<p>Help!!</p>
<p>My son just called me up. It's now his 'registration time' for his courses. There are literally no freshman seminars available (that don't conflict with the two courses he's already signed up for), no freshman writing seminars at all available, and no slots in Spanish 201. That's pretty screwed up.
Should he be up at midnight when the 'swap' starts?</p>
<p>Also, one of the only electives he could find (that he wanted to take) was a 200 level course. It's not listed on the tab of 'first year student courses'. Is there any issue with him taking a 200 level course his first semester?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Registration is a madhouse at Emory, especially for freshmen. You can easily expect most courses to fill up quickly, but many will open up during Add/Drop/Swap (this is especially true for introductory courses). Your son will probably get most if not all of the classes he wants (though many freshmen have to wait until their second semester to take a seminar); unfortunately, it may take a good deal of constantly checking OPUS for course availability (we call it “OPUS-stalking”). </p>
<p>As for the 200-level course, you can’t really tell if it will be appropriate for freshmen just by knowing it’s a 200 (or even 300); the 200-level English course I took as a second semester freshman was pretty easy. Your son should just ask around and/or check ratemyprofessors.com for the reputation of the class/instructor, and even if that doesn’t yield any useful info, the course shouldn’t be a bigger problem than some of the 100-level “weed-outs” (like Chem 141).</p>
<p>“appropriate for freshmen” is BS phrase (is that supposed to mean “easy” or “foundational”? Many 200 level and some 300 levels have no pre-reqs at all and are simply special topics. This hardly means they are inappropriate for someone new to the field). That is totally dependent on the individual. For some freshmen, organic chemistry or abstract algebra can be appropriate. You find out if it is appropriate by sitting in on the class.</p>
<p>@esimpnoxin – Thanks for the helpful comments.</p>
<p>@bernie12 – The Course Atlas webpage is unhelpful in the sense that there’s a tab labelled something like courses for first-year students. I’m not sure why they even have a tab like that. There doesn’t appear to be anything all that advanced about that 200 level course. As you noted, it’s probably just up there because it’s a rather narrow topic. But it doesn’t appear on the ‘first-year student’ list of courses, so my son was just a bit concerned. He figured that he’d go to the first class, try to get a feel for what’s going on, and talk to the teacher just to be sure that there’s no good reason why he shouldn’t take the course.</p>
<p>A LOT of classes open up. I suggest putting Opus as his homepage (phone and computer both). So he sees them right away.
If he’s diligent, there’s no way he doesn’t get into Spanish. Seminars really depend on the topic.</p>
<p>As for the other class, he’ll be fine. Go ahead and take it.</p>
<p>Follow up: He followed the advice and lived on Opus from midnight on. As aluminum-boat predicted, today he got into one of the Spanish 201 sections. Unfortunately it was one that met this morning before he got in, but he’ll get it figured out.</p>
<p>Thanks again. </p>
<p>Spanish is awesome there.
I think he’ll have a good time.</p>
<p>Seeing all the Freshmen around makes me so nostalgic. I’m on campus a few times a week, and I always get the urge to just quit my job and go to classes… pretend I’m a Senior.</p>