Hi all! I write to you all today with a feeling of relief that I’ve finally sorted out my class schedule after a crazy week of shopping. This is my final semester at Amherst and I have no major requirements left, so I really felt like I had to do my due diligence and get this last semester right. I went into the first week of classes with no sense of what I would take and openness to jumping on everything that looked interesting.
Shopping classes isn’t unique to Amherst, but our open curriculum means that students tend to have an unusual amount of freedom in the courses we can take. Without any required courses other than the first-year seminar and major-specific requirements, we end up having a ton of openness in our schedules for experimentation. With access to the Five-College Consortium on top of it all, there’s so many choices that it’s overwhelming. I was definitely overwhelmed this week. But in a good way, because I actually ended the week with a completely different schedule than I started with.
Here’s what I shopped: Geospatial Inquiry (Geology/Environmental Studies); Sustainable Design (Architecture Studies/Environmental Studies); Rap, Reagan, and the ’80s (Black Studies and History); Intro to Painting (Studio Art); Disabling Institutions (Political Science/Education Studies); The New Cold Wars (Political Science); The Creative Process (Theater and Dance); and Video Production (Studio Art/Film and Media Studies). That means that this week, I went to the meetings of 8 different courses. Overwhelming, I will repeat. But so cool! I’ve never shopped this much before, and got a window into so many new courses and departments I never would have otherwise seen.
Here’s my final schedule: Geospatial Inquiry; Rap, Reagan, and the ’80s; and Video Production. I’m suddenly working with a brand new software, ArcGIS, and lugging a heavy video camera around campus, and I’m so excited about it. Like last semester, my fourth class is a thesis credit, so one thing stays the same.
I’ll link our course catalog here, so you can get a snapshot of the offerings at Amherst: https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/college-catalog/2425
Here, you can search across the five colleges’ catalogs: https://www.fivecolleges.edu/courses
That’s all for this week! I’m tired. But looking forward to a new week of only 4 courses, and courses I’m really excited about. As always, please feel free to email me with any questions you might have about Amherst.