<p>I got placed in ED0040 for my CAP course (The Campus on Fire: American Colleges and Universities in the 1960’s). It was my second choice, and I’m pretty excited about it, because it sounds really interesting to me. Just a few questions for any current students who may have some insights about the course:</p>
<p>-Have you heard good or bad things about the class?
-How is Luther Spoehr as a CAP advisor?
-Does it matter that my CAP advisor is from the Education department, when I am planning to go into Medicine?</p>
<p>But for those of you stressing about your CAP classes -- remember, you can still drop them if you don't like them, and keep your advisor. You can even switch advisors (or just pick up another informal advisor) if you don't like the prof. So no sweat.</p>
<p>ILoveBrown-- is switching a CAP course (and advisor, maybe) too awkward, or is it actually done? I got put in my last choice class (RU0029 w/Levitsky); in light of the fact that i can only (feasibly) take 4 classes, why waste one of my four on a class that i'm not crazy about? Is this enough of a reason to switch, you think, or should i just wait it out through the semester? (keep it mind that i havent even met the guy, so i may love him and his class.)
i feel like it might be a big hassle to go through a cap switch, not to mention i dont want to hurt the guy's feelings! but then again, this is my first semester, so i want to make it a good one.
Thanks for your advice!</p>
<p>ps, i'm planning on undertaking three concentrations; comp.lit, semiotics-french, and philisophy. i'm not even sure my CAP course will fulfill a literature requirement for comp.lit-- should i worry about this, or would it be wise to have a cap course that would simultaneously fill some concentration requirement?
thanks again!</p>
<p>pps: i called reslife to ask about an address change, but while i was on the phone i got curious and asked about our housing assignments- they're mailing them out today and tomorrow!</p>
<p>firefly -- Yes, it's definitely done. About a third of my CAP group actually dropped the class, while keeping our advisor (which she specifically told us before class even started would not upset her at all). I'm sure it's not too hard to switch advisors, either, although as I said, it is also easy to find another professor you like and go to their office hours for informal advising.</p>
<p>Also, you don't know if you will like the class until you get there. Go to the first couple classes and decide whether you think it will truly be a "waste of time." You might be surprised (or not).</p>
<p>One last thing -- why do you feel the need to be a triple major? Assuming you're already fluent in French and can start right away with literature classes, you'll have 11 classes for Comp Lit, 10 for Semiotics-French and 8 for Philosophy -- that's 29 total class out of about 30-35 classes you will take here. You may be able to count a couple of your French lit classes toward Comp lit and Semiotics-French (not sure how those departments deal with double-counting classes but you should be aware that some do not allow it). Even so, if you manage to get it down to 25 classes, you'll have a lot of problems:
--lots of scheduling conflicts trying to fill requirements for 3 different concentrations (such-and-such philosophy class you have to take this semester meets at the same time as such-and-such MCM class, etc)
--less time to really explore one or two fields in depth (although you will obviously be studying a lot of French, if that is your Comp Lit language)
--fewer opportunities to explore and take random classes outside your concentration in areas that interest you
--risk of taking too many introductory courses during your freshman year, and too many writing-intensive senior seminar / capstone courses during your senior year.</p>
<p>My suggestion would be this -- don't let anybody stop you from doing what you want to do, including random rising sophomores on CC (me). However, please come to Brown with an open mind, ready to explore the possibility of "only" taking two concentrations (or taking one, and then doing a lot of study in another field), or even exploring new, unfamiliar areas. You can still plan your schedule to keep your options open. If, a year from now, you still want to go through with your original plan, then go for it, and more power to you! However, don't get too fixed in your ideas now, because you might find that your plans will be unrealistic and unnecessarily restrictive.</p>