Gen-Ed Scheduling

Planning Your Schedule
To plan out your schedule fellow students can be your number one resource. Ask a lot of questions; most of the time we are all willing to help. If you are uncomfortable talking to other physics majors, visit your advisor. He/she walked you through your first semester, but after that you have to figure it out for yourself so don’t be afraid to ask questions!
You will hear this a lot: make friends in the department and get to know the physics lounge (Room 2144). It can be intimidating at first, but it will become your home away from home. There is just about always someone there.
Also get to know Kim. Her official title is secretary, but really, she runs this place. If you have any general questions, ask her. She either knows the answer, or can point you in the right direction. You’ll find her in Room 2186, along with the department head Dr. Whisnant. By the way, all the physics rooms are on the second floor of Phys/Chem.

General Education
Gen-eds are silly, tedious and often get in the way of the classes that involve actual learning. Sometimes it’s tempting to get done with the gen-eds as soon as possible, so you can finally get on with the fun classes you came here to take; physics. Depending on your learning style, that might be a bad idea. The upper level physics classes get harder, and it’s nice to have a break from all the thinking. Gen-eds can offer you that break.
On the other hand, gen-eds are typically a completely different thinking style from science, and some students have trouble shifting gears to the monotonous “memorize-and-regurgitate” style of other disciplines. How you pick your schedule is completely up to you.

Each semester you want to take 1-3 gen-eds, depending on your workload. Here is a link to your gen-ed checklist. There is also a book you get during orientation with all of this information in it. Here's the link.
That site also has a link to a “Requirements Checklist.” Note that here you click on the link for the year you arrived at JMU, not the year you plan to graduate.

Again, talk to other physics majors. Find out who the best professors are, and which gen-ed classes or professors you may want to avoid.