To my peer advisees:

Until you guys can access the DMD Blackboard Site, here's some info that may be relevant to your course selection/planning process. I hope this can be of help! As always, email me if you have any questions.
--Priscilla

So What Is a Social Science Course?

Changes to Physics Requirements (10/22/04)
Also starting in Fall of 2005, Physics 150 and 151 will no longer require that you take the lab with the course! When choosing natural science courses, keep in mind that Physics really is the most useful choice for computer graphics, and now that you are freed from 4 hours of lab a week, there is no reason not to take it. Please note that while Physics 150 and 151 will now be worth 1.o CUs each, the requirement will remain at either 4.0 with a math class as the replacement or 5.0 if you choose all natural science classes.

Ideally, most DMDers would now take:
Physics 150 Note: Physics 150/151 without the lab are now labelled PHYS 140/141
Physics 151
Psych 111 or another SEAS approved Psych option
a SEAS approved natural science course
Math 240

New Math and Science Configuration (10/22/04)
After a UAC meeting today, it has been approved for Fall of 2005 that DMD students can now have the usual 5 math and 5 natural science courses, OR you can opt for 6 math and 4 natural science courses instead!!!!

If you are a senior and wish to do this, we will need to petition it, but Dr. Keenan in APO has said that he will accept these petitions. This is a great change for DMD students since you really should take additional math courses such as Math 240, Math 412, CIS 313 or CIS 510. If you are unsure of what math to take, come talk to me... if you have not taken MATH 240, start there...! For seniors who already have 6 math courses from the old CPG (we used to require Math 240), we can give you the new CPG with 5 math courses and petition for the sixth course of Math 240 as a natural science.

Also starting in Fall of 2005, Physics 150 and 151 will no longer require that you take the lab with the course!

So What Is A Natural Science Course? (10/21/04)
This is easy to answer in SEAS! These are the ONLY courses which count as natural sciences in SEAS (and yes, they know that Wharton counts "nutrition" as a natural science, but no one else does, and Engineers will laugh at you if you try to argue that one...):

Natural Science Courses
The following courses can be used to fulfill the science requirement.
Astronomy and Astrophysics : 11, 12, 111, 250, 390,
410, 411, 412 (Note: Astronomy 1 may not be taken by Penn Engineering students. Other courses numbered below Astronomy 11 can be taken as free electives only.)
Biochemistry: Any course
Bioengineering [BE students only] 305 Biology: 91 and any course numbered above 100 except 130 and 544
Biophysics: Any course
Chemistry: Any course except Chem 11, 22, 23; although AP credit for CHEM 001 is accepted, Penn Engineering students should take CHEM 101 rather than CHEM 001.
Engineering and Applied Science: 300 [2 cu of the 4 cu; the remainder in Engineering (E)]
Geology: 109, 130 and any course above 200
Materials Science Engineering: MSE 221
Physics: Courses numbered 150 and above, except 500
Freshman Seminar courses can not be used to fulfill the natural science requirement.

Now, as a DMD student, you can also take certain Psych courses to fill a natural science elective. Those Psych courses are: PSYC 52, 109, 111, 119, 121, 135, 143, 151, 153, 157, 455 . DMD students are also asked to "Choose two from the following list:"
PHYS 150, 151
CHEM 91, CHEM 101/53
BIOL 091 or BIOL 101 or BIOL 121
Please note that for the most part, Physics is far more useful and relevant to DMD than Bio or Chem...

Once again, this should be more than you cared to know about natural science courses at Penn!

So, What Is a Social Science Anyway? (10/21/04)
So glad you asked! Social Science courses fall into some basic categories, and then there are the "sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't categories. Psych, Policital Science, Sociology (duh), and Economics are all social sciences. These fill the SS space on your DMD Course Planning Guide. Sometimes social sciences include History and Sociology of Science (some courses are Humanities, some are social sciences), Comm (ditto), Health and Society, Religious Studies and Film. Take for example Comm 123 and Comm 125...
Here is the listing for COMM 123:
123. Communication and Popular Culture. (A) Distribution III: May be counted as a Distributional course in Arts & Letters.
Popular culture has been variously dismissed as mere trivia, "just entertainment; it has been condemned as propaganda, a tool of mass deception; and its consumers have been dubbed fashion victims and couch potatoes. This course considers these critiques, as well as those that suggest that popular culture offers valuable material for the study of social life. We will consider the meanings and impact of popular culture, including its effects on how we see ourselves, others, and American life; who makes distinctions between high, middlebrow, and low or mass culture; and how power and resistance structure the production and consumption of popular texts.

Where is says it counts for distribution as Arts and Letters, this mean that it is a Humanities course. Note that Comm 125, shown below, is listed as a course that fills the General Distribution requirement for Society... society = social science.

L/R 125. Introduction to Communication Behavior. (B) Gen Req I: May be counted towards the General Requirement in Society. Price. This course is an introduction to the fundamentals of communication behavior. It focuses on social science studies relating to the processes and effects of mass communication. Research reviewed includes media use behavior and media influences on knowledge, perceptions of social reality, aggressive behavior, and political behavior.

For the SEAS rules, look here (and note the cute picture of Jean Tsong, DMD senior, on the student handbook page). Social Science and Humanities Courses
In the SSH category, a student should choose courses of personal interest which will provide in-depth study (2 or more courses) of at least one subject and which will include several subjects so that reasonably broad insight is achieved in the social and behavioral sciences and in the humanities. Because of the importance of good communication skills to success in all endeavors, each student should seek to enhance these skills by the choice of SSH courses.

For the purposes of planning your Social Science and Humanities courses (SSH), a humanities course or social science course is one within the broad areas of the humanities (including foreign languages) or the social sciences. This definition encompasses such fields of study as (in the humanities) history, English, philosophy, foreign languages, classics, history of art, and (in the social sciences) sociology, psychology, economics, and political science. Your SSH course work must provide both breadth and depth and not be limited to a selection of unrelated introductory courses. Unacceptable for SSH credit are courses that are not about either humanities or social science; for example, courses in the business discipline, military science, any course that is primarily a study of mathematics or a physical science or any course designed primarily to impart skills --- such as written or oral communication or computer usage. However, students interested in the relationships between technology, business and society may choose to substitute up to two of social science and humanities courses with approved courses from the Technology in Business and Society course category.

That, I suspect, is more than you ever wanted to know about Social Sciences!

All information by Amy Calhoun, posted on the DMD Senior Projects site on Blackboard. Lovingly cut-and-pasted by Priscilla Spencer, Peer Advisor Extraordinaire.