<p>Can anyone recommend any great first year courses?</p>
<p>I'm looking for a first-year requirement course and a first-year seminar. </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I took Music, Mind, and the Brain as my freshman sem. It was a philosophy class and it was decent, easy grading with some interesting discussions. The reading wasn’t really necessary so that was nice. The only unfortunate thing was that the teacher was a bit dry but it was definitely do-able, even for a not musically minded student like me.</p>
<p>Great thanks! Were there any seminars that you heard from friends that stood out to you?</p>
<p>Also, who are your favorite professors so far?</p>
<p>My friend took like coffee and chocolate thinking it would be simple and interesting and it turned out being a HUGEEE course load.</p>
<p>Another friend took a religion seminar with thee smith and loved it, (i had him for religion 200- easy A, boring class) grading was flexible and she found it interesting.</p>
<p>One of my friend’s seminars had a 25 page syllabus and it really wasn’t a course she was interested in in the first place so she swapped out of it into a spanish seminar that she ended up really liking, i forget the professors name.</p>
<p>professors I liked my freshman year hmmmmm. I really enjoyed one of my sociology professors, adria welcher, but she was a grad student teacher, not a permanent professor. Like I said I had patterson for philosophy and he was decent. I really enjoy more of a lecture format in classes as opposed to Socratic teaching or class discussions so my one philosophy professor, Hartle was enjoyable. I was in Edwards’ psychology class, not sure if you plan on taking psychology but if you can you might want to consider avoiding this teacher. His classes are rigorous to say the least and tests are extremely challenging but you do end up learning a lot of material. </p>
<p>Anyyyywayyyy you can read all about teachers and different professors once you master LearnLink: you go to Emory Announcements -> class comments -> pick a subject and then browse, or search for the teacher or class.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t avoid Edwards, he’s amazing! Well, I suppose it may not be advisable for many freshmen to take him, but don’t advise against him altogether because he’s rigorous. That’s what an elite university is supposed to be. I don’t see the problem with having high rigor if the teacher is an excellent professor (not to mention, I’ve been in many courses far harder than Edwards and some didn’t even give exams). Also, you’re biased because you prefer the detached lecture format that many don’t like as much (in reality, many people do like it. It puts them in closer contact w/the prof. Prof. is more likely to work closer w/students). </p>
<p>The only reason some people may like it is because it requires less preparation and effort. You can essentially disengage to a fair extent and expect to do extremely well if you write thorough notes, record lectures, or merely read the book (basically, in class, there is no expectation that your thoughts or competence will be put on display and your engagement or lack thereof does not effect your grade much. In other classes, more engagement often leads to better performance). I think a person like Edwards, Weinschenk, Beck, Soria, and Eisen (these are all science profs) are the perfect hybrids of lecture and engagement/socratic. I actually appreciate it. It keeps me on my toes and they tend to teach much more in depth than normal and actually try to inspire a passion for the subject. Lecture format doesn’t do it nearly as much for me (however, I’ll admit that I know some who find non-lecture/discussion/seminar/socratic styles intimidating because they don’t like being put on the spot. As a person who needed to improve public speaking skills, being put on the spot has actually helped me a lot). </p>
<p>Also, you may want to get used to discussion/Socratic if you have prof. or grad. school plans. By the end of Emory, you’ll be used to it as eventually at least half of your courses will be close to that format. </p>
<p>Also, Daniboi- take class comments w/a grain of salt. It kind of works like course evaluations where students are more likely to bash a teacher if they grade harder (as in grade “seriously”, not the overly lenient grading that is the norm) or are even a tad rigorous. Some try to describe the actual teaching quality of these hard teachers, but then it always revolves back around to: “I was an awesome student in high school, and I found this professor too hard” or “the tests were unfair, they actually required me to be able to extrapolate beyond what was said in class verbatim”, not realizing that, maybe they are not such an awesome student in college, at least against a professor w/ elite college level standards (as opposed to standards of a moderate-rigorous high school). Sometimes, if you follow class comments opinions too closely, especially in terms of what they consider a good teacher, you will end up in a really bad instructor/lecturer’s course. The only perk is that the exams will be easier. Don’t expect to learn much though.</p>