OT: Recommended Freshman classes

Polsci 101 with Lisa Dische was a great class. Fun and interesting topics/discussions and not too stressful. Plus Lisa is awesome.

I'm sure much has changed since I was a freshman in 1993, but I do remember thinking the basic microeconomics class (maybe 201?) and Introduction to Logic were really good foundational classes. Neither is very difficult and the material is stuff I constantly used both throughout college and afterward.

Easy and interesting.

I highly recommend psych 111 for an easy 4 credit A. As an enginerd I needed an easy A and more importantly was dying to see hot girls in my class. First day lecture was in the big mlb hall, such a great ratio, more than 50% women! Recessitation class afterwards had two cute girls. I picked one and walked her down the stairs after class. She commuted from troy. She offered to drive me and my bike back to my house on linden. That wkd she came down to our first house party. She spent the night. From then on every Tuesday / Thursday after psych 111 class she drove my bike and I home to linden and we hooked up before she drove back to troy. Eventually my roommates would be sure to be home in time to sit on the couch to say hello then goodbye to her. It was ridiculous. She will forever be know as "psych 111". So yes, have her take that class. It will be an easy A and she might meet the man of her dreams. Go blue. And in all seriousness, congrats on your daughter getting into michigan. Must be such a proud time for you.

Intro oceanography. Very cool elective for someone with a bit of interest in science, though it is not at all competitive, like most of the pre-med courses. 

I took a Conrad Kottak class - possibly Cultural Anthropolgy but I'm so old, I can't remember. I do remember enjoying the class. 

things like:

cave painting

better use of spears and skins

raising dinosaurs for fun and profit

stone tablets - where to get them, how to store them, can they be used as shields

Well if she's LSA, they should all be pretty easy!

After graduating recently, 2011, I would say for her first semester she should try to take it easy. 12 or so credits with one English class, one science class, one easy A and something of her choosing. Foreign languages were never hard, but they can have a bunch of busy work. Whereas your hard sciences will just be based off of exam performance.

I used to teach 125 sections at UM and still know people who are doing so. Note that the 124s are generally taught by English PhD-candidates while the 125s are taught MFAs and faculty writers (published fiction writers or poets). While the courses are all designed to teach academic writing skills and--ideally--critical thinking, there is a wide latitude in the subject matter which can be addressed by an instructor and most teach to their fields of study within the English department, or their own passions and interests. Given this, she should read the course descriptions carefully. Make sure the texts and subjects addressed appeal to her or it will be a long, miserable semester. Potentially, a well-taught 124/125 can provide a great college intro in helping to provide the critical thinking skills she'll need at that level and beyond, so study those options.

Let your daughter make these choices.
Youre 40-50 on a M sports blog asking what classes your daughter should take fergodsaks.
Frosh classes are 90% already picked for you. Just hope shes learned to drink somewhat responsibly and isnt yearning to go boy crazy.

And happy Father's Day. Welcome to the club. I hope you got a "Michigan Dad" coffee mug or beer glass or something this AM. FWIW, my wife and I took the approach that the student ought to figure it out. She figures it out = she owns it. You figure it out = you own it. By all means, be there for advice and counsel, but she's going to Michigan so she can figure it out. I would recommend going to the parent orientation. I was skeptical of its value (what are they going to tell me about my alma mater that I don't already know?) but it turned out to be pretty good--especially the panel discussions with current students. This theme of letting them decide the degree of your involvement in their lives as students was a big one.

Not gonna lie when I saw this, I thought it was about recruits

Professor's name escapes me, though

Just start clicking off your prerequisite classes. You'll get to the better stuff quicker if you just knock those off early

Agree what others have said about anthro 101 and psych 111 bring easy As and I thought both were interesting classes, especially psych. I also found the stats 100 or 350 class to be really easy as well, but I know they aren't for everyone.

when I was there (early 80s), but consider taking a physical anthropology class from Prof. Wolpoff. The class I took from him was one of the best I took there.  He's animated and keeps the subject matter interesting.  He's a well known and major proponent of multiregional model of human evolution.

The hardest part of the final (or mid-term) was naming the bones in the body.  I think he gave credit for 'head bone' in lieu of 'skull'.

I got talked into calc 2 and orgo (plus engin 100) my first semester. Huge mistake that lead to me starting off with a 2.4 gpa that took me the rest of college to dig myself out of.

Obviously you've gotten advice on a lot of classes by now, but a few tips, I wouldn't recommend any freshman taking more than 14 credits a semester to start. Its too hard to jump in and try to do all. If she has to take orgo1/2 or calc 1/2 I would recommend taking them in the second semester of freshman year, or possibly even take them at a community college if they aren't a huge part of her field but are still required, because those are really, really hard classes. Best of luck to your daughter and congrats!

Psych and Art History classes are for future bartenders. Courses that give you a foundation in how to use computers and mathematics to make sense of large amounts of data will serve you in any future career path.

I'd echo the folks saying don't overload the first year if she can avoid it. For me at least, half the battle the first year was just getting used to college life, regulating my own schedule/week, etc. A few other thoughts: if she isn't looking to become particularly fluent in Spanish, and if Michigan allows it (I went to a different undergrad that did), then consider NOT placing out of Spanish 101. You may be paying for those credits which aren't adding to her knowledge base, but if she has basic proficiency, then using Spanish 101 & 102, etc. is an excellent way to pad the GPA against maybe some of the more brutal classes she'll end up taking eventually. I was convinced as a freshman to take an honors English class. Big mistake. No employer or grad school cared and it took a huge time investment just to pull out a halfway decent grade. Looking back the only reason I did it was because it stroked my ego. Another thing to consider is during the summer term after the freshman or sophomore year, maybe stick around Ann Arbor and just take the ONE class that might be the big weeder/foundational classes for her major, one required class that she knows she will struggle with. She'll have the time to make it a priority to get that A in the critical class she'll need to transfer to Ross or to apply for med school, etc. Plus with the one brutal class out of the way, the load in the fall/winter won't be as bad because she can swap out what would've been the brutal class with something more mid level. My wife did that as a pre Med. She took all her physics one summer and she's convinced that made all the difference. In addition to the one class consider either taking a summer job or independent research job or something related to her major. Anyway. My 2 cents.

I just went to orientation and am taking Calc 2, Spanish 277, Intro to Anthro, and English 124. How does that sound?

Musicology 101! I got to write my final essay on "I'll be missing you" by puff daddy. Easy but also fun class

SAC 236 if she likes movies