<p>One of the classes that my daughter is taking first semester freshman year satisfies no requirements, she is just taking it because it sounds interesting: POLS-Y 100 - American Political Controversies. It satisfies a S&H GenEd requirement, but as a Kelley student the S&H GenEds will be satisifed from I-Core pre-reqs. </p>
<p>Looking for feedback... Should she focus on only taking classes that satisfy GenEd or Kelley requirements freshman year, which would mean filling her schedule with business classes because she has most of her GenEds satisfied already? Or is it OK to take some classes freshman year that simply sound interesting? </p>
<p>She also plans to study abroad (goal is Seville, Spain), and I think she should "save" an A&H GenEd class for her study abroad semester. Comments on that?</p>
<p>Taking classes that simply ‘sound interesting’ is good as a break. She’s only a freshman, which means she has 7 other semesters to take boring courses that she has to take because they’re required. She has plenty of elective credits to do both study abroad and a couple of fun classes. Also sometimes you can take ‘required’ classes abroad–you may want to have her save her A&H classes for that semester. </p>
<p>I know you just want to help, but part of college is learning how to make these types of choices for yourself, whether you want to schedule class A or class B, etc. etc.</p>
<p>@soccergurl7988 - last paragraph above - so true! I’m working on it You are very insightful. Thanks for your tips, both about IU and parents letting go.</p>
<p>No problem! Honestly, once she goes away, she’ll be way more ‘in tune’ with the campus than you will be, so you’ll want to step away from being more involved it’s tough, but you’ll be okay! Encourage her to take her core classes but also to have adventures–I was a bio major and took a class in fencing to boost my GPA one semester…now I fence regularly! In my 4 years at IU, I took fencing, meteorology, folklore, an interesting language, and a political science minor. You never know what class will spark a lifelong interest or even another minor!</p>
<p>@ace550, my daughter has been a big user of ratemyprofessor.com and the IU grade distribution database, both things we learned about here on CC. In fact, she’s nervous because one of her professors is not on ratemyprofessor or in the grade distributions (I assume he’s new), and no teacher is listed for her Spanish class!</p>
<p>I’m all for taking some classes ‘just because’. However, she might want to have a backup in mind, in case the workload of the class is disproportionate to what she’ll gain intellectually from the class. My S also took a POLS-Y 100 class his 1st semester at IU. There was a huge amount of reading involved. Obviously, we don’t know for sure how much work will be involved in her class. But, once she sees what her overall workload will be from her required classes, she might want to drop this one and add something that’s less intense workwise. It’s rough when your gpa suffers from a class that you didn’t have to take.</p>
<p>As a kelley student, I usually take as many pre-req classes as possible. </p>
<p>When I took courses not required for kelley, I made sure they were for my minor or something I wanted to explore for a minor. </p>
<p>Kelley is hard to get through and I wanted to accomplish as many pre-reqs as I can to get into I-core Junior year.</p>
<p>That being said, courses on the side can be for fun too. I’m often told to take some of the HYPER classes because they have so many activities that you just can’t get in real life. Including scuba-diving training, karate, dance…etc. Those are always fun.</p>
<p>If one is more of an academic and exploring type of person who does not fret a time-consuming course load, then go sign-up for those type of course. I don’t recommend it for everyone though. I am more driven for a triple major in kelley myself. </p>
<p>I agree with saving it for study abroad. I did this course in AP and it was fun and interesting for sure. Some of the kids in my dorm took the course and enjoyed it.</p>
<p>P.S. great deal of reading will be required for those type of classes. I took Eastern Asia and Never seemed to stay up with all the reading we got weekly.</p>
<p>Can get an idea of course load by looking at amount of books required. Was going to take an honors class and it had 10 required books…changed my mind.</p>
<p>For POLS classes, you actually can’t get a good idea via the book list. I rarely used textbooks for my poly sci classes and generally used primary sources, documents, etc. </p>
<p>I took the class, and it was interesting and not a ton of work. BF took the class and also enjoyed it, nor was it a ton of work. YMMV will depend on the grad student that’s teaching it that semester, but I’d sign up for it and take it with the knowledge that she can drop it if she feels it’s not what she thought it was</p>
You are very insightful. Thanks for your tips, both about IU and parents letting go.</p>