Jump to content

What was your favorite course in college?


rgtriplec
 Share

Recommended Posts

I have a class where all we do is watch movies from the WWII era, and examine for propaganda. Next quarter, I'm taking a class on movie monsters and horror movies. My friend took a class on the Beatles, and another friend took a class on vampires.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 62
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

My favorite class was Logic (philosophy class, not math or computers). I got 100% on every single quiz, exam, and homework assignment. ::):

 

Another goody was a 'Classical Music for non-music majors' class. Every exam consisted of the professor just playing the first 30 seconds to some piece, and you had to give the composers name & some other details. I grew up on classical music as my mom always had the public radio channel tuned in, so the class was a breeze. Even better, it was graded on a curve and most of my classmates were jocks trying to pick up an 'easy' elective that didn't involve homework. Heh, I never let them know I was the curve-breaker. :devil:

 

My english professor was trying to get a 'Pornography in Literature' class approved. That might have been ok... :poke:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

heh. All my courses are computer science relevant. I guess the equivalent to vampires and beatles and horror (oh my) would be a class where you play counter strike for a semester. Such a class doesn't exist though so I'm stuck with spending my time actually learning useful stuff. Wouldn't even pick such a class if I could.

 

That sort of stuff would have been on HS level here to be honest. That's where we have the breadth in our education system. Our university level stuff is very focused on the major. I can pick non-computer science courses but I have to get them approved as relevant.

 

As for a favorite course that'll have to be "Advanced Algorithms". Not exactly in the category of watching WW2 movies, but I thought it was a lot of fun. Got to solve some of the world's largest "asymetrical traveling salesman problems".

Edited by vejlin
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That sort of stuff would have been on HS level here to be honest. That's where we have the breadth in our education system. Our university level stuff is very focused on the major. I can pick non-computer science courses but I have to get them approved as relevant.

Colleges in the US start out with 2 years of general coursework - like Intro to Psychology and Intro to Political Science. You won't get much argument if you say the high schools here suck. It would be nice if that stuff could be moved to high school so that college could actually be focused on a major...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Colleges in the US start out with 2 years of general coursework - like Intro to Psychology and Intro to Political Science. You won't get much argument if you say the high schools here suck. It would be nice if that stuff could be moved to high school so that college could actually be focused on a major...

 

Depends where you go, actually. I started into my major 2nd semester of my freshman year, and by my sophmore year 2/3 of my classes were what was required for my degree. The rest were 'electives' - fun stuff like Environmental Physics and Linear Alebra. But I did go to a small, private technical school - which I firmly believe gives a much better education than most public schools.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While working on my undergrad, my most enjoyable class was one on Milton (I'm an English major) and the epic poem. Other than that, I found that whether or not a course was enjoyable really depended on the professor. Like Gus, I enjoyed my Logic class and did very well. Anthropology and Astronomy (my biology and physics credits) were good too-just didn't like the labs because I got duds of TAs. My 2nd and 3rd semesters of German were very worthwhile, but again, I had an excellent instructor. Many of the classes I really thought I'd like ended up being a real drag because of poor instructors.

 

Now that I'm in my master's program, I feel the courses I'm getting are far more relevant and the instructors are far better. I went to a good high school, so very little of what I learned during my undergrad was new. Because I was there to learn, not just waste my time, it was frustrating to be going over the same material I had gone over 12 years ago in high school.

 

Anyway, I didn't take any of the 'fun' courses because I couldn't get them to cover at least two requirements towards graduation, they didn't work as credits for my major, or I couldn't see any potential use for them in my future career (I plan to be a high school English teacher).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Favorite class in undergrad?

 

Hands down, History of Warfare, parts I & II over two semesters. The first class covered from the earliest recorded history through Napoleon. The second covered post-Napoleonic to the present. It was so awesome! Our professor was a former company commander in the 82nd Airborne Division, and got his PhD from the Univ. of Chicago. He was top-notch!

 

We covered Biblical battles, Asian, Greek (including Alexander), Roman, Arab/Turk, Medieval, Renaissance, birth of firearms/ transition period, Prussian, Napoleonic, Colonial/Exploratoy/Age of Rifles, WWI, Fall of colonialism, WWII, Korea/Vietnam/Cold War, Desert Storm. Of course each of those periods could have an entire semester devoted to them, but for a "big picture" it was amazing!

 

I badly wanted to take his class of Korea/Vietnam, but decided I needed to graduate instead of wait another semester for it. I did get to take WWII from him, and also History of Air Power from Vietnam fighter pilot.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was a History major, so I had a lot of enjoyable classes. Some of my favorite were Ancient History and Medieval History. I also took US Military history, and The US in WWII. I get a kick sometimes when I see former instructors on the History Channel. But I think the most engaging class I took was Modern Latin American History. The prof was interesting ans would tell stories on how he was ready to jump into Guatemala when Reagan contemplated intervention...

 

Damon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had a semester elective where we did nothing but study J.R.R. Tolkien's writings. We started with reading The Hobbit and then The Lord of the Rings, and during the discussions we would have the other books brought in. The professor would disclose fun tidbits like Tom Bombdadil (sp?) was Sauron's brother, but didn't care about helping out. Cool things like that. ::):

 

I had a friend that took a class on the history of rock 'n' roll, but he was at a different college so I didn't have that option. I would have aced that class! :lol:

 

Wild Bill :blues:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...