<p>^That is an entirely manageable schedule, and it’s probably a good mix. One question: are any of those classes “off-the-wall” classes for you? As in, subjects or areas you don’t plan on studying further, or classes that sound fun that don’t necessarily have any real-world applications? That’s one thing an advisor told me, and something that makes Brown a bit unique: taking classes just because you want to take them, not because they’ll “help” you or move you towards some goal. I think you’re fine as is, but if there’s nothing on there that sticks out to you as a “fun” course, you might want to rethink.</p>
<p>With Math 20: shop Math 18 and Math 35, and/or shop the different Math 20 lecturers, because your experience is likely to depend a lot on how well you click with the teacher.</p>
<p>But do keep in mind, you have between 30 and 40 courses in your time at Brown, so make every one count. Make sure there’s a reason for every course you take, whether it be for fun or towards a goal. You don’t want to feel lost when it’s time to declare in your fourth semester and you don’t want to feel that one or more of your courses could have been replaced by something more interesting, fun, or useful (or ideally, all three).</p>
<p>I’ve gleaned from a bunch of the threads that the Math department is no good? Could someone speak to that? What specifically about the math department gives it its reputation?</p>
<p>Many low level (that is, 52 and below) math courses are not incredibly taught. Additionally, many students who take such courses (particularly 17, 18, 35, and 52) are not adequately prepared or don’t quite have the mind for the abstractness inherent in math at that level (these students generally would enjoy the applied math department more), so they struggle. The upper level classes are a mix of good and bad, particularly with teachers. There will always be some professors one doesn’t click with, but there are several good professors; they just tend to teach 1000 and 2000 level courses.</p>
<p>I would argue that one would get more out of the courses if one makes use of the Math Resource Center, works with friends, and is not dependent on having a good lecturer. I’d imagine part of it is students coming into a class like 18 unprepared for what they’re getting (a professor just lecturing and not really going back to repeat things that cause confusion, since he considers his job to lecture rather than ensure everyone understands the material).</p>
<p>Many low level (that is, 52 and below) math courses are not incredibly taught. Additionally, many students who take such courses (particularly 17, 18, 35, and 52) are not adequately prepared or don’t quite have the mind for the abstractness inherent in math at that level (these students generally would enjoy the applied math department more), so they struggle. The upper level classes are a mix of good and bad, particularly with teachers. There will always be some professors one doesn’t click with, but there are several good professors; they just tend to teach 1000 and 2000 level courses.</p>
<p>I would argue that one would get more out of the courses if one makes use of the Math Resource Center, works with friends, and is not dependent on having a good lecturer. I’d imagine part of it is students coming into a class like 18 unprepared for what they’re getting (a professor just lecturing and not really going back to repeat things that cause confusion, since he considers his job to lecture rather than ensure everyone understands the material).</p>
<p>Does anyone know if there is anything you can do to increase your chances of getting into a popular class as a freshman? I really want to take Beginning Modern Dance, but apparently it’s sometimes difficult to get into.</p>
<p>^It’s actually very easy to get into. I joined the class on the last possible day to add a class and it was very easy. I know banner says that 39/40 spots are currently full, but I guarantee that people will drop leaving room for you! Also, Julie is really nice and I can’t imagine her turning anyone away.</p>
<p>Oh, that’s great! Thanks so much! When you say she is very nice, does that mean I don’t need to be too nervous? I was concerned because I have only taken three years of dance, and I was afraid that I would be berrated for my lack of technique and skill. I know it sounds like a silly thing to be worried about, but I took ballet this year, and my teacher told me that my boobs were too big for me to ever be a good dancer, and I was sort of upset. I just want to make sure the class isn’t going to stress me out more than is due.</p>
<p>Hahahahaaaa, in all seriousness, beginning modern dance is more of a movement class than anything. There is very little “ballet” and more isolation of your spine, neck, legs, shoulders, hips, butt etc. I had NO dance experience when I took the class and Julie loved that. She gives a lot of her attention to students with very little experience because it’s a beginning class, afterall; she told us that it’s so much more fun for her to teach her beginning level classes vs. her advanced classes because the students in the beginning class have more fun and really go for it–plus there is so much room for improvement. Julie CAN be intimidating because she’s not the one to actively praise you for doing something right, but if she sees you doing something incorrectly you better be sure she’ll correct your back, butt, bust, etc!</p>
<p>I started taking ballet classes in January after doing beginning modern and what I do in my real ballet class vs. beginning modern is soooooooo different. Julie hardly ever did barre work (we did it maybe twice). She also doesn’t do floor barre, per se. We stretch and whatnot (she has regular routines that you constantly do over and over again), but I would hardly call what we do ballet–many of her techniques come from ballet, however, it isn’t until we start actually “doing” the modern dance when ballet comes into play. Even at that point, it’s pretty simple stuff. The “hard” part about the class is the afro-cuban portion where a guest lecturer comes in and teaches you everything Julie taught you NOT to do! Lol, that is where it’s okay for your body not to be perfectly symmetrical (the ballet is important because many of the moves are built off of it). I think that is probably the hardest part of the class: retaining the ballet while incorporating the new modern moves—never in ballet would you be jumping up and down moving your back like a snake; but you still have to remember important ballet moves to do that jumping around (plies, leaps, grand jete, pique, tendu, attitude, arebesqu, etc). It’s really all loads of fun and it would not be in your best interest to go into it with all these worries. People of all levels take it: from experienced dancers to novice. You’re all there to learn and to have fun!</p>
<p>Hi guys, I’m thinkin’ of some courses:
ECON0110 : Principles of Economics
MCM0100: Introduction to Modern culture and Media
VISA0100 : Studio Foundation
HISP110: Intensive Basic Spanish</p>
<p>What do you think about them? Is it easy to manage my time?
And could anyone please tell me what I must do to pre-register for the courses ?</p>
<p>@dark<em>knight</em>178: VISA0100 involves a lottery, so there’s no guarantee you’ll get in (meaning you should have at least 1 backup option, possibly more). That schedule appears to be quite time consuming, possibly inhibitively so. HISP0110 is the equivalent of 2 courses, meeting 10 hours a week (to say nothing of the work). It’s also nearly full and requires instructor permission; what is your Spanish background, if any? MCM is quite a bit of time as well, with the mandatory film meeting and discussion section. Should you manage to get into all of those courses (and I’m unsure that you will get into VISA or HISP), you would be spending substantial time in class, not to mention a lot of time outside of class; your first term, that is likely a mistake, due to the need for time to meet people and adjust to living away from home for the first time.</p>
<p>When you get to campus and meet with your advisor, you’ll be given your registration PIN. The next day, you will be able to log onto Banner and enter your PIN to let you attempt to register for your courses (you should be able to use the course scheduler to do this). You won’t be permitted to register for courses where you don’t have the prereq (there are none of those here, so don’t worry about that) or for which you need permission (HISP0110) unless you get permission from the instructor in the form of an override. Unless you get VISA0100 in the art lottery (you’ll hear about that during the summer), you won’t be able to sign up for that either. Either way, it would be beneficial to consider other courses as backups (I’d especially look at HISP0100, since we generally believe 5 credits is too much for freshmen in the fall, and a few courses to consider in case you decide you don’t like these courses).</p>
<p>GEOL 0220: Physical Process in Geology (CAP and professor approval)
SOC 1080: Groups in Organization (got override code and professor approval)
ENGL 0110: Critical Writing: The Academic Essay
NEUR 0010: The Brain- An Introduction to Neuroscience</p>
<p>I think this seems like a very good freshman schedule, but what do you think?</p>
<p>@swim2daend: I don’t know much about those courses, except that NEUR is very memorization intensive. It seems to be very balanced schedule from every perspective, nor overwhelmingly difficult or time consuming. Make sure, of course, to keep an open mind and have a couple courses to consider just in case, though.</p>
<p>@swim2daend: I don’t have personal experience with this course, and I don’t know anything about your background, but I understand that Writing the Academic Essay is designed for people who weren’t taught to write solid critical analysis and/or research papers in high school. I know a few people who went into the class not realizing this and were subsequently very bored or switched out after a few weeks. It’s supposed to be an excellent class, though. Just wanted to give you (and anyone else considering it) a heads up.</p>
<p>^ thefunnything: I did know this, but I’m not taking it because I feel as if I can’t write. I’m taking it because I don’t know how I compare to everyone else at Brown. I just felt like it couldn’t hurt to try and sharpen up my skills before I enter writing extensive classes. Thanks so much for your feedback Uroogla and thefunnything!</p>
<p>I was just going through the Brown Course Scheduler searching for some interesting FYSs, and my eyes fell on GEOL 0160A - Exploration of Mars! The course description for this FYS sounds really interesting. It says that students will “explore the surface of Mars in the CAVE, talk to Apollo astronauts about their visits to the Moon, and teleconference with Brown grads as we plan future Mars exploration.” In addition to this, “the NASA rovers will bring fresh excitement every day.”</p>
<p>To one and all, is this really as good as it sounds? Thoughts from fellow Brunonians will be deeply appreciated!</p>
<p>@harvard17: it appears that in following links, you managed to get to the portion of the site that lists all courses that exist as of fall 2010 rather than those offered in fall 2010; as wonderful as the course sounds, it is not being offered next year, according to Mocha, the course announcement, and the course scheduler.</p>
<p>@RoyalFlush: Why would I make that course up? What would I get by doing this? I have a deep interest in Astronomy, and so when I read about this particular course (even though it is offered by the Geological Sciences Department), I, in all honesty, found it to be genuinely interesting and simulating!</p>
<p>If you still doubt me, please follow the below mentioned instructions:</p>
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<p>This is the place from where I found out about this course. I reached the website after going through the ‘Planning your Liberal Education’ booklet that I recently received from Brown. Do you still hold something against me?</p>
<p>@Uroogla: Going through the aforementioned steps, do you still think that this course is not being offered this fall? The amount of knowledge that I would extract out of this wonderful class would truly be mind-boggling!</p>
<p>@harvard17: Unfortunately RoyalFlush and Uroogla are right. GEOL0160A is not offered in Fall '10. Following the steps you prescribed gets you all the classes the Geological Sciences Department has ever offered, but not all of them will be available this coming semester. I’m not sure if you can view the course offerings on Banner at this point in time, but that’s the place to go to for the most authoritative information on what’s being offered (and what’s not). Alternatively you can check out Mocha or courses.brown.edu. </p>
<p>If I may offer you an alternative, GEOL0050: Mars, Moon and the Earth offers something quite similar to GEOL0160A, although it’s not an FYS. I took GEOL0050 my first semester as my 5th class and had a really good time. It’s not too much work and the homework is actually fun to do. For example, we went on Google Earth and looked for geological features and stuff, and we did the same thing for the Moon and Mars as well (believe it or not there are actually Moon and Mars interfaces on Google Earth). We got to do a lab where we looked at actual Moon rocks brought back from the Apollo missions, and also went to the CAVE to experience Mars in virtual reality.</p>
<p>And this was all during the time when the Geological Sciences Department made news for finding water on the Moon so we got to share in a little of the excitement as well. All in all it’s a really fun class which I would highly recommend.</p>