Best Vanderbilt Electives

Hi everyone!

I’ll be studying at Vanderbilt in the fall, and I’ll be registering for classes in the next few weeks. I’ve already decided upon 3 of my four courses for my first semester, and I’m looking for a fun elective to take as my final class. I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for a fun elective. Here’s a little bit of what I’m looking for:

-either in the College of Arts and Science or Human Development
-preferably easy, good for a freshman
-not a math or hard sciences class
-I’m really interested in politics, psychology, philosophy, and international cultures

Thanks a lot!

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Check out this.

https://www.vanderbilt.edu/catalogs/undergraduate/

There’s Country Music class (not sure if that’s the official title) that a lot of my friends took and they really enjoyed! It also counts for US AXLE credit. There tons of interesting courses out there to explore. Would recommend to use the Advanced Search in YES to filter for certain subjects or if you want to fulfil certain AXLE requirements.

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Ethics used to always be a solid pick (easy, and although the texts you get in the lecture are kind of the standard stuff, there was a specialized TA discussion section that could be really interesting depending on who your TA was). Although I think the prof changed so it might be different, I’d double check ratemyprof. Might not be offered in the fall though.

I also thought intro to literary criticism was a fun and not too tough of class, it can be pretty interesting because each professor will theme their class in a unique way. Although it’s probably not exactly easy and can be hard unless you’re the type of person that’s really literature/philosophy minded.

Unfortunately the stuff that’s really great is often hard for freshmen to get into (since you get last pick) so a lot of the stuff available ends up being intros. If you browse through the catalog and stick yourself on a waitlist and show up to the first day of class, you can get in to stuff though. I’d just browse, pick out a collection of things that sound cool, and then check through ratemyprof to eliminate things that are too tough, then throw yourself on a waitlist or two.

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Not sure about now, but the country music class used to get some really good “guests” occasionally. As my kids got into junior/senior territory, some classes that they enjoyed outside their majors included introduction to film, a class on Hitchcock films, a class on World War II (I have seen it get raves in this forum years back from others), womens health (a practical choice for when you need an easy class to balance out some harder ones), and sociology of education.

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do you have any idea of where you want to study abroad for a semester? if for some reason you know this answer, consider getting going on the related language. There is a lot of daily homework in language courses in college but many find it manageable. Our Vandyson didn’t possess a very good ear for languages, but managed to scrape out the proficiency score on this SAT Subject exam for Spanish in June after he graduated from high school. Thus he had some flexibility in how to meet his college level language requirement at Vandy without the prospect of having to become fluent. Immersion in language was a bridge too far for his talents. He ended up studying in Denmark and doing introductory courses in Danish culture and language while living there-- along with two other courses approved by Vandy in subjects directly related to his majors. There are hundreds of pathways to earn your language requirements…start exploring…

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My D loved her History of Rock elective, and she really enjoyed a 20th century architecture elective she took.

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