<p>I know it's different for everyone, btu what are some of the best classes you've taken and who were some of the best profs you have had? (Any freshman level courses?)</p>
<p>This is good thread . Should be beneficial to most of us if it gets some replies. </p>
<ol>
<li>I've heard Gerson is the one to take for Economics 101 and other economics courses.</li>
</ol>
<p>tag >_> gotta take Econ 2 next semester</p>
<p>If you are like me, you will most likely be taking intro (100 level) courses. In that case, you really won't interact much with your professors, mainly due to size (although you can goto office hours). Furthermore, the material is really cut and dry and although some of it is interesting, most of it is boring. It depends on what your major is. I'm pre-health, so I've just been taking intro science courses primarily. I'm also about to start my second year of Chinese, which I really enjoy. The asian studies department here is tops.</p>
<p>Psych 111 is a class lots of freshman take and it is supposedly interesting and not particularly difficult. Other than that, I really don't know.</p>
<p>anything with Scott Page if there's a choice</p>
<p>Is it easy to get good grades in Chinese language classes at Michigan? I am very interested in learning Chinese but I want to get into Ross and I don't want to risk my grades.</p>
<p>Chinese is fairly difficult, but definitely doable. For first year chinese (2 semesters), every week we have a vocab quiz, a character quiz, and a skit quiz. Every other week we have a test and every 2 weeks we have to write a 300 character story. This may seem like a lot of work, but if you work a little every day, you'll do fine and it's an extremely rewarding language to learn. The lectures are small (20-30 students) and you have a recitation section (10-15 students) in which you get a lot of extra help. The professors and recitation teachers are very good. I am amazed at how much Chinese I know after only 2 semesters. I can more or less hold my own in a conversation and my writing has improved significantly.</p>
<p>I know several people in my lecture that are either in the b school or are applying. If anything, knowing a language like Chinese will help you get in and make you an attractive applicant for jobs.</p>
<p>Any info about Korean? and the class "Chinese Reading and Writing"? I can't actually take Chinese since I'm a native speaker >_>...</p>
<p>Isn't it Mandarin :p . And its supposed to tough for someone learning it as new language.</p>
<p>PSYCH 111 with Schreier was a great experience. I heard Ralph Williams is good, but I never had him. Some say he's overrated.</p>
<p>Don't take econ102 with leads, its soooo dumb and boring..</p>
<p>I think Ralph Williams is overrated as to how he analyzes things, what he teaches...but my high school English teacher was a Shakespeare prof at Harvard so maybe my expectations were a little too high...he is good if you want to be entertained, though, and his speaking captures human emotion if not intellect.</p>
<p>Ignore what she says, Ralph is awesome. He teaches Great Books II during the time that Dante is being covered, and occasionally teaches a 400 level seminar (usually either on Shakespeare or some Eastern European writer from the Holocaust, just 1 credit and do-able for a freshman). Anybody who can get the Royal Shakespeare Company to be in-residency every few years has to kick ass on some level.</p>
<p>If you're interested in going into math, you should definitely take Math 295-296-395-396. Depending on who's teaching it, you cover all theoretical undergraduate mathematics (and more!) in only 4 semesters. Everybody in my class who stuck out the whole sequence was prepared to take graduate level courses the year after they finished (and Michigan's Graduate math department is consistently ranked in the top 10).</p>
<p>Amcult 204, I believe, History of College Athletics. I took this class the first time it was offered, and it was such a success they expanded enrollment and I think have some spots reserved for freshmen. Taught by John U Bacon, who has far more sports/journalistic credentials than can be listed here, and is well connected in the Michigan sports universe. Our guest speakers included Jim Betz (played in Bo's era), Bobby Chappuis Sr. (Heisman runner-up, QB of National Championship team, appeared on cover of Time magazine for being a war hero), Jamie Morris (star running back in the late 1980s), Carol Hutchins (women's softball coach, also involved in one of the first Title IX lawsuits), Joe Lockwood (scored game-winning goal in Michigan's own Miracle on Ice against a Russian Junior team), Al Renfrew (former Michigan hockey coach), Lloyd Carr (head football coach), Red Berenson (Michigan hockey coach). We were also scheduled to have Wally Grant (former Michigan hockey star) come in, except he was sick. Bo was going to come in, until he had another heart attack and eventually his untimely passing. I think Mary Sue Coleman is also supposed to make an appearance this semester (apparently her schedule was set too far in advance for her to make it last semester, but she was interesting in showing up). If you have any kind of interest in sports, you should try and get into this class.</p>
<p>No, seriously, the greatest thing about Ralph Williams is the way he talks. He's better than most profs, but he didn't blow my mind with genius or anything like that.</p>
<p>Okay, put it this way: He's probably a genius, but his classes aren't like "Wow, I never noticed that or thought about that that way before..." If you really analyze Shakespeare, you'll realize that it's more than just pretty words, it's beautiful in the way mathematics can be elegant. Every word has multiple meanings, the sounds of phrases mean something, the rhythmic patterns, the number patterns...
In his class, you come to tears thinking about how beautiful Ralph just described love or jealousy, how understandable and desirable certain emotions are, and, what most say is the essence of Shakespeare's genius, the astounding descriptions of the depths of human emotion with words. Shakespeare the closest thing to capturing human emotion in something that you can experience without being in the exact moment. However, it's like learning applied calculus without ever knowing the mechanics behind it and realizing exactly how beautiful and ingenious it is and, if you're going to Michigan and learning from one of the world's eminent Shakespeare scholars, you should expect that.</p>
<p>Any current engineers that would like to share some of their thoughts on profs they like/dislike/adore/would strangle/would live with/would run over with a tractor/would buy a mansion, etc? And why ofc. I'm going into AE btw.</p>
<p>You were also taking a class that was a 1-credit seminar, and as much for the general public as it was for the students =P. I'm sure he'd go more in-depth on that kind of stuff when he's teaching the 3 credit course.</p>
<p>I still win, dilksy.</p>
<p>That would be a first...</p>
<p>You meanie poo. No, I can kick higher than you, remember? And...yeah.</p>