<p>There are also informal resources. D is the Math consultant for her house. I think she needs a "The Doctor is IN" sign on her door. Instead, she has an "Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter" doormat.</p>
<p>D is finding that, from a grading standpoint, her English class is the toughest of all that she has taken at Smith. The problem does not appear to be an artifact of her not being an English major, as an English major friend is having the same problem. I have no idea whether the pattern extends beyond this particular prof. Fwiw.</p>
<p>Things are looking up; D has now entered the B area in this particular Comp Lit class. SHe is as proud as punch and so am I. I am only mentioning this because I was just reading that "amazing" post on parents' forum: "should D drop course because of a C?" I wish someone would explain to me why half the parents seem to think GPA is more important than pushing oneself intellectually. Are we paying these kinds of fees so that students can just choose easy courses to get As? When I hear the pride and pure joy in D's voice at having improved, I feel that's what college is really about: LEARNING.</p>
<p>Learning is the most important thing by far, I agree. But one hopes, with grad and professional school in the offing, that the grades have as little arbitrary or random attributes as possible.</p>
<p>D is still plugging away and holding steady at B/B-; she'd be upset w/ Cs, but she'd never consider dropping a course just b/c of a low grade.</p>
<p>I just had a "fight" w/ a friend regarding whether it was wise/prudent to encourage kids to register for a least one "gut" course per year.</p>
<p>What is a "gut" course? One so hard it punches you in the gut? Or one so easy that it guts your brain and leaves it empty?</p>
<p>The latter. I don't know the etymology of the expression. D's Astronomy course this semester may be the closest thing to a gut course she's had but only because it's math-based and she's a senior math major.</p>
<p>Well, obviously, they don't approve of gut courses at Smith. D's advisor changed every one of her course selections for next semester, forcing her to "upgrade" (i.e. 200s and 300s) in every subject. Well, bang goes any chance of improving that GPA!</p>
<p>300's for a first-year? Even more than a couple of 200's would provoke a raised eyebrow from me. Are they in subjects in which your D is hyper-prepared? Something doesn't sound right.</p>
<p>Straight from the horse filly)'s mouth:
French 360
German 222
Music 305
History of Art 240
So you aso think this is somewhat outrageous?</p>
<p>Okay, it looks like at least some extenuating circumstances.</p>
<p>French 360...well, that might not be too much of a problem for her.</p>
<p>The German 222 depends on her German as it's a survey course but taught in German. It'll be a class full of Hamburg JYA hopefuls but there's nothing a priori daunting about that. (My German doesn't extend far beyond "Where is the post office?", "For you, the war is over," and "Do you have a younger sister for me?")</p>
<p>Music 305 has only Music 110 as a pre-req and if she's gifted musically, this might be well within her range and I'd trust her counselor.</p>
<p>Art 240, it depends on the focus: Northern European Art requires only one 100-level course, Medieval/Renaissance requires a 100-level and a 200-level.</p>
<p>So it's not quite as if her schedule were:</p>
<p>English 227
Government 343
History 245
Philosophy 315</p>
<p>Thanks for checking. PS: I'm trying to figure out a story in which TD, a very young American spy, is chatting up the bad beautiful East German Villainess, Baroness von Smidt (sentence 3), who falls madly in love with him and betrays her country (sentence 2). TD then sends a plane ticket to his parents with the invitation to the wedding which will be held in the Vienna Cathedral (1)....</p>
<p>It always makes me so mad when advisors meddle with student's schedules! Your d should think about switching advisors for next semester (or she can declare her major early and pick an advisor in her favorite department. You can always switch majors later). </p>
<p>Advisors should advise but not force, and students should be forceful about their choices. My advisor is a little too hands off, but the benefit is that he abides by my choices. </p>
<p>That being said, the 200 level courses aren't too much harder than the 100 level ones and I think first years are sometimes frightened by the numbers and don't give themselves the chance to leap. Bottom line, she can always change courses in the spring.</p>
<p>S&P, D's been fortunate to have good advising all along. First semester, she had a STRIDE advisor and then she declared both majors first year and her major advisors have been spectacular, imo.</p>
<p>It's been flattering but faintly embarrassing this semester to have two non-major profs fighting for her soul, each wanting her to take his/her class next semester. She finally decided the one where she was missing not one but two pre-requisites might be tempting Fate just a little too much.</p>
<p>But the advising is one of the things that, in D's experience, I'd rate the most highly. Beats the hell out of advising at a lot of research universities.</p>
<p>===</p>
<p>LiT: as long as it's not Baroness von Schtupp....</p>
<p>Btw, did you hear about the guy who went into a music store and asked for Mozart's "I'm Not Inclined to Knock Music"?</p>
<p>TD, could have been me. It took me years to realize that "Hi gentil ch</p>
<p>TD, what does your D think about the way Calculus courses are taught? I was just curious because, while I'm doing well enough, I would prefer a more traditional method.</p>
<p>I don't know, I'll have to ask her when she gets home. She never took Calc at Smith but was grader in one class for half this semester.</p>
<p>I understand that there's at least one Calc instructor who's supposed to be great with math-impaired students, this from other students, not D, but I have no idea how the class is taught.</p>
<p>How is your class not traditional?</p>
<p>===</p>
<p>Btw, LiT: <snarf> at " 'Bye Mr. Shane."</snarf></p>
<p>Well, I took 114, which is calculus for people who took calc I elsewhere. I'm not sure how the Smith approach differs, I just know that it's nontraditional enough that there's a special calc II class for people who took calculus before coming to Smith.</p>
<p>Mary Murphy teaches many of the lower-level math classes (such as calc and sometimes precalculus) and she's supposed to be very good. I have a friend who took both semesters with her and loved it.</p>
<p>Yeah, Mary Murphy is the one...I recognize the name. I'll ask D if she knows the difference between any versions of Calc II. She'll be home Monday night.</p>
<p>Well, I <em>finally</em> caught on to the way my particular professor teaches, but it seems that we're doing bits and pieces of calc II, and we're forced to sort of self-study some of the more traditional stuff when it comes up elsewhere. I don't really know exactly how it differs (as I've never taken regular Calc II), but I've noticed that my science professors have expected us to know X, Y, and Z, which are taught in a traditional calc II class, yet we haven't covered it and we probably won't be covering it.</p>