Re: CHAT: University Advice (was Re: A bit of advice)

On Sun, 10 Sep 2000, Cathy Whitlock wrote:

> <<< U.S. universities seem pretty lousy about awarding IB credits.  I took
>  the IBH in French, English, math and physics.  I got no credits or any
>  sort of waiver for the language requirement for a 6 in French.  6 credits
[snip]

> Oh wow, that really stinks! (but that sounds like an interesting extended
> essay topic by the way- I'm doing mine on a certain theme in Ana María
> Matute's  works, in Spanish... God help me!) I can't believe they didn't take
> the credits! My IB coordinator always told us we'd automatically enter as a
> junior in the average schools and probably a sophomore in the "Big Schools".
<snort>  Well, if Cornell U. is a "Big School," I got 10 credits out of
IB's and no sort of advanced standing.  :-p  My IB diploma friends in the
U.S. had pretty similar experience.  I've never heard of *any* of them
entering as a junior or sophomore.  OTOH they all went to places like
Yale, Brown. U. Chicago, UC Berkeley, etc.  (My HS, for some weird
reason, places very close to 99% of its students in colleges.)

> Lets just say the months of April and May will not be very fun at all! (any
> IB advice? Besides ditching the program for AP classes? hehe)
I understand.  If you can take AP's for corresponding (though not very)
IB courses, it's a way of hedging your bets.  That's what my sister did
after hearing about Cornell's lousy IB credit policy.

> Also, I'm thinking of majoring in international relations, focusing on Latin
> America. Do you guys think it would be better to do a double major in IR and
> Spanish or just minor in Spanish? I'd be able to handle the Spanish major, no
> doubt about that, but does it really make a difference as far as grad school
> accpetance goes, if you double major or be a sane person and have one major
> and one minor? Then again, I'm not even in undergrad this year, perhaps I am
> getting a tad ahead of myself! :o)
Depends on whether the school has a minor.  :-p  Cornell only has
"minors" in certain interdisciplinary areas (because otherwise someone
looking at your transcript will have no clue that all these disparate
courses are related).

A couple of my advisors (currently two, and I'm going to end up with a
third!  history, college scholar & math) told me the only people who care
about double majors are moms.  That may be an exaggeration, but if you're
taking significant Spanish courses then the 2nd major may not be
necessary.  I'm technically a double major even though the college
scholar program only has a senior project requirement (it's a
design-your-own-program sort of thing, though most of us end up with a
"real" major).

ObConLang: international relations in *your* concultures/conlangs: lingua
franca?  Pidgins/creoles?  (If I ever *have* enough languages sketched
out, I'd *love* to do a pidgin!  I've always thought they sounded Really
Neat.)  General hostilities?  Host country or dominant country's language
for any given encounter?  No or limited history of diplomacy?  Special
forms or registers for diplomacy?

(That *is* a bit of a stretch from the above to this, but hey--I like
stretching.)

YHL