First-Year Students

Web registration opens next Monday, April 8th and closes at Midnight on April 19th. 

Any registration submitted after the 19th will be considered late and will incur a $25.00 late registration fee as well as invalidate any student in this category for both Haverford and Bryn Mawr lotteries.  Tri-Co Course Guide is up to date as of this minute;

Please check your web transcript now, assuring you (and the Registrar) that your listed Adviser is correct.

Do not submit your web registration to your Adviser for approval until you are absolutely sure of the courses you wish to take.  Once you submit, you cannot make any changes until your return to Haverford in late August.

Tips for selecting courses for sophomore year:

•  Exploring a possible major is key.  If you are already considering a major based on the courses you have taken, make sure you try a different professor in the same department.
• Balance is important.  Take a look at your degree audit and see what requirements you still need to fulfill.
• You will need to fulfill the Foreign Language requirement, or have a plan to do so, before declaring a major.

You may want to check out the Deans Web site for sophomore year information at:

www.haverford.edu/deans/sophomoreyear/timeline.php

Tuesday, April 9, 2013                 4:30PM -Chase Hall Auditorium

Anthony Bogues, Harmon Family Professor of Africana Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, Brown University    “Frantz Fanon, Freedom and a Radical Politics of the Human.”

Tea at 4:15PM.

From the OAR

Dear Sirs and Madams: How To Write An E-mail

 Procrastination and Perfectionism: Pitfalls and Perks

Wednesday, April 10      7:30-10:00pm                    CPGC Cafe (Stokes 104)

Creative Actions Workshop
Environmentalists Can Be Fun Too! Eat! Talk!  Network! And become artists for a night–the cool  kind of artist!

Join forces, Enviros, for a big Tri-Co party and workshop for the student environmental groups at all three colleges. We’ll eat pizza, get to know each other, make plans to take over the world–and make our own smoothies.

And we’ll enjoy a super-quickie crash course on “environmental art actions” by visiting artist Jenny Price and a workshop on how to use these public actions to address the issues we care most about. How can we get people to garden? Recycle? Use less energy? Care about justice? Divest?!!

All we ask of you is to  RSVP here and BYOSC (bring your own smoothie container). We can’t wait to see you there!  Please feel free to email Tapoja Chaudhuri at tchaudhu@haverford.edu with your questions about the event.

Jennifer Barr, jbarr@haverford.edu,  will work with you to support your interest in pre-law.  Become actively involved the the Pre-Law Society at Haverford  where you will have more opportunities to learn about law and have the opportunity to contribute to the Bi-College Law Journal.

Pre-law is housed in the Career Development Office.  Fill out your profile on OCEAN and select Law as one of your career interests.  This will allow you to receive targeted emails regarding programs that have a focus on law-related careers and interests.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Pre-Health Office serves Haverford students and alumni who are interested in the health professions, including medicine, osteopathy, public health, dentistry, nursing, podiatry, physical therapy and more.

At Haverford College students can develop a particularly strong foundation for careers in these professions because of our academic excellence, opportunities for research and service, and humanistic Quaker values.  In addition, given our convenient location outside of the city of Philadelphia, our students take advantage of numerous opportunities to volunteer and work in hospitals, clinics, and research facilities in the area. Haverford alumni have distinguished themselves as physicians in all areas of medicine and dentistry, as leaders in public health, and in satisfying practices as nurse practitioners, nutritionists, genetic counselors, physical therapists, and more.

Michele Taylor, mtaylor1@haverford.edu, provides guidance and support to our students as they plan their pre health curriculum and extra curricular activities. We help them think through their schedules to fulfill admissions’ prerequisites for medical schools and other programs in the health sciences; plan for summer and extracurricular activities; and strategize for when and how they will apply to medical or other health professions schools.  For a more in depth view at this resource please consult the Pre-Health Advising web site at:  www.haverford.edu/deans/prehealth/

Below you will find some questions and answers that might be helpful in your transition.  Keep them coming……

On placement exams:

• Will we need to commit to the courses we select and write down in our First Year Advising Questionnaire?

No.  The courses you discussed in your adviser survey were courses that seemed interesting.  You don’t have enough information yet to make decisions.  You will need to speak with your Upper Class Adviser (UCA) and your faculty adviser before you make up a schedule.

Yes.  That’s how we will know where you should begin.  You would not want to be bored by a course that covers what you have already learned, and it would not be fair to students who are learning the material for the first time to have to compete with someone who is already familiar with the material.

Some courses have per-requisites that make it necessary to know your placement level.  For instance, Econ 105 requires a math placement of Calculus 113.  Biology has a pre-requisite of one semester of a lab science.  Most students take Chemistry or Physics to fulfill that requirement.  In both instances, knowing the math and/or Chem or Physics placement would be helpful. Additionally, sometimes students think they would like to begin a new language in college but due to scheduling difficulties opt to fulfill their language requirement with a language they took in high school.  It is best to have the placement done in case you decide to keep on going with the language you took through high school.  International students can contact me directly to think through what language they would pick.

It is possible to complete some of these tests at a later time, but since you won’t know your schedule until you meet with folks here, it makes sense to take the placement exams during the summer.  It would be a good idea to avoid taking the tests while you are trying to register for classes.

• Can the foreign language requirement be met with an AP score of 4 or 5 or a score above 600 in the SAT II?

This is no longer the case.  The Educational Policy Committee changed the requirement.  Beginning with the Class of 2016 all students will need to complete 2 semesters of a language other than English.

On Res Life:

• When will first-year housing assignments be released?

We are hard at work creating customs groups that we believe will provide the best possible fit for each and every freshman. Freshmen can expect an email with their housing assignment, along with contact information for any roommate/suitemates, not later than the end of July.  Customs team members will begin to contact frehsmen shortly thereafter.

• What kinds of things go on during move-in day/customs week? Is there programming for parents? When should they leave?

A full schedule of customs week activities, including the program for parents on move-in day, is available at: www.haverford.edu/customs/schedule.php.

Our faculty strongly recommends that first year students take no more than one course in any department in either semester of the first year.  The idea here is that you should be exposed to areas of knowledge and ways of thinking which may be new and which may radically change your ideas about eventual specialization.  You and your adviser will select a program of courses for the first semester during the Customs period.  The courses open to first year students are generally numbered below 200, but if qualified, a first year student may be permitted by the Department concerned to take more advanced courses.  More information on how we view the Liberal Arts Education as well as the Degree Requirements can be found in the Haverford Catalog (www.haverford.edu/catalog/catalogmain.htm).

In addition to the Freshman Writing Seminar, all students must take six quarters of physical education during their first two years. Only one course is mandatory for all, Introduction to Fitness, and that quarter must be taken in one’s first year at Haverford. Students should register for PE courses immediately after they have completed their academic schedules.  The Athletic Department will provide students with schedules and information on registration this summer. To earn credits students must register for courses (including varsity teams) with the Athletic Department.  Simply attending an activity or joining a team does not substitute for registration and does not itself carry credit.  For more information go to:  www.haverford.edu/athletics/PhysicalEducation/index.htm. There are alternatives to fulfilling this requirement that do not require athletic participation.  Make sure you explore the possibilities with the Athletic department staff.