What’s up guys, how are you doing?
I’m going to come right out and say this so that there is no question or doubt or confusion left in your mind whatsoever: you will not enjoy all of your classes. It’s the cold, hard truth. And it was unfortunately something that I was painfully ignorant of until I attended my first “World of Plants” class, which was, in all its entirety, the worst class that has ever existed. I’m not going to go into detail about it, because even those details will make your brain cells want to commit suicide, but just take my word for it. It was capital-A Awful.
On the other hand, the general rule of thumb is that the courses in college that you’ll take will not only be more beneficial to your specific field of interest, they’ll also be — roughly — eight times out of ten much more enjoyable than the ones you’ll have taken in high school. That being said, though, I have to admit that Butler is a rather small university compared to others that you might attend, so we have small class sizes, smaller departments, and a really tight-knit campus. I’d say that’s a rare thing, but in all honesty, I’ve no idea. But here, you’ll essentially get to know everyone in all of your classes by name because the average class size is eighteen, I believe? That’s not the case everywhere else. However, the “general rule of thumb” I’d stated above still stands wherever you go.
I am an English Writing Major, which means my courses are going to mostly be made up of creative writing and literature courses. There are also, obviously, the core curriculum classes you’re required to take throughout your four years. This is what my schedule was made up of originally: Marching Band (BUMB), Contemporary Writers (my First Year Seminar, or FYS), Intro to British Literature, Poetry, Robot Programming, and World of Plants. Our first day of classes was a Wednesday, which meant that the first class I had that day was World of Plants, and let me just say this: not a single person in that class actually wanted to be there. Including me. Needless to say, I ended up dropping that course.
I’m going to tell you why. The professor was dull, stuttered, mumbled, was monotonous, and her teaching ethic was the worst I’d ever witnessed. I knew I wouldn’t learn a single thing from her, and we were going to spend the entire semester learning about the trees on campus, so I’m sorry, but I know I’m not the only one who couldn’t care less about what kind of trees I walked past everyday. The room that the class was held in was so white and blinding and I couldn’t concentrate on the white board where the professor projected powerpoints because, you know, she wouldn’t turn any lights off. It wasn’t a good learning environment, and I’d only taken the class because it would count as my science credits (one of the core curriculum credits I need to graduate). Believe me when I say that I didn’t even feel a little bad when I dropped it. I’ll just take Astronomy next semester (which I’m actually interested in anyway).
My Robot Programming class is the one I thought I’d hate the most. I took it for my math credits without even realizing what it’d actually entail, and after the first few class periods I was positive that I was going to hate my life every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon from 3:50 to 5:05 PM. It turned out not to be so bad; each student was given their own robot (mine’s name is Maurice and he is adorable), the professor doesn’t actually have his doctorate yet, which means he’s young and not all too concerned if he bends the rules a little. We get out early most often in that class than in any other of my classes. Nearly the entire class is taught on our laptops, so, I mean, I’d be lying if I told you I never had anything other than our coursework open (like Wattpad, Instagram, Facebook, etc.).
My favorite class is surprisingly my FYS, Contemporary Writers. An FYS is required for all freshmen to take at Butler, and many students just chose one with an interesting title (examples: Sympathy for the Devil, Scary Stories, Utopian Experience in Life and Literature, Rock and Roll High School, The Call of the Wild, etc.) (yes those are all actual year-long seminars, and there are weirder ones that I haven’t listed). I happened to choose one that would not only be interesting to me as a lover of all things contemporary, but one that would actually relate to the other classes I have to take for my major. It makes life a whole lot easier when you’re taking five English classes rather than one English class, two science classes, a math class, and a foreign language class. Obviously, I’m going to have to take classes other than ones that deal with my major, but I thought that for my first semester, I’d organized my schedule pretty nicely.
Poetry and British Literature are enjoyable solely because, as you can probably already tell, I love English. And creative writing. So Poetry falls into the latter category, and I have to admit, I was sort of terrified about this class at first. While I consider myself a pretty decent creative writer when dealing with novels or short stories or even prose, I cannot, nor have I ever been able to, write actual poems. I think I’m awful at it, and that’s always upset me because if I’m a creative writing type of person, why can’t I do it in all applicable fields? Why can’t I write poetry? It’s something that’s always bothered me, but my professor for this class is fantastic and energetic and funny and basically hipster (for lack of a better term), and I really enjoy it. British Literature is a lot duller, and as I said, I’m a lover of all things contemporary which is not, exactly, what this class is about. It counts toward my major though, the professor isn’t horrible or even bad, and I can deal with it. It’s not my favorite, but I can deal with it (if anyone’s a master on, say, Tom Jones or Beowulf, hit me up).
And then there’s BUMB. Ahh, Marching Band. This one’s hard to explain. I love it, but I hate it at the same time. As nerdy as this may sound, I really love playing an instrument. I mean, I hate that my instrument of choice is a clarinet, but at the same time, I can tolerate it because it’s so much fun to be able to make music with something. The part about BUMB that I hate is the actual marching part. My high school never had a marching band; we had a pep band and a concert band, but those are obviously very different things. I knew that this course was meant to cover our PWB (Physical Well-Being) credit, but I’d underestimated what I was in store for. It’s a lot of work, I had zero experience, and I am still trying to figure out how to walk and march at the same time (forwards, backwards, sideways, and angled strangely). It’s a work in progress. And sometimes I really really hate it. But at the same time, I don’t think I’d drop it if given the chance.
Wow, so there’s everything you never wanted to know about my schedule. Long story short, you might hate one or more of your classes (World of Plants…). You might love them (Contemporary Writers). But refer back to my “general rule of thumb,” because I didn’t just make that up. It’s been told to me by several other people I personally and don’t personally know who have been through college already.
To ensure the best schedule you could possibly have, I recommend figuring out when you’re able to enroll in classes and then getting to it as soon as possible. The best classes fill up the quickest. I made the mistake of waiting to register until a month and a half after the window first opened, and that left me with World of Plants instead of Astronomy and Robot Programming instead of any other math class that sounded more appealing (I’m not complaining, though). Again, register for classes as soon as humanly possible.
I hope you all have a mighty fine day.
– Carissa
♡
Even as a mega nerd, I have a difficult time enjoying my classes (okay so only one bugs me), but that’s not for the lack of trying. When I signed up for my first semester classes, I purposely picked classes I knew I would enjoy because I didn’t want a horrid first semester of college (ballet, art, FYS: endangered languages, international studies, astronomy, and French). To say I was excited was a major understatement.
I didn’t really know how I would feel about astronomy just because I am not the best at math, and astronomy requires physics and stuff (even though my dad says I should be a math major- GOOD ONE DAD). The one class I thought I would immediately love has been the one class I haven’t enjoyed. Not one iota. Which is quite upsetting considering I moved other things to fit that class specifically. Endangered language seminar. Sounds really cool, right? Okay, well it sounds swell to me *sticks out tongue* It’s not the subject, more like the lack of energy in the class and the downright dullness of the teacher (Chelsea, you know what I’m saying in my head). Just like you have classes you won’t enjoy because it’s a bad class, you’ll have classes you won’t enjoy because of the teacher/professor. That’s just the way things work. College doesn’t automatically mean fantastic professors; although they usually are better overall, there can still be some soggy chips at the bottom of the bag. Sometimes, like Carissa, you drop out because you can’t stand it. I’m suffering through it because one, it’s required to take a first year seminar and it’s too late to switch, and two I am really fascinated by endangered languages. So while dropping is an option, sucking it up is another one. It means you’ll be annoyed by that class, but you will feel proud of yourself by the end of it.
So I know you didn’t ask but here’s an update on my other classes. Ballet is kicking my ass. It’s hard, my thighs are super mad at me for it, and I wish I could wear a tutu, but I am excited about the possibility of toned legs (woo)! Art is a lot of fun, just because there are less guidelines for college art classes than high school (even though my high school art teacher was amazing). Right now I am making 3 watercolor postcards of a cigarette on an ashtray with three different color schemes. If they turn out swell, I will post pictures (let me know if you want to see). International studies is the epitome of perfection. Astronomy is blowing my mind in a great way (my professor is so liberal and hilarious). French is a joy as always. My professor is from France and is just an adorable little man (who is probably younger than my parents but he seems so much older haha).
To sum what I said up because I know I ramble: college is fun, the classes are top notch, but sometimes they make you want to scream at a squirrel. Having supportive friends is always smart, and remember that working hard will get you places. Unless you seem too smart then your professors think you are cheating. Then you’ll get confronted and expelled. And you’ll never get a job ever. And you’ll DIE.
That was a joke. Kind of. Please laugh. I think I’m pretty funny (got the ‘slaying’ gene from my dad too).
Alrightie-O I hoped that helped, and any other questions can be emailed or commented! What kind of subject do YOU want us to address?? Comment comment comment 🙂
xox,
M
The College Chronicles 