<p>As part of the tour, the student guide informed us that Freshmen advisors decide what classes incoming Freshmen will take- at least for the first semester. That surprised me. I know that most colleges have general education requirements but my understanding was that there were options to fulfill these requirements. I was under the impression that students and their advisors would choose these electives together. I do understand that certain majors require certain prerequisites before you take other classes. However, it sounded like the advisor picks all the classes incoming Freshmen take. Is this a common practice at all universities?</p>
<p>It’s certainly not uncommon. I’ve heard of a lot of schools were they pick your first semester classes for you, but you can chose the second semester ones. Generally, if there is a problem with one of those classes you can try to get it changed.</p>
<p>Unless it was some major with very specific requirements like engineering, I haven’t heard of any schools that do that. Which ones do you know of that do that?</p>
<p>I think Stevens Institute of Technology in north NJ does.</p>
<p>I agree that it is more likely to occur in an engineering school. WPI, for example, publishes sets of recommended first term classes based on your intended major (yes, there are options for “undecided” students) and you sign up for these over the summer before you actually have an advisor. You can call or email if you have questions. It surprised me at the time, but it does make sense.
It makes less sense for a liberal arts school though…</p>
<p>I would understand that certain professional majors or any major would mean that advisors would tell you what classes in your major needed to be taken when. However, I was very surprised that the advisors would pick all your classes- even general educations which I previously heard that students could choose from a variety of courses to meet these requirements. The school that said that this was the standard practice was the University of Maine/Orono. I had asked the tour guide the question about when do incoming freshmen pick their classes and she said that your assigned advisor picks the classes for you. This surprised me, since I thought incoming freshman would meet with their advisors to pick classes during orientation. University of Maine has about 9,000 students. I wasn’t sure whether this practice is common for all schools, just large schools, private vs public universities or varies by colleges.</p>
<p>I’ve never heard of this except for engineering programs where you have a huge number of requirements to fulfill. Even there you usually can at least pick one elective.</p>
<p>Both of my kids colleges gave freshman their first semester schedule (one went to a mid-sized Jesuit university and the other is at a LAC). But in both cases my kids filled out an informational form (about projected major, a list of electives they were interested in, APs…). prior to the schedule being set up And in both cases freshmen were given an opportunity to make necessary changes during orientation. I wouldn’t give this issue a second thought as a criteria in choosing a school – it just wasn’t a problem at all (in fact, I think it took away some of the stress inherent in self-scheduling). In both schools after the first semester they set their own schedules.</p>
<p>Irissson4,</p>
<p>Really? I never heard of it. I didn’t see anything on their website.</p>
<p>That makes sense that a school would ask for some information before they would determine what classes a student would take. We liked the school and my son is considering applying but we were surprised when we thought that our son would have little input in deciding what classes he would take- at least initially.</p>
<p>St. John’s College is the only obvious example where the freshman curriculum is completely specified, because the entire curriculum is completely specified with no electives:
[St</a>. John’s College | Academic Program | Annapolis Undergraduate Reading List](<a href=“Liberal Arts College - Great Books Program | St. John's College”>Liberal Arts College - Great Books Program | St. John's College)</p>
<p>Engineering major degree programs may have recommended course plans, but they still have to accommodate variations in placement in subjects like math and student preferences in humanities and social studies breadth courses.</p>
<p>The Naval Academy has a common core for first year students, but allows for placement differences in chemistry, math, and English.</p>
<p>It might be worth checking with the college in case the tour guide didn’t accurately describe it 
It is probably something that will make sense once you learn the details.
It might be a “Pick one from Column A, one from Column B” etc. type setup.
WPI’s method has that flexibility but encourages students to get important prerequisites started right away and encourages them to do some load balancing (add a humanities or social science course!) so they don’t overwhelm themselves with only math/science/engineering courses, which nerdy kids are likely to do when left to their own devices ;-)</p>
<p>I’m just saying - there’s probably some wisdom behind their strategy after all.</p>
<p>Re: #8</p>
<p>That does seem more reasonable that the student indicates interest in major(s), electives, AP credit, etc. and is then pre-registered, but given an opportunity to change the schedule. That may help incoming freshmen avoid making scheduling blunders that could put them off-track for the major(s) that they are interested in.</p>
<p>uc davis does something similar and are required to take a calc test, chemistry test and english test online. Then at orientation, they meet with the advisor who places them in classes according to their scores from the tests.</p>
<p>At my school, freshmen did their schedules in June and went over it with their adviser at Orientation. Most freshmen, myself included, end up with a different schedule after that meeting, but we’re never signed up for any classes we didn’t ask for. </p>
<p>Also, all students have to take English 1000 (unless they test out) and Freshman Seminar at some point during their freshman year, but there’s multiple options for both courses. And freshmen with a Math SAT under 400 need to take a placement test to see if they’ll be put in remedial math.</p>
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<p>One thing that I wonder about is that some schools have new freshman pre-registration before July, which means that new freshman waiting for AP scores which can affect placement may have to guess how they scored. Seems like some schools would have a lot of freshmen trying to switch their pre-registered math courses after July.</p>
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<p>I actually did test out of a Political Science course I signed up for. I’d also test out of English 1000 if it wasn’t for this damned honors college course. </p>
<p>I guess it’s considered normal for Freshmen to have to change their schedules. Professors here are usually willing to help out. For example, I had trouble getting into an introductory course I need for my theatre major. </p>
<p>Part of the problem is that same course is also used by a lot of students to fill a gen ed requirement. Anyone can take it at any time to do that, or take a different class. But Theatre majors are supposed to take it as freshmen. So, the department has something up their sleeve. A cap that’s 5 students lower than what the professor is actually willing to teach, so that they can issue overrides for theatre majors. </p>
<p>And, upperclassmen have already registered weeks before it ever opens to freshmen. So what’s full is full, and that probably won’t change no matter how many time the freshmen have to mess around with their schedules.</p>