Easy Filler/Elective/CORE Courses

Colleges and Universities A-Z Tulane University
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<p>Hey guys!</p>

<p>With class scheduling and registration for the fall rapidly approaching, I thought it would be good for current students to share some suggestions for good classes to take to meet various requirements or as electives. The class schedule has already been posted (Tulane</a> University - Class Schedule), although I'm sure that Tulane will add more sections of things and switch around the teachers.</p>

<p>My suggestions:</p>

<p>Humanities/Inside European Tradition (Perspectives)- Meets 2 Requirements at once!!
-Mythology
-History of Ancient Philosophy-I haven't personally taken this, but I've heard it's pretty easy and that the Prof (Jennifer Beers) is pretty awesome :D</p>

<p>Social Science/Outside European Tradition (Perspectives)
-Cultural Anthropology-Really easy, just check the prof on rate my professor to ensure a class with minimal work/assignments</p>

<p>Social Sciences
-Intro Psych-Most people take this class at some point, it's pretty easy and interesting, although as a neuro major I am heavily biased!!!
-Sociology of the Family
-Any Anthro Class</p>

<p>Fine Arts- I would avoid any of the "art" classes (i.e. glassblowing, painting, etc) because they require hours of extra studio time each week per class. They aren't hard, but they take up soooo much time.
-Dance- You get credit to work out :)
-Music Theory-Very easy, if you can read music and actually go to class, this should be an automatic A</p>

<p>Honors Requirement
-Inquiring Minds at TU-One of my favorite classes at TU. It's an Intro to Research Class where you go and tour labs on campus and learn to read research articles, etc. This class is for ALL majors (not just in the sciences). The Prof is awesome and a SUPER easy grader. All 10 of us who took it in the fall ALL got an A! Seriously, this was probably the easiest class I have ever/will ever take at TU AND it is Honors :)</p>

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<p>Great thread idea :)</p>

<p>I took Art History 1010: Art Survey I for my Inside European Tradition credit. It was an easy, interesting course.</p>

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<p>Hey Tulane14, nice to see you here. </p>

<p>As a biased philosophy major, I would recommend
Intro. to Elementary Symbolic Logic with Lott, great guy, easy enough class. Very easy, in fact. </p>

<p>Ethics with Suprenant or Honors Ethics, great guy, or most of the ethics professors besides Meredith. Great class, makes you think harder about alot of very core fundamental values. </p>

<p>Ebio101 with Fluery - Fairly easy class, he’s a very nice man who tries to make it what is usually considered boring subject material very interactive and funny. The lab, amusingly, is harder than the lecture.</p>

<p>Any tides with Suprenant, one of the best professors here</p>

<p>Freshman Honors Colloquium: Mixed bag, there’s extensive extensive reading, far more than you would expect from a freshman class. Of course, it is based off of Ivy League Great Books courses, where you go on a reading spree that traces from the earliest great books ever written to more modern literature, from Iliad to Don Quixote to Genealogy, there’s plenty of literature to be enjoyed. It’s also very extensive reading in a short period, so recommended only if you can manage your time. With that said, the class itself is very simple if you keep up with the reading; the class discussion is student driven and the professors are easy graders when it comes to essays. If you do manage through two semesters of this, you receive 3 honors credits, which almost fulfills your honors requirements. </p>

<p>I also really like intro to psych and have heard great things about glassblowing. </p>

<p>This is all from the perspective of an honors philosophy/ neuroscience double major intending to do premed. This does cover alot of ground when it comes to questions about freshman classes, so feel free to shoot me a pm if you want to know more.</p>

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<p>is alvarez, christenson, wyland, hebert, or rollins better for psych1000?
also, schmehl, burin, or jacobsen for gen chem?</p>

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<p>HEY LAMTRAN!!! :smiley: Nice to see you too LOL. we still need to bake cookies tomorrow haha.</p>

<p>uhh avenlea, i’m pretty sure you won’t go wrong with any of those choices for intro psych, although i <3 julie alvarez. i aways see her at the psych/neuro events and she is very friendly and approachable :)</p>

<p>for chem, i would not take jacobsen. i got an A in his class last semester, but it was honestly just ridiculous. he is a really cool guy (even wrote me a rec letter), but his teaching consists of reading random powerpoint slides out. he didn’t work a single chemistry problem on the board the WHOLE semester. if you haven’t had AP chem, you are in trouble when it comes to jacobsen. based on rate my prof, i advised my prospies from the march honors weekend to take schmel.</p>

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<p>do you think the honors students will fully fill the recommended teachers before the 1st orientation day for non honors. my son is registered for the 1st orientation in June</p>

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<p>I don’t see Inquiring Minds at TU on the 2011 course schedule, am I just missing it? Any other suggestions for easy honors courses?</p>

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<p>Smile: We attended the Honors Weekend session so have already registered. Most of the sections don’t have the teachers assigned to them yet - or at least they are not listed. That is the experience my son had and I confirmed that after we got home when I went in to make some changes to his schedule. There were a few: Fleury and Alvarez are the ones I can think of offhand, but for most of the others that we were looking at, no teacher has been assigned. It kind of takes away a bit of the advantage of getting to register early, but it is probably more fair that way too. So, I am sure you will be able to get some of those teachers during orientation.</p>

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<p>i don’t know whether to take inquiring minds or ethics! i think i might just do inquiring minds first semester and ethics second semester.
i’m also confused on which tides, haha, there’s so many!! any recommendations?
and thanks tulane14! i wish my host had been as helpful as you, haha. i’m really confused about which one to take though, according to ratemyprof rollins is the easiest, but i dunno…</p>

<p>also, mumof2, search this course number (COLQ1020) because it’s an honors colloquium and therefore listed kind of differently. i personally have had no problems finding teachers for my classes so i don’t know…</p>

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<p>avenlea- i had AP psych credit, so i’m probably not the best person to ask in regards to who to take for intro psych. </p>

<p>for tides, i’d make sure to take one that has an associated service learning component. a lot of kids continually put off their service learning component and end up having to take some random class second semester sophomore year just to complete their first tier service learning.</p>

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<p>In terms of intro to psych, I’m currently in Professor Rollins’ class. It’s a mixed bag, I would say. I’ve had a number of friends complain about how ridiculously tricky the tests are (english isnt their first language), and another bunch comment that it’s very simple and straightforward (english IS their first language). In my own experience, she definitely gives you everything you need very clearly. It only takes about a night or two of studying, and make sure to carefully pore over each question to avoid any twists. She offers four exams, and a final exam; you could skip the final if you do well on the first four, which helps alot. She also offers extra credit and is generally very amiable, though her lectures vary from hysterical to bedtime lullabies. She does take occasional attendance so it’d be wise not to miss her lectures. </p>

<p>Jacobsen’s a nice guy, but having also been in Genchem with Jacobsen, I wouldn’t recommend him. I’d support Tulane14’s recommendation.</p>

<p>For TIDES, I loved Suprenant’s “Good Life” Tides. It’s a very low-key tides where we spent alot of time eating, watching movies, and discussing philosophical subjects. He’s a great guy and has an amusing obsession with his dog which he never fails to bring up every few conversations. We also visited his home for some traditional Louisiana food (great chef by the way). The only true written work was two 5 page essays, or for me, I wrote one 10 page essay about anything we did or watched. It’s not particularly graded with serious thought, so unless you copy and paste your opening paragraph, you should be fine. He ALSO has an attached service learning which I regret not doing, as I’m stuck in the situation of looking around for an opportunity :[. </p>

<p>Between inquiring minds and ethics; I’m assuming you’re looking for an honors class.
Since Tulane14 will be the one to support inquiring minds, I’ll support the class I’m taking as a philosophy major - ethics!</p>

<p>Professor Sensen: I’ve heard great things about him. He’s a solid teacher. To be honest, I love ethics as a subject and may be a bit biased, but from what I’ve seen from my visits to the philosophy department and conversation with other people, most of the teachers are great minus a man with the word “shoe” in his name (avoid him at all costs). I don’t want to type out the full name in case I end up in his class since my username will give me away. It’s philosophy, so you can’t expect an easy ride, contrary to popular belief, but if you put in the time and effort, it’s an enlightening class and you will love it. I highly recommend it for anyone even remotely interested in philosophy, and would suggest against any “intro to philosophy classes”. But if you’re just looking for an honors credit that require minimal thought, Inquiring minds may be your thing (from what I hear at least). Personally, I would love for you to take Ethics first, since it may or may not create a new philosophy major.</p>

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<p>Ughh I got Jacobsen for chem!! Ehh I’ve taken AP Chem already, now I guess I don’t have to worry about being bored XD.</p>

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<p>rainbowrose- if you are insistent on taking jacobsen (aka heiko, that’s what everyone calls him LOL), plan on not even ever needing to go to class, save for exam days and the first day. it could be a plus to take him if you can still do well on his tests, because it will save you from going to 3 hours of class/week. i barley pulled an A, even with a strong AP chem background. i didn’t study much (i.e. i studied for the final for 2 hours total), though, so i probably am once again not the best person to comment on this.</p>

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<p>@tulane14, I suppose I can change it but I don’t think my advisor would be too happy to hear I’m switching because of the professor.</p>

<p>My AP chem background WAS very strong, but, unfortunately, that was last year so 99% of it has seeped out of my brain…</p>

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<p>My son was able to go online and just change things himself. I don’t think anyone is going to care and it’s your schedule. This is college now :slight_smile: so as long as what you choose is still directed toward fulfilling the requirements, you should do what you want.</p>

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<p>Any suggestions for lab science classes for the non-science major?</p>

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<p>a lot of non-science majors take ebio 101 w/ lab.</p>

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<p>tulane14- the honors course you suggested (on your first post) seems like a good one!! i can’t seem to find it when i’m looking at classes- do you know the course number??</p>

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<p>Daniellem - Here it is. COLQ1020-01</p>

<p>The CRN=37874, looks like it is going to be on Tuesdays from 3:00-5:30</p>

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<p>lamtran, why avoid the mysterious “shoe” professor? I’m currently registered for honors intro to philosophy with him, what should i know about him?</p>