I’m taking a semester off for the first time. I have to–otherwise I would transfer as a senior next year, and that would block me off from the UCs I want to go to.
So I’m going to be working, crossing my fingers and waiting for admissions letters. No idea what I’ll be taking in Fall 08, but it’s safe to assume it will all be ground-floor linguistics stuff, plus Spanish IV and/or French I, since I’ve already taken every elective under the sun. (English? Plenty. Science? Bio, physics, and chem with labs. Psychology, philosophy and poli sci? You bet. Public speaking? Done it. Music history? Yep. California court system? Aced it. Calc? Passed that too.) Hrmm…maybe I should start with morphology and phonology, the things I find the most interesting. Or should I save those for later, and get the hard(er because it’s less interesting to me) stuff out of the way first? Or should I pick a specialty and take some psychology, anthropology or computer science? Decisions, decisions.
That’s hilarious. I should remember to tell my partners to eat well the day before we compete with the other students in our class - “for tonight, we dine IN HELL!”
For many, if not most art history classes, you will have an exam based on a series of images. For my Classics art history/archaeology courses at UCLA, the professor usually assigned >100 slides relevant to the course. For each of those slides, I am expected to remember what it shows, the technique used, the site where it was discovered, the period it was done in, the museum it now resides in, and other notable facts.
At JC, my AH prof. had us do the same thing, only she would also pick two “mystery” slides, something we hadn’t seen in class but had to identify, giving a persuasive essay as to why we thought it was what it was (very easy intro-level classes, she always picked distinctive “Well no shit” sort of stuff.)
BTW, Hostile Dialect, I’ve got my fingers crossed for you, and will be thinking of you come April/May.
Calc II - Nervous, as I supposedly tested out of this but am not confident
Physics I - Tested out, but want some honors credit and GPA boosters
Statics
Microeconomics
Engineering programming - visual basic
Ah, OK. Sounds like the listening exam I had in Rock History (and was supposed to have in Jazz History, but the teacher didn’t get it ready in time so we didn’t get to do it). As you might have guessed, the students in the Rock History class were a lot less serious and a lot more juvenile than the students in Jazz History, and they whined and bitched about taking a listening test. I couldn’t believe it. They were actually complaining about a teacher giving them points for listening to rock music. Boggles the mind.
Thanks! My dream school right now is Berkeley, since George Lakoff, one of my favorite linguists, teaches there. If I get into both Berkeley and UCLA it’ll be a really tough call, though.
I had honors music appreciation with the conductor of the local symphony, and the students in there bitched about listening tests, too. Some people will just bitch regardless.
Both are excellent schools, although I know UCLA is known for their linguistics program. Go to Berkeley though so I can live vicariously through you! I’m still sorta bummed that I had to turn them down. Best of luck!
I don’t know what university you’re at, but can you tell us about what your school’s ling progression is like? If there are multiple phonology courses you’ll probably be happiest taking introductory syntax and phonology in your first semester, and if you think you can handle it it really doesn’t hurt to take intro phonetics at the same time. In any event, once those three prerequisites are out of the way you should take morphology and semantics together, and take whatever advanced phonetics and phonology you want together.
Mind you, there’s nothing wrong about starting with morphology, although you should really be talking to one of your department’s advisers about this, since they answer exactly this sort of question on a regular basis. But in any event, depending on the framework they use, syntax will either be extremely useful or largely irrelevant to introductory morphology. Either way, though, syntax, semantics, and phonology are all quite helpful when you take morphology.
I’m in Mechanical Engineering about 2nd Semester too. I’m an evening student (with 70+ credits), and I have Statics next semester as well. I would have taken Physics at the same time, but it’s not offered in the evening this semester, so I’ll take that in the Fall. I’m also going to submit a portfolio this semester so I can get credit for Drafting I. I don’t need to learn how to draw a circle, I have been employed as a drafter for 10+ years.
I’m in Electric Circuits this semester (Final Monday night) and my prof. says the math we are using this semester is the same for Statics, just with a different application and units. I really hope this is true as I’m getting straight A’s so far.
Strategic Management (with the prof that believes group presentations are better than term papers!)
Propaganda in America (no joke. Emphasis on WW2 and GWOT)
Intro to Communications (I need 128 credits. This will put me up to 129)
I love the last semester! Now, to work on those GMATs.
Nifty! I had a violence in the ancient world class last year, and my prof is coming out with a book soon on the Roman arena. If you need any help or want someone to bounce ideas off of, let me know.
I’m taking:
Roman Religion (yay!)
Italic Dialects (mostly Oscan and Umbrian, I’m told)
Independent reading in Latin (fragments of Late Republican orators, the pseudo-Sallustian letters, Caesar’s Civil Wars book 1)
I’m also reading for my comps next semester. Should be fun!
Oh, also - it’s going to be my last semester of classes for my PhD. How terrifying is that? MY LAST CLASSES EVER. I’m not sure I’m ready for that.
Still chugging along in the Viticulture & Enology program at our local JC. It’s been really fun and interesting so far. I’m looking forward to all of the upcoming classes. I think my husband might take the Wines of France class with me, which will make it especially fun.
My spring semester classes:
Vineyard Pruning
Spring Budding & Grafting
Wine & Food Affinities
Wine Industry Event Planning
Wines of France
Ag/Wine Sales & Communication
Super easy and fun stuff, but it keeps me busy and helps me prepare for some more industry exams on the horizon.
Omi no Kami, thanks for the input. I don’t know yet which of six different universities I’ll be going to next year, so I can’t say anything school-specific until April/May. The school I go to now has exactly one linguistics course, and it’s in the English department.
Ack! Group presentations are ALWAYS a disaster. I mean, Every. Single. Time. If I were you I would start praying to the deities of your choice that group members each get an individual grade separate from the group grade.
Who says you can’t keep taking classes? I had a teacher who told the story of one 80-something student who had been taking college classes for all of his adult life, because he just never got tired of learnin’ stuff.
Health Psychology
Integrated Psychology (capstone)
History and Systems of Psychology
Choosing a Career in Psychology (the first required class for freshmen, but as a transfer I need it now)
Research Methods
Advanced Expository Writing
Can you guess my major yet?
And I’m taking an intersession class online starting January 2 - start of new semester. Business Ethics online in 2 weeks, full course and credit. Eek. But it keeps me from staying through the summer.
International Political Economy Apparently the Prof is amazing, and this stuff is right up my alley, so… yay! Introduction to Developing Areas A comparative PoliSci course… Not the most interesting of my courses, but it fits in my schedule. If I manage to score a better class during the add/drop period, I’ll drop this like a hot potato. If not, meh. Government and Politics in the Developed World Cool, eh? Foreign Policy in the Middle East very happy I got into this, as apparently it’s a good class Macroeconomic Analysis and Application required intro econ course they won’t let me skip out of (I’ve done econ before) which I have to complete before moving on to fun stuff.
That’s awesome.
My dream school right now is Berkeley, since George Lakoff, one of my favorite linguists, teaches there. If I get into both Berkeley and UCLA it’ll be a really tough call, though.