Course Recommendations

Since Fall 2017 course registration is right around the corner for current students, and the members of the class of 2021 are going to be making their decision soon, I thought it would be a good time to start a thread giving course recommendations. Hopefully other people will contribute too!

I will start off with something that’s not a course recommendation but a grading option: take classes pass/fail. You can take up to 24 units (8 3-credit courses) of pass/fail classes (or credit/no credit as it’s officially known) during your time at Wash U. It’s a great way to explore an area that you are interested in but unsure of or if you want to just take a class for fun. You can also switch back to the credit option up until pretty late in the semester.

Computer Science 1: Recommended to anyone in any major. Will give you a basic knowledge of Java programming that is useful in any field.

Fiction or Non-Fiction Writing: I think that a lot of people swear off writing classes after taking Writing 1, but writing is a very important skill for future employment and can be enjoyable too!

Microeconomics: Being able to understand how money and the economy work is an important ability.

Improv (UCollege): Fun, helps with communication and public-speaking skills, great conversation starter during interviews.

For incoming freshmen: take a freshman seminar. There are a lot of great options, and it’ll give you the chance to take a smaller class taught by a professor in an interesting topic (and don’t worry if you can’t decide which to take, they’re also offered spring semester). Even as an upperclassman, I still think those are some of the most exciting-sounding classes listed.

Thanks for starting this thread @sungoose !

I was wondering if you could answer some general / high level questions. My D is thinking about attending. She wants to major in CS. I was looking at this page:
https://cse.wustl.edu/undergraduate/programs/Pages/bs-in-computer-science.aspx

First of all, 120 credit for graduation. So with 3 credit classes, that’s typically 5 classes per semester, correct?

Also, adding up what was on that page, I think I got 89 required credits in (somewhat) specific classes. Does that mean that the other 31 credits can be taken anywhere at all?

And you said that you can switch from P/F to grade pretty late in the semester. Can you switch in the other direction too, from a grade to P/F?

Thanks!

@thshadow Yes, 5 classes per semester is the norm. And those other credits can be taken anywhere. A lot of people at Wash U double major, and most people at least have a minor. I’m minoring across schools (in CS actually) and my minor is actually what’s really helped me get internships. You can PM me if you have any specific questions.

As for the question on P/F: this semester, March 3 was the deadline for switching to P/F, and April 7 is the deadline for switching from P/F to credit (same day as deadline to withdraw with the W). That actually gave students more time this year than in past years to switch to P/F, which is a good thing for students. I think the deadline for moving from P/F to credit is later to encourage students to try hard, and conversely, not to slack off, which they might knowing that there’s the possibility of switching to P/F. You can only take one class per semester as P/F (not counting classes that are offered only as P/F), so there’s some strategy to deciding which class to take as P/F in any given semester.