<p>No, this isn't a major debate, so don't worry. There's enough of those threads anyway.</p>
<p>Rather, I've come to ask advice about class schedule. I'm a freshman at a top women's college. The school gives us a period of "shopping", where we can sit in on classes we find interesting and then confirm our enrollment from there. My schedule this semester (I.E., the classes I'm registered for) looks something like this;</p>
<p>Intro to Economics
Elementary German
Europe 1914-1945 (200 level class)
Freshman Seminar</p>
<p>Originally when I registered for these, I thought it was pretty balanced between reading/writing intensive (Europe and the seminar) and practice/problem set based (Econ and German).</p>
<p>However, I'm finding Econ really isn't to my taste. It's more math based than I thought it would be, and math is NOT my strong suit. I'd have stuck with it if I didn't find a class that strikes my fancy a lot more; Ethnic Minorities in Europe, a 200 level Anthro class. It's being offered by a visiting professor who's only here for a year, and I'm doubtful if it will be offered in the spring. It's also one day less than the Econ class.</p>
<p>As it stands now, I'd love to take the Anthro over the Econ. But that would burden my schedule with 3 writing/reading intensive classes, two of which are technically 'sophomore' classes. If I stay with Econ, I'll be with a class I don't enjoy but might allow me the time to do great in my other classes, one of which would be for my major.</p>
<p>Any advice, thoughts, or opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.</p>
<p>If you’re not good at math, you may be spending the same amount of time that you would reading for the Anthro class on problem sets and figuring out the theory, but you wouldn’t be enjoying it. I would take the Anthro class, but know that you’ll be killing yourself if you get behind. If you stay on top of the work, I think you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>Take the anthro class!</p>
<p>take the anthro. i wouldn’t want to have to endure classes that i hate. you have a choice. p.s. do you go to barnard?</p>
<p>If you’re a freshman I’d be a little wary of taking an upper level humanities class first semester freshman year. If most of the students are upperclassmen the expectations could be greater for your writing abilities and the amount of reading you need to do compared to an intro course. I’d talk to the professor and some upperclassmen to make sure you are prepared for the course. First semester freshman year has enough adjustments that you don’t want to also unnecessarily overburden yourself with unnecessary classes.</p>
<p>In your position, I would probably do the Anthropology class. It sounds like an exciting opportunity, and a professor visiting for one year from another institution is unlikely to teach any course more than once.</p>
<p>As far as the reading and writing goes, I would consider going to my professors and asking whether they could give me any information that would allow me to start working on papers before the other students, in order to avoid as much as possible being in a situation where I had more writing to do in a short period than I thought I could cope with. For instance, if the class is going to be given a list of topics, maybe you could get the list of topics earlier than the others. Or if you are going to be asked to analyze a particular article in more depth than the rest of your reading, maybe you could be told in advance which article to get started on. I would also get out ahead of the rest of the class so that I was reading an article a couple of days to a week before I really had to, and then just skimming the article and/or looking back over my notes before the class meeting when the reading is due.</p>
<p>I’ve never had a professor who minded helping me work harder or start working sooner than other people. On occasion, the structure of a class has meant that starting to work sooner wouldn’t really work, but nobody has ever objected to my asking. If you come to them at the other end asking for an extension or if they catch you not doing all the readings because you have too much on your plate, they will probably be less generous. So if you’re taking on a workload you’re not entirely comfortable with, you should figure out a way to get some work done ahead of time so that when the weeks with a lot of work comes you have a head start.</p>
<p>Unless for some reason reading or writing is significantly more difficult or more time-consuming for you than for your classmates, that does not sound to me like a schedule too difficult for a freshman to take on.</p>
<p>Thank you all for such quick responses!</p>
<p>Venkat89: Surprisingly, I’m leaning towards the humanities class more than the Econ because I’m a freshman. Since math and I have a bad history together, I almost feel that taking a class in my stronger suit would actually be beneficial, rather than a class where I would need to constantly play catch-up on top of the usual freshman stresses.</p>
<p>nontraditional: Thank you for the wonderful advice! I’ll definitely drop my professor an email asking. And reading/writing are my strongest suits, so I don’t think there will be a problem with ability matching the expected level. </p>
<p>different1: No, actually Bryn Mawr.</p>
<p>I’m horrible at math and econ was pretty breezy. In my opinion, it’s a very interesting subject and basic understanding of econ is essential during our current times. Of course I definitely have a bias because I’m a business major. But I think you’ll find that econ is more based on concepts rather than math :)</p>
<p>collegehopeful21: Thank you for your insight! I had the introduction class today, and the professor mentioned that if you do not feel confident in your skills that you would find the class particularly challenging, but the class is mostly theory based. I haven’t had a math class since my sophomore year of high school, and while I’m not completely ignorant when it comes to the material, it’s a matter of remembering the concepts and equations fast enough to do the problem sets without taking an extra 2 hours.</p>