Classes...Scheduling...It's all up to you!
Good question Aysha!...it is actually about that time of the semester when class registration occurs.
What will happen for first year students, when you come during summer orientation you will take placement tests in math and English on the first day and the results will be calculated for the second day for registration purposes. You will then be directed on how to use to UOnline, which is a website generated means for seeing course offerings and selecting courses you wish to take. Minus the general core requirements and your major requirements (and still in these areas sometimes), the choice of what you take is up to you! If you are interested in art, history, politics, sociology or whatever, there is a class for you to take!
If you aren't coming to a summer orientation session then you will be taking the placement tests in the fall, and course offerings will probably be limited and in some cases you may be preregistered in whatever is available. (That is what happened to me starting in January of 2005).
Now, the tricky part...how to pick classes and lay out your schedule.
Here are a few things I consider...
1) What do I NEED to take?
2) What looks interesting to me?
3) Do I want morning classes/late classes/night classes?
4) Can I plan to have a day completely off during the week?
So, I check out the course listing and I make a list of what looks good, its date and time...organized by section (I write all my ART classes together, all my ENG classes together and so on). Decide which classes I want the most, figure out what I want for a class schedule, and get it down to 4-6 classes that I want. Classes are usually M,W,F for an hour or T,Th for an hour and a half or one day a week classes for three hours...it all depends what you think you would prefer. Of course just starting, you may not know what you would prefer. I wouldn't suggest a three hour class to start your first semester, simply because they are long and tend to be tiring. But, you know yourself best and what you can handle.
Here is my schedule this semester
Monday: Watercolor 9-10:20
Women and the Environment 10:30-11:50
Art History 12:30-1:50
Tuesday: American Lit Survey II 9:30-10:50
Wednesday: Watercolor 9-10:20
Women and the Environment 10:30-11:50
Art History 12:30-1:50
Ceramics II 2:00-4:50
French History 5:30-8:20
Thursday: American Lit Survey II 9:30-10:50
Friday: OFF!!! (so technically my weekend starts at 11 on Thursday)
Although my Wednesday is really long...the other days balance it out. I love the three day weekend too!
It maybe super complicated at first, and as a first year classes can be limited...but you get used to it! It's like a puzzle for me at this point.
Hope that answered your question...feel free to ask more!
Comments
Oh, okay. So some of the days will be really long, but it will work out for the weekends which will be nice. I want to double major in Psychology (or Psychobiology-I don't know which one would work better for me) and Medical Biology. I don't know if those two would work well together, but that is what I came up with :) As far as planning out the classes, your instructions will help a lot. I knew that we had the chance to pick our classes and everything, but I did not know how many and things like that. Thank you very much.
-Aysha
Posted by: Aysha | March 30, 2007 9:51 PM