<p>I know there's summer SOAR (student orientation,advising, and registration), but I was wondering... Do you get to decide which classes you're going to take, or does the academic adviser pick them for you based on placement tests and general requirements? Thanks for the feedback!</p>
<p>Bit of all the above. You get the final say if the class is open to you.</p>
<p>Basically you take the tests at SOAR and they tell you later in the program how you place. They also look at your HS stats (i.e. if you had so much math in HS you might not need certain classes) and you are advised during your session. HINT HINT HINT, try to be the first registering during SOAR. I actually remember skipping the lunch and it let me schedule my classes first. I hung around near the computer lab we were in and I was able to get into some of the nearly closed classes. Make sure not to overload first semester and also take into account factors like 8ams, friday classes, courses 30 minutes away from your dorm, etc.</p>
<p>If I already took spring placement testing, what would I (or others) be doing while everyone else is taking them in the summer? (silly question, i know)
Also, I've heard that when you register for classes it's a good idea to know which professors teach the subject well. Will advisers help us with this? or will it just be whichever classes are open or sound appealing?
I'm getting really excited about registration for some reason..</p>
<p>Never hurts to signup for the max classes (say 5-6) and then drop one or two you think might not be so great. No penalty first few weeks.</p>
<p>..i'm confused too. So, i don't enroll to any classes before I take soar test? the web said that uw will update soar on april 18th.. so we wait till then?</p>
<p>You enroll AT SOAR, 2nd day.</p>
<p>thanks for the tips guys!</p>
<p>"Also, I've heard that when you register for classes it's a good idea to know which professors teach the subject well. Will advisers help us with this? or will it just be whichever classes are open or sound appealing?"</p>
<p>Sometimes advisers are familiar with the classes you'll be considering, but more often not (it's a huge university, no one can know everybody who teaches here). If you are truly determined to find out which professors are best, there are several methods:</p>
<h2>You can stop at the department office and ask which courses are most popular (keeping in mind that no one is going to admit that a particular class is UNpopular), or look through the syllabi they keep on file to see whether readings, layout, topics, etc. appeal to you.</h2>
<h2>You can either (as Barrons suggests) enroll in extra courses and decide which to drop after the first few classes, or just sit in on the first day of additional classes and decide whether you want to sign up/get on waiting list for the course. Careful, though: if you are planning on enrolling in extra courses and dropping them, make sure you know the drop dates. When I was an undergrad students could drop throughout the first two weeks, but drops during the second week were noted on the permanent transcript (not a huge deal, but better to avoid).</h2>
<p>You can seek online evaluations by past students. <a href="http://www.ratemyprofessor.com%5B/url%5D">www.ratemyprofessor.com</a> may be somewhat useful but sample size is often very small, the 200-word limit restricts detailed commentary (you'll know that someone liked/disliked the teacher, but not necessarily why), and voluntary rating is more prone to personal compliments and attacks. A much more representative gauge is the compilation of university-administered, official teaching evaluations available at <a href="http://www.asm.wisc.edu/evals/evals.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.asm.wisc.edu/evals/evals.html</a></p>
<p>I strongly recommend going through the timetable at <a href="http://registrar.wisc.edu/timetable/fall/%5B/url%5D">http://registrar.wisc.edu/timetable/fall/</a> and graduation requirements before coming to SOAR. Course availability is likely to be a big factor in which classes you take, so have a number of classes picked as alternatives.</p>
<p>i'm an international, so i'm kind of confused about how this all works out.... all i know is theres a basic criteria i have to fulfill, like math sciences etc but within those can i take anything i want?</p>
<p>Somewhat. There are many courses you could choose to satisfy a particular requirement, but you must make sure that the course is officially designated to fulfill that requirement. A course might seem to have a biological science topic, but if it's not designated with an "B" in the timetable it doesn't count as biological science. The timetable (list of courses offered each semester) includes a note on which requirements each course counts towards (go to <a href="http://timetable.doit.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/TTW3/TTW3.navigate.cgi?20071+colleges.html%5B/url%5D">http://timetable.doit.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/TTW3/TTW3.navigate.cgi?20071+colleges.html</a> , then select your college and click on the departments that interest you; the requirements satisfied by each course are listed under the geBLC column).</p>
<p>For a list of the requirements you need to fulfill, go to <a href="http://www.wisc.edu/pubs/ug/10lettsci/degrees.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.wisc.edu/pubs/ug/10lettsci/degrees.html</a> </p>
<p>...and here is a list of what each timetable letter represents:
<a href="http://registrar.wisc.edu/timetable/timetable_indicators.php%5B/url%5D">http://registrar.wisc.edu/timetable/timetable_indicators.php</a></p>
<p>I hope that makes sense; it's kind of complicated.</p>