<p>I ask because I am confused. I was told that it is a good idea to plan your schedule in advance to make sure you are on the right path, but Stanford's GER requirements confuse me.
GER</a> Area Requirements | Student Affairs</p>
<p>So is freshman year based solely on fulfilling GER requirements, or do you spread them out throughout your four years? I guess I'm just wondering if anyone can post what their freshman year classes were so that I'd be less confused. :P</p>
<p>I am a Stanford undergrad.</p>
<p>No, freshman year is not based on filling GERs. You can take them whenever. You do have to take two ‘Learning Matters’ courses from what I understand (they changed it from when I was a freshman).</p>
<p>Otherwise, you choose classes that are interesting and fun to you! IntroSems are great. I would <em>highly</em> suggest taking at least 1 or 2 your freshman year.</p>
<p>Don’t worry too much about your major (do that sophomore year). Align as many classes as you can with your interests.</p>
<p>For some majors, you should absolutely be taking related classes in your freshman year, so that you can meet the prerequisites for core classes that are taken sophomore year. For example, Econ majors should be taking at least Econ 1A, 1B, and Math 51 in their freshman years. You can go deeper in the major if you wish to, even in the freshman year, with good planning.</p>
<p>You only have two required classes which last one quarter each–one PWR class, which is a basically a writing class based on a topic of your choice, and one “Thinking Matters” class, which is a humanities class on a chosen topic.</p>
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<p>Bad advice for some majors, especially engineering. If you don’t get started with math and a couple intro science classes, you’ll get behind, even if you have AP credit. </p>
<p>Even in these majors, you can still dabble quite a bit your freshman year (heck, you used to have to take 3 quarters of ihum/“thinking matters”).</p>
<p>It’s not necessarily a bad idea to knock out as many GERs as possible freshman year. That way, you can know early on what fields are most appealing to you. The GERs are intended to be starting off points, a bare minimum, not a finale. Well, at least if you value a liberal education. That’s one cool thing about Stanford (maybe) is that YOU decide what kind of education is important to you.</p>
<p>What are you planning to major in?</p>
<p>The minimum required during first year are Writing (PWR1) and a thinking matters course. Everything else is negotiable. </p>
<p>CS106A is a popular course for first quarter students. I believe Thinking matters is expected in first or second quarter while PWR1 is assigned to you in one of the quarters.</p>
<p>My son is currently a freshman at Stanford and is undecided about his major, but is leaning toward International Relations or Econ at the moment. In his first quarter, he took a fairly light load: an introductory IR class, Japanese, and his required Thinking Matters class, along with a Tai Chi class for fun. Second quarter he took a heavier load: Econ 1A, Math 51, Japanese, and the required PWR class. This quarter he’s taking Econ 1B, Stats, Japanese, and is still deciding between two seminar classes (he’s attending both until the drop deadline at the end of next week). OP, I hope that gives you some idea, at least for someone not in sciences or engineering.</p>