Gen ed for WM and UVA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have twins at UVA so I can speak a little about the gen Ed. I can’t speak to W&M. My DS was in the engagements pathway and while he felt some of the classes were a waste of time, they were small so he met people and interesting plus pretty easy As. My DD was in disciplines and all I can say is that they are both rising second years and both basically have just a couple of gen ed classes left to complete. They probably each have maybe 1-2 classes left to complete that and their second writing requirement. It was a breeze to meet those reqs honestly, shouldn’t be a concern as long as your DC is well rounded enough to enjoy a variety of classes. Net net is that it basically made no difference on their ability to get those requirements taken care of easily and quickly.

UVA. also has a language gen Ed requirement of two years (unless you are in the engineering college)

Yes. But it’s rarely 2 years assuming you come in with some exp in a language. My DD had stopped Spanish in 10th and tested into the 2020 level Spanish so just had to take that one semester and done. My DS took through AP Spanish and if you get a 4 on the exam you’re exempt, he could have also tested out. He decided to try a new language though so is doing two years.

Didn’t work for my kid with
many years of Spanish . Rather than doing another two years if that he switched to German which worked out well -the prof takes students to Germany during J term.

He tested into the intro class? That would be extremely surprising. My kid had VERY weak spanish and hadn't touched it in two years and she tested into the advanced intermediate class. I mean she thought she'd have to start from beginner because she was so rusty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have twins at UVA so I can speak a little about the gen Ed. I can’t speak to W&M. My DS was in the engagements pathway and while he felt some of the classes were a waste of time, they were small so he met people and interesting plus pretty easy As. My DD was in disciplines and all I can say is that they are both rising second years and both basically have just a couple of gen ed classes left to complete. They probably each have maybe 1-2 classes left to complete that and their second writing requirement. It was a breeze to meet those reqs honestly, shouldn’t be a concern as long as your DC is well rounded enough to enjoy a variety of classes. Net net is that it basically made no difference on their ability to get those requirements taken care of easily and quickly.

UVA. also has a language gen Ed requirement of two years (unless you are in the engineering college)

Yes. But it’s rarely 2 years assuming you come in with some exp in a language. My DD had stopped Spanish in 10th and tested into the 2020 level Spanish so just had to take that one semester and done. My DS took through AP Spanish and if you get a 4 on the exam you’re exempt, he could have also tested out. He decided to try a new language though so is doing two years.

Didn’t work for my kid with
many years of Spanish . Rather than doing another two years if that he switched to German which worked out well -the prof takes students to Germany during J term.

He tested into the intro class? That would be extremely surprising. My kid had VERY weak spanish and hadn't touched it in two years and she tested into the advanced intermediate class. I mean she thought she'd have to start from beginner because she was so rusty.

He didn’t test at all. He was a direct admit into the aerospace engineering program but de died at the end of the first year that his live was economics. So now he had to meet the language requirement and hadn’t had any Spanish for years. He had focused on AP testing in other areas because there is no requirement for foreign language in aerospace engineering. As you know UVA offers something like 60 languages so the hardest decision was which one. But the German led him into trips overseas where he’s now doing grad research … in German!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have twins at UVA so I can speak a little about the gen Ed. I can’t speak to W&M. My DS was in the engagements pathway and while he felt some of the classes were a waste of time, they were small so he met people and interesting plus pretty easy As. My DD was in disciplines and all I can say is that they are both rising second years and both basically have just a couple of gen ed classes left to complete. They probably each have maybe 1-2 classes left to complete that and their second writing requirement. It was a breeze to meet those reqs honestly, shouldn’t be a concern as long as your DC is well rounded enough to enjoy a variety of classes. Net net is that it basically made no difference on their ability to get those requirements taken care of easily and quickly.

UVA. also has a language gen Ed requirement of two years (unless you are in the engineering college)

Yes. But it’s rarely 2 years assuming you come in with some exp in a language. My DD had stopped Spanish in 10th and tested into the 2020 level Spanish so just had to take that one semester and done. My DS took through AP Spanish and if you get a 4 on the exam you’re exempt, he could have also tested out. He decided to try a new language though so is doing two years.

Didn’t work for my kid with
many years of Spanish . Rather than doing another two years if that he switched to German which worked out well -the prof takes students to Germany during J term.

He tested into the intro class? That would be extremely surprising. My kid had VERY weak spanish and hadn't touched it in two years and she tested into the advanced intermediate class. I mean she thought she'd have to start from beginner because she was so rusty.

He didn’t test at all. He was a direct admit into the aerospace engineering program but de died at the end of the first year that his live was economics. So now he had to meet the language requirement and hadn’t had any Spanish for years. He had focused on AP testing in other areas because there is no requirement for foreign language in aerospace engineering. As you know UVA offers something like 60 languages so the hardest decision was which one. But the German led him into trips overseas where he’s now doing grad research … in German!

Ah well that’s a special circumstance. Most kids will test farther along and not have to do two years. Alls well that ends well for your son though!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does UVA have more gen ed requirements than WM?

W&M doesn't have gen ed requirements per se, they have a liberal arts core curriculum that goes through the four years. It has fewer required credits overall, but you are less able to use AP/IB/etc to replace the courses.

If you're referring to the COLL Curriculum, unless you are a transfer, you can't use AP/IB credit to satisfy the COLL classes. Those must be taken at W&M. My DS loved his COLL classes. He said those were actually his favorite classes.