<p>Any current participants out there? Can you shed a little light on the advantages to participating in this program?</p>
<p>I'm not a current participant, but I loved it. It was challenging and offered smaller classes with excellent professors. It is nicknamed Traumatic Option, as it is more difficult than the regular General education curriculum. Although, I must add that they have since modelled the GE's after TO since I graduated so the differences are not as stark.</p>
<p>I was a Biology major, so I only had to take 2 courses per semester, where my humanities friends took 3 and they said that was a killer.</p>
<p>TO director spoke at my S's ExploreUSC session and said their are 6 core TO courses which fulfill USC's GenEd requirements. This next part comes directly from their pamphlet. There are 4 humanities based classes with very cool titles and interdisciplinary themes--like a class under Core 101-Symbols and Conceptual Systems called: Knowing, Marking and Catching Monsters. It lists required reading from Thomas Harris's Silence of the Lambs, to Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting. Another example: Core 104: Change and the Future- Historical Perspectives on Consumer Culture, where you'll read Anne Friedberg's Window Shopping: Cinema and the Postmodern, and Sclosser's Fast Food Nation. Add to those, 2 writing Seminars (which feature bi-weekly private one-on-one tutorials) like Core: 112 Writing Seminar - Digital, Surreal, Zoned for Battle: Games & Literature, where you not only read (one book is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card) but also experience film, games & media like Spielberg's Artificial Intelligence and EA's Sim City 4. Okay, that class is one my S really wants to take. ;)</p>
<p>There is no required number of classes to take each semester, so if you choose to spread them out over 4 or even 6 semesters, it is your choice. TO students get their own TO counselors to help advise on scheduling, etc. And there are additional activities and outings.</p>
<p>It sounds interesting.</p>
<p>
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one book is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
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</p>
<p>Is this real? My daughter read this book in the 7th grade but the game part and film definitely fits her interest.</p>
<p>Yes, it is real. lol. I plucked that book out of the reading list to suggestTO is might not be so terribly grueling. But the other books listed are: A Book of Surrealist Games, by Alastair and Mel Gooding Brotchie, Selected Poems by T.S. Eliot, Une Sermaine de Bonte by Ma Ernst, and Neuromancer by William Gibson. The other films/media include: L'Age d'Or by Bunuel, Dyadin (<a href="http://www.dyadin.com)%5B/url%5D">www.dyadin.com)</a>, Sissy Fight (SiSSYFiGHT</a> 2000, and Tactical Iraqui (<a href="http://www.tacticallanguage.com/tacticaliraqui/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.tacticallanguage.com/tacticaliraqui/index.html</a>) </p>
<p>By the way, to order some context, this particular class is described thus: </p>
<p>"'You're nothing but a pack of cards!' - Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland. Alice's exclamation may seem comonplace today due to the cultural prevalence of games as art, entertainment, literacy, or strategic visualization. Yet in modern times, writers played surrealist games to construct new kinds of narratives and poems and "messed around with the film projector in order to invent radical ways of seeing. Due to technological innovations, games have reached higher levers of complexity such that theyh no longer merely influence literature but seem to surpass it altogether by creating characters and worlds that can stand on their own. How does a game exceed literature? What does a game make possible? How does it encode subjectivity and culture? Toward exploring these questions as well as yours, we will examine transactions between games and literature in three twentieth-century settings: surrealism, technology, and war. In each context, we will consider how games of chance, simulation, and strategy raise - or in some cases, change altogether - the stakes of literature."</p>
<p>This is a sample of one of the many TO offerings and it's a writing seminar so that's the focus. There are several to choose from so just to make this clear--Thematic Option students are not required to take this specific course. Just happens to be one my S thought was cool.</p>
<p>Thanks for clarifying about the book, I was beginning to worry that this program could be too hard. The writing seminar sounds wonderful.</p>
<p>Here is an earlier thread on this topic, in which I comment of a lot of the classes- I actually took the first two described above!</p>
<p>Thanks for the great responses. I've also spoken with a current freshman, daughter of a good friend - we didn't know she was in the program and just wanted to see if they knew anything about it. The D wrote my S a full page e-mail, lengthy description on the types of things they've done and it's obvious she just loves it. I think the definition of 'grueling' (thank you madbean) may depend upon how difficult the high school preparation was - this current student finds it difficult but certainly manageable. We know she's a good student, and coming from the same HS as my S, we know what their prep has been.</p>
<p>One thing I'm not clear about is whether all THO students take the same six courses, or if there are choices within the six. Also, is there somewhere online you can go to see the list of courses, a description, and the reading lists? Thanks!</p>
<p>There are choices for each core class and writing section. For core 102 there is an attached writing section.</p>
<p>The courses and professors for TO, for the most part, are different every semester.</p>
<p>Does anyone know how we can apply for TO? And when is the deadline for that?</p>
<p>Applications for TO are given out to scholarship students at Explore and send out to some other students. If you haven't gotten one and are interested in the program, go on the official USC website and search for thematic option to find its page. They have contact email there that you can try. I have no idea when the deadline is, but it is probably relatively soon.</p>
<p>There is no online list of all of the courses, although some of them are described on the afore mentioned website.</p>
<p>You have several choices for courses every semester that you can take advantage of.</p>
<p>The application deadline is April 4. As Nikara said, they will send invitations to selected students within a couple weeks after acceptance. You are also allowed to ask for an application once you are accepted to USC.</p>
<p>So if I was accepted in the 2/29 wave, should I still wait a few days before calling them to see if USC will send me an invitation?</p>
<p>21 days for my daughter.</p>
<p>the admissions guy at explore says that almost all the people who actually end up applying seem to get accepted... they only accept 200, but it seems like every year about exactly 196 actually apply</p>
<p>also, i hear from current students i met at explore the TO is VERY reading and writing intensive... i was going to apply, but i don't like english that much =/</p>
<p>I'm just scared that if I wait too long, I might not get the chance to apply within the deadline. Does anyone know what the application consists of?</p>
<p>It's a short form asking for your academic interests ans a few short answers. Takes maybe 20 min to do. I should mail mine tomorrow. I keep on forgetting.</p>
<p>Here's a technical Thematics Options question: I understand that one of the writing courses is connected to the Core Course 102. Which core course is connected to the second writing course? Are both writing courses generally taken during the freshman year, or is the second one usually taken in the sophmore year? Thanks!</p>