Question for the Americans (actual questions, honest!)

[princessorchid]

I have a few question for all you Americans - it's for something I'm writing, and I wanted to get a few facts straight.

1. In your sophomore year of college/uni, what sorts of classes do you have to take?  Do you have to take a science and an English class, for example, or can you pick and choose anything you like?
2. When do midterms happen?  Is

Comments

[love_is_epic]

Ok, here goes... I'll answer the best I can remember

[princessorchid]

That was very helpful, thank you! I never knew about the requirements for graduation thing, as at my uni (in Scotland), we just had to graduate with a certain amount of credits - with a minimum number in our degree of speciality. The terms are different too. I'm glad I asked now, as I've got a few amendments to make in what I've written... ;-)

Damn about the car rental thing - I think I've got to rethink my plot a little...Curse those car rental people for being so cautious! :-D

[angst_driven]

I concur w/Love_is_epic for the most part. When I went to college you did have to take a certain amount of electives, although what you actually took depended, for the most part, on you. Everyone had to take Rhetoric. Liberal Arts majors had to take a certain number of hours in science (anything from geology to astronomy), physical education, humanities, etc. to get a "well-rounded" education. You had to take two years of a foriegn language (unless, like me, you took four years of it in high school). I didn't have to take any math. I don't know if this was true for everyone, or just people like me who had AP math in high school. Most of these course are taken during your first two years so you can concentrate on your area of study later on. Also, certain majors, such as business and pre-med, were exempt from some electives because their required course-load was so heavy. Don't know if any of this is very helpful...

[princessorchid]

Thanks! I didn't realise students could do that with their AP classes - I did loads of AP classes in high school, so maybe I should have gone to an American uni... ;-)