<p>I know my son should be the one doing this, but I am having fun playing around with the course listings…is this reasonable for a first semester (freshman) schedule? It looks like a lot of classes but is only 17 CR - not sure how difficult/time consuming all those 1 CR classes will be.</p>
<p>Electives:
UH/HU/HI Humanities/History Elective (this will be ENG103 if he doesn’t place out with AP otherwise something like Honors Eng Lit 1) - 3 CR
UH120 Honors Connection - 1 CR
UH103 Alabama Action - 1 CR
MUA152 Wind Ensemble - 1 CR
MUA169 Mallet Ensemble - 1 CR</p>
<p>Wow…that’s a lot of classes…even if they are mostly for low credits.</p>
<p>I’d be concerned about keeping everything straight in my head…assignments, tests, etc.</p>
<p>If your son has ensembles, does that mean later day practices, etc? if so, then honors connection may not work out…time conflicts.</p>
<p>I hope he can test out of Eng 103…any English class will require writing/time. If he tests out of 103, I wouldn’t do Lit that semester…I’d pick something else. Since he’s in Eng’g, he doesn’t have to take ANY Llit classes.</p>
<p>Based only on the few 1 credit hour classes my son has taken so far, I wouldn’t count on all of them being 1/3 the work a 3 credit hour class. I also agree that keeping everything straight could be a challenge with all those individual classes.</p>
<p>So…the first 6 are required 1st semester and if I understand correctly about AA, most of the work is completed early in the semester. Is this correct?</p>
<p>The only other academic classes are the 3 CR Humanities (which may have to be ENG 103) and Honors Connection.</p>
<p>It looks like the ensembles will fit around his schedule. They are both mid-day (2PM to 4PM)</p>
<p>I am not sure how he can reduce the academic load without eliminating the Humanities elective - which may be required as ENG 103 - unless he can push that off to 2nd semester. Is that a possibility?</p>
<p>Regarding the LIT requirement (let me know if I have this right): he needs 9 CR HU, L, or FA. If he either places out of ENG101/102 or takes ENG103 - that gives him 6 of the 9. He can then take MUS121 for 3 CR to fulfill that HU/L/FA requirement.</p>
<p>Still trying to figure out the HI and Nat Sci requirements. He will be taking AP World History and AP Physics. If I understand it correctly, if he passes AP WH he will get 6 HI credits - which leaves just one HI elective required. With AP Physics he will get 8 CR - which leaves 4 NAT SCI credits required.</p>
<p>Yes, AA should be all done by the time regular classes begin. As for pushing off the humanities elective, I don’t see why that couldn’t be done unless his course load is too demanding in the 2nd semester.</p>
<p>The only work associated with AA when my D did it last year was reading an assigned book during the summer, participating in the week’s activities, and I think students were supposed to write a short paper. I’m not sure whether they ended up writing the paper in the end. They stay really busy from very early in the morning to social events at night.</p>
<p>My D also had a lot of 1 hour classes last semester and they are more time consuming than you expect. She had the same CS classes you listed above, AA, Honors connection and music lesson. The issue with the 1 credit classes was that some of them required group projects that had to meet outside of class, I know a CS one did. I think each Honors Connection class could be different, since D didn’t have any of the activities listed by others. She had to do a couple of interviews (upper classman and professor), a paper, and a few other activities. More work than she expected, but she enjoyed it. Though not enough to want to be a leader next year :(</p>
<p>She also found out that a requirement of the music lesson was attendance at a weekly bassoon studio that ate another hour of her time. Of the classes listed, the music ensembles would be the ones that concern me. Besides the actual rehearsal time, how often will they perform? D couldn’t participate in an ensemble because of class conflicts, so I’m not sure how demanding they would be on his time.</p>
<p>For OA, our son had to keep a journal with answers to several specific questions every day. Given the amount of work and time the students were devoting to the other activities for OA, I thought the journal was pretty demanding for a 1 credit hour class, perhaps because our son put a lot of effort and thought into his journal entries. As bamagirls says, for that week, the students are busy from early in the morning to social events at night.</p>
<p>wdaveo- we were looking at all of the one credit courses that are required/ available, and thinking that he would need to be careful not to have too many moving parts to be able to keep them straight. It does seem like a lot of different classes. He was also trying to determine what a good number of credits are for the first semester. The other issue he was running into is that his AP credit places him into a class that is only offered in spring.</p>
<p>vlines…is the class Calc 2? Maybe he could take a summer course of it and go straight into calc 3 in the fall. (Not that he would want to take a summer course…I don’t think my son would want to.)</p>
<p>Re: the moving parts - could you imagine having to manage all those 1 CR classes and then adding a composition class on top of it? Fingers crossed that S will place out of freshman comp.</p>
<p>NO, it is actually one of the computer courses. He is in calc 3 now. Will probably re-take calc 3, but not sure yet.</p>
<p>And no, too many one credit courses to keep straight! It is too bad they cannot combine some of the one credit required courses into one 3 credit course.</p>
<p>I would have to agree about being careful of the number of classes. Some classes have unexpected time commitments other than class. Have you looked at when/where the classes meet? Don’t forget to allow time to walk between classes, eat, and a little down time and time for studying/homework/projects. Remember, even the most responsible child has lots of adjustments to make once they arrive on campus as far as managing time. Kids typically don’t realize how long it takes to get places, do laundry, make a run to Target, handle the unexpected things they could do at home by calling Mom or Dad…etc. Even though my D had been doing her own laundry at home, it is different on campus.</p>
<p>Regarding the LIT requirement (let me know if I have this right): he needs 9 CR HU, L, or FA. If he either places out of ENG101/102 or takes ENG103 - that gives him 6 of the 9. He can then take MUS121 for 3 CR to fulfill that HU/L/FA requirement.</p>
<p>================</p>
<p>Is your son taking the AP English Comp or English Lit exam in May? AP English Comp exam is much easier…and a student can get a 4 in it without taking the actual class if they’re pretty good in English.</p>
<p>English 101, 102, and 103 do not count towards the 9 credits…those count towards the Frosh Comp requirement and you can’t use credits in TWO different Core sections.</p>
<p>To further clarify…a Lit class will a fulfil humanities req’t, but engineers do not have to take any FA or LIT classes. They can fulfil humanities with any HU classes.</p>
<p>We are trying to keep D at 13-14 hours this coming fall. MDB is only a 1 hour credit but requires a minimum of 8 hours of practice during the week plus the entire game day on Saturday. She will be taking Chem I so trying to keep the rest pretty simple with Psych. I, Human Developement, and hopefully an Honors Seminar or Spanish.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info on the AP comp vs lit exam…I was just trying to research which one is easier. My son is taking a 1 semester ADV COMP class in school right now. It is not designated AP but the teacher said if they do some self-study it will help prepare him for the AP test. Problem now is his regular teacher is out on maternity leave so they have a sub for several weeks. I am more concerned now about his ability to pass the AP test with a 4. He’s pretty good in English but not a great writer. (He is well-read so I was thinking that AP Lit might be easier. Either way I am off to the library to check out some AP books before they are all gone!)</p>
<p>S had intended to be in MDB but has decided to give it up for the 2 ensembles - I guess we need to figure out the time commitment of the ensembles…</p>
<h1>We are trying to keep D at 13-14 hours this coming fall. MDB is only a 1 hour credit but requires a minimum of 8 hours of practice during the week plus the entire game day on Saturday. She will be taking Chem I so trying to keep the rest pretty simple with Psych. I, Human Developement, and hopefully an Honors Seminar or Spanish.</h1>
<p>This is a good idea, but can I suggest this…</p>
<p>Have your D sign up for an additional class…then after the first day or two, decide whether she may want to drop a class (you can drop the first week without a W). This way, she can choose from all/most of her classes rather than having to absolutely stick with the originally chosen 14 credits…one which may have a prof that she doesn’t like.</p>
<p>wdaveo- we have a number of ap books here. I would be happy to send to you if we have what you need. Let me know your AP list, I can see what we have and if I have what you need, you can PM me your address.</p>
<p>^^I agree with signing up for more than 13-14 credit hours. Our son added a 1 credit hour class last fall so that he would have a total of 15 credit hours going into the semester and could still have 12 credit hours (to retain standing for scholarships) if he needed to drop a 3 credit hour class for some reason.</p>
<p>FWIW, 15 credit hours seems like a very comfortable load for our son, who also spends at least 15 hours a week working in a lab.</p>