Planning and Pre-Registration

TUT 100.32 - Virtue in Animal and Machine - Professor Weinman

Summary:: You will develop a tentative schedule for next semester.
Purposes:: Our ends are both large and small in scope:

Reflect upon and be intentional about your education
Become comfortable with a process you will repeat several times during your Grinnell tenure
Prepare you for pre-registration
Give us fodder for discussion

Due:: 8 am, Thursday 28 October 2010
Turn In:: Two electronic tasks and one hard-copy task:

Electronically submit course selections and rationale via your Curricular Journal
Electronically add your three semester course plan to the your Wiki page for your four year plan
Bring three hard-copies of both (optionally sans rationale) to class for peer review

Background

From Monday, 1 November 2010 to Thursday, 11 November 2010, Grinnell will permit students to preregister for courses. During and before this time, students should

reflect upon the purposes of their education and their academic and non-academic plans
choose courses for the next semester
discuss their course selections with their advisors, and
turn in their course selections to the registrar.

The Registrar will then present class lists to faculty who may then choose to eliminate students from over-enrolled classes.

Read our Advising Partnership Plan.
Review the first registration and course-planning assignment to remind yourself of some available resources and the planning and reflection you have already done.
Note the list of course offerings for next semester.

Assignment

Content

Planning for Next Semester

Since the primary goal of preregistration is that students reflect on their education, you should first reflect on your plans and goals for Grinnell and beyond. Don't forget to review the three-semester plan you assembled at the outset of this semester.

When you have reflected sufficiently, prepare the following:

a list of tentative majors you might pursue
the name of at least one special topics course offered next semester that you deem interesting
a list of four courses you would prefer to take next semester
a list of three alternate courses that you might select if your first choice(s) fill up

For each of your seven course selections, write one or two sentences explaining how the course

fits your goals for the semester (e.g., what new skills or knowledge you will obtain)
relates to the elements of a liberal education
provides preparation for life after Grinnell

Finally, synthesize all of this by writing a few sentences about any other thematic goals and/or co-curricular activities contributing to them.

If you have made any revisions or reconsiderations to your three-semester plan, please make a note of these.

Suggestions

If you are currently in a foreign language, you should plan to continue that language.
If you are currently in a Mathematics course and anticipate enrolling in a mathematical discipline, you should plan to continue in Mathematics.
You should explore disciplines that might provide you with a major of interest.
You should continue to think about the prerequisites for upper-division courses.
If there are upper-division courses you anticipate taking next year, plan to take prerequisites next semester.
Most students find that they benefit from taking a variety of courses. A good starting point is to plan one from each division.
If you are interested in intelligent machines or have not taken Computer Science at Grinnell, you should consider taking Computer Science 151. It is a pre-requisite (among others) for Computational Linguistics, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, and Human Computer Interaction.

Please also note that Phi Beta Kappa, "a national honorary society devoted to the cultivation of the intellect and to the union of those engaged in intellectual pursuits" has a large list of requirements. You should review them carefully if you are interested in being eligible for induction.

Delivery

Curricular Journal

Please post your written content to your curricular journal. This is a tool we will use for pre-registration throughout our advising partnership (e.g., until you declare a major). Since only you and I will be able to read your posts, you will need to bring printed copies to class for us to collectively workshop and discuss. This is the only time I will ask you to share your pre-registration plans.

Four-Year Plan Wiki

Please also add your current three-semesters of planned courses to the template four-year plan on your Wiki in our Pioneer Web advising group. You may also wish to add the courses for your tentative major to this plan; whether you do so is up to you.

Acknowledgements

Adaped from Samuel A. Rebelsky, "Miscellaneous Assignment 10: Tentative Schedules" (2010).