Course selection quandary

[meanfreepath]

First off: can anyone obtain paper course schedules for Bryn Mawr and/or Haverford? I checked at the Swat registrar today and they're not expecting to get any paper versions. The online form is rather annoying to use, and I like having a paper version when trying to make tough decisions. This is not critical, but I do want to have all the options on the table so to speak.


Courses I'm definitely taking:
PHYS 111 Analytical Dynamics (Bug)
PHYS 112 Electrodyanmics (Grossman)

Courses I probably will take
ENGL 020 Shakespeare (Riebling)
PHYS 081 Advanced Lab I (Grossman) (0.5 credits)

I'm currently signed up for those three, plus the following:

MATH 049 Intro. Modern Algebra (Hunter)
I feel like I should take the math. I have yet to get to anything more sophisticated than 16H, and I think I should test myself now while I still have time to back out of an honors math minor. If I take 49 now and bomb it, I can switch to chemistry next fall and pull off a chem minor with 2 semesters of pchem and the spectroscopy seminar, which shouldn't be so bad after taking the quantum and stat mech physics seminars. However, I adamantly don't want to be in Hunter's section. I'm worried enough about carrying the math on top of two seminars, although rose_garden did it successfully. I could go for Analysis with Grinstead but given his reputation seems like a recipe for self-destruction. Perhaps, as a good Swattie, that's what I ought to do...

Things I might want to take if I dropped the math:
ARTH 002 Western Survey (Cothren)
I always wanted to take some art history, to make museum-going a richer experience.
CLAS 031 Greece & the Barbarians (Turpin)
CPSC 021 Imperative Paradigm with C (Newhall)
EDUC 021 Educational Psychology (Renninger)
This would keep the teacher certification option alive, even though I'm really of a mind to drop it and focus on getting a good liberal education at Swat.
HIST 005B United States: 1877-1945 (A. Dorsey)

LING 001 Intro. to Language & Linguistics (Napoli)
LING 050 Syntax (Napoli)

MUSI 011 Harmony and Counterpoint 1 (Friedman) -- there's a musicianship lab to this, I know
PSYC 001 Introduction to Psychology (Schneider)
POLS 001 Political Theory (Halpern or Sharpe, probably Halpern)
RELG 003 Hebrew Bible & Ancient Near East (Deutsch) -- will deal with texts like the Epic of Gilgamesh, which I haven't read and ought to
RELG 023 Quakers Past and Present (Frost/Rose) -- don't know much about Quakerism, but the course will spend some time on the history of Swarthmore, in which I am interested
SOAN 008E Sociology of Law (O'Connell)

And then there's the language option. I'm sure crystalpyramid will poke me to take Russian...
GERM 001B Intensive German (Werlen)
LATN 001 Intensive 1st Year Latin (Muson/Turpin)
RUSS 001B Intensive Russian (Pesenson)
The disadvantage here, of course, is the drill for the languages, and the yearlong commitment. I love German music, and it was traditionally the lingua franca of science. They used to say that you couldn't call yourself an educated man if you didn't know Latin, and it's just cool nonetheless. And Russian has its allure too.

Does anyone have any suggestions or comments? Especially about the linguistics courses (I'm leaning towards Syntax)? Any thoughts about taking the math, or not taking it?

And now I must stop procrastinating from packing.

Comments

[msarcher.livejournal.com]

Think about why you want to take what you want to be taking and how to optimize your learning experience. (as my father would say)

I've probably conveyed this to you before, but John gave me good advice when I was itching to take 5 courses and 3 lab sciences. He said 'After the two weeks of add-drop take a look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself if this is the person you want to be.' I would now add the caveat imagine that you've got half again the workload you're dealing with and think about whether you'll survive finals.

I'm signed up for:
Physical Chemistry
Modern Algebra
Intro a la Novela Hispanoamericana

I plan to take:
Physical Chemistry
Analytical Methods
Political Economy of Africa
Intro to Education
Dance class!

This means I will be in the privileged position of sauntering into the cafeteria for registration minutes before the rampaging hordes of freshmen get their chance.

[sildra.livejournal.com]

Intro language courses are a lot of work. I think taking them at the same time as two physics seminars (especially since you've never taken physics seminars before) would be a rather bad idea. So feel free to cross those off your list.

As for the math, is it something you want to learn? If it is, it might be ok, despite the prof, and anyway, it's just for one semester; you'll survive it. And if you're planning to minor in math, you should definitely take some math.

[crystalpyramid]

I've heard that Donna Jo's ling classes are easy, especially Ling 1. Syntax certainly was (2-3 hours/week of work spent on problem sets due each Sunday - although she believes in group work, so you have to find time in your schedule to meet with people). I still think Syntax is pretty nifty, and learned some cool things, but I'm not sure how stimulating I felt the class was, overall.

CS 21 is allegedly quite easy if one has prior programming experience. I'm toying with taking it as a 5th credit, maybe pass/fail, but that might be a truly bad idea.

Though Russian is a beautiful language, the professors totally rock, and first year Russian is far less difficult than second-year Russian (oh, except for all that memorizing of basic grammar...), I really don't recommend an intro language class unless you're really serious about it. Remember that it's 1.5 credits, meets every day, and that most intro languages meet at 8:30, though I think Russian's at 11:30 generally. Also, I found that having some Latin really helped with Russian, (and probably vice versa), so it's probably trickier without (it's because both are inflected languages, so one has a general sense for the way they work).

uncleamos is taking the Quaker class. Jerry Frost is cool, though I don't know him as a teacher - he works in Friends. Chris the grumpy said the textbooks were small, numerous, and expensive (like physics 6 books, only more so). I don't know if that matters to you. Knowing Swarthmore history makes things interesting, and there's a lot of it. Quaker history is pretty interesting too, with all the schisms and oppression.

[fiddledragon.livejournal.com]

Donna Jo's syntax class is very easy, though I enjoyed it - it's fun-easy, not boring-easy. Incidentally, I'll be your grader if you take that :) David Harrison's Phonetics and Phonology is also a good first ling class if that fits in your schedule, and it's more rigorous than Donna Jo's classes. It also involves more computers, and you get to hear him talk about fieldwork in Siberia.