<p>So I am about to be a college freshman this fall at UF and I have preview this coming wednesday and I am super worried about picking my classes. I sort of planned out my schedule based on what my major wanted and I picked: What is the Good Life (HUM2305), Intro to Microeconomics (ECO2023), Intro to Engineering (EGN1002), Warrington Freshman Experience (SLS1102), and two easy 3 credit classes one natural science and one social science. So that is 6 credits and 15 credits. I thought it was not gonna be a problem even though its 6 classes since that is the normal course load. However, on the board I've noticed that everyone is taking 12-14 credits and only 4 classes. Knowing UF I probably will not be able to get an advisor's opinion at preview I'm asking here should I drop a class or two (and which ones) or is the courseload not too bad?</p>
<p>First, I would like to point out that you will DEFINITELY get an advisor’s opinion at Preview. Not once, but probably two or three separate times. They go on and on and on and on and on about schedules. Trust me, by the time you leave you will be confident in your schedule and your academic future at UF.</p>
<p>Now, on another note. I myself taking fifteen credits and six classes. I don’t think I’ll have any problem with the workload, and I doubt you will as well. Your classes don’t look particularly challenging, and if you have a relatively good work ethic, you should be fine. If you plan on going to graduate school, it’s always good to show that you challenge yourself. Never take the easy way out (and in this case, you shouldn’t need to).</p>
<p>Your 15 credits will be easy to manage. Between your social science class and your freshman experience class you should have at least two subjects which will make up for the relative difficulty of your engineering and economics class. The only advice I would give you is to see if you can utilize ratemyprofessor.com as you pick classes for the coming semester. Ensuring you have the best professor for each of your classes (assuming you have choices) is a surefire way to make the material in your more difficult classes easier to understand.</p>
<p>RateMyProfessor can be a good tool if used intelligently, but take it all with a grain of salt. Most of the people that post on there either really loved their professor or really hated them, it can be difficult to get a straight, unbiased opinion of their teaching skills and the difficulty of the course. Also keep in mind that what is effective teaching for one person is terrible for another, and what is an easy class for some people is really difficult for others. Opinions vary widely.</p>
<p>You’re not really given the option of choosing your professor anyway. I went to Preview a few weeks ago, and they tell you which classes you should take for your major and help you in choosing electives. Then you go see an advisor who signs you up for your classes. There’s really no professor option</p>
<p>You can find out who is teaching each section by looking in the schedule of courses. I thought it showed you that in ISIS, but it does not. </p>
<p>You can look up your sections in the SoC and then look your professors up that way. If someone is recommended to you, you can look and see what sections they are teaching, then go into ISIS and sign up for that section. </p>
<p>It’s tedious, but it can be done. You can change your schedule all you want until the end of the add/drop period, which is usually the first week of the semester for fall and spring.</p>
<p>You’ll definitely be able to talk to an advisor about it. I would say, none of the classes you specifically listed will be a challenge at all, as they are all very generic intro courses. I know intro to engineering is attendance based seminars where each week you go to a different engineering department and they tell you about it. It is tedious and boring, but worth it once you find a discipline that interests you. </p>
<p>Ae you deciding between business and engineering? Because warrington welcome is a business college tutorial basically. Unless I were actually torn between the two disciplines, I would avoid taking one of these and sign up for a more challenging, interesting course. </p>
<p>Best of luck, and be persistent at preview to get what you want!</p>
<p>Have fun.</p>
<p>We just got back from Preview with my son and we were pretty disappointed with the choice of classes he had. I don’t know if it was because of the late timing in choosing or because he already has his AA and there aren’t as many choices left but it was slim pickings for him. He wasn’t able to get any of the classes he wanted and ended up with two online classes which he told them he would really prefer if at all possible not to have. The macroeconomics and science classes are both online. No polisci (his major) classes available but was able to get an international relations at 8:30 a.m. They also told him he go online and watch for openings in the classes he wanted and grab them if they become available and that he could do that anytime between now and when classes started. But when he got home and tried to log in and make some changes the system said he could not make any changes until August 2nd. So for those of you that know…is this correct? Is it normal not to be able to change it until a few weeks before school starts? I’m a bit frustrated with this because while we there I specifically asked an adviser if he would be able to go in and change it right away and they told us that yes he would be able to and he can’t. Do lots of scheduling changes happen a few weeks before school? This seems crazy.</p>
<p>I don’t know why he can’t make changes right now, I just went into ISIS and was able to add and drop classes. You should probably call UF next week and try to find out what’s wrong. Are there any holds on his account? </p>
<p>The dearth of available choices are because he is registering so late, most classes are already full. If he checks into ISIS often he may find that a seat has opened in something he wants to take. If not, it is very likely that things will open up during the drop/add period the first week of the semester. </p>
<p>They don’t hold classes for transfer students like they do freshmen (there isn’t any way they really could, short of reserving seats in every upper-level course the university offers…), so the later you sign up the worse off you are. But, again, things will open up during drop/add week.</p>
<p>@propwash - thank you for the info. I don’t know why he can’t either. Maybe he’s going into the wrong place? He goes into ISIS, registration, register now, Fall and when he clicks on it he gets this message: "You have attempted to enter the registration system to adjust your schedule prior to your assigned time. Registration times are enforced. You may adjust your schedule on or after your assigned time. Your Schedule Adjustment Time AUGUST 02 8:15 A.M. " He was going to call UF next week and see what’s going on. As far as he can tell there are no holds listed and they didn’t mention any when we were there a few days ago and they did his classes.</p>
<p>Also, even though he has 60 credits he’s being admitted as a freshman. My feeling is as you said that the upper level classes have already been taken by upper class-men. He’ll probably be OK next semester when he’s able to register earlier.</p>
<p>So I think I figured out why he can’t log in…this was on the registrar’s site:<br>
“Drop/Add
Q. Can I get an earlier drop/add time?
A. In general, drop/add times are assigned based on a priority system. Students who have the fewest number of credit hours in registration have the earliest drop/add times. In the interest of fairness and to maintain the integrity of the system, we are not able to change drop/add times.”</p>
<p>My son already has 60 credits so he has a late time to get on. So my next questions is this…the site also says you can only drop so many classes while at UF do this mean during moving your schedule around or once you’ve already started?</p>
<p>No, that refers to a withdrawal, which is different than “dropping” a course during drop/add. You can adjust your schedule all you want before the end of drop/add, but past that point you are limited on the number of “withdrawals” you can do. It’s confusing, and the contradictory terminology doesn’t help.</p>
<p>We went to preview the very first time slot available for fall term. My son and I, too, were not happy with his schedule. They would not let him sign up for Calculus 2 even though we were told he could tell the advisor he was confident in obtaining a 5 on the AP exam. Also, he was not happy with the foreign language class they put him in. And, yes, he tried to change his foreign language class and he received the same message that he couldn’t do it until after August 2. As far as the Calc class, as soon as he receives his AP score (I know we can call now but will most likely need it in writing) I told him to call the math department at UF and see if he can change his class before August 2 (in hopes he gets the professor he wants).</p>
<p>propwash - thanks again for the clarification that is great to know. And phflorida - glad to hear my son is not alone! I’m sure they’ll get the hang of all this stuff pretty soon. I’m so glad I found this website, it’s such a great source of information and support!</p>
<p>I’m sure you’ve read this before, but don’t worry about not getting the classes you want right away. During add/drop and even all summer up until then, class availability will change. While some classes seem to be in high demand and never available, persistence will get you what you want every time.</p>
<p>FLnative28===Your S will have plenty of time to try to find the classes he needs in early August. Our strategy over the years is that I get my son’s log on info and the classes he wants (section #s, times, etc—) and between the two of us…we keep checking at all hours of the day and nite on ISIS, and as soon as a section opens up, we grab it. Sometimes it takes us days and sometimes it takes us weeks, but we have always found one section that opens up…just be persistant and if you and he try everytime you log on, or esp. late at night…between the two of you, you will hopefully find the class you need.</p>
<p>My daughter is a 1st yr UF student. She received a lot of exemptions at UF due to her completing her IB diploma in high school. Her advisor suggested that she take 12 credits for this semester. Since most of her Gen Ed courses are waived due to her exemptions, this leaves her with a light course load. I suggested that she get a job to fill in the gaps (she has applied, still waiting). With regards to Math/Sciences she is not taking any sciences this semester and only taking Stats as a math requirement. I don’t want her to have so much down time. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>What’s her major? The reason I’m asking is that D and her roommate came in with tons of AP credit their freshman year. D only needed diversity class. Anyway, as a ChemE major, it’s difficult to get all the requirements done in 4 years w/o those kind of exemptions. She and her roommate will graduate in the spring in four years, but they still had to take full loads each semester even with 45 hours AP exemptions. Her first semester she did only take 14 hours, and that has been her lowest number. Their other roommate, who’s a Mechanical Engineering major and didn’t have lots of AP credit, will be graduating in 5 years. Now, with her brother who was an economics major w/ lots of AP credit, he had relatively light course load semesters compared to her because there weren’t as many requirements needed for a B.A. in Economics. In fact, he had to work hard to not graduate in three years by doing lesser course loads. That worked great for him, however, as he worked full-time and didn’t want to graduate too early as he was applying to law school and didn’t want to be too young. So, I think what I’m saying … lots of variables, depending on major, goals, knowing how your kid works best (as in too much time on hands is a bad thing vs more classes mean more disciplined). </p>
<p>Not sure that makes any sense, lol. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>zebes</p>