<p>I'm definitly more of a math/science person. Which of the humanities sequences would be the most manageable for me?</p>
<p>They're all pretty comparable. I know math and science people who ended up really liking their hum sections--one or two have even considered switching to a humanities major. Pick the one that interests you most, and you'll probably find the best luck with it. </p>
<p>Some math/science people find they really like or really dislike reading and studying philosophy. If you're the type who likes philosophy, think about taking Philosophical Perspectives.</p>
<p>The core isn't designed to change your mindset, it's just to expose you to works and ideas that you normally wouldn't seek out (because realistically, very few teenagers are going to read Marx without some prodding, no matter how enthusiastic they are). My roommate is a huge math/science guy but he still got a kick out of Greek Though & Lit; I'd recommend that one simply because Greek lit is foundational to the Western intellectual tradition and you'll become a more cultured person simply by reading it.</p>
<p>Personally, I'm an HBC fan, just so you know.</p>
<p>Had a long, drunk talk with a fourth-year. </p>
<p>They said to take Citizen something. </p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>
<p>haha That would be HBC or Human Being and Citizen.</p>
<p>HBC is I think the best default option-- it's got your Iliad, Dante's Inferno, some other greats, and a dash of philosophy. This year, they added Hadji Murad, and I hope that they keep it, because it's a smaller version of War and Peace and it's ridiculously good.</p>
<p>The great thing about HBC is that there is also a governing board saying what books are going to be covered-- it's my impression that the professor more or less has control of what is read in some of the other hum sequences.</p>
<p>Anyway, you'll have a chance to debate this all during O-Week.</p>
<p>Amy, my professor said that books are rotated every two years, so they'll teach Hadji Murad next year, as well. In the past for the last text in Spring quarter they've taught Invisible Man and Moby Dick. I'm not sure whether this is true for all hum courses, but I know that for HBC professors come together and participate in their own seminar discussion on a text after a presentation by a faculty member well versed in that text. I thought that was really cool and interesting.</p>
<p>yea, and he kept bashing "mind"</p>
<p>...I feel like I watched someone have this conversation with a prospie, but I know he was sober at the time. :)</p>
<p>Mind is, if you will excuse me, a fake sosc. It is vastly different from the other sosc courses. I believe that students benefit most from taking one of the conventional sosc courses.</p>
<p>This is true. Even the students who end up loving Mind agree that it's a fake sosc. You're at the University of Chicago; you owe it to yourself to take a real sosc.</p>
<p>(Unless there's something about Mind that really, really, really appeals to you).</p>
<p>You can always take sosc twice to fulfill a real sosc and take Mind. :D :eek:</p>
<p>For what it's worth, my daughter (an English major type) took Reading Cultures, and it just didn't quite work. She found it very frustrating. Part of it may have been her first teacher, a really hard-core historicist who had a hard time communicating what she wanted the students to do, part of it was that the class didn't attract a group of kids who were sophisticated about literature, and part of it was that the sosc-y humanities thing didn't click with her as much as she thought it might. </p>
<p>With Sosc, she went mainstream and took Self, Culture and Society. She liked it a lot.</p>
<p>The conclusion she, I, an English prof, and the very cool grad student who taught the second quarter of her Reading Cultures section all reached: with the Core, the tried-and-true traditional courses are generally the way to go. She's recommending that her brother take Human Being and Citizen or Philosophical Perspectives. A number of her drama-hipster friends took Media Aesthetics and loved it, though.</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, what is "a real sosc"? How does it differ from Mind? Is the idea that you have to read Smith, Marx, and Durkheim?</p>
<p>"Mind" is not a real sosc, because you read scientific articles rather than the big boys like Smith, Marx, and Durkheim. If that's the measuring stick, "Democracy and Social Sciences" isn't a real sosc either, because a lot of it is statistics.</p>
<p>"Power, Identity, and Resistance," "Self, Culture, and Society," and "Classics of Social and Political Thought," all cover Smith, Marx, and Durkheim, albeit different portions of their works and with differing thematic foci. All three are terrific sequences; you'll hear a lot about "Self" being the "real" sosc because it used to be mandatory, back before there was a "Mind" core.</p>
<p>And just to throw in a difference of opinion-- I DIDN'T like "Self," though the reasons I didn't like it had more to do with me than it did with the professor, the students, or the readings-- I realized that I just didn't like reading extremely abstract treatises on the way life worked.</p>
<p>I read the description of Mind, and it really appealed to me, but I do want to take advantage of Chicago's core and unique classes. My headmaster's wife who went to U of C told me I should definitely take Human Being and Citizen, so I wonder if anyone could speak more about that course (isn't it the most fundamental core Chicago core class?)</p>
<p>Also, I am looking at the course catalog, and I am getting a bit confused... what part of the core do the HUMA satisfy, and what part do the SOSC satisfy? Is it the same category--like you need to take a huma and a sosc or just one... because Mind seems interesting too...</p>
<p>Each satisfies its own part. Both Hum and Sosc sequences (and others) are required. Sosc is, I believe, a three quarter sequence. Hum & Civ, allow for some mixing and matching, a 3 quarter sequence, or some 2 qtr sequences, plus another course. It is a little confusing.</p>
<p>The combos you can take are:
3 hum, 2 civ and 1 music
2 hum, 3 civ, and 1 music
2 hum, 2 civ, and 2 music
(numbers are quarters). </p>
<p>So basically, all hum classes will "end" after 2 quarters but if you are taking three quarters of hum you can take the optional third quarter of the sequence. I haven't taken civ yet so I don't know how that works out.</p>
<p>I took HBC and Self. Do you have any specific questions, Smirkus?</p>
<p>JHS, besides the readings and course topics, Mind has a different course format. One day is a large lecture and the other day is a discussion. The goal of Mind seems quite different than the goals of other sosc classes. </p>
<p>It's also interesting to note that a lot of students find the description of Mind interesting and then really dislike the course.</p>
<p>Just for clarity: What jack means by "music" includes various special music/history of music/art/history of art/drama courses. "Arts".</p>