<p>Does anyone know if Tulane has a minimum class size for foreign language classes? Right now I'm worried that the German 3050 course I was placed in will be canceled because, at the moment, only two people have signed up for it, myself included. Since I'm planning on majoring German, I would really like to avoid going a semester without a German class, and it appears that the next higher class, 3250, only has a few openings left (the next lower class isn't being offered this semester). Would it be prudent to register for both and drop 3250 in the event that 3050 continues with the small number or students or gains more participants? I emailed my academic adviser about this a few days ago, but I imagine she's quite busy around this time of year, and I haven't received a reply yet.</p>
<p>As far as I know there is no minimum. Anyone else have experience with this? In any case I cannot see how it would hurt to get your spot in 3250 and drop it if 3050 goes forward.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Of the incoming first-year students, only honors have registered. Enrolled numbers will be much more meaningful after orientation.</p></li>
<li><p>Technically the deans set minimums, but cancellations are rare. You might contact the Department electronically and ask</p></li>
</ol>
<p>TUGryphon - I thought about your #1 point, but considering it is a 3000 level class I also thought there probably won’t be any more freshmen ready to take German at that level, maybe one or two more. IIRC, the OP lived in Germany for part of her life, so her German is especially advanced.</p>
<p>But maybe we will be surprised. I guess there are transfer students that could sign up, I hadn’t thought of that. I guess Advanced Grammar and Composition must be a bit intimidating! They are all opting for the Language and Culture course.</p>
<p>I’m actually confused as to whether or not I’m even allowed to sign up for 3250, which I guess is Language and Culture I, because the course description says the prerequisite course is 2040, while its place on the list of available courses on Gibson says the prereq is 3050. In any case, I wasn’t expecting more freshmen to sign up because you place into 3050 by either getting a 4 or 5 on the German AP exam, which only around 5,000 people a year take (I think), and those who took the exam this year and don’t know their scores yet might not take the course (I’m not taking a math course this semester because I don’t know how well I did on the Calc BC exam yet). </p>
<p>The courses appear to be pretty different - 3050 is a seminar focused on grammar review, whereas 3250, based on the textbook list and the course description, is a class on German history in culture taught in German. </p>
<p>Thanks for the advice - if my adviser doesn’t reply in the next few days, I think I’ll probably email the department. That one other person and I in German 3050 would be sure to have an interesting year together, in any case. xD</p>
<p>Well, my son was a Russian major at another school, and by the time he was in the upper level courses the class size had dwindled to 3 or 4. He liked it that way, but it really is different.</p>
<p>As far as pre-reqs and all, that usually just takes a discussion with the prof. They will almost always waive the pre-req if they feel you can handle the material. You will get it all sorted out, of course.</p>
<p>My freshman son placed into upper level Hebrew after discussion with the professor. At first there were just two students in his class, and one of them was a Tulane faculty member. Later a third student joined, who was a native Hebrew speaker. So, there doesn’t seem to be a problem with freshmen taking upper level classes if the prof thinks it’s okay, nor does their seem to be a minimum number of students.</p>
<p>If a native speaker’s taking the course, it must be pretty insanely upper level. xD</p>
<p>My adviser got back to me and said that, while cancellations aren’t the norm, it wouldn’t hurt to register for the 3250 course, and it didn’t conflict with anything in my schedule, so I’m registered for both 3050 and 3250 at the moment. </p>
<p>I just wish there was an actual language placement test rather than a survey so I could have a better idea of what I’m getting myself into and what I’m capable of, as all high school language classes are not necessarily alike.</p>
<p>Good point re#1. Glad the advisor responded.</p>
<p>cruxclaire - If you find yourself in over your head (which I bet you won’t) you can always drop down to 2030, there are a couple of sections and they are unlikely to get full. Heck, you might even find that you can stay in both courses! Or would that be totally insane?</p>
<p>But especially if the 3050 course goes ahead with only 2 or 3 of you, the prof will make it work for you. Personally I think it would be great to have such a small class for a course that focuses on grammar and composition more than speaking, since it is so detail oriented. At least I would imagine it is. Foreign languages were not my strong suit, which makes it especially amusing that I have one that was a Russian major and the other a Chinese major with a French minor who is now going to take Arabic as well. Definitely a head shaker.</p>
<p>My parents are engineers who never took a liking to foreign language, so they might feel the same way. 
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<p>If I take both of them, I would have 19 credit hours, which is a bit much, but if I stayed in the 3250 course for a while and found I liked it I don’t think I would mind doing the extra work, since I already dedicate a good portion of my free time to German-related activities. </p>
<p>I looked up the professor for the 3050 course on RateMyProfessor and looked at the course evals for some of her previous German courses (I think she’s done mostly beginner courses in the past), and she’s supposed to be fantastic.</p>
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Bonus!!!</p>
<p>As far as the 19 hours, you will just have to see how it goes for you. Some people find the structure of college work very liberating (lots more “free time”, meaning not actually sitting in class compared to high school) and find 6 courses not to be that bad. My D is like that, she has routinely taken 18-21 hours. Others can’t do that at all, my S falling into the latter category. He was great with 15 hours, but more was just not his thing. Which is fine, obviously. 15 is perfect for graduating in 4 years if you come in with no AP credit, although I think he came in with 6 or 9 hours, I forget which.</p>
<p>The nice thing about coming in with AP credit and/or taking more than 15 hours your first few semesters is it gives you tons of flexibility when you go abroad and/or for scheduling later in your college life. Experience will tell what your load limit is.</p>
<p>Do you know how long I’ll have to possibly drop classes I decide I can’t handle and/or add new ones? I would really like to study abroad my entire junior year, but I’m also double majoring, so that’s a good point that taking the heavier course load earlier on could make that a possibility.</p>
<p>The Academic Calendar is your friend, lol. [Academic</a> Calendar Tulane University Fall 2013](<a href=“http://registrar.tulane.edu/academic_calendars/academic_calendar_201330]Academic”>http://registrar.tulane.edu/academic_calendars/academic_calendar_201330) So up to September 27 you can drop and it is like you never signed up at all, and up to October 28 you can drop and all it will say is that you withdrew from the course, which really is no big deal unless you do it all the time, which is highly unlikely.</p>