<ol>
<li>I like your username.</li>
<li>Not having taken any of the courses you listed, I’m not a good resource (however, ENGN9 is supposed to be good, if not easy). However, I’d warn you that 2000-level courses (per your second alternate class) is a graduate course. Typically, you need (or should ask) permission from the professor to take the course, especially if there are expected and/or unlisted prerequisites. I don’t know what your background is, and you may be very qualified (one of my friends is taking a graduate-level French seminar because her proficiency and familiarity with material is sufficient), but it’s in your best interest to write to the instructor, explaining your situation and asking his/her opinion.</li>
<li>You should take a diverse set of classes to get a feel for what interests you. However, if you’re considering a course-heavy concentration (i.e. Engineering, BioChem, or an Sc. B. in most sciences), you should get started on the requirements. If you want to do Econ, you’ll have less trouble because it’s a nine (I believe) course concentration. If you’re looking at CS-Econ or Applied Math-Econ, it will be significantly more.</li>
</ol>
<p>Engn 9 is a blast. Good 4th or 5th course. I’ll be TAing it!</p>
<p>I think the intro Eng class you have on there is primarily for students who do need a real introduction to essaying. If you feel prepared from high school (i.e., can express yourself and make a decent argument) then you can consider more upper-level (subject-specific) Eng classes, which would probably be more fun.</p>
<p>While I have no personal experience in the matter, I feel like taking 5 classes including 1 language might be a little too ambitious for your first semester.</p>
<p>I agree with hollyert on the matter of 5 courses with a modern language. An intro language course can be seen as the time commitment of 2 classes.</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, though, both math 9 and English 11 are mandatory S/NC. I don’t know how much that frees up time; it probably depends on how much you’d pour yourselves into an S/NC class.</p>
<p>^And from what I’ve heard, engn 9 is not terribly time consuming, either. The only real time-consuming class in that schedule seems to be Chinese, and maybe the econ, if you want to make it an interesting class. But overall, it’s a schedule probably heavy on class time, and, other than chinese, probably relatively light on homework. Which is the opposite of how most schedules are.</p>
<p>To graduate, do we have to take at least one writing designated courses? Is it a requirement? I will be taking lots of econ classes and I don’t want to take additional writing classes.</p>
<p>Yes, you will have to take a writing-designated course.
No, those courses don’t have to be English classes. Certain econ classes will likely be designated as such in the future. </p>
<p>I can guarantee you, as a fellow Sc.B. in Econ, you will have plenty of time to take other classes, at least one of which will be deemed writing-intensive.</p>
<p>Actually, you don’t have to take a writing-designated course to fulfill the writing requirement. If you can demonstrate proficiency in writing English (especially if you’re writing research papers, etc.), then that may be sufficient. For example, if you write a thesis or large papers, even for a non-writing designated class, then you have completed the requirement.</p>
<p>Writing-designated courses are courses that offer feedback on papers and opportunities for revision. They are not specifically geared towards teaching you how to write.</p>
<p>It’s not even necessarily in English. I noticed that some courses in the German department that are conducted in German have the writing designation.</p>
<p>Hey guys. I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on what math I should take?</p>
<p>I’ve looked at the guidelines Brown has put out, but would still like some suggestions. I took BC Calculus my junior year, did well in the course, and got a 5 on the AP exam. Then I took AP Stat this year. So the thing is, according to Brown, I should take third semester calculus. But it’s been over a year since I really studied Calculus and I’m afraid I’ve forgotten most of the tougher things - like Taylor Series and some of the applications of integration. In fact, I’m not even positive on my memory on the easier stuff, but that I think I’ll be able to reteach myself. I’m going to look at my old BC review book and see if I can relearn some calculus so I can take third semester. Or do you suggest me just taking the course that comes after AB Calculus?</p>
<p>Taylor series are very rarely used, but if you feel weak on some of the other topics, 17 might be the course for you. Depending on the professor, it could be very difficult, but it’s the advanced 2nd semester calculus course. 10 would just be a complete review from integration onwards. Do you think you might want to concentrate in math or something that uses math? If so, I’d recommend trying 17 (and shopping 10). If you just want a foundation and don’t plan to take much more math than this, 10 would definitely be easier.</p>
<p>I would say just go ahead and do MATH 18/20. The class starts off with some simple vector stuff which should give you a few weeks to re-teach yourself the stuff in BC calculus, if need be. We didn’t use Taylor’s Series in MATH 18 last fall, so it’s probably not critical that you recall every single thing about it.</p>
<p>I think I’m going to concentrate in Economics, which definitely uses math. I think I’ll take MATH 18 and maybe shop 17 just in case, but try and relearn as much as I can. So my schedule right now looks like:</p>
<p>1.ECON 0110 (S01) — Principles of Economics
2.MATH 0180 (S01) — Intermediate Calculus
3.HISP 0740 (S01) — Intensive Survey of Spanish Literature (since I have a 5 on Lit)</p>
<p>And one of the following:
4.MCM 0100 (S01) — Introduction to Modern Culture and Media
5.CLPS 0030 (S01) — Introduction to Linguistic Theory
6.POLS 0400 (S01) — Introduction to International Politics</p>
<p>Am I supposed to drop something here and add in Math 17? Not quite sure how to do this. And any feedback on this would be appreciated. I will basically be in 2 Intro classes and 2 Intermediate/Advanced level classes, which sounds okay to me. Yeah?</p>
<p>^Taylor series are more useful further on; they’re used in some of the proofs in 111 (differential equations), for instance. It’s not critical that you know them now, of course. I suppose the question is more…how much of BC Calculus do you feel you’ve forgotten, and what would the rest of your courseload look like? 10, 17, 18, and 20 would all be valid options, depending on how much time you expect to be able to put into the course.</p>
<p>Edit: That schedule doesn’t seem too crazy (though I believe MCM 0100 is rather time consuming). You should have the time to handle either 17 or 18. Applications of integration are not incredibly important, so long as you’re comfortable with (or can quickly become comfortable with) derivatives and integrals. Relearning Taylor Series would be useful, but is not vital for success before 1000 level courses.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to distract from anyone else’s question, but I thought maybe I could throw a quick question in. I am relatively sure that I want to take a foreign language this spring semester. I am absolutely sure that I will test beyond the beginning level- probably in Intermediate 2 or Advanced 1- and I was wondering whether or not I should take the placement exam before this fall or if I should wait and take it at a later date. I’m just not sure how all the language testing works, or if I would even be given an opportunity to take a placement test before the spring semester. I would appreciate any help with this problem. Thank you all so much again for your help.</p>
<p>I’m not that certain about the details regarding testing, but most language courses are year-long sequences in which your final grade (for both semesters) is based on the work you have done over the course of the year. Consequently, there are very few (if any) language courses that start the sequence in spring, and you cannot elect to just take the spring half the the year-long sequence unless special permission has been granted.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any input on this schedule?</p>
<p>1611V Color Me Cool: A Survey of Contemporary Graphic Novels
0190P Development of Scientific Theories: Context and the Individual (CAP)
0020 Concepts and Challenges of Computer Science
0330 Chem: Equilibrium, Rate, Structure</p>
<p>I’m thinking about maybe being a science concentrator. The graphic novel class sounds fun and the comp sci class sounds useful and I feel like I should learn more about computers.</p>
<p>^CS 20 is a survey course: you’ll learn more about computer science in general than specifically how to DO any one thing (though you will get a small amount of actual programming experience). To let you know, in our TA interviews (I interviewed, but will be TAing CS17 instead), we were asked to describe how something works, meaning understanding how stuff works is probably the most important part of the class. And when I interviewed, the professor was more knowledgeable about the thing I described (turbine engines) than I was. And he seemed like a really interesting person, having (I believe) a Mechanical Engineering background, rather than just being a programmer. If he’s as good at helping you achieve insight as he was in the short time with me, it’ll be a great class.</p>
<p>Chem 33 will take up quite a bit of time. The rest of your courses should be pretty light, though. Good luck, and it sounds like fun to me.</p>