Does anyone have any suggestions on which writing seminar to take this fall? Pros and cons for math students?
Take whatever interests you the most and fits in your schedule. Much of the FWS offerings change every semester/year so not many people will be able to offer insight into specific ones.
I graduated a million years ago but the freshman seminar was far and away my most useful class. Though it sounds like a lot of work, take the class that requires the most writing. More critiques, more rewrites etc. You will be amazed at how your writing will improve. I wrote a paper a week for a year. After that, I had no trouble with writing assignments the next 3 years.
I remember only some of what I learned at Cornell. But, I can still write (and skate…)
Greek Myth was one I took, it’s surprisingly easy, the average is an A-. It’s a lot of reading, but you can get away with not doing it.
I enjoyed utopia in the fall semester. Yes, you’re writing about what your own utopia would look like as the final term paper. Relatively easy, only a few hundred words a week. You also had to read a good chunk of a novel every week, which was annoying to buy all of them. But it was overall fun and easy. You also got to really examine what you believe as you discuss utopian visions with your peers. No one ever agreed…
I took implementing social policy the spring semester. It was a little less reading, but it was denser since it was academic writings. There were a few different papers which all were interesting questions about how social policy is handled. You work with a personal favorite policy for your writings. I chose food insecurity and learned a lot about the policy surrounding it. You learned a lot about government and politics if you were relatively uninformed before. A little harder overall, but not a bad choice. It may not exist when you’re there to possibly take it, since that instructor might be on a fellowship. Maybe another instructor will take over?
I took Ling 1100: Language, Thought and Reality (I think that’s the number). Teacher was great, very nice and helpful. Class median was an A. There were some interesting papers too (I remember writing one essay on the morphology and syntax of Pokemon phonetics).