<p>Most of the students transferring into UT are required to take a UGS "signature course." Anyone have any opinion on which one is the best or most interesting? I'm a transfer and just had my orientation this past weekend and almost all of the UGS courses were closed already. I've since decided to wait until spring semester to take the UGS course so I can jump on a good one. Is this a good idea or should I just go ahead and take a less interesting, tougher UGS course to get it over with?</p>
<p>More spots will open up each week with the registration day of each successive orientation session. You can get a spot in almost any of them.</p>
<p>I took Latin American Enviro History with Dr. Knapp. The class was a breeze and the last test was optional, to replace your lowest score. The tests were specifically short because he doesn’t believe in being pressed for time during an exam. It took 20 minutes to do a 30 minute test that you get 50 minutes to do. The textbooks were entirely optional, since I never read any of then and got an A. It had the least hours per week (2 lectures and 1 TA session) and has a high percentage of A’s, like 60% now I believe. Plus the topic was actually interesting and something I felt I would never learn otherwise.</p>
<p>I had US & Latin America Relations and thought it was pretty boring. The TA discussions were ok but it was way too easy to fall asleep during lectures.</p>
<p>I had Global Health & Inequalities with Dr. Angel and it was terribly boring. It was an easy an A. Minimal reading online, no book, a few essay papers, attendance taken - and thats it. She also walks up and down the rows calling on students to voice their opinions through the microphone.</p>
<p>okay, DEFINITELY not Extraterrestrial Life with Scalo. It’s a suicide mission if you take it.</p>
<p>^Avoid ANY Astronomy course as it will be akin to suicide!</p>
<p>As for UGS, take something you are interested in and see how the professor is for his/her other classes. UGS should be an easy A and not a struggle so choose wisely.</p>
<p>AAli4Real, you wouldn’t suggest taking any astronomy course? I’ll be attending UT as a sophmore this year and I’ve already registered for classes, Astronomy 301 being one of them :P</p>
<p>@longhorn101</p>
<p>Well I was about to sign up for Astronomy but I suppose I read the class by its title only so to speak and I didn’t picture it having so much math – thus my drop/adding for another class. </p>
<p>Maybe it’s a class people assume won’t have mathematics like me…or that’s just my own opinion. haha</p>
<p>Do you guys think it would be a good idea to wait until next semester to take a UGS course if all of the good ones are already full? I would be a second semester sophomore when I took it.</p>
<p>yeah, i say wait till next semester. it’s supposed to be your “easy A” and it sure won’t be if you get a crappy class you dont like.</p>
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<p>The problem with Astronomy is that it is a heavy dose of chem, physics, and a little bit of math. It is labeled as a non-science major class but the guy I had, Dr. Robinson, made his tests very hard and I had to put in 5-6 hours a day and more on the weekend and even with this effort I switched the class to pass/fail, personally its not worth the stress.</p>
<p>If you do take AST 301, take it with Don Winget, I heard he’s the one to take otherwise don’t take this class at all.</p>
<p>Remember that the UGS classes change between semesters, and there are far less Spring ones. Check last year’s course schedule (Spring '10) and see if any UGS classes listed there interest you, since those are more likely to be the ones offered next spring.</p>
<p>If the Al Jazeera - Voice of the Voiceless UGS class with Mohammed Mohammed is being offered, go for it. My daughter took it and said he does an entertaining job presenting directly conflicting views of Al Jazeera - and that it was not a difficult class.</p>
<p>I love his name. He Who Can’t Be Typed. (Microsoft Word flags his name as “duplicate words”)</p>
<p>oh ok, thanks guys! I’ve pretty much decided to drop astronomy and add another science course</p>
<p>Where’s a list of UGS courses? Can you use a class to count for the signature class and another requirement?</p>
<p>What other requirement would it fulfill?</p>
<p>List of courses:
302- <a href=“Sign in with your UT EID - Stale Request”>Sign in with your UT EID - Stale Request;
303- <a href=“Sign in with your UT EID - Stale Request”>Sign in with your UT EID - Stale Request;
<p>FWIW, for fall 2008 they told us specifically that the UGS classes could not be used to meet any distribution requirements.</p>
<p>I’m taking summer classes, do the grades I get at the community college affect my UT gpa?</p>
<p>All of the UGS courses listed on that link say “closed” or “cancelled”. Are they closed, but with open spots for freshmen to register during orientation?</p>
<p>Right. There are, say, six orientations and they open up 1/6 of the spots each week. (This only applies to the UGS classes!)</p>