Planning Stern Freshman Schedule - HELP!

Colleges and Universities A-Z New York University
1

<p>Hi, I will be entering Stern as a freshman this fall and I was hoping to get some advice regarding my schedule. According to the Stern website (Freshmen</a>), a typical freshman schedule looks like this:</p>

<ul>
<li>Cohort Leadership Project course (0 credits)</li>
<li>Natural Science</li>
<li>Conversations of the West OR World Cultures 1-2 courses (4-8 credits)</li>
<li>Math course^ (4 credits)</li>
<li>Expository Writing Program course^ (4 credits)</li>
<li><p>Microeconomics, Statistics, or Elective course^ (4–6 credits)</p></li>
<li><p>I am assuming the Cohort Leadership Project doesn't really count as a course (meets only on Fridays) so I would be taking 5 courses total this fall.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>Here are my questions:
- I am not particularly the best science student (biology, chemistry, physics) so I was considering taking a Natural Science or Human Evolution course. Any recommendations?
- Conversations of the West vs. World Cultures? Which is harder or requires more work? Which courses in these categories would you recommend (interesting, engaging, awesome professor, etc.)?
- Would it be better and worth my time to take Calculus II (I am eligible based on my AP Calc score) rather than Calculus I? How much more work does Calculus II require? Will taking Calculus II benefit me in the long-run, in terms of internships or job offers? (do they even look at the courses we take? O_O)
- I received a 740 on SAT Writing (just 10 short from 750! :/) so I will be enrolling in Commerce & Culture instead of WTE. Is this course significantly harder than WTE?
- Is it possible to take Microeconomics AND Statistics at the same time, for a total of 6 courses in the fall, or would that be going overboard in terms of workload?
- If I choose to take Statistics, do you recommend taking the 6-credit course (Statistics for Business Control and Regression/Forecasting Models) rather than the 4-credit course? ("Otherwise you can take the 4-credit C22.0001 one semester, and the 2-credit C22.0003 in a subsequent semester (you cannot take C22.0001 and C22.0003 simultaneously.")</p>

<p>Any answers/input/general advice in choosing my schedule would be great, particularly from current Stern students. Thanks so much in advance!</p>

2

<p>Wait. How are you going to take 20 credits if the cap is 18? (This might be some random Stern thing, but best to ask before you’re charged an extra $5k for those additional two credits.)</p>

<p>I took Cosmos and the Earth as my Nat Sci I, and I thought it was fairly easy. There is some physics involved, but physics was the only class I didn’t do well in in high school, and I did just fine in Cosmos and the Earth. Word of warning though: you MUST go to EVERY lab. If you miss even one, the prof will use it as an excuse to bump you down a grade. As for Nat Sci II, I took The Body: How It Works, which I absolutely LOVED. It’s essentially biochem for dummies, but you get to learn some really, really cool stuff. </p>

<p>You’re going to have to take ConWest and World Cultures, so it’s just a question of when you take either. ConWest is literature-heavy, so you could possibly have a LOT of reading assigned to you every week. World Cultures is also reading-heavy, but it’s also a lot more like a history course, so the reading isn’t as crucial as with ConWest. Both classes base their grades on papers. Personally, I thought World Cultures involved less work, but I also was a history major, and I took the class second semester sophomore year, after I had learned how to distinguish work I needed to do from work I could put off until a later time. I took Russia Since 1917, which, if Stephen Cohen is teaching it, you MUST take. The reason I took the class so late is because I held out for him, and it was well worth it. It’s right up there as one of the best classes I have ever taken in my entire academic career. As for ConWest, I took the 19th Century one because I like 19th century literature and philosophy. Like with every ConWest class, we had to read classics as well, like the Odyssey, Paradise Lost, parts of the Bible, etc. for reference. The focus of the course will depend a lot on which department your prof is coming from. Mine was from the Classics department, so we focused a lot on the Odyssey and on Greek plays.</p>

<p>I am not qualified to say anything about the other stuff, but I will tell you that there is little to no correlation between your SAT Writing score and your ability to do well in WTE. I got a 790 on my Writing SAT II (this is when it was still a separate test), and I was flailing in WTE until I wizened up to the style of writing my prof preferred. That being said, the class does teach you how to properly structure papers, but the grading is entirely too arbitrary.</p>

3

<p>Oh oops, I completely missed the part about the cap at 18 credits on the website. Thanks for clearing that up.</p>

<p>“The Body: How It Works” sounds particularly interesting to me, so I’ll definitely be looking into that. Are we supposed to take a Nat Sci I course in the fall and a Nat Sci II course in the spring?</p>

<p>Sorry for the endless questions… still learning the whole system O_O</p>

4

<p>It doesn’t matter when you take the classes so long as you take them before graduation, and of course, Nat Sci I has to come before Nat Sci II. Try to take The Body with Burt Goldberg.</p>

5

<p>Ah, got it. Thank you once again!</p>

6

<p>No problem. If you have any more MAP-related questions (since I actually graduated from CAS not Stern), you can always PM me.</p>

7

<p>Can any other current Stern students or recent graduates comment on classes and my schedule/questions?</p>

8

<p>Bump…</p>

9

<p>I’m also interested to know the answers but I’m mostly curious about Commerce and Culture that I am taking in place of WTE.</p>

<p>Any Stern students know anything about this class?</p>

10

<p>Commerce and Culture was my favorite class freshman year, I took it with Professor Lyon…100x better than wte from what i heard from my friends, you read a wide range of “texts” which includes actually interesting books, movies, magazines…stuff like that. Grade is based upon 3 essays.</p>

11

<p>Take 6 credit stat if it fills your credit load to 18 to just get it out of the way, dont take it with abel cadenillas though…haha sooooo boring</p>

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<p>@and1swish90</p>

<p>I was looking at the course listings and I assume you’re talking about Professor Blount-Lyon?</p>

<p>I was also wondering about the overall easiness of that class. If the grade depends on only 3 essays, are they easy assignments?</p>

13

<p>yeah professor blount-lyon.
I actually had him again for our 2nd semester writing course, business and its publics, and he seems to grade very similarly, he grades tough on the first essay, less tough on the second, and pretty easy on the third…i think to show improvement haha, but yeah you get to rewrite all of the essays something no other professor really does so its great. I got an A- in commerce and culture, and an A in BIP. The essays are 2000 words and are tough but the topics are much much more interesting than the the ones my friends had to write in wte.</p>

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<p>and1:</p>

<p>You sure you go to Stern or NYU. The Dean Blount-Lyon full name is Sally Blount-Lyon. So I find it hard to believe you really had HIM for anything.</p>

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<p>lol…Sally Blount-Lyon is the Dean of Stern and she is a woman. I’m pretty sure the professor for Commerce and Culture is a different Blount-Lyon than the Dean.</p>

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<p>Pretty sure the only Blount-Lyon at NYU is Sally Blount Lyon. Business and It’s Publics is a required Stern class. Definitely would have been Sally Blount-Lyon. Hard to have a fourteen week class and mistake a her for a him. Although Dean only had an occasional presense.</p>

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<p>hey does anyone know when the courses that say there’s a TBA staff will show which teachers are teaching the class? also if i got a 4 on AP bio and according to the nyu website, i receive credit on natural science, does that mean i don’t have to take natural science?</p>

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<p>It’s her husband, but he goes by prof. lyon. chill</p>

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<p>But soon you will find out they are getting divorced, and that the dean will simply be Dean Blount.</p>

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<p>The TBA for commerce and culture never appeared so its just random but all of the teachers are full stern professors and very good, they also teach the writing course bip in the spring and yeah a 4 on AP bio is enough to never take a science class ever again.</p>