<p>Pretty self explanatory title. Any favorite courses or professors?</p>
<p>Reading Cultures w/ Bozena Shallcross
Oral Narrative (the Folktale) w/ James Fernandez
Reading the Road Trip w/ David Alworth</p>
<p>Philosophical Perspectives is amazing (if you like reading Plato). Take it with Brandon Fogel if you can. Not only is he smart, clever, and funny, but he feeds you cake on the last day of class.</p>
<p>David Alworth is listed as a Ph.D. candidate. I thought virtually all classes at UofC were taught by professors.</p>
<p>^ I know, right?</p>
<p>HUM and SOSC are sometimes taught by PhD candidates. As well as some of the calc sequences. I don’t know about any other classes/departments, but those are the instances in which I was taught by a grad student.</p>
<p>Most of those people are still friggin’ brilliant, though.</p>
<p>^^^ I agree. The grad/undergrad student ratio is 2:1 so they have their choice of brilliant ones.</p>
<p>Honors Intro to Computer Science, with Stuart Kurtz. Fantastic class, great teacher, good times.</p>
<p>Greek Thought & Lit - Aaron Johnson. Great storyteller; sparks interesting discussions in class. Warning: tough grader.
Self, Culture, & Society - Joe Feinberg. Grad student. Soft-spoken, but I enjoyed the quarter he taught. (Winter quarter.)
Ancient Near Eastern Thought & Lit - Christopher Woods. Awesome lecturer, fantastic writer.
Natural History of North American Deserts - Eric Larsen. Absolutely hilarious lecturer. Take any class he offers; you won’t regret it.</p>
<p>I don’t see the point of worrying about whether or not your instructors will be graduate students. Generally, they can better relate to your situation and usually still has the knowledge fresh in their mind. Obviously, there are exceptions.</p>
<p>OH MY GOSH. YOU HAD JOE FEINBERG FOR SOSC?!
I’m so jealous. He was my TA in that Folktales class, and he’s a member of the Chicago Storytelling Guild with me. He’s wonderful. And is in like, Slovakia or something doing his PhD research. For TWO YEARS! </p>
<p>I’m of the opinion that grad students are often better professors than professors. They’re young, talented, and on the cutting edges of their fields. They only teach classes that they’re extremely qualified to teach–David Alworth is writing his thesis on topics related to road trip literature. The competition to teach core sequence is, believe it or not, tough. Very few spots are open for grad students to teach, so they fight tooth and nail to get the teaching experience they’ll need to get jobs after they get their PhD’s. So don’t hate on grad students; the ones I’ve had have been absolutely amazing.</p>
<p>Intro to Macroeconomics with Allen Sanderson!
A lot of people seem not to like him, but Sanderson is a straight up G. He’s funny and knows his stuff. His tests are hard as hell though!</p>
<p>@ KMad: He was awesome! But you already know that. Hah. I think several students actually thought he was a pushover or something because he was extremely soft-spoken, especially at the beginning of the quarter, but honestly, he made that 9 AM class so much better; I don’t think I ever had any trouble staying awake during his class - not something I can say for most 9 AM classes - and I wrote my best paper for his class as well. He’s quite inspirational in a very subtle way.</p>
<p>Waitasec, what is this Chicago Storytelling Guild, and more importantly, why have I not heard of it before?</p>
<p>@ HonorsCentaur: Unless I’m misremembering, it’s because he despises soccer, doesn’t think it’s a real sport, and isn’t afraid to share that opinion. ;)</p>
<p>Any math/science classes?</p>
<p>Is the Chicago Storytelling Guild in anyway related to the Anthro department?</p>
<p>
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<p>Like I said, Honors Intro to CS was spectacular. At a time when most CS departments are dropping functional language introductions (even MIT switched from Scheme to Python for its regular intro course), Chicago sticks it to ya hardcore with Haskell. Kurtz is a passionate and patient professor, my TA was helpful and accessible, and the labs were fun and challenging.</p>
<p>The CS department at Chicago is small, but the people are tight.</p>
<p>The Chicago Storytelling Guild isn’t related to the University–it’s an independent group managed by a few professional/semi-professional storytellers in the area. If you’re a current student and want to know more, just message me!</p>
<p>And yeah, Allen Sanderson says soccer is a terrible sport. He’s my house faculty fellow, so I get to hear all about it! There’s some sort of economic basis for that opinion…</p>
<p>Also, my favorite Sandersonism-- “Going to the University of Chicago and not taking a course in economics is like going to the Sistine Chapel and not looking up.” </p>
<p>Oh Sanderson.</p>
<p>Two great science/quasi-science classes-</p>
<p>Autonomy and Medical Paternalism with Dan Brudney-- a Big Problems class, cross listed in HIPS and Bio. Basically an introductory medical ethics class with extra philosophy. Class was heavily populated by seemingly stuck-in-their-ways premed students, many of whom seemed to change their ideas or become a lot more flexible (as I did) over the course of the quarter. Only offered once every two years, but it’s really a must for anyone who sees a career in medicine in their future.</p>
<p>Issues in Women’s Health with Lianne Kurina. Professor Kurina is great in general, had her for another course (Epidemiology) and because of it was inspired to take this class. A really great look at a lot of current issues in health-- we covered a lot of topics (depression, obesity, reproductive issues) using both gender and, often, gender/race/SES as reasons for exploration of the topic. Wound up learning a lot more from that class than I ever thought I could have; lots of readings and involved discussions, but I’ve liked the class so much that I’m currently ENJOYING writing my 20-page final paper.</p>
<p>Human Capital with Gary Becker </p>
<p>Introduction to East Asian Civilizations - I (China) with Guy Alito </p>
<p>Elements of Economic Analysis IV with Peter Bondarenko</p>
<p>Political Sociology with Terry Clark </p>
<p>Self, Culture, and Society – III with Hussein Agrama</p>
<p>Not so sure about Sanderson. I can’t judge because I haven’t taken his class, but he sounds like the kind of guy who’s also compensating for something…</p>
<p>If you can, skip the introductory microeconomics sequence (unless you haven’t taken micro or don’t feel comfortable with it, then this is a horrible idea) and take Econ 200 with Victor Lima. The man is a god, especially if you like seeing calculus in economics.</p>
<p>Honors Calculus (IBL section) - best way to be introduced to proofs in my opinion 
Greek Thought and Literature with Aaron Johnson – probably the best teacher I have had at UChicago (so far). <3</p>