<p>Hi I'm gonna be attending Carleton in the Fall 2008 (really excited!) and I just started deciding which classes I want to take. I was wondering if I could get advice from current college students of graduates from college. This whole college thing is totally new to me in the sense that my parents are immigrants (my dad has only attended junior and senior year of high school, mom has graduated from high school in Korea) and my sister (who is a sophomore in college) isn't really much help because she isn't at all academically motivated. This is the schedule I'm thinking of signing up for:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Writing Seminar I (ENGL 109)
T/TH 1:15PM - 3:00PM</p></li>
<li><p>Political Philosophy (POSC 160)
M/W 1:50PM - 3:00 PM, F 2:20PM - 3:20PM</p></li>
<li><p>Elementary French (FREN 101)
M/W 11:10AM-12:20PM, T/TH 10:45AM - 11:50AM, F 12:00PM - 1:00PM</p></li>
<li><p>Yoga, Beginning (PE 199)
T/TH 9:30AM - 10:35AM</p></li>
</ul>
<p>For the next 2 trimesters (winter and spring) I'm planning on signing up for more political science classes, more french classes, Principles of Psychology, Global Change Biology, and History of Modern Korea.</p>
<p>I'm undecided in my major but I'm considering Political Science/International Relations. Political Science interests me because I want to do something in public service whether it's within the U.S. or with the U.N. I'm really interested in a lot of the problems that the world faces today (poverty, environmental issues...). I grew up thinking that I was going to become a doctor. However, this year during my American Problems/Global Studies class I realized how interesting history and politics was! I realized how narrow my focus has been all throughout high school (I took history classes during the summer and never considered AP classes like AP U.S. History and AP. World History) and I'm pretty much open to exploring new subjects and finding what I'm really passionate about.</p>
<p>Any advice on my tentative schedule and on any future schedules I may have? I'm not really asking for something specific but more like advice from anyone who personally or through the experience of a friend or classmate has found that taking a bunch of intro classes in the first year of college would help me find something I'm passionate about or anything like that. The whole 3 classes 3 times a year with almost total freedom of choice is totally weird to me. I'm so used to having 6 year-long classes that touch on the 4 basic areas of study (Math/Science/English/History) and follow the strict requirements for graduation!</p>
<p>One thing I'm a little worried about is the 10 minutes break between my Yoga class and French class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Has anyone had classes this close together? Is it manageable or are you strongly against it? I'm totally willing to run down to French right after Yoga is done.</p>
<p>2008gradgurl, first, congrats on attending Carleton. IMHO, you'll have a wonderful experience.</p>
<p>As far as 10 min. between yoga and French, is yoga in the rec center? If so, that's across Lyman Lake and (chime in current students) will definitely take you at least 7 minutes (in my general-not-at-Carleton-only-a-mom estimate). And you're not factoring in changing clothes or anything. </p>
<p>Also, is the pol sci course your freshman seminar? You'll need to sign up for one of those (really cool courses--my son had a hard time choosing). </p>
<p>If you haven't already, go to this page for all sorts of info specific to the class of 2012 on registering, advising, etc.</p>
<p>When you get your e-mail account, you'll be able to sign into Caucus, where you can ask current (and future) Carls these kinds of questions, along with ones about professors, etc.</p>
<p>Technically you don't have to take a freshman seminar, but if you do, it's an easy way to get the WR (writing rich) requirement out of the way. The Writing Seminar I class counts toward that.</p>
<p>Freshman year, you don't have to worry too much about requirements, except maybe foreign language, but you're taking care of that. At some point you'll take the foreign language and math placement tests, which will tell you where you belong in the sequence. Just focus on taking classes in lots of areas that interest you. Then when you declare your major in spring of sophomore year, you'll feel more solid in your choice because you tried out several areas.</p>
<p>If you REALLY want to get obsessive about classes (not saying it's a bad thing, I did it), go through the catalog and pick out some/all of the classes you would absolutely die if you didn't take. Then by looking at previous course catalogs/schedules, you can figure out how often they are offered. I say this because a lot of really good, niche-interest classes are only offered once every two or three years, so sometimes it's nice to know those classes are coming up so that you can plan your schedule around them.</p>
<p>Like I said, that's obsessive, but I like doing this kind of thing, so it doesn't feel like work to me. And have fun! Picking classes is the best thing ever.</p>
<p>No, the freshman seminar is not required, but most freshmen do sign up for one. Political Philosophy is not a freshman seminar.</p>
<p>Gradgurl, my daughter has taken two of those courses (Political Philosophy and Beginning French) - I'll ask her about them. I'm pretty sure she didn't take Political Philosophy until this year (sophomore year) - it can be pretty tough, depending on your professor. Her first poli sci course was Comparative Political Regimes. By the way, she's currently abroad on Carleton's Maastricht program, which is awesome - she's been all over western Europe. It's offered every 3 years, so it should come around your junior year. There are prerequisites for it (and also for other programs), so be sure to get those in. Statistics was the hardest for her to schedule - it's a required course for a lot of majors.</p>
<p>Your schedule looks fine, although I'm not sure if you'll get into yoga or not. You'll have to see how big the waitlist gets once all the upperclassmen register. Don't worry about time between classes on T/Th. It's a very very short walk from Cowling to the LDC, and you'd have time to change out of your yoga clothes if you wanted.</p>
<p>Limner - I've been to the new student site but for some reason I overlooked the pre-registration info! Thanks!</p>
<p>Fireflyscout - I remember reading about the Maastricht program on Carleton's website! Sounds awesome. Thanks for warning me about the prerequisites, I'll definitely look into that.</p>
<p>OK, I finally got in touch with my daughter and this is her advice - the writing seminar and Political Philosophy will give you a very intense writing/reading load. Your first term should be "lighter" so you can enjoy all the great fall fun and activities. She suggests leaving reading-intensive courses for the winter term.</p>
<p>Does anyone know anything about FOCUS? It's one of the options listed in the pre-registration choices, but I haven't seen any other information about it. It mentions that it's for students interested in promoting diversity in the sciences. Forgive my ignorance, but does that mean that it's intended primarily for students who are traditionally under-represented in the sciences, or do they mean diversity in the sense of having a diverse knowledge about a variety of sciences?</p>
<p>Also, it looks like it involves taking 2 additional credits each semester on top of the normal 18 credit load, so I'm curious about that too.</p>