High Level College Electives

[theBruiser500]

This year I finally choose a couple of electives that are good, and they are quite good. One is 190A Labor and Globalization, the other is 394E, Healthcare, Politics, Equality. They're both very intersting. Maybe I sound like a geek saying this but it's nice to have other people in the class that care about the material, that are smart and knowledgable on it (most know more than me). Mainly upperclassemen though a few freshmen.

The subject is more specialized too, so we get into some interseting stuff, it is not the standard beginning elective where everything is general bland stuff. Also, the teachers are good, they don't dumb down the material, they go pretty fast and cover a lot of interesting material. I also get the impression that they're easy going, and since most students care about the subject won't grade hard to force people to work, I suspect most people will get good grades.

Not sure what the point is of my post, but I'm happy with these classes. Maybe this is a tip for people going to college, but most people probably know this already.

[jakethebake]

What exactly is your major field of study, Bruiser. I thought you were studying music no? Just curious. You seem to have pretty eclectic interests, which is good.

[theBruiser500]

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What exactly is your major field of study, Bruiser. I thought you were studying music no? Just curious. You seem to have pretty eclectic interests, which is good.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I'm studying to be a concert pianist... Boy you are gullible Jake. Not sure on the major yet, been talking to my advisor about it lately. Could be history or more likely my own major that is in history, polisci, economics and US foreign policy (something about "US Empire" would be good, this is still an idea in progress), biology, or physics.

[beta1607]

Just combine it all and study the Economic and Political history of Physics and Biology. Actually that sounds like it could be a cool graduate level course.

[Go_Blue88]

Upper level courses tend to be graded much harder. Everything in your post is true for upper level courses for your major; people will (obviously) know more and maintain a greater interest in the material. Consequently, you need to work harder to stand out from the rest of the group. Anyways, I think you should take an upper level writing class.

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

Upper-level courses are graded on a different scale. If you get a C, that's terrible and you really have some explaining to do. At least in the UM aerospace program, the grades were pretty much A, A-, and B+ with the occasional A+. Anything below B+ looks really bad.

[edtost]

[ QUOTE ]
Upper-level courses are graded on a different scale. If you get a C, that's terrible and you really have some explaining to do. At least in the UM aerospace program, the grades were pretty much A, A-, and B+ with the occasional A+. Anything below B+ looks really bad.

[/ QUOTE ]

similar in my undergrad experience, but drop everything by 1/2 a grade....A+'s were almost unheard of.

[asofel]

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What exactly is your major field of study, Bruiser. I thought you were studying music no? Just curious. You seem to have pretty eclectic interests, which is good.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I'm studying to be a concert pianist... Boy you are gullible Jake.

[/ QUOTE ]


hahahah! SNAP, Jake! If only you had something to come back at him with...

[Go_Blue88]

[ QUOTE ]
Upper-level courses are graded on a different scale. If you get a C, that's terrible and you really have some explaining to do. At least in the UM aerospace program, the grades were pretty much A, A-, and B+ with the occasional A+. Anything below B+ looks really bad.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, my philosophy courses are curved around a B-. However, seemingly the grades in my English classes are pretty high, so your curve may be accurate for those. I thought the engineering courses at U of M were supposed to be on a pretty tough scale; I guess not.

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

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[ QUOTE ]
Upper-level courses are graded on a different scale. If you get a C, that's terrible and you really have some explaining to do. At least in the UM aerospace program, the grades were pretty much A, A-, and B+ with the occasional A+. Anything below B+ looks really bad.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, my philosophy courses are curved around a B-. However, seemingly the grades in my English classes are pretty high, so your curve may be accurate for those. I thought the engineering courses at U of M were supposed to be on a pretty tough scale; I guess not.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, but they're judged differently. If you get a B, that's interepreted as a D. It doesn't really matter what it's curved around, as long as it's consistent throughout the program. This program's scale happens to be pretty compressed. I only know of two people who got an A+ while I was there. One kid was just a genius and got pretty much straight A+ and the other got like 2 while he was there.

[MyTurn2Raise]

[ QUOTE ]
This year I finally choose a couple of electives that are good, and they are quite good. One is 190A Labor and Globalization, the other is 394E, Healthcare, Politics, Equality. They're both very intersting. Maybe I sound like a geek saying this but it's nice to have other people in the class that care about the material, that are smart and knowledgable on it (most know more than me). Mainly upperclassemen though a few freshmen.


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Prepare to be bombarded by big government, liberal bs

[ QUOTE ]
Upper level courses tend to be graded much harder. Everything in your post is true for upper level courses for your major; people will (obviously) know more and maintain a greater interest in the material. Consequently, you need to work harder to stand out from the rest of the group. Anyways, I think you should take an upper level writing class.

[/ QUOTE ]

you should probably take a class that is a combination of easy and interesting. this is the most satisfying IMO

[ethan]

[ QUOTE ]
Upper-level courses are graded on a different scale. If you get a C, that's terrible and you really have some explaining to do. At least in the UM aerospace program, the grades were pretty much A, A-, and B+ with the occasional A+. Anything below B+ looks really bad.

[/ QUOTE ]

I went to a school where this was decidedly not true. We took great pride in not having any grade inflation. Of course, this also meant that I had plenty of intelligent, hard-working classmates who didn't get into grad school. One of my professors got a call from Princeton (compsci) about a student whose references were fantastic but his GPA "just wasn't quite there". He had a 3.8, putting him easily in the top 5% of his class and top 2-3% for his major.

Clearly the obvious solution is just to give up and go to Stanford, where "failing a class" magically translates into a "B+" on your transcript. Or Duke, where (as I understand things) they recently had a graduating class with an avg GPA of an A-. God forbid a college decide to fail someone. Of course, then the parents will just end up suing.

(And before anyone insists this is sour grapes, I had no trouble getting into grad school and actually got a fairly prestigious fellowship. I just think grade-inflation is stupid.)

[M2d]

when taking electives, it's important to have a high girl:guy ration while avoiding potential feminazis. classes like women's studies look good, but are riddled with hidden landmines like lesbians and feminazis. sociology classes and education classes will often have the ratio you seek without as much static.

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Upper-level courses are graded on a different scale. If you get a C, that's terrible and you really have some explaining to do. At least in the UM aerospace program, the grades were pretty much A, A-, and B+ with the occasional A+. Anything below B+ looks really bad.

[/ QUOTE ]

I went to a school where this was decidedly not true. We took great pride in not having any grade inflation. Of course, this also meant that I had plenty of intelligent, hard-working classmates who didn't get into grad school. One of my professors got a call from Princeton (compsci) about a student whose references were fantastic but his GPA "just wasn't quite there". He had a 3.8, putting him easily in the top 5% of his class and top 2-3% for his major.

Clearly the obvious solution is just to give up and go to Stanford, where "failing a class" magically translates into a "B+" on your transcript. Or Duke, where (as I understand things) they recently had a graduating class with an avg GPA of an A-. God forbid a college decide to fail someone. Of course, then the parents will just end up suing.

(And before anyone insists this is sour grapes, I had no trouble getting into grad school and actually got a fairly prestigious fellowship. I just think grade-inflation is stupid.)

[/ QUOTE ]
Oops, I'm sorry. I'm talking about graduate courses, here. Of course the undergrad classes are graded on a standard scale. In my undergrad (at Michigan Tech), the story was actually opposite. The average was a somewhat low grade compared to most schools. I agree with you about grade inflation - it sucks. However, grad school is a completely different game than undergrad.

[edtost]

[ QUOTE ]
One of my professors got a call from Princeton (compsci) about a student whose references were fantastic but his GPA "just wasn't quite there". He had a 3.8, putting him easily in the top 5% of his class and top 2-3% for his major.

[/ QUOTE ]

given that most courses at Princeton are curved around a B+, and the Compsci department historically gives out one of the lowest percentage of A's of all our departments, I find this very hard to believe.

[phil_ivey_fan]

[ QUOTE ]
Upper-level courses are graded on a different scale. If you get a C, that's terrible and you really have some explaining to do. At least in the UM aerospace program, the grades were pretty much A, A-, and B+ with the occasional A+. Anything below B+ looks really bad.

[/ QUOTE ]


agreed. the higher and more focused you go, typically the only people who are there are the ones that want to be (there are the exceptions every once in a while). And its even more so like this in grad school. if you get a 'C' in a class, you likely will have to repeat it.

[theBruiser500]

Also the people get smarter and smarter. It's interesting to compare intelligences of different people from classes like physics for physics majors to freshmen english writing to labor 190A. Like I just went to get tutored in Spanish and met a cool person, and in the umass anti war club I joined the people there are extremely smart, versus the soccer I play where the people are nice (well at least half of them are most days) but maybe they are not as bright.