<p>I've read that you declare your major at the end of your freshman year. I think I know what I want to go into, but I'm not completely sure because many of the topics at MIT, I have no experience with whatsoever. Like I've googled around an stuff but I'm not even sure what an engineer does after college and I'm not sure what I want to do after college either :P</p>
<p>So for freshman year most people take roughly the same classes right? Chemistry, biology, calc/diff eq/linear algebra, physics and a HASS class or two. And then you declare a major without having taken any engineering or other classes related to any major? Do you have the opportunity to explore various areas in ways other han taking classes? Like can you go into say the earth and planetary science building and ask someone about the major and job prospects etc? I may have read that during IAP different departments give seminars/presentations about their depts. </p>
<p>I guess what I'm really asking is if you usually have enough exposure to various fields to know what you'd be getting into when you pick a major?</p>
<p>I can assure you that people do not take the same classes, especially second semester freshmen year. For example, I know I want to be Course 6, so I will already have taken 3 Course 6 classes by the end of this year. My friends who are ChemE major who are taking the 10.10 - the Intro to ChemE class. And my pre-med roommate is taking Organic Chemistry. Also, it’s fairly easy to find a UROP in your department if you’re willing to put in the time commitment. And yes, you can definitely go into any department and the people there will be more than happy to show you around (it’s better to schedule an appointment though).</p>
<p>Even when you declare at the end of freshmen year, you can always change it later if you suddenly got into something else - a lot of people do that. So what I’m trying to say is… you’ll have plenty of chances to explore your major before you declare for good.</p>
<p>Sprig semester senior year the credit limit is 57 units and fall semester is 54 units. This leaves you 6 units fall semester and 9 units spring semester to explore things. In the spring, there are some 9 unit classes for freshman designed as an introduction to a major (e.g., 16.00, 10.10, 20.20). But, you’d be surprised by how much GIRs can help you figure out what areas you are interested in as well. If you want to explore a major, you can also get involved in a relevant student group or UROP.</p>
<p>You can do more exploration if you place out of some of the GIRs (freshman year requirements.) Everyone from a decent school should place out of Calc I. You should be able to place out of one or two of the other GIRs too (bio, chem, physics.)</p>
<p>Yeah I will place out of calc 1, but basically every major I’m Ben considering requires differential equations (so I assumed that people usually take 18.02/18.03 freshman year). I don’t really want to place out of anything else, I got a 5 in AP chem but I hear the Chemistry ase is impossible to pass and I haven’t had calc based physics yet. I’m in Ap bio right now. I think it will be good for the transition to MIT to at least be familiar with the subject matter and just have to get used to the intense environment ad workload, but that’s just my thinking so far.</p>
<p>I thought it was both hard and uncommon(relatively at least) for people to place out of things other than calc 1?</p>
<p>I didn’t mean to suggest that I thought it was rare, especially for math, but at least a majority or close to that, of freshman are in 18.01 or 18.02 right?</p>
<p>Yeah that’s what I assume I will do as well. As far as ase’s I don’t think I stand a chance at passing physics, but maybe bio. Maaybe chemistry if not for the so low pass rate and if I put a lot of effort in like starting now. But would it even be worth it?</p>
<p>I didn’t try to ASE out of anything my freshman year because I thought I would benefit from the more in-depth coverage of material in an MIT class. In retrospect, I think I would have benefited more from being a bit ahead and able to take more advanced classes in later semesters. And it would have been nice to start off with more interesting classes and not repeat things from high school. When I finally got to the really hard stuff it was kind of a shock, and a shock that unfortunately came long after P/NR.</p>
<p>You can place out of 18.01 with a 5 in AP Calc AB. You can place out of 8.01 with a 5 on AP Mechanics <em>and</em> AP E&M. If you get a 5 on AP English Language or AP English Literature you don’t have to take a writing-intensive class your first semester and you don’t have to take the FEE (freshman examination on…something. It’s a writing test. You write essays.). That’s all the help you’re going to get from AP exams. Humanities subjects with 5s give you elective credit, which isn’t very useful in most cases.</p>
<p>All of the freshman subjects give you the option of ASEing. If you’re really badass and want to ASE out of non-freshman subjects, you should contact the department of the subject you want to ASE. You’d be surprised at your options here. To give you an idea, one person taking the 5.12 (organic chemistry) final with me this term was taking the final as an ASE. Don’t be afraid to email professors and ask.</p>
<p>I agree that things have changed on that front - I’d strongly say that “you should be able to validate one of those” is not true and I asked my son last night. First asked him his thoughts on if you went to a good school if you should be able to validate 18.01 and said yes. Then asked him about Bio, Chem or Physics and if you should be able to validate one of the three and he said “No, absolutely not”. From his perception (as a freshman) only a handful of people validated chem, a few more bio, and the most common was physics. But his estimate was well under half the class would have validated any of those. Everything you receive from them emphasizes that if you’ve only had AP classes in chem or bio, that you will NOT have had enough to pass the ASE. </p>
<p>One thing I did want to say though is that you can put off the GIR’s past freshman year. My son isn’t taking bio as a freshman because he’s Course 10 (Chem Engr) and wanting to get a jump on Organic Chem so he’ll wait and take that probably second semester sophomore year. He knows a lot of people who didn’t start physics until second semester and others who are putting off Chem (most likely 3.091) until next fall. Students who are not heavy on the sciences also can take all sciences first semester (when it’s pass/NR) to get some out of the way and wait and double up on humanities later. So the “flow” of classes definitely isn’t locked in at all. </p>
<p>I’ll also say having had classes before at a different college won’t help nearly as much as you’d think. My son had Diff Eqns last year at our local (UW branch) college. He submitted everything but MIT wouldn’t allow him to validate, saying the course didn’t cover all the material the MIT course did. Yeah, they weren’t kidding. He said last night that they completed everything he did in the semester there in the first 2 weeks of class. One subject he said they’d spent 2 weeks on at the local college, plus had a test on, he said was covered in 5 minutes - he commented “hm, guess it wasn’t all that important!” ;)</p>