Read the following before you begin....

Davidson emphasizes small classes taught by regular faculty members. Small classes mean that at times not everyone who wants a specific course in a specific semester will be able to get into it. Our planning advice to you emphasizes not a single "ideal" schedule but ways to think about a variety of schedule possibilities.

As you plan your schedule, you need thus to think of alternates as well as your preferred four courses. Such planning is both educationally desirable and practical, and the entire registration process -- complicated though it will seem at first -- is designed to give you considerable say over choices, alternatives, and priorities. Later, if necessary, you will make adjustments with the help of your advisor. Along the way you will learn from both your advisor and other students that success in the first semester does not depend on a single "ideal" schedule.  (By the way, for whatever small reassurance it may provide: the author of these pages has been advising Davidson students for over forty years, so the voice is one of experience.)

All students must register for and take four credit courses and will, in addition, be registered automatically for the non-credit PE 101 (also called "Davidson 101"). The non-credit PE 101 course is not one of the four, and you do not include it in your registration selections.

Having pre-college credits (AP, etc) does not allow a student to register for fewer than four courses in the fall. If the initial process of registration does not leave you with four courses -- a fairly common outcome, and no cause for alarm -- you will complete and fine-tune your schedule during orientation, at which time you will have the opportunity to work with your faculty advisor. 

Typical Schedule for the First Semester

There isn’t one typical schedule -- or even one standard for students interested in a particular major, career, or the like.  Students have different interests, different needs, and different academic strengths. What’s difficult or tedious for one student can be easy and fascinating for another.  Because the first two years properly emphasize concentration on general requirements, a wide variety of course selections will be both appropriate and desirable. Some links at the top right provide a few general principles that might be helpful.