<p>pebbles be right! Thats the pretty standard scenario :D</p>
<p>This is the first year that there has been a bio ASE -- previously it was possible to place out of biology entirely with a 5 on the AP exam.</p>
<p>The choice about whether to accept AP credit or not to is a choice of the individual department. The chemistry department happens to be pretty strict about these sorts of things, and didn't feel that AP Chemistry was adequate preparation for further study of chemistry at MIT. Apparently the biology department has come to the same conclusion.</p>
<p>I thought MIT had some sort of PE requirement as well--am I imagining this? If they do, when do most kids take a PE class their freshmen year?</p>
<p>MIT students are required to get 8 PE "points." A PE class is worth 2 points and runs for a quarter of the year, and playing a varsity sport for one season is worth 4 points. Technically you're "required" to fulfill the PE requirement before the end of your sophomore year....and I'll just leave it at that.</p>
<p>l0l, yes... "required" ;)</p>
<p>I didn't finish mine until senior year (this year). All I received were a few e-mails along the way :P</p>
<p>There is of course a drawback. They actually do a reverse ranking in the lottery and put the upperclassmen at the bottom... so it will be a little harder getting that class you want... but no biggie :)</p>
<p>NOO!!!!!! I cant believe they dont take the AP Bio anymore!!!!!!</p>
<p>l0lll, good. Because I had to take it anyway :P</p>
<p>I never took bio in high school... 0.o</p>
<p>I am not looking forward to taking bio again...ughhhh...</p>
<p>Hm, I'm a bit confused regarding the Communications Requirement versus the Humanties requirement--MIT's website said that we've all got to take the Freshmen Evaluative Essay, and then...I got confused. You take one of two possible subjects depending on results?
Underneath that was a humanties requirement, and I guess that was separate from the Communications one?
So when pebbles wrote that most kids do one humanties course, does it fulfil the humanties requirement or the communications one? (sorry, if it fulfils the humanties requirement, the answer seems obvious, since pebbles specifically said 'humanities' but I guess I sort of blend communications/humanties in my mind.)</p>
<p>Every MIT undergrad, during their time here, has to take two communications intensive classes in the humanities, called CI-H's. As a subset of CI-H's are communications intensive humanities writing classes, known as CI-HW's.</p>
<p>You will take the FEE (unless you got a 5 in AP English), if you pass the FEE, you can take any CI-H class to fulfill your CI-H requirements. If you fail the FEE, you must take a CI-HW class your first term, which fulfills one of the two CI-H requirements.</p>
<p>To expand, the humanities requirement has several sub-requirements.</p>
<p>[ol][<em>]Eight humanities, arts, and social science classes.
[list=a][li]Two communication-intensive HASS classes[/li][</em>]Three to four classes which make up a [url=<a href="http://web.mit.edu/shass/undergraduate/hass-req/concentration/index.shtml%5Dconcentration%5B/url">http://web.mit.edu/shass/undergraduate/hass-req/concentration/index.shtml]concentration[/url</a>]
[li]Three HASS [url=<a href="http://web.mit.edu/shass/undergraduate/hass-req/hass-d/index.shtml%5Ddistribution%5B/url">http://web.mit.edu/shass/undergraduate/hass-req/hass-d/index.shtml]distribution[/url</a>] classes[/li][list=1][li]All three from different lists[/ol][/list][/list]</p>[/li]
<p>Some of those categories overlap -- for example, many HASS distribution classes are also communication intensive, and you can concentrate in an area in which you took a HASS-D/CI-H, if you want.</p>
<p>Don't worry scooby, the humanities requirement(s) ARE confusing :P</p>
<p>mollie did a pretty good summary though. I just wish the humanities requirement website(s) made that more intuitive</p>
<p>This is about the five zillionth time I've explained it, though, and I think this is the only time I explained it well enough that someone might actually understand.</p>
<p>It is really confusing. I have a friend who's in danger of not graduating this year because he didn't realize that two of his HASS-Ds were actually in the same category. :mad:</p>
<p>Mollie, wouldn't a student's advisor catch the HASS problem? Don't most students see their advisor before they choose their classes?</p>
<p>Also, how can you determine which grad school majors won't or don't like to admit MIT undergrads to the grad program? Thanks</p>
<p>math and physics.</p>
<p>Advisors are sometimes good for helping you choose classes in your major. They are rarely really up on the minutiae of the HASS requirement. I found my advisor very helpful when discussing graduate school applications, career plans, and life in science, but my friends were most helpful when I was choosing classes.</p>
<p>I mean, ultimately, my friend who's in danger of graduating should have realized his mistake a long time ago. There's an up-to-date degree audit on the student records system, so at any time of day or night, you can see which requirements you've fulfilled and which ones still need to be fulfilled -- his degree audit clearly says he's only taken courses in two HASS-D categories.</p>
<p>I don't know which departments still have no-inbreeding policies. To be honest, I wouldn't worry too much about it -- MIT undergrads don't have many problems getting into top grad programs in their fields, even if they're encouraged to go elsewhere.</p>
<p>It depends on the advisor. Most will expect that you are aware of the requirements and have planned to have them all fulfilled by graduation.</p>
<p>My advisor mostly looks at my performance the previous semester, the classes I plan to take this semester, and whether or not the planned workload is consistent with my ability to handle it based on previous experience.</p>
<p>Your advisor will likely have more input for fulfilling your major requirements rather than general institute requirements such as the HASS and HASS-D's.</p>
<p>thank you so much! </p>
<p>I guess the original question I was going to ask before I got completely befuddled by the requirements was, is it often that a student will take more than one humanties class per semester? How difficult would this be, namely, for the freshmen year? Would current MIT students--mollie, pebbles and collegeguy--advise against this?</p>
<p>It might be a little difficult taking multiple humanities classes freshman year because of the credit limit cap.</p>
<p>Usually most freshman (and upperclassmen for that matter) take 1 HASS class per semester and start hammering away at the other general institute requirements as well as some of the introductory classes of their intended major.</p>
<p>In the end though, there is definitely room for choice. You can play around with the order you fulfill the GIR's based upon your preference, so you can definitely take two humanities classes in a semester if you want. This becomes easier if you can declare sophomore standing second semester, and bypass the credits cap.</p>
<p>As for difficulty in actually taking two humanities classes at the same time, I don't think you'd have a problem there. If you want to get a head start on finishing up that HASS requirement, go for it :)</p>
<p>I agree with collegeguy's post. Most people don't do it freshman year, just because they're limited to taking four classes and a seminar and generally want to get the General Institute Requirements out of the way.</p>
<p>I took two HASS classes during two terms at MIT. My advice is to avoid taking two communication-intensive HASSes the same semester you're taking a communication-intensive class in your major. ;) But otherwise, it's totally doable.</p>
<p>Many upperclassmen stick to the three technical classes + one HASS per semester model, probably because it's nice to have one class per semester where you're not thinking in equations.</p>