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New to SFU. Classes hard?

shawni
edited April 2013 in General
Hey I'm new to sfu and wondering some things.

Transferring in as third year from a college in victoria. Have any of you transfered from a college and would you say its a shock starting at SFU. I get good grades but I've never felt very challanged. I'm just scared starting here all of a sudden will be super difficult.

Also I'm taking stat 101 with Anthony Dixon but I'm a history/gsws student. I need it for a q credit. I'm horrible at math. Am I going to die? How difficult is it?
Also considering, if a space comes up, taking econ 103 or 105 for my other q credit. Which one would you recommend for someone in my situation.

Thanks :)

Comments

  • AnonCAS
    You are gonna be surprised on how SFU deals with their students. Not that many GPA booster courses and they mark way tougher compare to college so be prepared. Note be very cautious when taking math courses.
  • smythsfu
    I've heard from a friend in GSWS that its a good department. Easy courses and good profs but I wouldn't take ECON for Q credit if I were you. 
  • hehehe
    econ 103 or 105 are difficult courses. 
  • 112233
    Don't take econ 103 or 105 as electives, I made that mistake this semester... Don't do it.
  • SNSD123
    Econ 103 required you to apply knowledge that you've learned in class to ambiguous questions on the exams (at least that was what it was like in Doug Allen's class) However, I found Econ 105 to be pretty straightforward.
    I'm a business major so I cannot speak for the more difficult majors but from my experience, sfu courses are doable as long as you put the effort into your courses ;P
  • sfu_guy
    Hate to say it (because I really wanted to like sfu) but I found it too difficult. This was my first, and last semester. I've never had problems with courses before and I was well prepared academically for the courses I took, however I'll be lucky if I pass 2/4 courses this term. It's not like the material was very difficult either, it's just the marking was really tough and not enough time was given to study for finals (non stop course work up until last Saturday). I've never put so much effort into my schooling to get so little out of it. If I was giving myself advice 4 months ago - I would not have wasted my money. That being said, I did learn quite a lot.
  • Tofu
    Econ was pretty easy for me. 
    103 i had it with Doug Allan. I'm not sure why people think he's hard, his course was easy for me and I ended up with an A-.
    105 I had it with some chinese dude that I could barely understand. 

    But try not to take them at the same time, as it might confuse you. Econ is hard for some who can't grasp the concepts but once you get it, it's easy.
  • loversandlies
    edited April 2013
    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-37243170/grade-inflation-colleges-with-the-easiest-and-hardest-grades/

    ^You know it's bad when there is even an article of the colleges with hardest marking schemes, and SFU is on the list.  SFU is the only Canadian university on there...

    Of course it does depend on the faculty, but from majority of the classes I've taken it does require effort. Business faculty is the hardest to get an A in because you'll only get an A if you are in the top 13% of the class..This may not be relevant to you since you are in Arts, but looking at the SFU official report - they tend to give out less As in arts faculty too. In some of the courses I took in the Arts faculty, I remember getting so frustrated because the amount of work I put into this once class is equal to an A level of effort, but I ended up with a pretty low avg mark.

    My advice - trust the reviews on ratemyprof..they are usually are accurate. And just a heads up, take note of these (every sfu student knows this):

    Sfu's enrollment dates are famous for screwing students over and not opening up enough sections so students have to wait a term to graduate, depressing antisocial mountain with no sense of school life, cold foggy weather, TAs that can't speak proper english (looking at business/econ courses) etc

     Looking back, I wish I went to UBC, University of Victoria or even UFV instead of SFU :/

  • shawni
    Thanks guys, I'm seriously reconsidering going to SFU. I'm not afraid to work hard but I also know I would get very frustrated if my hard work still came down to nothing due to a grading curve. Has anyone gone to UFV? As an art student I wonder if the lack of it being a "prestigious" school would affect by ability to obtain employment. With UBC I don't think my gpa of 3.1 would be enough to be accepted, especially as I have now missed the deadline for summer admission. Does anyone know if this would be the case? 

    Should I just suck it up and commit to SFU and establish early on I'm going to have to work very hard and it still might not be enough?

    Also if I did stay should I drop the stats course and find something more suited to an arts student for a q course? 
  • sfu_guy
    Look, you shouldn't take advice from here. Your situation might be a lot different then others. For me, I'm a bit older and going back to uni after taking a few years off working/figuring out my life. I feel like I don't have the time, money or patience to figure out all the nitpicky details necessary to be successful at this school in my major.

    Remember: There are just as many people who do well in these classes as do poorly.
  • ryan
    edited April 2013
    I must say I am surprised by all of the disparaging comments in here. Personally the things being mentioned do not reflect my SFU experience at all. While you could get into UFV, or likely UBC but for Fall, I would stick with SFU and not let some randoms on the internet scare you away.

    On the topic of STAT 101, I wouldn't say it is a hard course, but if you feel math is not your thing you might find it more difficult than others in the class. On the whole it isn't super mathy, but there are some concepts that are a bit confusing when you first learn them. So there are easier Q courses. On in particular that might be worth checking out is STAT 100. It is also a Q, and a B-Sci, and is sort of the equivalent of about half of STAT 101, minus almost all of the math, plus some statistics concepts discussed in high school (sampling biases, average, median, stuff like that,)
  • Flash
    edited April 2013
    Came from BCIT with 87% in computing. Currently averaging B's on the few remaining cmpt courses I had to take, and overall GPA of ~3,3

    I do find it harder here since the profs and courses requirements are not as straight forward, and you lose marks because the course is either all over the place, or you don't know what it's required.

    Stay away from math courses if you can. Other courses are ok I guess. Unfortunately I cannot compare it to UBC, but that wasn't really an option for me since it's too far away and they don't have the program I'm interested. But if I had to choose overall, I think UBC is more chillaxed and easier to maintain good grades
  • SFUTalk
    edited April 2013
    shawni, any class in any school can be hard. You said you get good grades and you don't feel challenged. You will do fine. Like any material in a class whether it's high school or university, you may not know it at first, but you learn it. It's not like you're expected to know things already. I still half-ass everything like I did in high-school and I'm doing fine.

    Check out ratemyprofessor like everyone else first.
  • Glo
    Shawni, have you looked at the Q courses for Arts Students list? It's a good place to start searching.


    That being said, I just had Econ 105 with Krauth and it was PAINFUL. I would not have taken it if it wasn't a requirement in my program. Math 190 (Math for Teachers) and Math 197 (Hitchhikers Guide to Math) both are Q credit courses which are known to be  accessible to students lacking a math background. 

    But like others have mentioned, your situation is different from ours. Take a look at the course outlines, and get in contact with your department academic advisor. They are a great resource for questions like this.
  • Annie

    There can be a big jump between college and university.  Sometimes people don't have good time managment and study skills already in place, depending on their brains to get them through with a bit of last-minute work, and then they start floundering at university.  There's lots of info and tips at Student Leanring Commons:

    http://learningcommons.sfu.ca/

    although it looks like summer workshops are just for grad students.  Good luck, Shawni!

     

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