<p>My daughter is a freshman double-major at LC in a field that requires a <em>lot</em> of hours, even for a single major (theater.) There are also EC requirements-- lab hours, doing run crew, striking sets. With the core requirements, it's going to be very tough to fit everything in so she can graduate in four years. She will probably need to take summer classes. Also, she wants to get some core classes out of the way now so she can give proper attention to her major projects during junior/senior year. She talked to her adviser briefly at the start of the year and he suggested she take summer school classes.</p>
<p>But we are not from NYC, and she'd really like to come home for the summer. The expense of staying in NY is a serious consideration for us, plus, she really wants to be with her family and friends for the summer. </p>
<p>Her adviser told her it is hard to get Fordham to approve classes from other universities, and that she would have to make a case that the class was something unusual not offered at Fordham. Of course, that is not going to be easy or probably even possible if she is looking to fulfill core requirements from the summer school roster of a university. </p>
<p>We did not see this problem coming-- it never occurred to us when she was choosing colleges! Does anyone have any advice?</p>
<p>I had a similar problem (wanted to work on math/physics majors, but Fordham only offers freshman-level summer math/physics courses) and ended up getting classes approved from a Cal State. The process was frustrating from beginning to end and seemed designed to funnel as much tuition as possible to Fordham.</p>
<p>It’s easier to get courses approved if they’re similar to courses offered at Fordham, since one of the requirements is that any course taken elsewhere for credit must be “similar in content” to one offered at Fordham. I had to bring in syllabi from the courses I wanted to take and get them signed by the dean and major adviser.</p>
<p>But the most egregious of the other-school-disqualifying clauses is the one that requires a minimum of 45 “contact hours” per course. Few colleges (<10% in my experience) meet this requirement during summer sessions. Of course, since Fordham’s own courses during the fall and spring don’t have 45 contact hours, how could the university demand such a thing? You guessed it: they have summer courses meet for more hours than the same courses would meet for during the semester. It looks pretty self-serving from a student’s perspective.</p>
<p>I was blessed to have grandparents who had an extra car and lived near a state college that offered the right courses with enough contact hours–a college I found after dozens of hours of catalog-browsing, schedule-hunting, and hour-crunching. Good luck with your Summer Approval Adventures.</p>
<p>Colleges are loathe to let students go elsewhere because its lost revenue and a potential kid transferring out. </p>
<p>My suggestion is she takes courses at Fordham’s summer session at Rose Hill and stays in the dorms there. Excellent chance to see and experience Rose Hill and get some stuff knocked out. </p>
<p>The issue of wanting to come home and wanting to go to summer school is a personal conflict and I can’t help on that front. Summer school is not that long, and I suggest you inquire about the summer sessions and look at the calendar on the Fordham website.</p>
<p>I also wouldnt be too paranoid about getting the core done on time. Its good to be ambitious but there is lots of time and there is no requirement you get it all done immediately, though advised to be careful…and work with her advisor.</p>
<p>She should have a long talk with her advisor and make a road map/plan for graduating on time…</p>
<p>Tell her to breathe and relax a bit. Dont want to burn out and blow out. </p>
<p>This time of year the freshmen get all sorts of anxiety attacks worried about papers and exams. Its very important to keep perspective and focus. One day at a time…</p>
<p>anglegrinderman, oh man, this is terrible news for us. It almost makes me wish she had not gone to Fordham in the first place. Of course, the classes she would want to take would be the distributional requirements because she wants to do her major work at Fordham. </p>
<p>Thanks, soverign. The thing is, her sister who goes to school in Manhattan has an off campus apartment that we would need to sublet. It makes sense, if she stays in NY, to stay in her sister’s place so we don’t need to get a subletter. (Subletting is against the lease, anyway, though I am assured that everyone does it.)
The thing is, her double major requires very time-consuming projects that she needs to focus on, so she will have to be very smart about picking courses and getting them done on time. I guess the alternative is staying an extra semester-- I wonder if her scholarship would continue beyond the fourth year. I’m almost afraid to ask.</p>
<p>Glassharmonica, is it possible that your daughter might think about completing just one major, instead of two? FWIW, which probably isn’t much, my older daughter started at her LAC wanting to double major. She was having a terrible time trying to figure out how she could get the course sequence she wanted in each major, and eventually her advisor asked her why it was important to do both. She couldn’t answer. She found that if, instead of fixating on having both majors on her diploma, she just looked at what she wanted to learn, she could fit everything in.</p>
<p>Thanks, anouilh. My daughter’s double major is interlocking and very career oriented-- playwriting and acting-- so it is not as impossible as if she were trying to major in two very different disciplines, like bio and French-- that would probably take five years. It can be done, but it’s tough, like fitting together a puzzle. She picked Fordham because it was the only school where she could do this (also, she loves the theater department.) So I think it’s very unlikely she will consider dropping one of the majors. </p>
<p>Other than Fordham and some non-auditioned LACs, she applied only to BFA programs. But, at a BFA program she would not be able to take many academic courses-- BFA programs are basically conservatories, and the academics are on the “lite” side. She felt that she would not be the playwright she wants to be with only what amounts to a high school education in academics. But she is also an actor, so she needs to do both.</p>
<p>A metaphor for this problem (I see now) is my purse conundrum. I want to use the smallest possible purse (4 years), but to fit the most possible things (double major) into it. It’s going to take a lot of thought. </p>
<p>When we went into this we were thinking that she could take summer school courses at home at Temple or even UPenn (there are literally have a dozen colleges in our city, in addition to CCs.) I know that some colleges have a restriction on what courses can be taken during summer but many colleges do not have this restriction. Alas, it’s one thing we did not check into before signing on the dotted line.</p>
<p>I realize the not-coming-home issue is a personal problem, but our family is quite close and our kids, spread now into the academic diaspora, value every minute of time they have together. I’m sure ours is not the only family who feels this way.</p>
<p>I get the family ties. That is a good thing. And you are lucky they are homebodies who want to come home. Many want to do their own thing and coming home for an extended period is not their top interest.</p>
<p>Not sure how to solve her dilemma. </p>
<p>Double major and wanting a solid college education (core classes) can be problematic. It may mean doing less with extra curriculars.</p>
<p>And yes it could be an extra semester…though summer school solves that riddle. Tough decisions to be sure.</p>
<p>But you have time…summer school registration doesnt come until much later.</p>
<p>Fordham IS worth it. A powerful degree…hugely respected. And the experience is worth more than you can count at Fort Knox. </p>
<p>Maybe you could capitalize on the fact that semester-based colleges, including Fordham, split the summer into two sessions. Can she do one in NYC [and take 2 classes at Fordham] and come home for the other (perhaps taking non-distributive core courses then)? That wouldn’t help with finances or subletting, but it might be a good compromise to work from on other fronts.</p>
<p>Hi gh and others. Sorry I missed this but my home and community were devastated by Hurricane Sandy. I didn’t even know that my S had registered for spring classes until yesterday!</p>
<p>As you know the double major combo that our kids are in requires very careful planning and probably some summer classes to finish in 4 years. My S took 2 classes the summer after freshman year where he completed his foreign language requirement and the intro philosophy course. He stayed at Fordham and it cost approximately $7000 for the two classes and room at LC. They charged $700 per credit and the room fees were broken down into session 1, 2 and intersession which is the period after summer classes end through the time when fall classes begin. Summer session 1 began after Memorial Day and ended in the end of June, session 2 began right after the 4th of July and ended the first week of August.</p>
<p>Registration for the summer wasn’t until March, it’s after registration for the Fall so you have some time to think about this.</p>
<p>I personally would not double up on classes during a summer session bc they are cramming a lot of work into four weeks. I would consider having her take Fordham classes during session 1 & 2 while living in her sister’s apartment bc she can still come home for most of August. The second option I would consider is looking at math and science classes at your local university and seeing if they will be accepted for transfer. I know for a fact that one of my S’s friends took calculus in Ohio and it was accepted by Fordham. Yes, there is a process and I recall that Fordham did not make it easy, but it can be done and is worth looking into.</p>
<p>Finally, I know my S has only met with your D a few times this semester and please understand that he has had a lot on his plate thanks to Sandy in terms of worrying about family and friends. But next semester they will be in class together and she should talk to him before registration to find out what core classes he took that counted for multiple requirements bc that will probably be the key to her being able to complete both major requirements and the core in four years.</p>
<p>I hope that she is enjoying Fordham so far and I know it will be fabulous for her once she gets into the Playwriting class and starts producing. I also hope that her last production went well…I had hoped to get there or at least find out from you how it all went but life just prevented that. I will email you privately at some point when we are able to move back home.</p>
<p>Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, too! I know there has been terrible devastation with the hurricane, but I did not know that your family suffered so badly!! Thanks so much for your advice. I was trying to suggest to her to take two classes at once, but my husband thinks it would be too hard (and he took summer classes during college; I never did that.) </p>
<p>She is really looking forward to the playwriting class next semester! She is working really hard – pretty exhausted, due to having been run crew for a mainstage production while also ADing a student play. But so far so good, keeping up.</p>
<p>Again, so sorry to hear about your community and your house. Every day I read the NY Times and am horrified by the pain people are going through in suburbs of New York.</p>
<p>Someone names “Petiza” emailed me from CC regarding summer school. I tried to reply, but the message bounced several times. I’d like to respond, so perhaps you can email me from a different account or send a PM.</p>
<p>Thanks for the concern! It’s been difficult but we have partial electric now and a new heating system so we were able to move back in yesterday. We will be under construction for a while as will our community but it’s good to be back. I have to say how lucky we are that my parents took us in…and our dogs! They were wonderful!!!</p>
<p>Glass, I spoke with S about doubling up on one of the sessions and he said it is probably possible with two 3 credit courses so you actually might look into that. He wouldn’t recommend it with a 4 credit course or something that requires a lab but the 3 credit courses meet 3 days a week for 3 hours a day and he thinks she could do it if she doesn’t have any other commitments like a job or a show. He did remind me that during one of the sessions he was also rehearsing and then performing in a show downtown and he did actually manage to complete all his work and pull out a good grade in the class. Just something else to consider!</p>
<p>Personally I don’t know how these Theatre students manage it all but they do and they seem to thrive on it. She’s already running around like crazy, what’s another month at the end of the year?!!!</p>
<p>Well I came here to ask about taking classes else where during the summer. You answered my question. Not what I wanted to hear but I guess nothing to really do something else about it. </p>
<p>So did your dd tell you about the elevator escapades she was “fortunate” enough to experience…LOL I think people now run the other way when Con gets on the elevator…</p>
<p>Wow. It would never have occurred to me that this would be something that needed to be flushed out before choosing a college-I would expect there would be some room for taking summer courses elsewhere-after all, students who transfer in from other schools get credit (or do they? Fordham?). Thanks for raising the issue and sorry to hear the response. It will be something to keep in mind.</p>
[quote]
So did your dd tell you about the elevator escapades she was “fortunate” enough to experience…LOL I think people now run the other way when Con gets on the elevator…
[quote]
Kcdunlap-- hilarious! I don’t know how I missed this post.</p>
<p>What he refers to is the hours his son, my daughter, and another boy were trapped in an elevator in LC on Election day, no less, after doing run crew for a mainstage production. My daughter was texting me and her sisters for news of the elections… and of course we were all hoping they would fine a way to get them out of the broken elevator. It all worked out in the end!</p>
<p>Sounds like things went well this semester for your daughter, Con and the other daughter on this board. Con fortunately gets to head home on Wednesday. Have a great break with your kids at home.</p>