<p>As we are nearing Bama Bound, thought this would be a good time to list some recs/avoids for honors courses.</p>
<p>Son is going to have to fit some in in the next two years, so interested in hearing what others have taken.</p>
<p>We’ve all heard about the Fine Arts of Tuscaloosa and Moral Forum and Parody, but what about some of the others?</p>
<p>Son’s roommates have taken Ideology of Cinema, Classics and Western Culture, 21st Century Science Fiction (videoconferenced), and the Professional Development Course.</p>
<p>And of course, there’s the study abroad ones, which are awesome, but not affordable to everyone.</p>
<p>So, what else is there, besides the freshman only offerings, that would be of INTEREST to take, not just something easy and fulfills a dual requirement of honors and a core curriculum.</p>
<p>In other words, what’s an honors course that you took that you could fit it in your schedule, or you found the subject matter interesting, and it wasn’t necessarily an easy A, but you’re glad you took it!</p>
<p>My son registered for one course that was a second choice behind one that was closed. Another course opened up last night, but it’s also a backup to another one he’d rather. He’ll be okay with it, though, and would prefer it over his first registration.</p>
<p>He’s looked at courses that involve reading Machiavelli, Dante, or studying Alexander the Great or Egypt. A wide variety! None of them look easy, and some only satisfy the honors requirement, leaving him still with a fine arts to fill, which he’d like to do with French still. He’s looking forward to learning something different! That is why he chose Bama over his other choices, the variety of electives. </p>
<p>He really loved Intro to Fine Arts, a class of less than 25 that was open to engineering majors only, and although it did not fulfill an honors requirement, he’s very happy he took the course. He got to read some very interesting stuff, including graphic novels and science fiction and fantasy.</p>
<p>Yes, some of CBH credits count towards the UHP req’ts, but I think you still have to have at least 6 UHP credits. </p>
<p>Cuttlefish’s links are great for seeing descriptions and seeing Core Designations. Everytime I look at that list, I see several classes that I would love to be able to take. </p>
<p>For those who aren’t req’d to take their 6 upper division W classes within their majors, the UHP versions are great. Even if your major offers W classes, you’re not always req’d to take them. However, if you need them for upper division credits within the major, then you may not have the option to take the UHP W classes.</p>
<p>^^^You can take the UHP W classes as the seminar requirement even if you have to do major writing courses. You’ll just have extra writing courses. If it’s a course you’re interested in, go for it!</p>
<p>S is taking First Person it’s a W, looks super interesting to me. Not sure if he also has to take W’s in his major of Psych.
He’s also taking English Lit which will also be a lot of writing. Not sure how that will work out.</p>
<p>There are three (at least) different mentoring classes. One involves meeting once a week with the instructor and discussing social and educational issues and then volunteering once per week for a few hours at a local elementary school. Two others involve volunteering at local high schools working with students to prepare them for college or for passing AP tests. Keep in mind your student will need to have transportation for each of these classes.</p>
<p>Behind the British Mask and the Financial Freedom classes are among the most popular in the Honors College, so you may want to place them on your list.</p>
<p>Perhaps someday there will be classes on SEC Football and/or ones that feature food. Those would be very popular, too.</p>
<p>DS is taking Alexander the Great which he hope will be really interesting and not too time consuming. He has been dying to take the Financial Freedom class but keeps missing out on it, crossing fingers he’ll be in early enough that he can get it next spring.</p>
<p>^^^So funny! Alexander the Great and Egyptian Culture are at the same time, same room, just on different days. Looks like like-minded kids will be in both! We’ll have to post after the class how the kids liked it. Hoping socal and cuttle’s smart kids will rub off on my son if he winds up in either of those!</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the big downer about the Financial Freedom class is that it’s MWF at 9 a.m. Some students may not take it, because their other classes are MW or TTh.</p>
<p>The school where I did my graduate work offers an awesome class that is filled each year. It’s the History of Baseball. Trips to Yankee Stadium and Camden Yards are planned. This is the type of class my boys would enjoy.</p>
<p>Wish they could have more Financial Freedom offerings. Definitely one that no matter the major, it’s an area of one’s life that should be explored.</p>
<p>If your son is taking First Person with Carolyn Mason, he should really like it. Older son took her class. Carolyn Mason is very supportive and dedicated instructor. </p>
<p>The class was a change for my son because in HS, kids were always told not to write in the First Person, so this a nice change. </p>
<p>Carolyn Mason is from Texas (yes, she’s a Longhorn Fan except when Bama is playing others…lol)…Here’s her piece on the 2009 BCS Game of Bama vs Texas (Rolling right over those Hook 'en Horns.)</p>
<p>Wouldn’t Honors sections of regular courses also count? E.g., Honors Western Civ, Honors American History, Honors English, etc.?</p>
<p>I sure hope so, because that’s the route DS is going, so far at least! He’s a rising sophomore. He hasn’t taken any of that UHP stuff yet AFAIK. (He is in the Emerging Scholars program, where he will be doing research on the status of women in medieval Ireland – I kid you not – but I don’t think that’s UHP. It’s something else with three letters in front, lol.)</p>
<p>DS took the Machiavelli course as an entering freshman - those one hour freshman Engineering courses and the four-day-a-week Calc courses don’t leave many options, and he was glad to grab that one. It was weekly readings (for which you had to turn in what was essentially a response paper each week), and the class was a current events discussion/debate for the first half, and lecture for the second half. Tests were a mixture of multiple choice, short answer and (very) short essays. </p>
<p>He found it interesting and enjoyable, and the format was one he was quite familiar with since he had Classical Liberal Arts during high school (four years of Latin plus four years of classics readings from Ancients through Modernity). IIRC it gave W credit, which he thought was great for something that didn’t involve a footnoted formal paper. </p>
<p>It was also a great change of pace from all the math/physics classes for my very verbal DS who - for some inscrutable reason - decided he needed to be a MechEng…</p>