<p>i just talked to a freshman at P who took 5 courses both semesters, and during the fall he had the writing seminar too. He said it really is a breeze, that the "oh freshmen aren't encouraged to do this" is not universally applicable...
MAT 217, 218, Phi 202?, maybe a VIS 211 (sounds so cool), FRE 10?</p>
<p>alumother: i'd really love to have a theater course, especially acting, but it's so darn competitive, the places are already filled :( for this year's... but the course THR201 sounds so intensely fun... <em>sigh</em></p>
<p>I'd be curious who this freshman is, because Fall Semester there is, if not a blanket ban, then a <em>very</em> strong recommendation to not take five courses. As for taking five classes, it really depends on what sort of courses you're taking.</p>
<p>When thinking about your schedule, also note that (save for truly exceptional and unique cases) you cannot take two courses from the same department first semester.</p>
<p>Dude, Pav...there is a date with destiny between THR 201, you, and me. I'm putting mine off until sophomore year because I'd like all my THR classes to line up in sequence through senior year, but I can't wait! It's competitive, but we'll make it, man. I hope, anyways :cool:</p>
<p>prettyfish, sorry to tell you that MAT 215 is closed (check the registrar's wbesite). I'm thinking of POL210, MAT 214 (or writing seminar, it's offered both semesters), PHY 103/5, and a Freshman Seminar, but I want to check up on the prof reviews first. I cannot wait for that ID.</p>
<p>"A breeze?" Fascinating. I have never heard a student say that about Princeton, and I know quite a few very bright, serious kids. Maybe this student can share info re which these easy courses are!</p>
<p>I think it's important for '09ers to know that extracurriculars at Princeton tend to be very time-consuming, because Tigers don't like to do anything badly, and that EC participation is, in turn, a major way to develop a social life. Personally, I would want to be sure to leave time for that, in addition to coursework. On top of that you have the constant procession of world-class lecturers who come to campus, the various conferences sponsored by the different departments and centers and by Career Services, the time-consuming process of applying for summer funding for travel or internships, etc. There is much more to your Princeton experience than taking courses.</p>
<p>right, because it's a given that we're going to take that. All the thing asks for is what courses we're interested in. WRI and FRS seminars aren't even included in the course booklet, so we can't list those.</p>
<p>And gianievve, I think cev was saying that he can't wait for the ID to come so that he can check out prof and class reviews...just like the rest of us :)</p>
<p>
[quote]
so, do we put 4 courses minus the writing seminar and freshman seminar?</p>
<p>...meaning that we don't list the freshman or writing seminar as one of our courses...?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Are you guys sure about this one? I thought we listed 3 courses and if we're interested in taking a freshman seminar then we list that as a fourth course.... the logic being that if we are placed in a fall writing seminar, then we can skip the freshman seminar and take it in spring, but at least we left space for either the writing or freshman seminar on our applications...</p>
<p>The writing seminar and the freshman seminar both count as regular courses. Since you can't be sure you'll get into a freshman seminar and you don't know when you will be enrolled in a writing seminar, it's a good idea to have four other courses in mind for first semester. </p>
<p>it really makes no difference what you put down now, your advisors (or atleaast my advisor) dont even have the sheets of paper when you have a meeting. It's mostly used to place you with an advisor-- ie i wrote down that i was interested in integrated science and got placed with one of the professors as my advisor. So just put down 4 courses that seem of interest to you</p>
<p>i also would STRONGLY recommend you NOT to take 5 classes first semester (unless possibly if you are retaking all of the courses that you got AP credit for already or something like that). Princeton is MUCH harder than you would think, and as aparent mentioned, ecs take up a lot of time. A lot of time ppl sign up for more than they can handle in terms of ecs because they figure that since they did it in highschool. Also, when you look at classes in the course guide, they seem shorter. But then add in precepts and problem sessions, and your class time grows. Last semester I had 5 classes and I was in class basically straight from 10 am until 4:30-5 monday through thursday, with problem sessions tuesday nights from 7:30-10:30. That's a lot of class time, and something that is very hard to handle first semester as you are adjusting and trying to find a balance to your life.</p>
<p>There is also a lot more homework involved than anything i ever had in highschool. Granted, i did not go to a prep school, and people from exeter etc might be ready for 5 classes as they have already lived away from home and had really hard classes, but I went to a very good public school. And i never spent 10 hours on a problem set. But at princeton, thats what they expect you to do, on top of ~200 pgs of reading a week per humanity class.</p>
<p>And, in to clarify for peg diver, the integrated science class is 4 classes over the whole year, or two classes per semester.</p>
<p>that made choosing classes fall semester very easy for me, as I took integrated science, a frosh sem, and a writing sem.</p>
<p>do not, under any circumstance whatsoever, even contemplate taking 5 classes fall semester if you are in either integrated science or the hum program. That would be academic suicide</p>
<p>I would definitely agree with ec's remark about taking five courses with Integrated Science or the HUM Sequence. I cannot speak for the difficulty of the Integrated Science course -- although I know it's supposed to be very challenging -- but in Humanities Fall Semester we had a harshly-graded five-page pager due every two weeks, and six hours of class a week, not to mention all the reading. Combine all this reading and writing with a writing seminar, and taking five courses suddenly seems much less wise :-).</p>
<p>thanks for the info ec1234 that's good to know. i have more questions too. lol. i'm also going to be diving with the diving team, which requires a lot of practice. i think the tues-thurs labs or whatever it is that's on that day will interefere with practice, but w/e i'll deal. what i really want to know is how much outside work did u have to do? were u "swamped" or was it a lot, but a manageable lot? oh and when are u supposed to apply for it? is applying necessary? or shud i just chill till i meet with my advisor and not worry about it? thanks for any info</p>
<p>im pretty sure that all, if not all, athletic practices are btween 4:30 and about 6:30 during the week-- during which time no classes are scheduled. That also gives you enough time to take a quick shower and eat before 7:30 evening classes.</p>
<p>the workload is a lot-- or maybe just more than I expected. The first semester is harder than the second, or maybe we all just got more used to it. But the first semester is the real integrated part, and Bialek, while crazy, is amazing. I would plan on spending somewhere between 5 and 10 hours a week on problem sets-- although much of that time is spent on tuesday problem sessions, which can take longer if you actually know how to solve the problem, on the other hand when given the infamous basketball problem (you will know it when you get it), the problem session is invaluable. Add to that about 1-3 hours a week for the first 6 weeks of cs assignments (depending on your programming skill), and you have a lot of work. The labs, while they tend to run over, do not take very long to actually write up. I never went to a precept for the first 6 weeks of classes, if they get a better TA for that part (which i htink they will as no one liked her), it might be worth going.</p>
<p>basically, the first few weeks are crazy and overwhelming, but then you get kinda used to it. That being said, about 1/3 of the class dropped, although for varying reasons. Some people wanted to be physics majors and wanted the more traditional sequence, others were not doing well in the course, and others, although they were doing decently decided that the sciences were not for them.</p>
<p>you do need to apply for the class, however they do not like to turn people down, and they have almost unlimited funds. Thus, while you do have to fill out an application, they did not reject anyone last year. Also, just because you apply does not mean that you have to take it.</p>
<p>if you have any more questions, feel free to ask</p>
<p>you are fantabulous! when do u apply? like during the summer or when you finally get on campus? thanks for taking the time to give me such an awesome response! it answered any questions i had and relieved any of my doubts. and it made me doubly excited! :D</p>
<p>if you go to genomics.princeton.edu and then click on undergraduate you should be able to find the link to the application (or atleast where it was last year) you apply in august, so before you get to school. you can try emailing class231@ (im not sure if that email address is still active) or get in touch with botstein through his secretary faithb@ the other choice is susan powell, but im not sure what her email address is. They are all really really nice, and excited to help. They knew all of our names and were really interested in our feedback from the course. </p>
<p>And Botstein is really really famous, the head of the lewis-siegler institute, and developed the microarray which is an experimental procedure that is now used by almost everyone in the field (including the labs at NIH where Botstein helped me to get an internship this summer). He came to princeton because stanford would not let him start this program, while princeton would. yeah, pretty crazy. And all of the other teachers are just as insane, like eric who sat in the back of the class and will be teaching the sophomore class-- no one knew who he was until about halfway through the year when we figured out that he was the only professor at princeton to win a nobel prize in medicine. But seriously, email botstein and let him know that you are interested, he would be really excited. He just doesnt always check his email because he gets so much with funding and administrative work and all, so its easier to go through faith</p>