Class Advice for Incoming Freshman

Submitted by UMClassOf2018 on

I will be heading to Ann Arbor for freshman orientation on Tuesday, and one task of orientation is to register for classes. I know many MGoBloggers attended Michigan, and to you, I would just like to ask for some scheduling advice in general. I am in LSA, but I'm going to be applying for Ross, so I will be taking a first year writing class, economics, and calculus for sure.

With that said, I am just curious as to what professors are good? Which first year writing classes/seminars are worth taking? I will probably be in Calc 2, but should I take Calc 116 or Calc 186 (honors)? Which econ 101 professor is worth taking? What other classes could be valuable? Any bit of advice that you could offer me would be very helpful. Thank you so much!

Team 101

June 8th, 2014 at 4:38 PM ^

ratemyprofessors.com is more reliable than you would think and better than what the advisers know.  As for electives, look into AMCULT 219 with Bruce Conforth.  Psych 111 with Schrier is also good.  I've heard Polsci 101 is easy.  I've heard to take Econ 101 with Malone but she is not teaching it this semester.

The Peanut Master

June 8th, 2014 at 4:53 PM ^

Unfortunately Malone is retiring and will not be teaching at Michigan anymore, which is unfortunate because she was imo the best 101 professsor and one of the best Econ professors at the university. Someone posting above apparently didn't like Malone and thought her 4.5 Ratemyprofessor was inaccurate, but if anything I don't think that's high enough.

Not that any of this matters anymore of course, and I've heard good things about Gerson. Proulx is the one to avoid.

Team 101

June 8th, 2014 at 4:38 PM ^

ratemyprofessors.com is more reliable than you would think and better than what the advisers know.  As for electives, look into AMCULT 219 with Bruce Conforth.  Psych 111 with Schrier is also good.  I've heard Polsci 101 is easy.  I've heard to take Econ 101 with Malone but she is not teaching it this semester.

Sports

June 8th, 2014 at 9:21 PM ^

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, TAKE HONORS CALC. It's significantly easier. I know that sounds weird, but you often get taught by actual professors and not GSI's who barely speak English. Class sizes are smaller, so you get more individual attention, which is important in Michigan's brutal Math department. The curve is also significantly easier, because there aren't a million other undergrads who basically remove the benefit of the curve. 



I was Honors and had to take Great Books, so I can't help you on the FYRW.

For Econ, go for anyone but Hogan. Seriously. Don't take 101 with Hogan. Take it with Gerson or Malone if you can. They're both good and offer multiple sections for scheduling flexibility. Their tests also are historically a bit easier than Hogan's. 

Beyond that, just take a course you find interesting or that goes to knock out a requirement. Most classes will deal with some sort of distribution requirement, so just find something you think is cool! Ross reviews are pretty holisitic, so don't feel pressured to take accounting or some shit like that. Just pursue a passion or interest. That's what college is about!

notYOURmom

June 8th, 2014 at 9:58 PM ^

Hi there and welcome



If you have to take the econ sequence and calc, GO EASY on everything else. Honeslty those prereq classes are graded on a really fierce curve, so don't overload yourself.



How do I know? I am on the Ross faculty.



DrewGOBLUE

June 9th, 2014 at 8:27 AM ^

Be cognizant of the time of day each class is at when you register. I always preferred mine be one right after another. For example, having all classes for one day between say 11 & 3 would be ideal, IMO. Others though may like having a couple hours between classes if it helps them study more efficiently. So it's really a matter of personal preference and something to be aware of.



Also, don't take any 8:00 am classes unless you absolutely have to. Some freshmen think it's no big deal since they've always had to wake up early. But you'll quickly realize that during college you don't have that nice, consistent routine like in HS. That said, there will be plenty of days in which getting up at the ass crack of dawn does more harm than good.



Definitely look into joining a volunteer fraternity as well as a business fraternity. That way, you will have plenty of opportunities to easily get involved in shit that will look good on your application to the B-School.



Lastly, a couple extremely easy courses I had which you may want to consider in order to fill out your schedule would be psych 111 (just not with the dude professor; I can't remember his name but he was way harder) and anthro 101. Then those freshmen seminars are always nice options as well. These are classes where there are always lots of hot girls too. So don't be shy; take advantage and make friends. Otherwise you'll later think back and wish you had.

French West Indian

June 9th, 2014 at 5:14 PM ^

...about being careful with the times of classes scheduled.  My 1st semester was a bit of a disaster because I had a lot of 1-hour gaps that left little time to do much of anything.  An hour wasn't enough time to return to the dorm.  And even if I didn't, by the time I'd find an empty spot to sit & study (whether on the Diag, in the library, etc.) it always felt like I had barely gotten started and then would need to pack up and head off to the next class.  For me, at least, scheduling classes back-to-back was a very good strategy.

Also, avoid the 8am classes.  Especially during winter.

Rumsey

June 9th, 2014 at 9:46 AM ^

To get an english speaking GSI for math 116 go on wolverine access a week or so before classes start. By then they have the names of the GSI's online and you can switch sections to someone with an American sounding name.

db012031

June 9th, 2014 at 12:56 PM ^

What language did you take in High School?  When i was at UofM (1999-2003) if you took the language exam (Spanish for me) and had a certain score, if you then took 1 language course and got a B or higher, would you get 4 additional credits to use for your degree.  This definately helped in your later years when you had a super difficult schedule so you could essentially take 1 less course.

 

Also, if you are looking for an "Easy" course to help build your GPA, I believe it was called something like "Aids in America"  (content speaks for itself).  There were 5 Tests during the course, all of them were built from previous years tests which were all available at the professors website.  You could either take the sum of all your test scores or the Final exam for your final grade.  I think no one showed up for the final exam my year because we all took the 5 tests during the course.  It was acutally a pretty decent class but when you have a super heavey course load, its nice to pad your GPA a bit.

Kingpin74

June 9th, 2014 at 5:00 PM ^

DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT, take Math 156 or Math 186 or whatever Applied Honors Calc 2 is called now unless you are an absolute ace at Math and Science. I graduated from the Ross BBA Program and from UM Law School and Math 156 is by far the hardest class I've ever taken. I'm not a math genius or anything but I did pretty well in AP Calc AB in high school and I was in completely over my head in 156. Maybe I just underestimated how difficult college calc can be, but it's calc applied to physics and I found it very difficult/time consuming/soul-crushing. I was with a lot of engineering students who were on a different plane than me in that particular subject. I pulled a B- by the grace of God and the generous honors curve but it wasn't worth anywhere close to the stress it involved and it sapped my energy from other classes, turning couple of should be A-/As in other classes into B+/Bs. Plus Econ is really important to your business school app and while not terribly difficult material, it requires a lot of focus.

Take regular Calc 116 and maybe even push it to 2nd semester when your application is in already (brutal true curve centered at a C+/B- as others have noted). If you insist on Calc and Econ right out of the gate your first semester, channel the 2014 Michigan home football schedule for your other 2 classes. I recommend History 265, which is History of the University of Michigan (both very easy and interesting) or Am Cult 100 (same thing, and not much day to day work). Stats 350 is a good one for 2nd semester also. Useful stuff for business school, manageable material, and a pretty generous grading format if Gunderson is still teaching (you get to drop one of your test scores or something like that if you prefer to use your final exam grade).

If you split Calc and Econ up between Fall and Winter, knock out your English requirement in the fall too. If you're in the Honors Program, Great Books isn't terrible. It's a lot of material if you actually do all the reading, but lecture is completely useless and Spark Notes suffice a lot of the time (I know, I'm bad). Plus people just like to hear themselves talk in that class, so you can argue almost anything and sound decent if you're intelligent. Good luck! It really is a great experience, wouldn't trade it for anything.