<p>Hey all, and thanks in advance to people answering this. So of course we all know of the Morse Academic Plan, and required classes such as Writing The Essay and Conversations of the West. In all honesty, I'm not too interested in and want the best opportunity to get an A. I'm in no way demeaning the importance of these classes, as I acknowledge they must be important if they are a requirement, it's just not my niche. This question is aimed at people who have taken these classes, and what professors they've had/heard of that are the easiest graders and such.</p>
<p>Are you asking for ALL the MAP classes? The best advice I can give you is to take the one whose topic you are most interested in, since you’re more likely to do the work and do it well if you actually care about what you’re learning. </p>
<p>With WTE, most of the profs change from year to year (they are grad students), so no one can really say with certainty who is an easy grader and who isn’t. Just take all the constructive criticism to heart, and you should be ok.</p>
<p>Thanks alot for the advice. What about ConWest, any professor recommendations for that one? I also heard that WTE and ConWest are combined, what’s that all about?</p>
<p>No, WTE and ConWest are separate classes, unless there’s some new-fangled program I haven’t heard of yet…</p>
<p>Oh, wait, I just checked, and there are indeed two ConWest/WTE classes in addition to the regular ConWest classes. Weird. One of them is taught by Renzi, though, who a bunch of my friends took for ConWest and hated. Apparently, he’s incredibly intense about the material and is a very harsh grader. I haven’t heard anything about the other people, though, and my prof isn’t teaching it next semester (if he even still teaches it at all).</p>
<p>cool. thank a ton nyu<em>times</em>two! (i feel like its always awkward referring to people by usernames) If you have any other suggestions for WTE/ConWest/World cultures/anything it’d be much appreciated!</p>
<p>“I’m in no way demeaning the importance of these classes, as I acknowledge they must be important if they are a requirement”</p>
<p>You should be, and no they’re rather stupid actually. It drives me up the wall I have to waste time, money and effort on the MAP. NYU doesn’t seem to understand the concept of opportunity cost when it comes to applying it to education. Yes, the history of ancient Israel is very interesting, but when learning about it comes at the cost of not being able to take some other class that is of more interest to me, I feel cheated.</p>
<p>I could go on and on about how worthless the MAP is.</p>
<p>They’re typically the only classes that actually GRADE attendance. Last semester I got an A on the midterm, final, and term paper and was given an A- in the class because I missed one too many classes. I tried reasoning with the professor, explaining that I keep a busy schedule, I was interning 30 hours a week at CNN, on top of taking an 18 credit course load, on top of a couple other compelling obligations.</p>
<p>Long story short, I hate the MAP, and chances are, you will too like almost every NYU student does.</p>
<p>Actually, most people I know really enjoyed their MAP courses, so long as they picked ones they were interested in. The point of the requirements is that they provide a basic college education–just like nearly every single college in America. There is actually a lot more flexibility with NYU’s program than with, say, Columbia’s. Of course, depending on what you like to do, some of the courses will definitely seem like a waste of time. For instance, did I really need to take two science courses? No, definitely not. I did really, really enjoy one (The Body: How It Works), but it wasn’t integral to my specialized education, though it certainly contributed to my general education.</p>
<p>As for attendance, I had a similar issue with the professor of my other Nat Sci class (Cosmos and the Earth), except with him, it was a matter of the TA having marked me as someone else, so it seemed like I had missed half the labs. Showing him my completed, checked-off work changed nothing, either. My only suggestion is that, if you foresee any attendance issues, talk to your prof at the beginning of the semester and explain your situation. If it seems like it’s going to be a problem regardless, drop the class.</p>
<p>There are two MAP classes that I adored: Russia Since 1917 with Stephen Cohen and Architecture of NYC Field Study with Mosette Broderick. For the former, if you have ANY interest in Russian or communist history, or even if you have any interest in taking a fascinating but very specific history course, take it. For the latter, if you think you can handle slide exams (basically, if you have a decent memory), and can walk for a few hours at a time (since every class is a walking tour), take it, as it is a lot of fun and a great way to learn about the city.</p>
<p>as an incoming sophmore, i second everything that has already been said and would add also consider using some of the map courses to explore majors. i LOVED my world cultures (asian pacific american studies) and am pursuing a major in the department partly because of it. my advice concerning world cultures and con west is to look at the department the professors are in and see if any of them seem like something you want to pursue in the future.</p>
<p>i’d also advise using ratemyprofessor.com because even though it seems a little judgemental it definitely helped me pick classes. for CAS students there’s a similar thing on albert (called course evaluation guide under “registration”). just don’t go into classes with a certain attitude about a professor from what you’ve read. </p>
<p>personally about conwest, i had no interest in any of the classes and went for the easiest professor. i took antiquity and the 19th century with levene and would definitely recommend it, not just because it wasn’t difficult but also because levene is an interesting lecturer and i felt like it accomplished what conwest was there for. even though they’re annoying i do have respect for MAP courses considering i’m paying for a liberal arts education.</p>
<p>my writing the essay on the other hand was a different story! i had a really difficult time with michelle dent and i have heard of and personally know people that have changed their majors because of her. i took her class linked with the goddard residential college and to be honest i would not recommend it. however, i had a friend that did the conwest/wte linked and she said although it was really difficult and a lot of work she improved her writing and learned a lot.</p>
<p>Ask around about which teachers to avoid and which to take. I liked Prof. Schwartz was one of my fav’s (not sure if he’s teaching WTE, WTE2, opr both). I also took ancient near east & mesopotamia. Learning about Egypt was really fun and my TA’s rocked! but learning about mesopotamia is like learning about the different layers of dirt. but i took the class because I already studied about ancient egyptian culture in high school. good luck!</p>