Shopping: Day 2

[benjifus]

My shopping journal continues. By some inexplicable (miracle?), there weren't nearly as many classes I was interested in shopping today. Not really sure why, but I won't complain...

classes on the list: 5
classes visited: 4

Comments

[benjifus]

yes, and this is the point when i reverse your words to make an unrelated point about a different subject!
but thanks for the compliment. have you made your decisions yet?

[desh]

Don't take music. Of the three, it's by far the easiest for you to learn after you graduate, if it comes to that. Or as a last-semester fun course. Or to replace Arabic in your schedule once you're finally done with Arabic, if ever.

To choose between the other two, maybe look at things other than the actual content you'll learn in the class. Which will provide a better contrast to or break from (or complement to) your Mideast-heavy week? Will having one class without papers help your workload, or just contribute to more all-nighters for cramming? Which is a topic you're least likely to end up learning in the rest of your life?

I'd take Ed 147, but I'm not you.

[benjifus]

indeed. Beth is taking ED 147, and I'm planning to go back. I agree with you on music, but if I'm feeling up to it I'll go again just to be sure. My plan from here is to revisit all of the "Yes," "Likely" and "Possible" classes to see what my second impression is -- last year I trusted my first impression too much and ended up with several OK but not incredible classes as a result.

[tobeginagain]

Do you not have the possibility of auditing classes? I don't know how small private schools work (do you pay by semester? by course?) and different options for taking courses (regular? pass/fail? audit?) but is that possible? In which case some courses are great to audit because you don't need to worry about your grade so much and can instead focus on being present during classtime and readings, but less on preparing for papers or tests. [I'm suggesting simply because your Arabic hesitation as a fifth class was deterred because of the homework load.]

Is an average class load four courses?

[benjifus]

auditing classes is possible but rare -- in general, by the time i'm putting enough effort in to follow the class, i may as well take it for real. Arabic's an example of this: mirena won't let anyone in the class who's not doing daily assignments, etc, whether for a grade, S/NC (satisfactory/no credit), or auditing.

[humblemumblings]

Ohhh lucky you, you're taking Palestinian lit! I took it two years ago and it's been one of my all-time favorite courses at Brown. The readings are excellent, and Colla usually chooses a good group of people so the discussions work (unlike Rastegar). Working with Colla this year could be pretty intense too - he seems to have come back from NY with extra opinions...:-)

[ahna06]

I put myself through Anderson for AN50. You're doing the right thing.