<p>Hey ya'll, so from asking/reading around, I'm realizing the UGS courses (303 and 302) fill up rather quickly at orientation. While all classes are filled up within seconds, the UGS ones are the first ones to go since all Freshmen have to take them. </p>
<p>First of all, is what I'm stating correct for the most part? </p>
<p>Second of all, which UGS courses do you guys recommend? I know they might not be the same, but any suggestions are welcome. </p>
<p>Preferable, I'd prefer a class that starts at 10 or 11 am (I want to avoid 8 am courses at all cost!), has an interesting professor, and is fair grading wise.</p>
<p>Oh, and any opinions on Race in the Age of Obama or Planet Earth or Medical ethics?</p>
<p>UT pushes heavily for the UGS course to be taken as early as possible in your academic career because the UGS courses were created specifically to introduce new students to the UT resources and academic mindset. It is not uncommon for people to take the UGS course as juniors and seniors as I have plenty of seniors in my current UGS.</p>
<p>Transfer students have to take UGS too, and when they transfer
they don’t have freshman status
they register for classes last and almost never can get into UGS class immediately.
So the question is no, UGS is not required to be taken first year. It can be impossible for transfer students</p>
<p>UT has a tricky system of opening and closing clusters of classes in different registration periods. One class can be open during 1 registration period and closed during another. So when you register for UGS you need to remember several things:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Choice of UGS classes is much bigger during Fall than during Spring , and many Fall and Spring classes are different.</p></li>
<li><p>The main difference between UGS 302 and 303: UGS 302 are small classes (15-20 students) and always have a writing flag requirement, UGS 303 are big classes (100+ with different discussion periods and different TAs, TAs grade your work, not professors, so how easy your grades are really depends on TA, some are better than others), very few UGS 303 have WR.
Some spots in UGS 303 will be available during all registration periods. UT will open different discussion sections at different orientations. UGS 302 will fill very fast on first come first served basis.</p></li>
<li><p>If you don’t have 2 AP credits for English you’d better chose UGS without WR, writing can be challenging</p></li>
<li><p>UGS are almost always included into FIGs. [First-year</a> Interest Groups | School of Undergraduate Studies](<a href=“First-Year Interest Groups | TEXAS Undergraduate Studies”>First-Year Interest Groups | TEXAS Undergraduate Studies)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Fall 2013 schedule will be posted April 2. Before that there is no reason to chose classes, they can be different different semesters.
FIG classes on UT website are from 2012, some of them can change.</p>
<p>And don’t create any schedule before the end of upperclassmen registration, some classes/discussion sections will be closed or waitlisted.</p>
<p>I already have credit for English 1301 and 1302 so that’s not a big deal. I’m pretty good at writing I feel. Speaking of flags can classes taken at another school count for a writing flag? Or do flags have to be taken at UT?</p>
<p>I emailed the advising office of the college of communication to check if English 1302 would count towards my writing flag. I was also thinking about taking a literature class during summer school (an equivalent to E 316K) to see if it would count towards my cultural diversity flag. If 1302 doesn’t count it’s not that big of a deal since most of the UGS courses are writing flags anyway.</p>
<p>My degree plan requires that I take 2 Writing Flags which “must include a course that is not used to meet a core requirement and a course that is upper-division”. </p>
<p>Does that mean I can fulfill the requirement by taking UGS 302 and one non-core upper-division course, or do I have to take one non-core course and one upper-div course separately?</p>