<p>Has anybody had any experience with the Freshman Clusters? If so, what are their pros and cons? I've heard that they are harder (more reading and writing-intensive). And do they inhibit you from taking a wider variety of classes, given that they are year-long courses?</p>
<p>Pros: Professors who are teaching clusters are generally more interested. You can knock out a few GEs quickly and your writing II. Work on a specific area of study for an ENTIRE YEAR (as opposed to 10 weeks of cramming)… more connections with your peers since you have them… for… the entire year (could be good or bad thing)
Cons: MIGHT inhibit your schedule… kinda depends on your major. E.g. engineering major or being a pre-med student who needs to follow a specific trajectory… would be inhibited slightly by a cluster. yes tend to be more reading/writing intensive . …</p>
<p>Sounds pretty awesome. Do people generally enroll in one cluster? I’m a bit clueless as to how the program works.</p>
<p>One cluster.</p>
<p>Yeah, only one cluster. There’s no committment, you can always not continue.</p>
<p>NO DONT! dont fall into teh trap!!!</p>
<p>the first thing i was told coming here was NOT to take a cluster. i am so happy i chose not to.</p>
<p>choose ur own GEs, make ur life ezier.</p>
<p>aa6590, do you know exactly why you were advised against taking a cluster?</p>
<p>cuz it sucks…</p>
<p>How enlightening!</p>
<p>Pro: The clusters satisfies lots of GE’s
Topics are interesting</p>
<p>Cons: seminar is no longer a requirement for the college of letters and sciences
no more priority enrollment
LOTS of reading + work</p>
<p>personally, i would advise against it.</p>
<p>do it if you’re really interesting in the topic, because it’ll be like taking the same class for one whole year. a guy on my floor is in the history of modern thought one, and he did a lot of reading last quarter and first quarter… but this quarter (since spring quarter is seminar) his grade is half attendance, half ONE paper. that’s just one example, but it’s good to know that spring quarter (if you stick with it) is usually fun. you get to choose the seminar you want.</p>
<p>with that being said, he’s really gotten to know his peers on a closer level. they even have shirts for people in that cluster. do it only if you are okay with working on a certain topic for the whole year. if you want more variety, don’t do a cluster and instead you can take three different GE’s in various areas. you knock out more GEs with the cluster, though.</p>
<p>I’m in the Interracial Dynamics cluster.</p>
<p>The lectures are pretty boring, and the class is really discussion intensive. I get sick of the reading sometimes, but it’s actually pretty interesting and I find that in real life, I actually use the info (at least when I’m watching TV and laugh at The View hostesses).</p>
<p>Anyway, it’s a year long course, so it’s actually a pretty good transition from high school into college because you’re with the same group of first-years the whole year, so you’ve basically already gotten to know each other in a comfortable setting.</p>
<p>Two weeks into my winter quarter, I regretted continuing the cluster because basically, I was too lazy to do the essay assignment. Now that I’m in a spring quarter seminar though, I’m actually pretty happy I enrolled in one.</p>
<p>Only enroll in the cluster if you think the topic will interest you because you will hate the work that comes with it otherwise!</p>
<p>Above posters have it right- only only only enroll if you like the material. I took HMT as well, and wanted to shoot myself fall quarter. Profs were better in winter, and my spring seminar was amazing! (We watched Blade Runner and 2001 and talked about computers and people and way-cool semi-nerdy awesome stuff). </p>
<p>There are fewer perks to being in a cluster now. You used to get priority enrollment for the year, now you don’t. You used to get both your writing II’s done with the spring seminar, but now there’s only one writing II required, so spring quarter is now a GE that’s a writing II. There are plenty other of those classes, making the seminar less unique. The only perks remaining are that honors students still get honors units (15 for the year), and like above people have said, you’re going in-depth in one subject for the whole year with the same people. Which some people like, some people don’t. And I’d say on the whole that fall/winter cluster classes are more rigorous than ordinary GE’s, which is another consideration.</p>