<p>Hi, I am attending Chicago this year, and I was wondering how likely I could get my first choice (or 2nd and 3rd) for the HUM courses. Because from what I've read not everyone in the past got their first choice.</p>
<p>It actually all comes down to what time of the day your advisor appointment is - the earlier the better. The way it works is that they’ll have a number of spots open in each class for a given day, say 5 spots on Monday, 5 on Tuesday, etc. So which day you have your appointment is irrelevant, largely. But if your appointment is say, at 9 AM, you get the first picks, whereas if your appointment is later in the day, say, at 4PM or so, you’re kinda out of luck. </p>
<p>That said, you can probably get into one of your top 3 choices, no problem; this college takes the core very seriously and accomodates reasonably well. Fortunately, also, much of the core classes are more or less comparable to one another; if you didn’t get into the perenially-popular philosophical perspectives (amazing class), take HBC. These classes have overlapping reading lists and all are equally rigorous …except maybe Media Aesthetics. </p>
<p>Also bear in mind some core classes are quite different from others. Philper and HBC definitely have a philosophical bent and similar reading lists, but differ greatly from, say, Reading Cultures, which is much more literary-analysis based (yuck).</p>
<p>If you mean first three choices for sequence, then definitely yes. However, getting a particular section may be hard, although I got my 2nd choice section (with an afternoon Friday appointment, if that makes any difference). It pays to plan ahead as those 20 minutes with your adviser go by very quickly.</p>
<p>Yeah, I was going to say the same thing. 90% of people probably get their first choice of course (i.e., Human Being & Citizen, or Media Aesthetics, etc.), and I have never heard of someone not getting one of his or her top three. But choice of section within a course is another matter altogether, and whether you get a top choice for that is really a matter of luck. (In fact, I think one of the biggest reasons for people not winding up in their first-choice course is that they don’t like any of the section times available for that course, not that the course itself is full.)</p>
<p>I think your scheduled advisor meeting is part of that lottery, but I’m not sure that it’s as simple as morning vs. afternoon. At this point, however, there’s nothing you can do about it except to keep an open mind.</p>
<p>Advice on sequences: Many people think that the traditional sequences – HBC, Greek Thought, and Philosophical Perspectives – tend to work better than the other sequences. (That was certainly my kids’ experience. Reading Cultures was a total dud for a kid for whom the description of that course was perfect, and HBC was a dream course for a kid who dreaded Hum.) However, lots of people seem to have good experiences in Media Aesthetics, too.</p>
<p>Lots depends on your teacher, and that’s also a little random. Some of the best are newly minted PhDs or sometimes ABDs about whom there will be no information available. Also, the teachers for sections sometimes change quarter to quarter, with senior faculty stepping in to teach only one quarter at a time. I think some sequences (Greek Thought) have more stable, more experienced faculty on average.</p>