<p>Is workload in other humanities classes at Princeton comparable to that of HUM 216-219?</p>
<p>BTW, why those 4 courses should be squeezed into one year? Why take each 2 of them simultaneously, not consequently?</p>
<p>Each HUM semester is not two distinct courses. Just one course each semester with 2 course numbers attached to reflect the credit given and the workload.
The courses are team taught and may include profs in Philosophy, Literature, History, Art History, Sociology etc., as well as guest lecturers on specfic texts. A guest lecturer could well be the acknowledged living expert on that writer. There are trips to NYC for opera and visits to the Met. Mus. of Art, the Cloisters, etc.
There is no "busy work". If you love to read and discuss some of the best works in history, this course may be for you. Grading is based on papers (topics of the student's choosing), tests and class discussion in about that order.</p>
<p>I think each first year student takes a writing course one semester and a freshman seminar the other.</p>
<p>the freshman seminars are not required- but everyone should take at least one-- you get to interact with amazing professors in a small group. I took my writing sem and my freshman sem in the same semester, which was totally doable. You wouldn't want to take the HUM sequence + a humanities freshman sem + a writing sem in one semester, but if you took one of the more science-y ones you'd probably be okay. The HUM sequence is very different from the general humanities classes, just as the Integrated sequence is very different from other science classes.</p>
<p>Most humanities classes have ~150 pages of reading a week (more or less depending on the sources- in english classes it's usually ~ a novel a week). There are usually one or two papers a semester--anywhere from 6-25 pages, and possibly a midterm and a final. Precept participation usually factors pretty heavily into the grade as well.</p>
<p>I know there is a lot of writing required (in addition to the heavy reading load), but do the professors/TAs help you improve your writing and give helpful feedback? I know Princeton has writing seminars too -- I'm just curious about the quality of writing instruction in this class as compared to other English/History classes.</p>
<p>Parent of a student who just completed the HUM sequence.
The course is NOT meant to provide instruction in writing. However, my daughter did meet one-on-one with professors twice to go over papers that she was working on. The students were all first years, to my knowledge.
There are no TAs.</p>
<p>bumpies</p>
<p>is it hard to get in?</p>
<p>Not especially - I’ve never heard of anyone getting rejected. I imagine the application process is just to make sure that the people signing up are actually interested and capable, because it’s quite intense.</p>
<p>My friend got rejected. Don’t know why, she’s definitely capable and she’s an excellent writer so I can’t imagine her application was bad.</p>