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I suppose I'm more interested in a minor as the school of foreign service has some pretty rough general requirements, but I was interested in minoring in English or Classics. . .is this possible?

How difficult is it to minor/double major in a subject that is out of the school you are in. In my case, if I were in the School of Foreign Service, would it be difficult to minor in English(which is in the College)?

By Hoya_Saxa01 (Hoya_Saxa01) on Thursday, August 12, 2004 - 05:44 pm: Edit

It's never easy to take on more than one major, but it would be workable to do a minor out of your school. Most majors have some elective credits to work with and minor requirements are not too bad. Your dean will probably highly discourage you from taking a double major outside of your school. Unless you are looking to invest another year or so as a GU undergraduate, I would say go for the minor. I'm an MSB student looking to major in New and Small Business Management with a minor in Psychology. I had wanted to double major but my dean talked me out of it. Good luck with your decision.

By Clipper (Clipper) on Thursday, August 12, 2004 - 06:55 pm: Edit

Hoya - you have already met with your dean?

By Hoya_Saxa01 (Hoya_Saxa01) on Friday, August 13, 2004 - 12:47 am: Edit

Yeah, quite a few times. I was just at GU for a month-long summer program where I met Emily Zenick (MSB first year dean) and registered for classes, etc.

By Clipper (Clipper) on Friday, August 13, 2004 - 08:24 am: Edit

That is great that you met with your dean already. I am annoyed that my daughter doesn't even know for sure what credits she is getting from her IB tests. She wants to graduate early and needs to discuss this situation and will not be able to meet with him until Monday - 2 days before classes start. I really wish GU had a summer registration period at the college like all the other colleges do.
Thanks for the info.

By Bluesalamander1 (Bluesalamander1) on Monday, August 16, 2004 - 06:04 am: Edit

Clipper, I wouldn't worry about your daughter - I didn't get full clarification on which classes I placed out of until 3 weeks into my Georgetown career and didn't decide to graduate early until the second semester of freshman year and still I graduated a 1 year early - she'll be fine

By Clipper (Clipper) on Monday, August 16, 2004 - 09:11 am: Edit

Thanks Blue - were you in SFS?
I am still confused as to what a "free elective" equates to? Does that mean a 3 credit class or just one class?
Were you already signed up for a class and then found out you got credit for it? That I think is going to be her problem - she is in a history right now that I think she will get credit for and a Spanish also.
Anymore info would be wonderful!

By Clipper (Clipper) on Monday, August 16, 2004 - 04:30 pm: Edit

Blue - my daughter just got the printout of her AP credits from Georgetown. It just included her APs and not her IB tests but there are some overlaps anyway. The letter said she could only use up to 30 credits or one years worth and it would not count for sophomore standing. Do they ever give you advanced standing or do they just bump you up the semester you want to graduate?

By Hoyadan (Hoyadan) on Monday, August 16, 2004 - 07:12 pm: Edit

hey, Clipper, how did ur daughter check her AP stats??

By Clipper (Clipper) on Monday, August 16, 2004 - 08:41 pm: Edit

She got a letter in the mail today. It had all of her AP tests, scores and credits that GU will give along with the corresponding GU course number.
The letter stated that she could only use 30 credits even though she had more.
I know in the SFS booklet they just said "one free elective" but this broke it down into classes which was much more helpful.
If you have anymore questions I would be happy to answer.

By Bluesalamander1 (Bluesalamander1) on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 08:33 am: Edit

Hi Clipper,

Sorry for the late response. Yes I was in SFS, an int'l pol. major. Basically in my case I came out of high-school with a degree that by GU is quite highly regarded, equivalent to IB, and that is where I got all my credits from. The whole story is that I had no clue that I could place out of classes in college - when I got to DC and signed up for classes, which are nominally guaranteed for freshmen, I didn't get a single one - so I went to my dean and he told me that I had placed out of all of them & that I should sign up for sophmore courses instead. I was very fortunate because I had done a lot econ., philosophy, history etc. in high-school and spoke a foreign language fluently and therefore placed out of many of those requirements in the SFS core curriculum and it was that which gave me sophmore standing basically. Had I had classes which weren't directly relevant to the SFS curriculum, such as music, I think they would have counted as free electives - free electives are basically classes that the student chooses completely freely (for example, as an international politics student, I had to take 10 classes within the international politics field and was given a pre-determined list to choose from - I also had to take a number of free elective classes, which I could choose from outside the list or the core curriculum - I took Art for example). The maximum amount of credit they will give you is, as you said, 30 which corresponds to a year - I could have had more, but as my dean said "then there would be no point in going to college" -- does this answer your questions? otherwise feel free to ask away

By Clipper (Clipper) on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 08:51 am: Edit

Thanks Blue for the info. My daughter has finished all the free electives rather than the required SFS classes. She is also in IPOL. She needs to take the Spanish test to see if she is waived from that class too. Did you ever take another language if you were placed out of your language?
Was your dean advisor helpful in making sure you graduated early? What should she watch out for? Any advice? Did you find employment right away after you graduated?
Thanks.

By Bluesalamander1 (Bluesalamander1) on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 10:05 am: Edit

Hi Clipper,

With respect to the languages, again, I was lucky - I did my high school degree in one language and am a native speaker of another (on top of English) so it was pretty easy to place out ;-)

As a general rule, my Deans throughout my GU career were very good, approachable and helpful - as were the professors really. I found that openess and willingness to talk/listen one of the most amazing things about GU. With respect to my early graduation, initially my Dean thought it was a wholly bad idea because he thought I was very young and feared that my grades would suffer so he talked to me a lot about what I would have to do etc. - however, once I had made up my mind, he was very good about facilitating everything (when I got it into my head that I wanted to take a graduate level class that wasn't on the "list", for example) and was the first person to come to me and my parents at graduation to congratulate me & say that he was extremely impressed. So a good balance really of the sober view and encouragement.

In terms of what she should watch for - well first and foremost she should really decide whether she truly wants to graduate early and why? I have in hindsight frequently regretted not getting my last year at college & not graduating with my friends -- once she has decided, she needs to be aware that she will not necessarily function on the same timeplan as her freshman peers - she will have to start thinking about what she will do after college when they are thinking about whether they should study abroad in Spain or China, for example. Reality hits you a little sooner in other words.
I was reasonably lucky in that I found a job within a few months of graduation just as the global economy collapsed - working for a consultancy. It was probably not what I envisaged doing when in college and had I been slightly more aware that I needed to plan earlier on, I would probably be somewhere else today

By Clipper (Clipper) on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 12:05 pm: Edit

Thanks again for the information. My daughter will probably read this herself - though she doesn't post. She would like to go to law school. She has always been interested in that and did Mock Trial and debate in high school and worked at a law firm as an intern so I think she has a pretty set goal. She doesn't want to waste time and her parent's money by staying 4 years when she can get out in 3 and start law school.
Maybe when she reads this she will have some questions for you. You have been very insightful.

By Bluesalamander1 (Bluesalamander1) on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 12:21 pm: Edit

You are very welcome - I graduated early for the single one reason that I wanted to save my parents the money (I had no aid whatsoever) and I think there's definitely something to be said for saving money on undergrad and using it for grad school instead.

If she's interested in GULC, she should see if she can't get junior acceptance through SFS

By Clipper (Clipper) on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 01:15 pm: Edit

Yeah, I have told her about that junior acceptance thing. Thought she might want to pick up a masters in the 4th year but has no desire to do that. I think she has another law school in mind- just hope she can keep up the high grades at GU.