terms. They’re also really good for filling distribution requirements because they’re interesting but don’t assume a whole lot of background.</p>
<p>FRS are about 3 hours every week, but classes are usually a little more than that (right?..) So is there a limit to how many FRS we can take? My feeling is one per semester but I haven’t read anything limitation on that</p>
<p>They won’t place you in more than one freshman seminar per semester.</p>
<p>I would highly recommend taking one. As a senior, my freshman seminar is still my favorite class from Princeton. They’re typically very, very small, but often have more than one faculty member leading them, so you get to know your professor very well. It’s also usually a more informal style of teaching since it’s a seminar, and more fun and conversational. They can still be difficult (mine was extremely demanding), but students usually become much more invested in what they’re doing in freshman seminars.</p>
<p>You do need to take them seriously, maybe more so because of the small number of students. If you screw around or ditch, your professor WILL notice.</p>
<p>I took a FRS in the fall and writing seminar in the spring, but I would actually recommend that freshman try to do a writing seminar in the fall. It’s easier to make all the draft deadlines with more breaks to help crank through the pages, and in the fall you have fall break and Thanksgiving v. in the spring you only have spring break. I don’t think it matters if you take the FRS and WRI concurrently or not.</p>
<p>How is the grade curve in FRS? Is it still only 35% can get A’s? And also do FRS grades count toward GPA?</p>
<p>A freshman seminar is like any other class. Of course the grade counts towards your GPA, and most do have to follow the grade deflation recommendations. You should still attend, do your homework, and not refer to your professor as “bro.”</p>
<p>Do you get to pick a writing seminar or are they chosen randomly for freshmen?</p>
<p>After the student has registered for his/her other classes, they choose a number of writing seminars that fit into their schedule - I can’t remember exactly how many, but they list somewhere between 3-9 in order of preference - most kids get one of their first three choices. This is at least what I recall from my son’s experience last year. He had a writing seminar in the Fall and got his first choice – great experience.</p>