Frosh Writing Seminars

<p>Every freshman must take two, however you are allowed to place out of either one or two (I know at least ILR lets you do two but CAS and a couple of the other ones only let you do one). In most of the colleges you need a 5 for credit.</p>

<p>Hotelie- I was just messing with you. Its good that you like writing; it will come in handy here. You will gain that typical Cornell student perspective when you get here.</p>

<p>That's true, starmel, I'm sure I'll acquire such an attitude when I have infinite amounts of **** to get done and 12 hours left to do it! :) I guess I should start working on that procrastination thing... Orrr I could put it off to tomorrow.....</p>

<p>i think hotelie only needs one fws, but i dunno if they can place out of it or not (I think AAP only need one too)</p>

<p>i took the mystery in the story, and got to read interesting books like poe, doyle, agatha christie, maltese falcon, and other exciting novels (we even got to read nancy drew!) what a relief from textbooks.</p>

<p>good luck, the hardest things would be to 1. get to pick classes that interest you AND fit your schedule (believe me, you don't want to wake up for an 8:40 class, even if it is in a freshman dorm and not across central campus) and getting in! I think I got one time my 4th choice.</p>

<p>The thing to remember is even if you don't get your first choice, 1. email the person teaching, go to their first lecture, and then do add/drop. most likely there will be at least one person in the class dropping it. don't settle for second best! (unless you don't mind second best because you had a hard time choosing between first best and second best)</p>

<p>If I take both AP Eng exams and got 5's on both, will they give me more credits then I had taken only one AP Eng? Or should I call up CALS tomorrow and ask? $82 is a heck of a lot money to pay for an AP exam, especially if it doesn't count for anything.</p>

<p>They only gave me credit for one (even though I got 5's on both).</p>

<p>Aaaahhhh, that sucks majorly. :( Are you in CALS, norcalguy?</p>

<p>Writing is therapeutic. I'm all for the seminars!</p>

<p>Wanna check out...
1. Mapping Literary Spaces-- The Worlds within the Worlds
2. Sound, Sense and Ideas-- The Jazz Age
3. Marx, Nietzsche, Freud
4. Society and the Self: An Introduction to Rousseau and his Ideas
5. The Soul
6. Socratic Puzzles
7. Evolution in Everyday Life
8. Laughter and Despair-- Woody Allen and the Meaning of Life</p>

<p>and so on and so on. I'm not even going to list them all here.</p>

<p>*P.S. How come we only get to take two? Can't it be a <em>minimum</em> of two with a cap of, say, 6? :-\ (I probably sound like a nerd right now. Oh well. Sue me!) *</p>

<p>make sure it's actually taught by a professor or assistant professor. don't want to get stuck with a grumpy grad student only teaching to make some money and don't know what they hell they are doing...</p>

<p>i'm really interested in the local history of Cornell and ithaca one</p>

<p>I took a seminar that was titled "Science and Objectivity." It was taught by a philosohpy professor and I could never get above a B on any paper. At the end of the semester she told the class that she rarely gives out A's. It would have been nice to know that at the beginning of the semester but at least I got the highest grade that she was willing to give out. A similar thing happened with the second seminar. My professor always wrote on my papers that they were excellent and very well written. But somehow the only "A" I ever managed to get was on the final term paper. I guess you have to find a cure for cancer in order to get an A on a paper.</p>

<p>It's Cornell. What did you expect?</p>

<p>My writing seminar professor told me I was one of the top 3 writers he's ever had. I still only got 1 A, 3 A-'s, and 3 B+'s on my papers.</p>

<p>But he did keep on of my essays as an example for future classes. I recieved a B+ on it:)</p>

<p>it's the subject - philosophy. i was 2 SD above this class - Philosophical Puzzles (granted the mean was around 60, and i'd get an 80) but i still ended up with a B+! gar...i hate philosophy...the class could have said recommended (or even prereq) of LOGIC! I sat in class looking dumb because I couldn't really see the logic in bill clinton is a cat and not a cat...</p>

<p>jenz: I'm in CAS. I just checked Just the Facts for this post and I received credit for all the AP's I took except the English Language one. I assume if you're only allowed to forgo one WS then you'll only receive credit for one English AP test.</p>

<p>I took "Myths and Memories of War." I thought it was a great class. In retrospect, it was a lot like high school....reading books, having b.s. discussions about symbolism, pulling 6-page papers out of my proverbial ass (and getting A+'s on them), and having a nice 4.3 to pad my first-semester GPA. Makes me feel kinda nostalgic just thinking about it.</p>

<p>This is y'all who already took the seminars:</p>

<p>barring all the talk about grades, did you guys feel like you came away from the classes with something... worthy? Like you learned some stuff that would most likely stay with you for a while or had an impact on the way you looked at things? Or was it something you could smoke your way through <em>eh, perro?</em> ;) )</p>

<p>Norcalguy, in order to get AP credit, do you have to take the next level of a course? I need 18 credits from outside the hotel school, but my AP credit would basically cover all of those requirements. Does that mean I can have a lighter courseload all 4 years or will I just have to take different classes?</p>

<p>Yes, I believe you can use your AP credit to cover your general education distribution requirements. You will probably have to take some classes outside of the hotel school though. I dont really know how that school deals with allotting credit.</p>

<p>As for my writing seminar, I didnt really learn anything of value. The class is supposed to teach you how to write. I had been doing literary analysis and critical writing nonstop for the last three years of high school. So for me it was more of the same. The topic was interesting though, and I enjoyed the works we covered. However, I dont feel as though my writing skills improved at all. As someone who got high scores on both AP Lang/Comp and AP Lit (as well as a 7 on IB English HL and an 800 on SATII Writing), I kinda wish that Cornell would let you place out of both seminars. On the other hand, though, the class was a lot of fun, and a good chance to have an easy class, boost GPA, and meet people outside of the engineering school. So I'd say it was worth it. It certainly wasnt a bad experience or a hard class, that's for sure.</p>

<p>Crap...oh well not going to bother studying for AP Lit and IB English!</p>

<p>Cornell2009Hotelie: The answer to that would be no. Obviously, it may be different for your school. But I received credit for things like US History AP and Microeconomics AP without taking a history or econ class at Cornell. Your ability to use AP credit to satisfy requirements is another matter. I would consult the course guide or an adviser for that one. Arts and Sciences have a ton of distribution requirements and is very stingy on allowing AP credit to satisfy those requirements.</p>

<p>i think only CAS requires that you should take an upperlevel class that requires your AP credit as a prereq for you to get credit...why do you think i transferred out? I had like 5-6 more classes to take for distribution in CAS, and when i went over to humec, boom, i had fulfilled all of my distribution requirement, and could just fulfill my major requirement (which, btw, I got lucky and transferred in right when they made the cirriculum less...strict). </p>

<p>anyway, if you're looking to improve your writing, i'd say do an english/literature fws rather than another one since your professor will actually be english/literature professor. however, if you're looking for an easy grade, look on the median grade report, some fws are listed (most have an B+-A range, but there might be an A+ class).</p>