My previous Planning College Classes post outlined a 5-step process for figuring out what you need to do as an entering college student, and offered Step 1: Finding the requirements for your possible major. This post takes you through the second step: making a list of requirements for your possible major.
Step 2: Listing what’s required
Trying to sort of the general education requirements can be a headache, so it might be easier to start with you (proposed) major. Simply write down the requirements listed on the department’s page (either on the dept website or from the hardcopy of the university handbook).
Let’s say you’re attending My University next year (MU for short) and you’re going to major in history at MU, here’s how this step breaks down:
A history major at MU has to:
- Take 3 intro courses: HIST1011, HIST1110, HIST 1120, HIST 1121, HIST1310, or HIST 1311
- Take at least 8 courses 2000-level or higher.
- 1 on history before 1750: HIST 2803, 2804, 2112, 2113, 3111, 3118, 3103, 3140, 3180, 3150, 3130, 3132, 3134, 3302, 3510, 3610, or 3710; possibly sections of HIST 3001 and 2005, and some courses in 3350 and 0801 series.
- 2 classes in each of 3 areas:
- Europe
- United State
- Asia, Africa, Mid. East, Latin America
- The Sophomore Seminar: 2005W or 2x05W (a writing intensive course)
- Write an undergrad research paper by taking the Thesis Seminar (HIST4098W) or, if you qualify for honors, HIST 4099
- 2 semesters (2 classes/1 year long class) of a foreign language
This sounds like a hella lot of classes…but in reality some of these classes might overlap.
Don’t panic yet, we’ll sort this out in Step 3: Organizing the list of options.
And you are done for today!
Academic RX 