<p>Let's start a thread (hopefully some current students or parents can chime in) and get a list going of which professors in which classes to take and which to avoid. I know that going into the class enrollment paperwork due to come out in April, this will be very helpful for our kids who will be attending this fall as Freshmen.</p>
<p>And hi everyone, just found this board and sectio, glad to be here.</p>
<p>First semester freshmen do not get to pick specific class sections and profs. You will get a registration packet in the mail and instructions to help you choose courses. This gets mailed to your advisor who reviews it and then a schedule is formulated. You receive the schedule from your advisor during orientation and review it together and make any necessary changes.</p>
<p>There is a section of the myUM site that has faculty evaluations for use after the first semester when kids actually choose their course sections and profs. My S did not have any trouble getting the classes he wanted for the second semester. He had one section that was his second choice, but during the drop/add week a slot opened up in his first choice and his advisor was able to easily switch it. I think there is a rule that until a student has something like 60 credits, their schedules must be reviewed by their advisor before they can register for classes. So far, he has only had one prof (calc) that he said he would never take another class with. This semester he really likes his calcII prof.</p>
<p>The registration materials seemed very complicated at first with explanations of all the gen ed requirements, but once S sat down and went through it, it was pretty straight forward. Good luck.</p>
<p>jdm-Where are you from?</p>
<p>Hi and welcome. This is an excellent idea for a thread; however, I'm afraid it really won't do much good for a freshman. Classes at Miami are done a little different for incoming freshman. Your s/d will be placed in ENG106 (I believe thats the beginning #) automatically. If they are going to take a math course...that course will be determined by SAT/ACT score or by placement test when they get to campus. The rest of the courses they will rate as to their need. Lets say they want two more science courses, so they would put Intro to Chem as a #1 and they want an Intro to Bio they would put it as a #1 as well. As a freshman, they do not have the opportunity to pick times and professors. Don't fret though! This in my opinion is a good thing for several reasons. First and foremost, almost every class will be intro classes and consequently the professors are used to dealing with freshman. And secondly, most (not all!) will get a few early morning classes scattered here and there. I think this is good, because to be quite honest, it keeps them from spending too much time as a "night owl." Time management is probably the hardest thing for freshman to learn in my opinion. As bright as most of the kids are, they don't struggle with that first semester unless they find themselves with an odd schedule which allows them to do TOO much partying and not enough time sleeping and studying. Just ask Wish - as her sons roommate basically did just that - bought into the hype that UM was a place he didn't have to study for and a party Sunshine U. </p>
<p>When your kids get ready to do their schedule for their Spring semester (which they will then pick the actually days-times-professors, EASY/MyUM has a professor rating system set up. </p>
<p>Now....as far as specific classes, I've only heard son talk bad about one class and just dropped it because he said it was boring <em>mom rolls eyes</em>. Biology of Aging (400 level class-writing credit). He switched to Ethics of Genetics (400-500 level class for writing credit.) This is the one thing your child will have to overcome if he/she is a science major at UM. Everyone must have 5 upperlevel writing courses to graduate and these are far and few between in the hard sciences department......</p>
<p>Best of luck to your S/D!!</p>
<p><em>edited</em> Great minds think alike M3S!! :)</p>
<p>Hey ya Son's,</p>
<p>I'm from Colorado, hence my son's heavy weight on going someplace where there is no snow. He hates winter.</p>
<p>Thanks for both those replies. Very good info. I still think this would be a good thread though at least for the 2nd semester then. S will be a Comp Sci major coming in with at least 23 and up to 30 AP credits (depending on how this years tests go) so some of the intro classes he will probably be credited out of. The writing requirement classes will probably prove to be a challenge then if they are few are far between. he's also planning on doing either a semester or year abroad during his undergrad so maybe he will be able to satisfy that requirement partially during the study abroad.</p>
<p>Well... my economics teacher is awesome (Moltchanov). He teaches ECO302 and makes it easy by relating it to things that make the course and the material much easier to learn (for example the normal products are beer and chips). Pardo is horrible for physics, I can tell you that much. I don't know if engineering students get peer advisors but all business students do and you can just ask them which professors you should try to get and which ones you should stay away from.</p>