Classes required for medical school cannot be taken abroad. Also, given this student’s medical situation I am not sure they can be abroad for a semester.
I thought Northeastern’s coops were not classes, but internships/jobs.
Good point…they are.
My concern with the coop arrangement with multiple majors, and a minor and premed prerequisite courses is that a study abroad anywhere would likely put this student out of sequence for some course(s).
Oops. Right… that. Guess that’s not in the cards. /sheepish
And the OP mentioned a study abroad…which presumably would be classes.
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I decided to do an English major w/French minor for premed track, if you look up thread. I haven’t made the change official yet though /warmly
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I completely agree with @cinnamon1212 on this. Fluency in another language is far more important than a college minor in that language.
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Right. I’m already fluent, I just want to do more (ex: Francophone Studies), something more of the cultural aspects instead of solely the language. Does that make sense? /warmly
You could probably do a summer study abroad experience, and there are plenty in French and Francophone countries. Also, you’re not that far from Quebec City, there are summer immersive programs there as well.
Yes. I took French in college- first semester was Voltaire, Moliere, Rimbaud- all the classics of French literature. Not a word of English- every paper, every footnote, every professor’s comments. I was a very strong French student in HS and it was incredibly difficult to keep up!!! So in college if you are fluent, it’s not that you can order a meal in a restaurant in Paris- it’s that you can discuss the Enlightenment and the history of intellectual inquiry in France, in perfect French!!!
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That is the idea but Northeastern French minor is actually quite limited.
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Yup. The minor’s more limited than I thought. /sighing
This! D21’s university said no more than 15 credits first quarter freshman year. She took 13. She was advised that adjusting to college and making friends was the time equivalent of a 3 credit class!
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Northeastern is known for gaming the USNWR rankings. Having the labs and recitations being separate course numbers means that they get to count as small classes for the class size measure in the USNWR rankings (up to now). It is not a coincidence that class enrollment limits at Northeastern are often 19, since classes with fewer than 20 students get the most credit for small class sizes.
Having the lab as a separate course number is sometimes done at other schools, sometimes when the lab is optional or required only for some students (depending on major, etc.). But it is rare for that to be the case for a recitation or discussion.
English major (BA) requires 64 credits: English, BA | Northeastern University Academic Catalog
Foreign language requirement for BA degrees may require 4 credits for you (which you would take French for): Additional Requirements for BA Students | Northeastern University Academic Catalog
Pre-med courses beyond the English major would likely be about 13 courses (likely 52 credits): https://undergraduate.northeastern.edu/prehealth/academics-2/coursework/
NUPath general education is described here: NUpath Requirements | Northeastern University Academic Catalog . However, some of the categories may be automatically fulfilled by English major and pre-med courses.
So all of the above (which does not include the French minor) except the NUPath general education adds up to 120 credits out of the 128 required to graduate. So you may want to try to make an eight semester course plan for English major + pre-med courses while choosing English major courses to maximally cover NUPath general education, and then choose other general education to maximize the number of NUPath categories that each course can cover.
French minor requires 5 courses (likely 20 credits): French, Minor | Northeastern University Academic Catalog
I would not worry about a minor right now. I would focus on adjusting to this big transition in your life, meeting new friends, exploring, and getting excellent grades.
A minor will come. Additionally - a Plan B, while very important, does not have to be decided today. Also keep in mind that what is sometimes mentioned as a Plan B, is actually a field with limited grad school spots and very competitive applicants. Plan B’s need to be researched so that they are appropriate for the applicant (strengths, any additional schooling, relevant experiences, prerequisites, etc). Again, this does not need to be decided today (but it is important).
I would sit front and center in your large classes, and attend office hours (even if you do not think you need to). Not only will you have the chance to review the material, but attending office hours will give you an opportunity to develop relationships with your professors, which you will need for medical school, any other graduate program you may apply to, or a job.
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College courses can be very different than high school ones in terms of the amount of time and work they take. It’s very easy to underestimate this.
So…I would suggest that your first semester NOT be an overload of courses. Really, there is no need for that. This will give you time to adjust to being a college student, budgeting time with no one else there to tell you how to do so, make friends, find some things of interest to become involved in at NEU, etc.
It will also give you time to sleep enough, eat well, exercise, do mundane things like laundry, and the like.
As noted by others, decisions about majors, minors, etc do NOT need to be made as an incoming freshman.
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I am sorry but if you placed into intermediate French 1, then you are not fluent. My daughter placed into the equivalent course at her college. She didn’t take as much French in HS and while she got by in France after her Intermediate French course, she definitely wasn’t fluent.
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I think my D is fluent in Spanish, but she refuses to call herself fluent and describes herself as “advanced proficient.”
She took Spanish since middle school, took literature classes in Spanish, watches the news in Spanish, lived in Ecuador and only spoke Spanish, only speaks Spanish to her BF’s mother, worked in college as a bilingual patient navigator, speaks Spanish at her current job with patients etc.
Yet she refuses to say she is fluent in Spanish. What is the definition of “fluent?”
Not sure if this is OT but I am curious to know what being “fluent” in a language actually means.
OP were you raised in a home where French and English were spoken?
It needs to be mentioned that if you state on a resume that you are fluent in a language, it is fair game to be spoken to in that language (at least part of the time) during interviews.
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French has never been spoken in my home- I am proficient as to the level I’ve said I am (C1)- as stated before, I have scores that qualified me for the seal of biliteracy with distinction for French as I had near perfect scores all around. My only issue in obtaining said seal was my writing score. THAT was at B1. That was IT. Everything else? Perfect. I’ve taken up to the B2 exam for fluency in French and that’s where I’m certified at. I’ve been at the C1 level for awhile. As I’ve stated prior, the reasoning for my placement in B1 is because I didn’t study French over my senior year. Junior year was the last time I studied it as I was in AP French. The placement exam tested me on reading and grammar- the latter (grammar) is my weak spot in French. I got a perfect score for reading and a meh score for the grammar, hence the B1. /trying to explain why I slipped down two levels without being royally embarrassed
Please don’t try to make a determination of my fluency unless you can speak French with me for awhile and actually see. /honest, but firm in my knowledge of my understanding of the language
As for the English major, I’ll get it changed to that today, and make an 8 semester plan accordingly. /sighing