Welcome to Freshman Year. You may be feeling a little overwhelmed by everything at the moment and that’s perfectly normal. With all of the major life changes you’re about to take on, the one area that doesn’t have to be a challenge is selecting your freshman year course-load. Choosing classes in college brings with it a vast array of opportunities and decisions that can be made a lot more manageable as long as you stick to a few of these simple guidelines. Keep these helpful hints in mind when you arrive on the Dartmouth College campus and you’ll have a class schedule that allows for class work, leisure time, and a job should you choose to work while you attend college.

Choosing Your Major

Once you know the type of major you intend to pursue, this will make selecting your classes a little bit easier. But there are two things to know about majors, the first is that you may change your major after a year or two and the second is that it’s okay if you don’t know what your major is going to be when you arrive. That’s why you want to take a diverse collection of classes for your freshman year, so you can get a feel for many different courses that are offered. This will be a big help if you’re undecided in your first year. For those of you who have your future all planned out already, you may want to add a class or two that isn’t part of your chosen major, just in case you ultimately decide that the major you thought you wanted to pursue isn’t what you thought it would be.

Get the General Requirement Classes Out of the Way

As a freshman, you’re naturally going to want to get started on your major immediately and that typically means putting an emphasis on those classes first and foremost, leaving the general degree requirement courses for later. Don’t do it. Take at least one or two in your first year, that way you can space them out over the course of your four years and you won’t have them still waiting unfinished in your senior year.

Do Your Homework

I’m talking about before you enroll. That means getting a sense of what prerequisite courses are needed for the classes you want to take, as well as the size and intensity of the course work and any applicable internships or external requirements that are mandated. You should do a little research into the professors that teach these classes. Check out a website like RateYourProfessor.com to get some insight into who will be instructing you and their teaching style before you earn an accounting degree online from Maryville.