<p>I just posted this in another thread...but to get more opinions on the issue:</p>
<p>As a transfer student, the U of C granted me credit for the social sciences core requirement. Personally, I was really excited to take "Classics of Social and Political Thought."</p>
<p>Anyways, I'm wondering if I'm really missing out by not taking that class, or another SOSC requirement. I see the opportunity to take 3 more electives now, maybe in Fundamentals, but I was wondering what everyone's take is on this.</p>
<p>I personally found Sosc to be an incredibly mind-expanding and important course - but I took Self, Culture, Society, so basically a summary overview of the most influential societal critique to ever exist post-capitalism. Freud's societal critique and Marcuse's dialectic of civilization are what turned me on to social psychology in the first place; at the very least, taking Sosc will acquaint you with some enormously intellectual writing and I can't see how it wouldn't be a positive experience. Given the choice, I would take Sosc even if I wasn't required to, but again, that's just me - I think every person in the US should be required to take a Sosc class.</p>
<p>Basically, I feel that the entire point of college is to expose yourself to new ways of thought, whether you agree with them or not, and that's basically the entire goal of the Sosc core. Can't recommend it enough, really.</p>
<p>I had that feeling as well, I was just wondering if it would be viable to expand and since I don't need the requirement to take those other similar classes....if anyone has taken them and can offer a comparison, that would be awesome</p>
<p>Oh, I missed the part about Fundamentals - well, you're probably going to get similar texts there, or at least ones that are just as important. I think if you skipped out on Sosc to take a pottery elective that would be lame but if you're going to take a class among similar lines than it's not too much of a shift. Sosc is really just a discussion class - you read the assignments and talk about them, and occasionally write an essay - so there isn't some entirely unique experience you're getting in it.</p>
<p>first of all, you're perfect for this school if you're asking if you should take core requirements as electives.</p>
<p>While core is great, I would say go for Fundamentals/electives-- you'll get the essence of the core (reading/writing/discussing), only you'll be able to go more in-depth and select your texts.</p>
<p>The only other thing (which I mentioned in the other post) is that sosc is an integral part of the core experience for Chicago students, and many of the authors people often read in sosc come up in conversations. I know a transfer student who was currently in sosc but still had to take hum, and she said that she often felt left out of or confused during conversations because things would come up that she had never studied but other students were familiar with. I'm a prospective fundamentals major, though, so I think that's awesome, too.</p>
<p>Yeah...I dunno...it doesn't seem as though many fundamental classes are offered still....that class on social n political thought seems very tempting...I would probably only get the opportunity to read 3 books if I went the fundamentals route...I shall wait n see...</p>
<p>I'm majoring in the social sciences, so I might be biased, but I think the SOSC core is the most important part of the core, and probably of my education. I took Self, Culture, and Society (which, I think, is the greatest course in higher education ever), but I imagine some of the other sequences (not Mind), accomplish similar things. I think Classics of Soc/Pol Thought is one of the good options (the others being Self, Culture, and Society & Power, Identity, and Resistance).</p>
<p>It's probably better to take it earlier. It will have a lot of first and second year students, and it serves as a grounding for how to think, talk, and write about the social sciences.</p>
<p>I wish someone designed a computer program where you put in all the courses you want and it spits out all the possible combinations that fit the class offerings...</p>
<p>Do you have an academic counselor yet? Or, do you have to come a week early in the fall (with the first-years) to meet with your academic counselor? They're well-informed and can help you with what you need - they're as close as it gets to the course computer, anyway.</p>
<p>Corranged– you mentioned that you are a fundamentals major. I am extremely interested in fundamentals and thrilled about the challenging, intense work-load the major offers, but I'm not sure if my interests (International Studies and Comparative Lit. I want to become a journalist) would be better served with a double major. Why do you want to major in fundamentals, and what does your course load look like?</p>
<p>I'd really appreciate your insight on this subject!</p>
<p>I've just applied for Fundamentals, so I'm not actually in the major. I don't know whether or not I'll be accepted; there only tend to be around 10-15 fundamentals majors a year, and I found out about the major quite late. I should find out late this week. PM me with your questions, and I'll try to get to them in one form or another as soon as I can.</p>
<p>And I helped my friend complete his fundies application just the other week. The major is based on researching a question, and my friend's question had to do with happiness. If he does the major (meaning he's accepted and all), he'll spend the next three years with a handful of books, attempting to answer that question.</p>
<p>The application consisted of an essay that explained the question, another essay that discussed a favorite core book, and then two interviews with high-and-mighty professors that examined and grilled the question. It sounds like an exciting major, though it's certainly not for me--</p>
<p>I believe you'll have an idea if it's right for you later on in your first year.... your thoughts now should be turned towards your hum and sosc cores and things will figure themselves out, I promise.</p>
<p>Mind will fulfill the sosc requirement. Students in it have described it as "kind of psychology and kind of not." Instead of reading books, you're reading articles and writing mostly response papers. Unlike the other sosc cores, it's part lecture and part discussion, whereas the other are all discussion. It's sometimes billed as the "easy" sosc (as Media is the "easy" hum), but these characterizations aren't necessarily correct.</p>