<p>I have my orientation coming up this week. This is kind of last minute but the navigation around SIS is confusing. </p>
<p>Anyway, what steps are other incoming freshmen taking to search for classes before the orientation? I honestly don't know where to begin. I know for sure what business prerequisites I need to take for my first two years. As for everything else, I don't know where to begin when I can pick any subject I want. I have an idea of what to do like checking my AP credits and looking at UVA's course forum, but it's still hard to begin somewhere.</p>
<p>Also, what exactly happens in a meeting with your advisor? How much time do you get with him or her? Is it one on one?</p>
<p>The meeting with your adviser is not one-on-one…in fact, I don’t even remember talking to the adviser when I did mine last year, but I basically knew what I wanted to take. You go in a group and there are orientation leaders (upperclass students) who can answer your questions as well as a faculty adviser. You have (if I remember correctly…) a few hours to sit there and flip through the HUGE course selection packet and plan out your schedule and your alternatives and everything…then you can take it back to your dorm that night and play with your schedule some more…then when you get to your sign-up appointment, they basically just put the classes into SIS for you.</p>
<p>U.Va_Hopeful…Seriously??? Students are not assigned a faculty advisor within their college and subject discipline who will work side by side ensuring that the student enrolls in the best/most appropriate classes for his/her subject area? The thought of our daughter being more or less on her own through this process does not bode well. She wants to double major/minor and be a part of the pre-med program. She’ll be walking in with 12 APs (all 5s), and I’d feel much more comfortable with a faculty mentor, not upper-classman, making sure she’s using her APs wisely where and not overlooking anything. Being the over-achiever she is, she’s already gone through the requirements, catalog, etc. and has decided which classes/sections she wants; however, I REALLY want someone looking over her shoulder to make certain no stone has been left unturned. You seriously don’t have a faculty advisor assisting you in a one-on-one forum?</p>
<p>I had a phenomenal individual advisor at my orientation (but that was 4 years ago, so maybe things have changed). Everyone gets a random advisor for the school year. Note, unless you declare your major immediately your first semester then your advisor will be random unrelated to your major. It is not until you get your major declared that your advisor will be in that discipline (makes sense, if you change your mind you’d be flipping around between advisors like crazy your first two years! bad things would happen re: organization if you were constantly changing your advisor, this is a BIG school and things get lost even when you just stay with one advisor!). My orientation advisor was equally random. I would suggest that she signs up for what she wants her first semester (this is college, the requirements for her program will be clearly online, and so first semester she should take whatever she is interested in from there) and declare her majors or otherwise go meet with the Major Advisor from that department (google for the department and they will have a page of contact info). When you sit down to declare your major (most do this 2nd year! Because 2 years is more than enough time to do 1 major) you plan out your classes then. Because she is interested in a double major, she will want to declare at least 1 early on to make sure she is on the right track. Note also premed is not a PROGRAM, it is just a SET of classes so you would not have an advisor for that ever.</p>
<p>OP: they give you a great packet at orientation with the best rated classes so you can pick some of those to take your first semester! Sign up for thecourseforum dot com (UVA version of rate my professor dot com) and check out ratings there – you will learn quicklyt that a bad professors ruins even the best class material. And you can always change your classes before the semester starts and the first week of classes as you change your mind as to what to take. This is college – take something that sounds interesting, something you’ve always wanted to know about, something that fulfills competency and area requirements, something that you won’t hate (if you hate math, don’t take that your first semester!). You are an adult now capable of choosing your classes, and be happy that UVA does not assign all of your classes first semester/year like many smaller colleges does.</p>
<p>And the college you/your child is in will make clear the gen. ed. area requirements. Chip away at those first, as well as any intro/pre-req. courses for her major(s). The first semester isn’t all about your major coursework (there are still 7 other semesters)! It’s important that first semester to get a feeling of what the coursework will be like and learning to adapt to college life/demands.</p>
<p>I’m going to Arts & Sciences for two years and hopefully going to McIntire for the next two years. Aside from business prerequisites, I don’t think there are specific Arts/Sciences requirements that I have to follow. For instance, I don’t want to take sciences anymore and it doesn’t say anywhere that I -have- to take them… right? On the McIntire site, it just vaguely says I have to take humanities/fine arts classes to meet that requirement.</p>
<p>opheliarose, my D is in SEAS so they have different requirements but it appears all other undergrads have area requirements that must be fulfilled (unless you are an Echols). This link may be helpful (and you’ve probably seen it already): </p>
<p>My confusion is that do I have to complete those area requirements from SEAS if I will eventually go to McIntire? Or do I just have to meet McIntire’s prerequisites? In the two years before McIntire, which path do I follow?</p>
<p>Why don’t you wait until you have a chance to speak with an advisor? I’m sure there will be many students with similar questions and concerns. I hope you enjoy Orientation.</p>
<p>Based on DS’s experience at first-year orientation last year, incoming students did not get much guidance on course selection for first semester and seemed to be expected to have planned before arriving at orientation. They do get a massive print out of the classes offered in the Fall, but it is too much to figure out in the off, overnight hours between the first day of orientation and the class registration appointment the second day. </p>
<p>A couple pieces of advice: there seems to be a push to get the students through the process of signing up very quickly. And, no, parents are not there when the students register (in fact they are forbidden from attending). Come armed with multiple back up choices in case classes fill before your appointment. (Map out several options for fulfilling the various area requirements.) Assert yourself to double check what you signed up for before you leave registration – e.g., are you in fact registered for what you thought? are you overloaded on certain days? You will not leave with a printed copy of your schedule. While the process seems a little screwy to those of us familiar with other larger schools, it is true that one cannot change his/her schedule around between the time they register and the early August date when open registration begins. This can be disconcerting for new students (and new parents), but unlike most schools, the drop/add period once classes begin really is a time to sample classes and move your schedule around. It lasts two weeks (for Arts and Sciences)! Students are frequently rewarded for attending classes they were closed out of during registration because profs will often let them in for showing that initiative. </p>
<p>Ophelia, you might be correct that Comm students are not required to fulfill all of the Arts and Sciences area requirements (looks that way from the McIntire webpage), however, should one not be Echols and not be accepted to the Comm School, they would find themselves having to back up their third and fourth years to fulfill those requirements to graduate from The College.</p>
<p>A further note on foreign languages – think hard about deciding to start a new language, at least the common ones such as Spanish, Italian, French, etc. It is virtually impossible for first years to get into the introductory level classes for those languages. Furthermore, the 1010 versions of those classes are only offered in the Fall, so if you want to start one of those, you almost always have to wait until second year. </p>
<p>Lastly, on advisors for second semester and on, maybe it was just happenstance, but DS was assigned an advisor who teaches in his indicated area of interest within The College of Arts and Sciences.</p>
<p>Another hint – don’t overlook University Seminar offerings, especially if you have AP credit for many of the basic classes. These are 15 or so student classes taught by full professors, which are geared primarily to first-year students. There are usually 2 or 3 seats available for each of the seminar topics each orientation period. Search for them on SIS under the acronym USEM.</p>
<p>Just another note about advisors (the ones you are assigned before you declare a major) …they’re basically worthless. I have no idea why they are even assigned at all. My advisor was in the Chinese department and when we were talking about the requirements that I should be fulfilling she literally said the words, “You probably know more about those than I do.” So yes, to echo what hazel said…this is college. You’re an adult. You are responsible for choosing your classes, making decisions about what to take when, making sure you fulfill all the requirements you need, and making sure you graduate on time. If you don’t, then you will have to deal with the consequences and no one is going to hold your hand and make sure you’re on the right track.
That said, all of the info about requirements is online and very accessible and they do a presentation during orientation that lists all of the requirements (and these presentations are divided up by school). So basically everyone knows what the requirements are and what will fulfill them. It’s not like you’re going to get to graduation day and they say oh look! we never told you you had to take a social sciences requirement but you didn’t take it. too bad for you!
And a note about science classes…you have to take 12 credits of math/science and they have to be from 2 different departments. So even though I’m a math major I still had to take a science class…which I really didn’t want to do. (But I’ve heard that the physics class “how things work” is good/easy.) I don’t know anything about the requirements for Comm School vs. CLAS though.</p>
<p>Yeah it is ridiculous, math majors have to take a science class, but science majors typically have to take chem+bio or something similar anyways (or have AP math credit) so they don’t have to worry about it… Grrr. I took intro astronomy, as well as archaeoastronomy, and those were awesome. A little ridiculous (easy/silly) on the math side but what can you say… They are for “non science majors” so you get what you take.</p>
<p>opheliarose, were you at Orientation last week during the storm? Were you able to register? I am curious what you found out re: CLAS/McIntire requirements.</p>
<p>I was at orientation during the storm (and registered) but I’m SEAS so I can’t really help you with CLAS requirements…but if you have other general questions please ask :D</p>
<p>On thing for those going to orientation soon (regardless of school):</p>
<p>PICK YOUR CLASSES BEFOREHAND ON SIS.</p>
<p>You can easily find what classes interest you using Lou’s list or SIS and then type in the 5 digit class code into SIS and request enrollment for it. Then make sure you have a print-out of the classes you want (esp the 5 digit code and the date/time of class) with you during orientation. This way, you do not have to go through a huge packet (CLAS) or pick one of the templates (SEAS) during orientation; just feed your class codes to the student helping you and he/she will enroll you in them (provided there are no conflicts).</p>
<p>Finally, make sure you bring your Computing ID and password with you; you will need it.</p>
<p>I guess my bigger question is – are we registering for the whole year or just first semester? I’m pretty set with mapping out my first semester classes, but I haven’t thought much about second semester at this point as far as class selection goes.</p>