How To Choose Courses For Freshmen

<p>I am a incoming freshman to a university and there are simply way too many options (date/time/places/prof/topics/lab/conflict) of courses to choose from.</p>

<p>How do you guys manage to choose courses from millions of options?
Or do you just choose whatever time slots are permitted and believe in luck?
Oh also, (stupid as it sounds) how long is a general 'break' between classes in college? (is one class 11:50-12:50 and the next class 1:30-2:50 too tight?)</p>

<p>Any opinion and advice on choosing courses for freshmen would be awesome.
Thanks in advance!</p>

<p>Well, isn't that what counselors and personal advisors are for?</p>

<p>I know that my university, USC, has a computerized system which can randomly assign all your classes in appropriate time slots for you, and then you can change it to your liking. Either that or you can do it yourself, of course.</p>

<p>
[quote]
is one class 11:50-12:50 and the next class 1:30-2:50 too tight?

[/quote]

It depends on how big your campus is. Make sure you have sufficient time to get from one classroom to another, especially if they are on opposite sides of campus. Also, around that time you might have a craving for a quick snack, meaning several minutes there. You definitely want to keep that in mind. Make sure you allow ample break time between classes, keeping those factors I mentioned above in mind, or you might stress yourself out.</p>

<p>This is a great topic for discussion. Esp at Universities that don't have Gen Ed or Core req's, like Brown. How do the kids pick what to do before they have advising?</p>

<p>At Kent and all other schools I have seen, incoming freshman meet an advisor and enroll in classes for the first time all as a group during the orientation weekend.</p>

<p>I had my orientation and registration at an honors college at a big state University last week and I looked through the coures guide and figured out what classes I wanted to take and then put the ones that only had one meeting time down on a piece of paper and then pieced the other classes together. With a lot of class options, make the classes at times you want. I have classes after 11:00 on 3 days of the week and then a class at 9:30 two days of the week because I am NOT a morning person. This also means I have class until 4:30 two days so its give and take.</p>

<p>Also use RatemyProfessors.com to find ratings on professors which should help you figure out what professors to get. Also look at class size. I signed up for Econ 221 and I chose the one section that had 50 people in it rather than 120.</p>

<p>at my school freshmen HAVE to meet with an advisor before registering for classes.</p>

<p>ratemyprofessors.com is awesome but as a freshman, all of my classes (except an honors seminar) had 'staff' listed for the professor</p>

<p>if you're in a science/engineering major they'll have a list of classes to take frosh year at orientation. There are so many required classes there's not much leeway.</p>

<p>For everyone else, its up to you. Frosh typically start by taking survey courses. Your question, though, shows why everyone should go to orientation. They'll give you advice on how to pick classes so that they meet the distribution requirements of your U.</p>

<p>As for a technique for picking classes once you have them narrowed down a bit, put together a list of 10 classes you potentially want to take, in order of preference. Then make a chart with mon-fri across the top and 8am-5pm in the columns. Fill in your 1st class (eg MWF 10), then your next class, and so on. If there's a time conflict then go to the next class on your list. After you've placed the classes, then put the discussion sections and labs in the spaces that are left. Having the chart is also useful when you're on the computer and enrollling in classes. If one you want if filled, you can quickly see what time slots you have free in order to pick another class from your list.</p>

<p>11:50-12:50 followed by 1:30-2:50 seems like a bad idea to me... not enough of a break to really relax or hang out, but too much time in between to just plow through (unless your campus is so big that it takes half an hour to get from class to class, which I seriously doubt... my campus is pretty damn huge, but 10-15 minutes is almost always enough time to walk). Which is going to result in a basically wasted chunk of free time (unless your schedule is really full and that's when you plan on wolfing down some food in the middle of a packed day, in which case good luck).</p>

<p>Will colleges allow you to schedule courses that have a time overlap?</p>

<p>No, since you obviously can't be at two places at once.</p>

<p>We've never had choice really in my college. Which has meant some diabolical timetables. Like Thursday 1st semester in 1st year... 5 classes in a row. Calculus at 9, Mechanics at 10, Computer Architecture at 11, physics tutorial at 12 and Java at 1. :(:(:(</p>

<p>I guess I enjoyed having my classes back to back....biology at 9, speech at 10, and chemistry at 11 MWF. It made me more likely to go to all of them without skipping, ten minutes was enough time to get between classes although I did have to hurry (50 minute classes, medium sized campus). And then I could go eat lunch and be done for the day and go to work, or do homework until a late afternoon lab or seminar or whatever</p>

<p>"No, since you obviously can't be at two places at once."</p>

<p>... unless you have a time turner. eh? eh? lol</p>

<p>/ask dumbledore for one.</p>

<p>anyway, mikemac gave good advice. At my school all the courses have a 5 digit number for their code, so when you go through and pick courses, you should get those numbers, so then when you get to pick your classes, you can go to the place and just type all the codes in, without having to look them up. This is important because when the stuff you get in the summer says "on August X, at 8am you can sign up for X many credits" you can be there right at 8am and grab all your classes by 8:02 =P</p>

<p>the calender is good, my school will put the courses you have signed up for on a calender for you, but not till you sign up for them, so you can't see it before hand, so it is definitely advantageous to make your own.</p>

<p>I generally like to have my classes in a row, so on MWF I like to have 9/10/11 or 10/11/12, and TR I like to have 11/12:30 or 9:30/11</p>

<p>oh in teresting.. cuz i think after having classes in a row for so many years, i dont want that kinda format in college. (and i was thinking about doing the last minute study or hw right before a class :P?)</p>

<p>i'm actually planning my schedule so that i can have a class once in a while(?).. like an hour break...
is that wasting of time??</p>

<p>Having an hour in between classes sucks. It's not enough time to do anything (except maybe have lunch). I agree with the 2-3 classes in a row and then be done for the day.</p>

<p>The problem with spacing out your classes is that those short breaks get away from you really quickly. An hour break probably won't be enough time to get back to the dorm to relax for a little while (at best, it might be enough for you to hurry there and back to pick up books or something), isn't really enough time to get work done, and won't make for satisfying hanging out--which results in you being really tempted to skip your next class. If you know you work better with a little time in between classes to clear your head, that's great, but try and make the breaks long enough that you can really get something out of them. The only exceptions to the hour break = bad rule are lunch or a scenario where you'd have an oppressively long block of classes without the break.</p>

<p>I'd echo the hour break between classes is a waste of time. By the time you walk over to the library & sit down at a desk you have 30 minutes left to get something done before its time to walk to the next class.</p>

<p>Now if you are ESPECIALLY dilegent you would use that 30 minutes to review your notes, organize your time, etc. But few people do this.</p>

<p>I'd say book your classes in 2-3 hour chunks with a 2 hour break for lunch.</p>

<p>I prefer the classes right in a row as well. Next semester on MWF I go 9, 10, 11, 12 and 3. On TR I have a 8:30am and 1-4 lab on tues. Bunching a lot of your classes up on a few days enables you to have less classes on the others. Last year I had a 10am class then a 12pm class which I absolutly hated because I was way too tempted to skip the 12.</p>

<p>also try to avoid a class that meets fri at 4pm. I had one frosh year and I remember I was always tempted to skip it because everyone else was back home in the dorms starting the weekend while I had to go to a class.</p>

<p>This is a great thread... At my school the first time I see anything is when I sit down with the advisor to pick classes on the day of orientation. I've been a bit worried about this. I'm doing engineering so I know I don't have that many choices but I do have some. </p>

<p>Thanks!</p>