Is taking SOSC as a first-year considered manageable? If it helps, I’m an international student with a 5 in AP English Language and a 4 in Literature. As for my other classes, I’m intending to take 15200 Calculus, Human Being and Citizen, and possibly Introduction to Microeconomics.
Also, when would be the best time to take the intro to economics courses? During the fall of your first year or your second year? And what’s the consensus on Allen Sanderson vs John List for Intro to Economics? Is it worth taking Sanderson if it means having to take a less preferable Humanities class due to conflicting time schedules?
Plenty of people take Sosc their first year, but in my opinion it’s worth it to wait. You’ll get more out of it because you’ll be more prepared. And there’s really no reason to rush, unless for some reason you really need your core done ASAP.
Sanderson is opinioned and divisive. He’s known for asking questions like, “what do I think about this?” on his exams and for being rude and going on political rants in class. That said, lots of people like him and he’s a very…uh…engaging lecturer. Not worth fighting to get into his class, honestly - though he’ll counterbalance whichever communist is teaching your sosc class.
198 and 199 aren’t even required. There are a surprising number of math majors that become econ majors by taking Honors Econ 200s for fun without even taking the intro sequence. So there really is no “best” time to take it - take it whenever you think you’d need to.
@JBStillFlying , if I take Hydesnark’s advice and take SOSC during my second year, then I’m planning to finish my science sequences during my first year as I will only have to take three science courses in total (to fulfil the core) thanks to AP Bio.
If you don’t mind me asking, what is the reasoning behind your question?
@ScrnNme - Sorry for being nosy LOL - science wasn’t mentioned in your earlier post :). I see your quandary and it’s a good question as to which year(s) should you take Science and SOSC. FWIW, here are my thoughts:
You will need to wait till spring to take Econ 200 (because completion of Math 153 is required beforehand and you aren’t taking that till winter). And while Econ 198 isn’t strictly required, if you skip it you will then need to pass an economics placement exam before being admitted to Econ 200, per the college catalog page (linked below). AP doesn’t suffice, apparently. So . . . .what that tells me is AP isn’t quite the same as the intro courses. I’ve also heard that from an Econ prof or two If you are serious about economics, you should probably consider taking 198 and 199, even if you are familiar with some of the material. It is strongly recommended by the department, and at worst, it means an easier couple of quarters for you your first year (esp. if you are taking 4 courses all three quarters). If you take Econ 198 in the fall, Econ 199 in winter, and Econ 200 in spring, you probably can wait till 2nd year to take SOSC - and you will have a year of economics under your belt to help you in that core sequence! It follows that you complete the Science core sequence in year one.
Does that help?
Here is the link to the requirements for the economics major. Check the requirements for Econ 20000:
@ScrnNme, my D took Microeconomics with Sanderson. I can send you a pm on her thoughts about this class. She also did Sosc class and thought it was very doable.
The first part of this post is what I might’ve done, had I joined the dark side and majored in econ. As for the second half, economics might be a social science, but it has little to do with most of the Social Science core. Depending on the course, SOSC is some mix or other of political theory, philosophy, and potentially sociology or anthropology. I can imagine economics being relevant to Social Science Inquiry, and some concepts of behavioral economics cropping up in mind, but that’s about it.
In my experience, taking SOSC as a first-year was doable. I fully agree with @HydeSnark that it will be more rewarding as a second-year. I came into college with high-school abilities in close reading, skimming, and analysis. Reading 40 pages on a good night was a shock to my system and particularly my work ethic, even after a fairly demanding college prep curriculum. YMMV, but I’m convinced I would skim less, think more, and understand the texts better if I took SOSC now. That said, I enjoyed taking several demanding courses at once, learning material in one class that was relevant to another, and understanding the references and inside jokes my housemates spent all year making.
Both of my kids took SOSC first year, and it worked out well for both of them.
For #1, it was by far her favorite course her first two quarters. She was a future English major who disliked her HUM teacher and section (the teacher had a theoretical framework with which my daughter was unfamiliar, and which the teacher pretended didn’t exist; the class was full of future econ majors who basically had contempt for studying literature), and her other courses were Math 130s (she loved the teacher but that wasn’t enough to overcome her lack of interest in math at the time) and French 2 (an English Department requirement). Her SOSC (Self Culture & Society) had good teachers, a lot of substance, and materials she hadn’t read three times already.
Number 2 also took SCS. He didn’t love his teachers in the fall or spring quarters, but his second quarter he had a famous anthropologist who was great. The course was life-changing, on a time-delay basis. At the time, he thought of himself as majoring in Biochemistry or maybe HIPS; he wound up in Sociology, with which he had been completely unfamiliar pre-SOSC. And he met his future spouse in his SOSC section, although it was 5-6 years before they got involved romantically. His SOSC section also included someone with whom he later happily shared apartments over four years. So . . . all in all a pretty important inflection point for him.
In many ways, HUM and SOSC are the core of the Core, and the key to understanding what’s special about the University of Chicago. In a way, that’s the argument both for and against taking SOSC first year. The earlier you take it, the faster you get up to speed on what the university is about. And, as @DunBoyer says, you get more of the jokes. If you delay taking it until you are more familiar with the university, however, it’s probably a richer experience.
Intrepid Econ majors planning to knock off 198-200 in first year will truly benefit from SOSC afterwards - even if it’s something more general and historical than Social Science Inquiry. After a year of theory, taking a step back to look at the development of social thought will be a welcome breather and give some context and perspective to the more modern methodological approaches. “Economics” is as much about capturing how agents make decisions as it is “the economy” - recognizing the overlap with questions of sociology, poly science, law, history and psychology is not only relevant - it’s been rewarded! (Becker, Coase, Myeron, and Fogel, to name just a few who are/were at UChicago). There’s also Kahneman/Smith and others in the experimental field. One of them is at Booth - but I forget his name. Anyway, it’s a lot of fun to delve into the historical origins of Political Economy and related once you’ve examined how the current discipline works.
There is no need to take Econ in autumn quarter. The sample plans provided by the department begin the major with Econ 198 in spring of 1st year. However, if you KNOW you are majoring in Econ and are ahead on the Math, as @ScrnNme is, and your other courses are all Core, then beginning with 198 in the fall makes sense. Alternatively, you can skip Econ 198 and 199, take SOSC during first year (along with HUM, Math, and Bio/Phy. Sci. or Art) and begin with Econ 200 in Autumn of 2nd year. A lot depends on how sure you are about your major, where you are on the Math sequence, and how confident you are that skipping 198 and 199 won’t hurt your fundamental understanding of economic theory (if there is any doubt on that last one, invest the time in these important “fundamentals” courses).
My kid is definitely taking SOSC her first year because she’s just not sure of her direction in the social sciences and she has to begin the Math sequence with 131/151 (whichever she places into). She’s in no hurry to declare her major and is very much looking forward to her core classes in HUM and SOSC. In many respects she’s the perfect example of a “traditional” (perhaps outdated now? ) UChicago 1st year. She’s there more for the liberal arts experience than she is to do this or that major (although she loves the fact that her areas of interest are all renowned departments).
If you are serious about economics, you should probably consider taking 198 and 199, even if you are familiar with some of the material. It is strongly recommended by the department, and at worst, it means an easier couple of quarters for you your first year (esp. if you are taking 4 courses all three quarters). If you take Econ 198 in the fall, Econ 199 in winter, and Econ 200 in spring, you probably can wait till 2nd year to take SOSC - and you will have a year of economics under your belt to help you in that core sequence! It follows that you complete the Science core sequence in year one.
) UChicago 1st year. She’s there more for the liberal arts experience than she is to do this or that major (although she loves the fact that her areas of interest are all renowned departments).