OT: Recommended Freshman classes
My daughter is going to UM orientation next week! She'll have to take Calc 1 and some Freshman English seminar (this is new to me). Maybe intro Chem or third term Spanish depending on her placement tests?
Anyway I was wondering if the easy, interesting, freshman electives/fourth classes were still the same? Cultural Anthro with Conrad Kottak was a great one back in the day. Some of my friends took PSych (111?) AStronomy 101 was another good one back then.
Anyone have any good recommendations for classes/profs for a first year student who really doesn't know what she wants to be just yet?
Some of the Freshman writing seminars 124 or 125? seem way out there but I'm not going to judge. Any good/interesting sections to recommend?
I have bad dreams of an orientation counselor talking her into String Theory taught by an unintelligible foreign TA. Maybe some flashbacks to some trying Engin School days.
Thanks in advance for any input.
If taken seriously, with the right mix of competitiveness and open-mindedness, courses like that prepare a person to succeed at anything.
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If she's planning on Ross... then Calc I, Econ 101/102, English, Statistics + w/e other easy intro courses there are to get her above a 3.5 on the year.
Premed then Gen Chem + lab, Statistics, Intro Bio lab, Calc I (take Calc II somewhere else easy), Animal Phys 2nd semester (if she has AP Bio credit; if not then regular Bio 171? I think is the #), + Spanish and w/e else is left.
Anthro and Psych are 2 easy As generally speaking.
Hardest 3 classes I named there are just Calc II, Calc I and Econ 101 imo.
I took all of em except Calc II, which is a lot harder at Michigan than other schools for some reason. So I took that over the summer somewhere else after hearing nightmares from my friends.
Most people end up taking those classes too due to LSA's gen ed requirements.
Anthro 101 was9 probably the easiest 4 Credit A I ever had at Michigan. I definitely would recommend it. (it's also a pretty interesting class too)
When I took it, the prof had just written a book. He offered to add one point to our final grade for every error we found in the book. I never went to class, but meticulously proofread the entire book and earned my first and only A+ in my entire kindergarten through law school academic career.
I took that and while it was fun, you're required to take 4 semesters to fulfill the language requirement while other languages require only 3 (IIRC).
All LSA students are required to take 4 classes of a language (or test out of a certain number, then take the remaining ones to get to the 4th level)
IF Michigan allows the credits
Great Books with Cameron was for lack of a better term, "great"
Nearly all Math classes available here at Umich. Still too scared to try Great Books.
Cameron retired.
Sadly iirc my freshman year was his last teaching that course. Class gave a standing ovation after his first and last lecture. He had great guest profs come and teach too. I can't recall his name but I think he's still with the performing arts program, some guy gave the best lecture on Dante's divine trilogy. So involved and knowledgeable, wish I could remember his name. I went to Cameron's office hours after the lecture and asked about him and Cameron said verbatim "I almost failed out of school because he (the guest lecturer) made me do so much coke with him". Such a great class.
Ralph Williams
Dude is the Classical Lit Harbaugh. Those who've seen him teach know it.
I took Psych 111 as my fourth class in Freshman year. Absolute joke. The topics are fairly interesting, and the class is so easy (rarely paid attention and ended up doing fine). If she's doing pre-med, she has to take psych anyway so I'd recommend it. It's a good, easy class to ease into college life. General advice on freshman year: take it slow. It takes a little bit to get used to everything in college so it's okay if you're not loading up 17 credits a semester then.
Make sure the English Seminar counts toward her GPA. I took a freshman writing course that didn't count toward my GPA, total waste of time.
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Hat's fine.
hat is still up for discussion.
Leave my hat alone! My hat is not ridiculous--it makes me feel good, so screw you.
Free Hat!
but there is some good advice here that she should consider and never know about next week when she has to pick classes. Options are good. In my case, Cult Anthro was a first semester class I really enjoyed and helped the old GPA. I only knew about it because from a UM friend who was a year older gave me a tip.
One day when you are an M dad and footing a good part of the bill you'll be more sympathetic ; )
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Footing a good part of the bill is not an excuse to be a helicopter parent. Kids fail. Get over it. You micromanaging their lives denies them that very valuable opportunity to learn the hard way.
There's a good book on this subject, "How To Raise an Adult" by Julie Lythcott-Haims, I believe. She was a Dean of Students at Stanford for 10 years and has a lot of experience dealing with parents who are too involved in their kids' lives. It scared the bejesus out of me. Now I don't even talk to my kids for fear of screwing them up. Kidding. But it is eye opening and helps you check yourself if your tendency is to do too much for them.
I'm sure it's great, but do you reallly need to read an entire book on this? Here's what I do with my kids: If my parents born pre-WWII weren't involved in it, I stay away. The only thing I do is coach one of my kids in sports because I enjoy it and I am careful not to treat him any differently. I'm sure I make mistakes but they aren't massive.
I can't imagine my parents picking classes for me, helping me with my home work, helping me get jobs, picking my clothes and friends, driving me around. When these get to school or the workplace they are lost. I'm sure you can make a book out of that, but it's common sense.
I actually do need to read a book on this. My parents weren't great role models and so I seek out information where I can get it. Such is life. Either you have really good role models, or you cobble together information to make sense of something. I had to do the latter.
GEO seminar with Jeff Alt. Dude is a straight baller [insert baller pic] and you learn about waves, clouds & shit.
His daughter is going to Michigan, fergodsakes, not ohio.
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Have her take Psych 111 in the winter with Schreier. She is an amazing professor plus it's an easy class.
Half semester GEO science classes are pretty cool. They are fun and interesting, but do require some hard and focused studying to get an A.
Also, should try for a schedule without too many gaps, especially if living on North Campus. This could be more personal preference, but I found it annoying to have just 2-3 hours of class time spread out from like 10:00-6:00.
I always scheduled 8 a.m. classes. I loved getting everything out of the way by early afternoon (I STILL HATE YOU 1-5 p.m. CHEM LABS!).
and when I took higher level chemistry classes the majority of us thought that organic was pretty easy and quite enjoyable. Some people it just makes sense to, especially when listening to Brian Coppola.
My wife was a chem major and loved Organic Chem.
I was a bio major and thought Organic Chem was the devil's work.
Magic arrows make everything happen in the reactions. As a fellow chem major, it's definitely the dark arts that orgo teachers fancy.