<p>I don't want to annoy the Fordham survey people, so I hope you guys can provide me with some answers.</p>
<hr>
<p>"
The Core Curriculum</p>
<p>As part of the core curriculum, students are required to complete courses within designated academic areas. Course descriptions are provided in the description section below for those courses you are being asked to rank. For each of the core-curriculum areas listed below, please rank your course preference by placing a "1" next to your first choice, a "2" next to your second choice, and so on. Descriptions for the courses can be found at the end of this document.
"</p>
<p>1) Do I have to place a preference next to each course title? There are some courses I really want to take (such as Intro to Sociology) and some courses I really do not want to take (such as Macroeconomics or Microeconomics). I've never even taken Sociology before, but that course really interests me. Macro/Micro, on the other hand, still gives me nightmares.</p>
<hr>
<p>"
ARHI 1101 INTRO TO ART HISTORY: EUROPE Blank space<br>
ARHI 1102 INTRO TO ART HISTORY: ASIA Blank space<br>
ARHI 1103 INTRO TO ART HISTORY: AMERICAS Blank space<br>
MUSC 1100 MUSIC HISTORY INTRO Blank space<br>
THEA 1100 INVITATION TO THEATRE Blank space<br>
VART 1101 URBANISM
"</p>
<p>2) Which "Fine Art" would be the easiest? I pretty much know what I want for the other survey questions/Core Curriculum requirements but am completely lost on this one. Any recommendations? My number one priority for a "Fine Art" course is getting a good grade, and my number two priority is fun/enjoyment. I don't care how much work I will or won't have to do to achieve these two goals for a "Fine Art" class.</p>
<hr>
<p>3) Does the time you complete your survey have an influence on how likely you are to get your preference granted? Like if I complete my survey on May 16th with my top preference on "Intro to Sociology," would I be more likely to be placed in that class as opposed to someone who completes their survey with similar preference on May 25th? Or is it all the same and irrelevant? My request transfer to a different Fordham college was just granted and I received my new Freshman survey yesterday, so excuse me for my lateness...</p>
<p>Well, there used to be a Music History professor at Rose Hill, who would get a lot of interest, because kids thought it would be easiest to take, a slacker course. First day of class he would come in and hand out the syllabus, declare that he rarely if EVER gave an A or even an A-. That would prompt half the class to bolt and drop the class and rush to take Art History or History of Opera. LOL. What did my kid do? Never bashful and always willing to take a challenge, she told him, “I am going to stay and I am going to get an A.” He said, “game on, kiddo.” </p>
<p>He was a private order priest, but not a Jesuit. He made her cry several times with his grades, reviews of papers. First semester, freshman year. She almost quit. She got a very high B+ on the midterm, highest grade in the class for the 15 students who stuck it out. She got an A on the final and an A- for a grade. HA! They became good friends and went to hear guest speakers at Lincoln Center together more than once. He was brilliant and his knowledge of music history unparalleled. Sadly he was very ill, and ultimately died. Awful. But a fine man.</p>
<p>So now he is gone. I dont know who replaced him and how hard he/she is. I do know you should follow your passion and NOT pick courses just to bolster your gpa. But pick courses you are interested in taking and stick to your guns and accept a challenge and do your very best…extraordinary best. Good luck.</p>
<p>I dont think when you turn in your survey makes much if any difference in what you get. The first semester freshmen year is really the only semester that Fordham controls what you take (Rose Hill). Thereafter, you register on your own, with help from academic advisors. Also, even first semester, you can still add/drop as necessary. Its all good. </p>
<p>The biggest problem my kid had at Fordham was not being able to take a professor or a course because of conflicts with other courses, or it wasnt offered that semester, and running out of time. That only happened twice. She largely got what she wanted when she wanted, or a reasonable facsimilie. </p>
<p>Okay. Thanks again for the information and advice! Sorry for your and your daughter’s lost :(. And yeah, I’d rather accept the challenge of taking a course that I’ve never taken before but have genuine interest in (Sociology) over taking a course (Macroeconomics) that I’ve struggled with in the past and have absolutely zero interest in ever retaking. I’m just not even going to include it as a preference and hope they let me submit the survey with “NONE” next to some selections I really don’t want.</p>
<p>THEA 1100 INVITATION TO THEATRE is definitely the most interesting to me.</p>
<p>Every staff member/Dean associated with Fordham that I’ve emailed so far has responded within 1-3 days with diligence and helpfulness, so I am really liking their administration–despite its bad reputation on some review sites. But yeah, I don’t plan to bother the Freshman Registration people. Now I just have to pick a foreign language (between Latin and Chinese) and my survey will be done.</p>
<p>Hmmmm. Be careful what you wish for. Chinese (Mandarin) is one of the hardest languages to learn both in written and spoken form. Latin is useful for science and logic and to some extent the ability to write good English papers.</p>
<p>But college level languages are not for the meek and uninformed. They are incredibly fast paced and hard. And very few enter a course without any prior experience. If you simply desire to learn a new language, and have no experience with languages or particular affinity, then I recommend taking a more common language like french or spanish, where you will have lots of other students to help you. Chinese is offered, I believe, only at Lincoln Center.</p>
<p>If you want to pick up another language from one you already know, I recommend you buy a commercial product and use that, and not use your gpa as fodder…because it will hammer your gpa if you take Chinese or Latin and get anything below a B. Bad move.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you are a natural born linguist and pick up languages easily and you have the drive, determination and ability, then knock yourself out.</p>
<p>Some people combine those esoteric languages with area studies, for example, taking arabic with middle eastern studies etc. or if you plan on obtaining a PhD and needing Latin (as is very common for most doctoral programs, and aslo ancient greek), then it has a purpose as well.</p>
<p>Most kids in Latin courses took Latin in high school and are simply continuing their studies at Fordham to fulfill the core requirement. </p>
<p>Fordham gives an online exam for languages this summer to place students in the appropriate level course. My kid was superb in french and placed out, essentially into upper division and graduate level courses. But she was always that way. </p>
<p>Yeah… thing is, I took French for 5 years and still couldn’t pass my school’s final language exam in 10th grade, so I’m not sure if I want to put myself in that position again.</p>
<p>And Chinese is offered at Rose Hill. Only Russian and Japanese are restricted to Lincoln Center.</p>
<p>@SeasonsOfLove I wouldn’t worry too much about difficulty. I know plenty of kids at LC who took Mandarin for the first time and did okay… Fordham does offer language levels for those who haven’t learned the language. For me, I took a college Spanish course before I came to Fordham. Since Fordham wouldn’t take the credits, I had to do one of the classes over. To be honest, it’s basically review for me and you don’t cover as much in a semester as you would in a year of high school, so it makes life a little easier. Language is one of those subjects where it part of it definitely depends on the type of professor you get and how much you study for it.</p>
<p>However, I do agree with SD about running the risk of messing up your GPA just to learn a new language. If you find you’re having a hard time with the language, the best option would be to switch to another one, like Spanish. There are other subjects where it can be hard to get a good grade and language isn’t one of them. (Trust me, I think a majority of the students in my Philosophy class didn’t get anything higher than a B this semester). </p>
<p>Just curious why you want to study Mandarin. It is one of the hardest languages to master, as I can see from my daughter’s experience. She has over four years of it, with stellar grades and considers herself only “Low Intermediate.” (She also spent a summer in China living with a family and studying.) And to respond to the upcoming comment on “some people take to languages better than others” from SD, she is a language kid: Spanish, Chinese, Latin and Portuguese, in that order. </p>
<p>Seasons: Why not consider Spanish, which is also a useful language. Your many years of French should make it relatively easy, and IMHO it is easier than French. (I studied both.) Also, being in the Bronx, you will have a chance to practice it in some of the stores and perhaps while volunteering. </p>
<p>Sorry, I don’t know any of the professors for Madarin or Latin. However I recommend, and I know people will groan when I say this, but check ratemyprofessor.com and check out what students say about the teachers for the language you want. I’ve had good luck with the site so far. It was pretty accurate, with the exception of one teacher. I love the professor I’ve had for Spanish for the year. Some didn’t like her, but I had no issues.</p>
<p>I can speak some Cantonese, but have difficultly holding a conversation with a native Cantonese speaker and have no clue how to write in it. So I figured Mandarin wouldn’t be too difficult. I’ve pretty much eliminated Latin from consideration and it’s now Mandarin or French. And ratemyprofessor.com actually seems like a great idea.</p>
<p>Cannot comment on the differences between Cantonese and Mandarin. No clue. I will ask my D tomorrow if she has anything helpful to post on the subject. </p>
<p>Music History was really easy. Well, it depends on who the professor is. I had Yaraman (sp?) and it really was just pay attention, take notes, read the textbook, memorize, get an A.</p>
<p>Spoke to D about Cantonese vs. Mandarin. Does not know anything about Cantonese, except that it is limited to Hong Kong. Mandarin is more widely spoken and is the language of business in China. As far as if one helps the other in ease of learning, D has heard that the two languages are significantly different from each other. (from her native speaking friends). Good luck.</p>
<p>Wu- Shanghai and Jiangsu
Gan-Jiangxi
Hunan Xiang-Hunan
Mandarin-Beijing and northern, southwestern China; the most common and largest dialect in China
Cantonese- Hong Kong</p>
<p>Mandarin is almost exclusively the dialect taught at universities when a student majors in “chinese language.”</p>
<p>My daughter decided to learn Italian for the first time this past year. Took Spanish in MS/HS for 4 years and did great. Fall semester at Fordham she LOVED Italian and did very very well. This past semester, well, her professor wasn’t that great. She went to tutoring and extra help. And it brought her GPA down. Real Down. She was very unhappy and stressed. By this time she had already decided to go into Pre-Health and go into the sciences, so there is no language requirement.</p>
<p>She will hopefully be able to drop Italian next semester. So I would be very very very careful about studying a new language. </p>
<p>Great advice all around… I’ve decided to retry French, my language course from 6th to 10th grade that I admittedly could’ve put more effort into. I’ll just do horrible on the placement test (not particularly on purpose through since I have pretty much forgotten all my French these past two years) and go into an intro course with a very slight premise but definitely with more effort.</p>