<p>I am an incoming freshman for the class of 2015 and recently received an email about applying for one of the seminars for this coming fall/next two years. I plan on majoring in English Lit and something businessy as well, maybe something in the b-school, maybe Praxis, or Economics, I don't know. There is also a possibility I want to do IPH, but probably not, it seems too taxing to do with a second major.
Anyways, I am interested in Text and Tradition, the Literature seminars, and possibly a few other things. What would you guys recommend?
I also just want to ask what other classes you guys would recommend for first semester assuming these possible majors.
Thank you.</p>
<p>Well, I may have a unique opinion so get opinions from others but I think Focus classes/freshmen seminars are a waste of time. For some majors the credits don’t count towards the major. A lot of them don’t help you with cluster requirements nor are they prereqs for upper level classes, so unless you are unsure about our major or are really interested in the focus class(as opposed to others), I wouldn’t take one. Sure…in a lot of them get to do cool things like go to Argentina or China but if you take into account the price of each class you select at WashU…it doesn’t seem worth it.</p>
<p>I definitely see your point, but almost everything I am interested in would count towards my English Lit major, at least somewhat.</p>
<p>I absolutely 100% recommend taking a freshman seminar. If you’re going to WashU, then you obviously have a strong love of learning and that’s exactly what seminars are about. They give you the opportunity, and for many people for the first time ever, to learn just to learn, not for requirements, prereqs, etc. I looooved my seminar. It was extremely small (in the range of <10 people), and it’s nice to have a class like that, especially if you’re planning on taking any large intro lectures. Seriously, take a seminar and take one that interests you, whether it relates to your longterm goals and interests or not. You won’t regret it. Seminars are a great place to learn, to make friends, and to get to know a professor really well. Also- more seminars come out in the spring that aren’t offered or listed in the fall.</p>
<p>A reasonable number of intro classes are large. Taking a freshman seminar or FOCUS guarantees you a small class as a first semester freshman.</p>
<p>I would also suggest taking a freshman seminar, but I would just like to put in a word against Bad Leadership–it was horrible–bad discussions, virtually no learning, dull readings. Looking at what a bunch of people I know did in their seminars, I’m pretty jealous.</p>
<p>So I signed up for seminars yesterday. I did Text & Tradition as my first and then several of the Lit seminars as my other choices.
What do you guys think about what other classes I should take first semester?</p>
<p>Suggested other classes:
Calculus, Writing 1, Microeconomics</p>
<p>Is there a difference between FOCUS and the freshman seminars other than the 2 semester vs 1 semester length?</p>
<p>Sent from my DROIDX using CC App</p>
<p>I guess getting Writing 1 done first semester is a good idea. I am so dreading Calc, OMG. Maybe I won’t have to take it. It’s not required for every B-school major, I think. Is Micro here?</p>
<p>If you’re in the b-school, don’t stress about calc-- from what I’ve heard, the b-school calculus class is much easier than the artsci class, and I even found that the artsci calculus (II) wasn’t that bad, as long as you use the many resources that washU has to offer for math help. I’m not a math person (AT ALL!) but with the help of PLTL, the RPMs, office hours, the calc help room, my peers, etc. it’s hard to do badly in calculus (and they’ll explain all these resources and acronyms when you get to school, I promise-- it’s just up to you to take advantage of them!)</p>
<p>CSE 131 is a useful class to have taken (first class in computer science). Useful to have some knowledge about it if you’re considering any business, science, math, engineering, etc. major.</p>
<p>@ampersand& I’m not in the B-school, I’m in ArtSci but I want to double major with something in b-school, English Lit or IPH if I’m insane. I did hear b-school calc is easier, so I might go for that if possible.
@marcdvl, that’s a great idea. I was thinking I wanted to actually learn basic computer science just because it interests me so much. Do you need any background? Also, is it a huge class?</p>
<p>No background. Here’s how the class works… once a week there’s a 90 minute session led by the professor. This part has about 250 people. Then twice a week, you have your lab section. Each lab section has about 20 people, and is led by several TA’s. In the lab sessions you work on studio exercises (which are mainly for practice), work on your labs (which are the main part), and show off labs to TA to get credit, etc.</p>
<p>So while it is a large class, it breaks down into smaller sections which is where you’ll do most of the work.</p>
<p>Because there’s so many TA’s, there are office hours with the TA’s and professor practically every day if you ever get stuck, etc.</p>
<p>Edit: I’m a CSE major, with second major in economics and mathematics. I found having some basic CS knowledge helps a lot in any quantiative course.</p>
<p>Sounds great, to tell you the truth. I actually love technology, especially computers and smartphones but I’ve never had any experience on the computer science side of things. So great idea, thanks.
@Everyone, since if I get Text & Tradition, I’d probably want to take the T&T-specific Writing 1 2nd semester, what other classes should I take first semester?</p>
<p>Hey, sorry to hijack this thread, but it caught my attention that the Bad Leadership seminar wasn’t that great, I put it as one of my options in my application. Luckily, it wasn’t my favorite. I put global culture and the individual as my first choice, the conquest cultures as my second and literature and justice as my third. Does anybody know about the quality of these?</p>
<p>Beware of CSE131, gunther. I thought it was a terrible class.</p>
<p>Why was CSE131 so bad, RaVNzCRoFT? Curious as I am seriously considering taking it.</p>
<p>Not sure why Ravn disliked it; it’s not the greatest computer science course (some of the grad courses are truely awesome), but it’s a solid introduction to Computer Science. It’s required of most engineering students, so many engineers are forced to take it without liking the subject matter which could lead to someone not liking it.</p>
<p>I took it willingly and just did not like the course. I consider myself quite tech-savvy, and I had at least a LITTLE bit of experience programming because I used LabVIEW for a class in high school. However, I had no experience using Java before taking CSE131.</p>
<p>I thought the course was pretty difficult and moved quickly. Plenty of people take the course despite having previously used Java, I guess because they aren’t quite proficient enough to move on to the next level. My guess is that because of this, the course tries not to spend too much time covering the basics. This was a problem for me. Despite going out of my way to get help, I never really got a solid background in Java. As a result, I was confused for most of the semester.</p>
<p>The labs were very frustrating. There are at least 20 people in each lab section and only a few TAs, so it can take awhile before you get your question answered. This was especially the case near the end of the semester when work started to compound. If you get some sort of fatal error in your program and you can’t proceed, you may have to wait 20-30 minutes before someone can help you. Freshmen are also allowed to be TAs for some reason. One freshman TA in particular (I won’t name him) NEVER answered any questions. All he ever did for me or anyone else was tell them to read the instructions online. No help whatsoever.</p>
<p>The studios were somewhat helpful because they were team-based, but they inevitably led to the more experienced programmers taking over and leaving the confused people behind. I didn’t find the lectures to be very useful, either. My professor (Chamberlain) was a nice guy but I didn’t think his lectures were particularly clear. He would pretty much draw shapes and arrows to represent what the code was doing, but none of it helped me because I never really learned the basics.</p>
<p>Here’s my take on it, gunther: You like smartphones and computers, but who doesn’t? Unless you’re pretty serious about getting into programming, I wouldn’t recommend this course. I spent much more time on CSE131 than for any of my other classes that semester and I don’t remember a damn thing about anything I learned. Pretty useless, if you ask me.</p>
<p>marcdvl, since you’re an upperclassman I assume you took it with Cytron. He’s a cool guy and I was more intrigued by his guest lecture on one particular day than I was by any of Chamberlain’s lectures. But you’re a CS major so naturally you’re going to like programming. I think that in the end, the course’s structure is flawed and the professor doesn’t make a huge difference. Most of the work is done independently.</p>