*Official Course-Related Questions Thread*

<p>It really doesn't matter, most have the same formula of read stuff, do two papers throughout the quarter, and then a final/final paper. Just pick whatever seems interesting and then hope for the best. And the irony is that the techie departments requested a required humanities and writing course for every freshman.</p>

<p>for my autumn quarter I'm thinking:</p>

<p>Chem 31X
Math 51, Math 52, or Math 53 (I've already had vector calculus but not linear algebra...should I take the 50's all the way through or is there a better option)
IHUM
(freshman seminar)...btw is it hard for a freshman to get into a seminar with preference for sophomores?</p>

<p>that should be around 15 credits...I want to take another course offered by the bio dept. but I'm afraid of overloading. Also, what is PWR...is that another course I have to take in the autumn quarter too?</p>

<p>Getting into sophomore seminar that is techie/pre-med as a freshman = straight-up impossible. So many apply that there's never spots left. But, of course, you are welcome to try & prove me wrong... :-P</p>

<p>You'll know when you move in what quarters you've been assigned PWR. If it's in fall, then I would say consider dropping either the seminar or 31X.</p>

<p>What course were you thinking from the bio dept?</p>

<p>P.S.: Sticking to 15 units is a good idea.</p>

<p>I highly recommend sticking to 15 units fall quarter of freshman year. You can take more later. Classes will move more quickly and be much more work than you expect.</p>

<hr>

<p>IHUM is very little work for a 5-unit class, so taking a lot of classes freshman year isn't as tough as it seems. I took 20 units every quarter, as did a number of other people I know, and I never found myself overwhelmed. Keep in mind that Stanford allows you to drop classes without any penalty for the first few weeks of a quarter, so I'd recommend enrolling in as many classes as you're genuinely interested in, and see if you can keep up. If you start to get overwhelmed, you can always drop one of them.</p>

<p>I guess it depends what those classes are. I took 60 series physics as a freshman. Although it was only 4 units, it was easily more than twice the work of all my other classes combined.</p>

<p>are there any courses that teaches martial arts/sports...i dropped tai kwon do in my sophomore year to make time for my EC's and would like to start a new instrument. Are there courses for this?</p>

<p>There are plenty of exercise/P.E. classes available. I would recommend intro to martial arts, or if you want to join TKD again, ask me when the year starts so I can give you the practice schedule.</p>

<p>jwj: can I find the class in the bullentin or are they listed somewhere else?</p>

<p>This is the Stanford Athletics PE website: <a href="http://www.stanford.edu/dept/pe/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.stanford.edu/dept/pe/&lt;/a>
You can find the various PE courses and clubs listed there. Right now, only summer classes are listed, but it should be updated in late August or so for fall quarter. Stanford has a ton of athletic classes, most of which are 1-unit (some are 2). A word of warning: some, such as golf, are extremely popular, and so enrollment may be limited by a lottery system.</p>

<p>"Getting into sophomore seminar that is techie/pre-med as a freshman = straight-up impossible."</p>

<p>I got into a sophomore premed one called "Current dilemmas in medical practices" my freshman year. JWJ is right in that they might put you on the waiting list, but if you show up on the 1st class and you insist on staying, who's going to stop your commitment?</p>

<p>True, but at the same time, it depends on the prof. Some profs are stricter than others on how many people they want in the class, and only allow the 14-16, while I've heard of others allowing up to 25. But I guess it's worth a shot. I'm just surprised there weren't more sophomores who showed up as well in your seminar.</p>

<p>There were four too many sophomores though they weren't persistent enough.</p>

<p>I was in a sophomore seminar in math with at least two other frosh. And the class wasn't full.</p>

<p>A seminar in math isn't exactly what jwj defined as "techie/pre-med."</p>

<p>how come stanford doesn't have a webcast/online video lectures thing...i mean if Cal and MIT has one.....</p>

<p><a href="http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses.php%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Stanford does have online video lectures for some classes, especially the ones in engineering.</p>

<p>A couple questions.....
1. Can AP Physics Credit (I got a 4 and will have 4 units) get me out of the Natural Science Gen Ed?<br>
2. Can "requirements for the major" count as gen eds as well? Stats 60 is a requirement for the IR major so could it count for my math gen ed?
3. If I place into second year spanish, how many units will I be taking per quarter? And is it advisable to take it right away freshman year, or wait until immediately prior to my study abroad experience?
4. If I decide to co-term in something like MS&E, which has math and engineering pre-reqs, is it ok if these same prereqs are filled by AP credit or Gen eds, as long as they are completed?</p>

<p>1) no, AP doesn't count for anything
2) yes
3) 4, I think, check the bulletin; your choice, depends on how well you think you'll remember/forget stuff
4) AP credit doesn't fulfill pre-reqs; pre-reqs themselves are usually just guidelines anyways; talk this one over with an MS&E advisor once you declare.</p>