<p>Actually, ehiunno, most high-end employers don't care that much about what you majored in.</p>
<p>Cav, thats not what I am worried about. I am not stressing because I am concerned bout what employers would think. I just want to do whats best for me (intellectually, and enjoyment wise) , and what will set me up best for the specific area of research I want to go into.</p>
<p>Ehiunno: if you're looking for what's best for you, don't do engineering. Engineering is like a calm, discret way of people trying to damage themselves.</p>
<p>Cav: well, since you said it, yes, economics is basketweaving. I, infact, saw this physics teacher tonight (i'm taking DiffEq at NOVA, and he's taking some masters course) and he laughed when I told him I mentioned basketweaving on here. Oh, and the only thing harder than basketweaving but easier than math/physics/engineering, according to him, is underwater basketweaving.
I still swear the only reason I took AP Physics was because it was a 10 person 1st period class (1hr 50min) with this teacher. We didn't do anything in that class, which accounts for the fact only 13% got a 3 or better (the other class was 33 people) I guess.</p>
<p>I guess everyone is different. In HS, I thought I would pursue physics at the graduate level. By the time I got to college, I realized that I valued playing piano, playing the drums, socializing and participating in ECs (lots of good ones here) over spending hours and hours doing p-sets. Not that I don't enjoy academics, but even Jefferson would agree that one needs some <em>diversity</em> in his daily activities. However...sometimes I regret not doing the astronomy-physics major...that program is P-I-M-P. Oh well, I'll end up graduating with several upper level math and astronomy/physics/astrophysics courses under my belt ;) .</p>
<p>lol shoebox, I am not sure if that was meant to be a joke or serious. I have a feeling you were about half kidding. You certainly can't imply that there is no one in the world that is right for engineering. I guess I never have actually been through a college engineering curriculum, but i was that kid that ripped apart and reassembled everything he owned, built and designed some pre-amps played with robotics etc. I have also worked as an engineer in a couple of positions, currently I am employed by NASA in the LaRSS program (hence the earlier microcontroller reference), so from what I could tell I really enjoy engineering. Then again, I do physics problems and play rubiks cubes in my spare time...</p>
<p>Cav may have a point though. I dont want to give up the bass for engineering, I still want to be able to practice, play with others, and study music. I am going to enter the e school, but if I really hate it or just get destroyed then I am not going to shut out the option of transferring to the college, where I would have plenty more room to load up on philosophy classes ;). My point is, I have a similar goal that cav had when he entered the college, and look what he is doing now (except that I thoroughly enjoy esoteric physics concepts :p).</p>
<p>ehiunno, just remember to keep in mind that this whole college thing isn't a race - there's not necessarily any incentive to take 20 credits of math/physics every semester. If you truly enjoy p-sets more that music, sports, beer, women, community involvement, exercise, etc, then go for it. At the UG level you should shoot for balance. Save the 80+ hour work weeks for graduate school :) .</p>
<p>its probably sad that the only things you mention that I do enjoy more are women and music... lol</p>
<p>Ehiunno: I was kidding. Sort of haha. Like Cav said, don't give up your youth man. You only have one shot at this whole college thing. We're not saying fail a class or something, but take a B every once in awhile. Now that first year is over, and I have a real engineering job, I'm realizing I need to seriously slow down, and enjoy being a teenager (for all of another 9 months...then i'm 20, holy crud!) and being young. You should follow. Your first year is an amazing experience, so get out and enjoy it. Take classes outside physics and math! Trust me, you'll be a "better person" =P
Also, stop dropping all of the smart physics crud on this board. It's summer, take a break. Go to the pool or something, and leave the physics and cubes at home
Also, no one does p-sets on their own. Stop BS-ing, you're going to TJ's university and the only thing that would make him roll over in his grave (besides UVA going private ofcourse) is kids like you not taking time to enjoy his University and claiming they're working harder than he did.</p>
<p>Edit: drink a beer child. It too will make you a better person. And frisbee. And stay up till 2am playing a computer game or looking at pointless stuff online. And streak the Lawn. And visit Amigos. And exercise (everyone else at the gym is scared to be there too, do not worry). And ride a bike. And, BE A (sometimes stupid, sometimes intellectual) COLLEGE STUDENT!</p>
<p>Cav: well put. By the way, did you enjoy Astr entry level class (the solar system one, not the galaxies one)? I'm not going to do the astro-physics stuff, but i'm looking to take Astr and Economics next summer, as long as they offer them. It's all about EVSC 201 this semester (apperently a ridiculously easy class, and it fullfills a stupid tech. elective) or some random ANTH or PoliSci class this semester. It'll be awesome with STS101, PHYS II, Circuits (yess..BOO!), CompSci 201, and some random elective. What polar opposite classes haha</p>
<p>shoebox, I skipped those classes and went to the 300-400 level. I might circle back and take them (they're easy, lol), but you shouldn't have any trouble in either one of them. Try to take them with Charles Tolbert, if possible, but also check out grade distributions and course reviews on thecourseforum.com. Oh yea, I'm also going to be in EVSC 201, haha.</p>
<p>I'm going to have to destroy this courseforum thing. Man, I switched into a multi-var class at VT and the teacher was straight up AWFUL, and even with 4/16, only 3 kids got an A, 4 a B, 5 a C+, 3 a C, 2 C-, the rest failed. I pulled a stupid C+ (gahhh...but hey, I still made dean's list hahah) and had a 62% hahahahah. And A was an 80% (yes, it was THAT bad...she held a PhD from Rice in some abstract mathmatics or something, and was ridiculously smart, but a ridiculously horrible teacher haha). I'm not doing that again!
And I hope to get into EVSC 201, but it's full right now =( I need a class that isn't terribly writing intensive (aka, not a writing req. fullfilling class haha) and isn't reading heavy, but a balance between those two and critical thinking/discussion based. Something to even out and be in the middle of the all "brainey" classes (physics/CS/EE) and the STS class. EVSC seemed the answer, but who the heck only made one class for it. Grr...please leave the class so I can get in =P</p>
<p>Well I did do a lot of p-sets on my own this past year for a number of reasons. The major one being that my physics class was a joke, so I got a different book, and studied it more in depth. So yeah, I did so some on my own but mostly because I was teaching myself everything. Dont worry, Im sure I'll have plenty to do when i get to college. Sorry if you thought I was trying to brag or boast or something, I was actually really afraid it would come off like that, but thats not it at all. I just want to get across my mindset.</p>
<p>Dont worry, I have taken plentyof B's (and a C) along the course of my high school, and plan to continue in college. And most of those were a direct result of either staying up till 2 AM playing Halo or Oblivion, or a result of spending way too much time practicing. There was actually a brief period in my life when I almost wanted to be a musician, and I spent a lot of time practicing. And of course I spend far too much time mindlessly surfing the web (what do you think the government is paying me all this money for? to do research? hardly! :)). I also have a girlfriend of over a year and a half that I spend a lot of time with. And I do excercise... just not in the traditional sense (I have been surfing snice I could walk, something I will dearly miss in c'ville, maybe I'll take up snowboarding).</p>
<p>Honestly, I think I give a very different picture of myself on here than I do in real life, and maybe I will be able to meet some of you guys one day (has anyone ever thought of having a UVa-CC meet up?!), so hopefully you'll be able to see that I have a life, and a lot of very close friends I spend my time with.</p>
<p>EDIT:I think the thing is, I have the idea that to go far in science, you have to be one of the best, to be focused and passionate about it. You can't waste time floundering around. Which is probably not wholly accurate. I spent a lot of time in my first few years (read: 3.5) of high school floundering and didn't get into a single one of the 'difficult' schools I applied to, I dont want that to happen again. What you seem to think is how I am and have always been is very much different than how I was when I started high school, and I guarantee that I will not graduate from college the same as I am today.</p>
<p>So yeah, I guess I am focused, but that doesn't mean I dont have a life.</p>
<p>EDIT PART II: Sorry guys, I didn't mean to steal this thread and turn it into a rant about how I need to have a life, this shouldn't have become all about me. You can have you thread back. :)</p>
<p>EDIT PART III: Actually, now that I think about it, I am leaving in about a half an hour to go camping on the eastern shore with my friends as a graduation party. This is relevant on multiple levels, mostly because I will be gone with no access to the intertubes for 3 days, so you guys can have your thread back.</p>
<p>Hahahahaha. Well, now we find out you were doing those sets for school. Much better. And don't sweat it, it's CC. Who knows, Cav may be a gross old guy who wishes he went to UVA (jk). We just wanted to point out to the general masses to not be totally academically-absorbed at UVA, because there's so much more to college life in C'ville than academics, and that's what makes UVA so unique. You were just a prop to use as an example =P
And, let me tell you something about reaching your goals: you don't necessarily need to be the best, with a 4.0, a long resume, and a ton of references. Look at me for example: I had a meager 3.2 from VT (3.1 overall), 3.67 from high school, and did the basic ECs that I enjoyed. Was I UVA standards? I don't think so, paper wise, because I watched other students with higher stats get rejected. But, I believed in what I wanted and even though I wasn't even close to te best, I had a heart and a passion and that's what got me in (if you haven't seen the transfer thread recently, I admitted to my "extra stuff" I sent...it was totally dopey but totally passionate). </p>
<p>What I find funny is the topic of this thread is "UVA's strengths?". Beyond academics, it's greatest strength is turning incoming students into real people when they graduate. You learn to balance work and play, academics and social life, your interests and what you should be doing. You will graduate being a different person. Heck, i'm different than I was last August. But no one should enter college, especially UVA, with a set mindset of doing well just academically. If you do, you'll never see the morph you undergo as a person, and you for sure will never embrace it. It will come naturally, so I guess Cav's and I's point is: let it happen :) Do what you want, do well, and enjoy college life. You already sound like you're going to do fine :)</p>
<p>PS- It's funny to think we'll all be living and working together next year. But, a staged meet-up, to me, would be awkward. I've become Facebook friends with two other transfers on here, and we mentioned it once, then not again. I guess it's the point of a discussion board: remain yourself, but just be another person in the world. If you ever think you've found me (heck, i'm only one of ~40 engineering transfers, and probably one of very few second-year girl engineering transfers haha it can't be that hard, in addition to my name on here sort of gives it away), ask. If not, well, there's always CC =P Have fun camping, don't get eaten by any bears</p>
<p>To bring this thread full circle: UVA's greatest strength (IMO) is the the balance between academic and social/extracurricular pursuits. The fantastically talented physics might also be a star ultimate frisbee player, and the dood in the backwards hat who shotguns a beer in two seconds might be headed for Duke medical school. UVA consistently sends a very large number of graduates on to top graduate and professional schools, as well as prestigious employers such as McKinsey, IBM, the state department, and others. At the same time, students seem to thoroughly enjoy themselves that they don't want to leave. This is reflected by UVA's graduation rate, which is the highest among all public universities.</p>
<p>If you take astr121/4 then I would also recommend Murphy - he's involved with the ed school and is a great lecturer. The only reason I didn't get an A in the class (I got an A-) is because I decided not to study for one of the tests and hang out with friends that night instead. As an Eschooler you would already know most of the background material in those intro classes (we spent time on plate tectonics, light, sound, molecules, etc and it was pretty boring for me even as a person who was not the best at science in high school). The stuff you learn that builds upon that I thought was really interesting - why we have time zones, how exactly we figured out that the earth is not in the center of everything, etc.</p>
<p>lol, i like how you guys went off on a physics/engineering and what have you tangent for about 80% of the thread.</p>
<p>but thanks for all the relevant replies, i really appreciate it. i wish UVA didn't end their ED program.</p>
<p>shoe -- just fyi, but i definitely heard that Amigos on the corner closed (rumors were floating last year that christians pizza was going to take the location), but since I'm about as far away from cville as possible this summer, I haven't been able to confirm in person. </p>
<p>I'll sure miss Margarita Wednesdays though...</p>
<p>k_jo: I heard that too! I just wasn't sure if it happened so quickly. I'm going to cry if I come to find out it's closed, that was the best safety plan around! Ahh the fond memories of Amigos. I'm going to miss it =(</p>
<p>christian's on the corner? that would be amazing though. that pizza is sooo good and cheap.</p>
<p>I sat in on a class of Murphy's. He seemed really interesting. I'll take it that he and Tolbert are the best then. Is it true that Astr 121 and 124 have to be taken the same semester for the minor? This is what the website says:</p>
<p>Both ASTR 121 and 124 cover complementary subject matter at an introductory level. Each is complete in itself, and students may take only one, or both concurrently.</p>
<p>Seems kinda lame. Also, can you take the 300 level classes before the 100's? If so would that put you at a disadvantage?</p>
<p>You can take 121 and 124 whenever you want. It doesn't matter. You can also take many 300 level courses without any lower level astronomy courses.</p>