Course Selection

My favorite time of any semester at Vassar is the first two weeks. This time, known as "Add/Drop" period, is when students can attend as many classes as they like and 'experiment' before settling down into a final schedule. No one takes advantage of this shopping period more than I do. In the past two weeks, I have visited more than 25 different classes, even though I knew I would only end up taking four or five. Some of my friends think I am little nuts for voluntarily sitting through so many seminars and lectures for two weeks, hour after hour, even for courses that I likely would never take.

So why do I do this? Why do I enjoy Add/Drop period so much? Going to those classes, even the ones that I know I will never take, I get dozens of perspectives on learning at Vassar. I get to see dozens of teachers in action. I get to see what goes on in a geography class, a classics class, a psychology class—even though my primary areas of studies are totally removed from these disciplines. Professors almost always distribute their syllabi on the first day, which means I get a free window onto entire courses that I would otherwise never see. In my room, I have a drawer full of syllabi, all from classes that I never have (and probably never will) take. But if I ever wanted to learn about Developmental Psychology or Dostoyevsky, I now have comprehensive lists of books and readings.

I'm not a very adventurous person when it comes to course selection. I know exactly the types of professors that I like and exactly the types of books I like to learn from. Many people are far riskier than I when it comes to course selection (one friend is taking a class on Creole Religions; another is taking a course on nanotechnology). I tend to stick to my favorite departments—history, political science and economics. But that doesn't mean that I'm not curious. At Vassar, students routinely audit courses without being enrolled in them. In other words, you are able to hear the lectures, do the readings and participate in the discussions, and not have to worry about stress and grades. Having the flexibility to fine-tune my course list really makes for an excellent semester. And this semester is no different. After much adding and dropping and experimenting, I enrolled in courses on Tokugawa Japan, Childhood in Modern England, the British Empire, the American Presidency, and Charles Dickens.

And now, I had better return to all of the homework I have for those classes...