Recommendations for Courses and Clubs

<p>Hello all! I'm extremely excited for my first semester at Mac this coming fall. I was wondering if I could get some advice on good classes to take (and when to take them). Also, I'm interested in the activities and time commitments related to the clubs and groups on campus.</p>

<p>In regards to classes, I'm looking to major in Political Science and possibly Media & Culture Studies and Educational Studies. I'm also interested in taking classes in International Studies, English, Spanish, Philosophy, Music, Mathematics, and Chinese. Any recommendations on professors and courses?</p>

<p>Right now, I'm looking to take "Foundations of International Politics" with Wendy Weber, "News Reporting and Writing" with Howard Sinker, "Elementary Spanish II" with Susana Blanca-Iglesias, "Engaging the Public" with Duchess Harris (2 credits), and "Introduction to Psychology" with Jaine Strauss. Are these good classes to take 1st semester, and is this a good combination of courses? Would it be better to take a math or science course instead of the Intro to Psych course?</p>

<p>Next, in terms of activities, I'm interested in Mac Forensics, MacMUN, Mac Weekly, Mac Players, Mac Off-Kilter, Mac UUs, Fresh Concepts, Triathlon Club, Ultimate Frisbee, and Quidditch. I realize that I will not have enough time to be involved in all of these groups, so I was wondering what the time commitments are for all of these groups. Also, if you've been involved with any of these groups, which ones would you recommend?</p>

<p>Thanks for your help!</p>

<p>Any thoughts?</p>

<p>Hey bbarty! Glad to hear you’re excited. I’ll try to answer your questions to the extent that I know about the subjects/activities you’re interested in. For the ones I don’t know about, I think the 2016 group on Facebook is a good forum–there are a lot of upperclassmen and admin people in that group and at least one of them will probably know about whatever it is you’re asking about. In contrast, this forum is pretty sparsely populated as far as current students go, but anyway. </p>

<p>I’m not in any of those departments unfortunately, though I have some limited experience with MCS and Philosophy. I had Ethics with William Wilcox and I wouldn’t hesitant to take it with him, though it wasn’t the greatest class ever or anything. He’s a very thorough/insightful responder to papers and assignments, which is obviously great in a philosophy prof, and he’s very passionate about his subject. I don’t know how much he’ll be around but Aron Kahn is a very interesting instructor in MCS especially if you’re at all interested in journalism (which I’m guessing you are). He’s very experienced, he has his own stylistic point of view that’s useful to learn from, and he’s in general a character worth experiencing. I’ve never taken a class with him but he met with The Mac Weekly once and gave me feedback on one of my stories.</p>

<p>I’ve heard really good things about Wendy Weber and Duchess Harris, as well as Howard Sinker though I’ve also heard his class can be difficult in frustrating sorts of ways. Your combination of classes seems fine. DH is in the American Studies department, which I like a lot, and if you’re interested in more classes there I def. recommend Jane Rhodes. Her class is liking watching the History Channel in terms of how smooth and interesting her presentations are, but with more context, and she’s very “no BS” in her paper feedback. Might make sense to take a science or math if you’re worried about distribution reqs, which judging by your interests you might be a bit, but it’s not a big deal first semester.</p>

<p>The Mac Weekly is the greatest thing ever and you should totally write for us. I’m very biased because I’m a managing and opinion section editor but it has honestly been one of the most important parts of my time at Mac. The people who work on it are very dedicated and care about quality a lot, but at the same time are very supportive and not at all competitive. It’s a great environment. It’s also very flexible in terms of time commitment and work. We’re always looking for writers, and if you want to do a story in any section all you have to do is talk to the editor of that section and you’ll definitely be able to. Like I said, it’s very flexible and you could write anywhere from once a semester to once a week. Being an editor is a lot more of a commitment, since in addition to (often) writing consistently you need to help with layout (which leads to really late nights on Wednesdays), edit pieces in your section (obviously) and edit the paper as a whole. The craziest weeks I’ve done have ended up over 15 hours, but that’s unusual. So there’s definitely a range, but you end up doing as much as you want to do. In giving you the details on the work I haven’t really gone into how fulfilling and fun doing TMW is, but I assure you it’s great. Publishing anything is extremely satisfying. We also throw kickass parties and do two satire issues a year if you’re into that sort of thing. </p>

<p>MacPlayers is very cool and a great showcase for student talent, I go to their performances frequently and know some people who are involved through my First Year Course (which was Theatre). I imagine that it’s a pretty substantial time commitment when they’re getting ready for shows. I think Off-Kilter and Fresh Concepts both rehearse around four hours a week all weeks, more if they have shows coming up, but don’t quote me on that. I got to call-backs in Fresh Concepts auditions twice, and though it was disappointing to not make it the process is extremely fun and worth doing if you’re at all interested. Ultimate Frisbee, being a club sport, doesn’t practice a ton (less than 10 hours a week) but they do travel a lot on weekends and they go on a Spring Break trip every year to Georgia, which is reportedly awesome. Quidditch is super casual. They play on Friday afternoons and you just show up and get on a team, so pretty much no commitment.</p>

<p>As far as recommendations, besides the obvious TMW one, all the orgs you mentioned are good ones as far as I know; they do what they set out to do well and are a lot of fun. So you really can’t go wrong. Good luck sorting it out!</p>