The first few weeks of the semester are a whirlwind of classes, clubs, and socializing. Most importantly, it's about creating the perfect schedule to balance all these commitments. Now that I’m entering my senior year, my schedule feels busier than ever. After spending a semester abroad in Copenhagen, it feels like I’m trying to catch up on everything I missed, including signing up for courses. Due to the time difference, I had forgotten about course registration and ended up picking a few classes for the fall without much thought. I figured I’d have time to finalize things once I was back on campus.
Seniors on the A.B. track are only required to take six courses in their final year since we’re also working on our senior theses. Some seniors choose to take four courses in the fall and two in the spring, while others split them evenly with three each semester. The decision largely depends on how much time you think your thesis will require in the spring. With good intentions, I thought I could handle four courses this semester and was set on shopping around for options.
A friend of mine, who is studying sociology, sent me the course description for ECO102: Personal Finance. The course had no prerequisites and looked like a solid financial literacy course. Neither of us had ever taken an economics course before, but she convinced me to enroll so we could both expand our limited knowledge of finance. While the professor seemed great and the course themes were interesting, I couldn’t see myself spending one of my final semesters on a class I wasn’t fully passionate about. I’ve had the privilege of taking many deeply engaging courses at Princeton and while my friend ended up loving the class, it just wasn’t for me.
I quickly searched for another course and found an Asian American Studies class, Asian American Women and Everyday Violence. I’ve always been interested in gender-based violence and during my sophomore summer, I interned at a non-profit in Colombia focused on ending both gender-based and armed violence. That’s what initially drew me to the course—understanding the various ways Asian American women experience gendered racialization.
I would have loved to stay in the course, but I soon realized I needed to balance my workload evenly, which meant only taking three classes in the fall. Even though I didn’t settle on a course right away, I’m glad I had the chance to explore my options. Some courses even allow you to preview the syllabus, giving you a better sense of the material. While this time shopping around for courses didn’t work out for me, I still have one final semester to make it work!