Claudia’s Complete Undergraduate Classes: The Comprehensive List that Nobody Asked For


This was inspired by a conversation Nate and I had about the classes we’d taken in college. These are just the undergraduate ones, mainly because I’ve blocked out as much of my UBC experience as I can without physically removing part of the memory section of my brain. But I remember all these semesters!

There is absolutely no purpose for this list, other than perhaps as a reference sheet for myself when I’m old and gray and feel like reminiscing about school.

So yeah.

Fall 2006 (20 credits)

  • CORE 116 (The Sacred Journey): The only reason I took this particular core class was so that I could get that one “international” credit or whatever the hell it was for my psych degree.
  • ENGL 102 (College Writing and Rhetoric): I got to skip 101 because of my SAT scores.
  • MATH 143 (Pre-Calculus Algebra and Analytic Geometry): NO. Screw this class.
  • MUSA 119 (Marching Band): Awesome times!
  • PSYC 101 (Introduction to Psychology): I met Sean in this class! This was also my *very first* college class, since it was the first one I went to on that first day.
  • THEF 100 (Introduction to Theatre): I wrote a play for this class. It was goddamn horrible. My prof liked it though; she said it was like a weird mix between MAD TV and Chekov.
  • THEF 105 (Basics of Performance): We held this class in the combat room in the old gym. Most of our time was spent pretending to be children playing children’s games.

Spring 2007 (20 credits)

  • BIOL 102 (Biology and Society): UGH, BIOLOGY. Had to take this for the psych degree. My prof was cool, though.
  • BIOL 102 L (Biology and Society Lab): Labs are stressful.
  • CORE 166 (The Sacred Journey): Yes, this was a TWO SEMESTER THING. Blaaaah.
  • ENLG 258 (Literature of Western Civilization): This is one of the most impactful classes I ever took. It introduced me to Voltaire and philosophy and how everything across all disciplines really do connect to a certain level. I’m so glad I took this class.
  • ENGL 292 (Beginning Fiction Writing): Yay! I barely got into this class; I was on the waitlist until like the day before classes started.
  • MUSA 121 (Concert Band): Was this the he-brides semester? I think it was.
  • PSYC 310 (Psychology of Personality): Interesting class. My second one with Sean!
  • STAT 251 (Statistical Methods): I was terrified of this class. I had no idea I would be teaching it in five years’ time.

Summer 2007 (6 credits)

  • ENGL 208 (Personal and Exploratory Writing): This would have been a fun class, except for the fact that I was in a major writing slump at the end of the spring semester.
  • PSYC 499 (Directed Study): I had to read a book. That was pretty much it.

Fall 2007 (22 credits)

  • GEOG 100 (Physical Geography): I learned about clouds! This was also the first professor I had who couldn’t write tests. I think all 150+ of us failed the first one. He got better, though!
  • GEOG 100 L (Physical Geography Lab): I repeat: labs are stressful.
  • MATH 160 (Survey of Calculus): Also known as “business calculus.” Hated it. Why do you have a class like this at 8 in the morning? Where is the justice in the world?
  • MUSA 319 (Marching Band)
  • PHIL 320 (History of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy): My first philosophy class! No Leibniz yet, though.
  • PSYC 218 (Introduction to Research in the Behavioral Sciences): Dr. Bustamante. That is all.
  • PSYC 320 (Introduction to Social Psychology): This class was surprisingly difficult, believe it or not. Probably because I no longer cared about any other aspect of psych after the glory that was Tests and Measurements.
  • PSYC 430 (Tests and Measurements): YES YES YES YESYESYESYESYES. This was the class that solidified my desire to do quant psych. I would’ve married this class if I could have.

Spring 2008 (25 credits) [God, why did I do this?]

  • MUSA 321 (Concert Band)
  • PHIL 202 (Introduction to Symbolic Logic): This was a really difficult class for me at the time, but Dr. O’Rourke was awesome and helped me learn a lot.
  • PHIL 321 (History of Modern Philosophy): I discover Leibniz and the world is forever changed.
  • PSYC 305 (Developmental Psychology): Meh. I didn’t really care about this class too much.
  • PSYC 456 (Psychology of Emotion): Haha, another Sean class. We had lots of fun trying to decipher the tests.
  • PSYC 330 (Human Sexuality): Very chill and laid back, which is good for an 8:30 AM class.
  • PSYC 499 (I/O Psychology Research): My first research experience! Got to run participants and do stats.
  • STAT 401 (Statistical Analysis): I was also terrified of this class because we had to use SAS and I had no idea what that was. I still have the book we used and the topics are SO EASY now.
  • STAT 422 (Sample Survey Methods): Also terrifying. My first class with Dr. Williams, though, who is awesome.

Summer 2008 (6 credits)

  • PHIL 307 (Buddhism): This was a LOT of work over the summer, but fun.
  • PSYC 311 (Abnormal Psychology): I wish I would have taken this in a classroom setting rather than online.

Fall 2008 (22 credits)

  • MUSA 319 (Marching Band)
  • PHIL 103 (Ethics): We read Watchmen, which makes this whole class worth it.
  • PHIL 351 (Philosophy of Science): I really liked the material in this class, but was at 8 in the morning. Who can think at 8 AM? Not me!
  • PHIL 442 (Philosophy of Mind): Dr. O’Rourke! Very interesting class. Lots of heated debates.
  • PSYC 390 (Psychology of Learning): Online class. Super easy.
  • PSYC 421 (Cognitive Development): There were only like six of us in this class and the prof took a lot of pity on me because he knew I was trying to graduate early and was really stressed out about it.
  • PSYC 499 (I/O Psychology Research)
  • STAT 514 (Nonparametric Statistics): I was the only non-graduate student in this class. I think I needed more math, though.

Spring 2009 (22 credits)

  • ENGL 392 (Intermediate Fiction Writing): This class was taught by Dr. Orozco, who is super cool and really into running writing workshops.
  • MATH 330 (Linear Algebra): No.
  • MUSA 321 (Concert Band)
  • PHIL 240 (Belief and Reality): I was very fortunate that this class was offered when it was; normally it’s just offered in the fall, so I wouldn’t have been able to complete my philosophy degree if that had been the case this year.
  • PHIL 447 (Theory of Knowledge): More Dr. O’Rourke! Less debate, though.
  • PHIL 490 (Senior Seminar): This was a three-hour Thursday only class. Rough.
  • PSYC 499 (I/O Psychology Research)
  • STAT 519 (Multivariate Analysis): YAY, my introduction to R and factor analysis and PCA and all the fun things you can do with multivariate data. Dr Lee rules.

FAST FORWARD!

Fall 2012 (12 credits)

  • ENGL 293 (Beginning Nonfiction Writing): Wrote my Leibniz/Newton story in here. This was also the first class in which I made friends during my second round of undergrad.
  • MATH 170 (Calculus I): I was nervous about calculus after my business calc experience in 2007, but this class was SO MUCH BETTER. My prof was amazing.
  • MUSA 321 (Concert Band): Concert band was not the same without the old group of dorks.
  • STAT 426 (SAS Programming): I’ve forgotten pretty much everything about SAS since I use R so exclusively and so often, haha.

Spring 2013 (15 credits)

  • CS 120 (Computer Science I): Fun and useful class. I wish I had a reason to use C++ more frequently so that I don’t forget how it works.
  • ENGL 393 (Intermediate Nonfiction Writing): The class in which I finally got all the Vancouver out of my system by writing a 50-ish page story about my time there.
  • MATH 175 (Calculus II): This class was pretty rough, but also very enjoyable. I somehow managed to get a 100% on our second test, which doesn’t happen with me and math tests. Ever.
  • MATH 176 (Discrete Mathematics): My first class with Dr. Abo! This was a super interesting and not too difficult class. This was also the first class in which I was explicitly taught summation notation (though I already knew what it was, of course, ‘cause of stats).
  • MUSA 321 (Concert Band)

Summer 2013 (3 Credits)

  • MATH 275 (Calculus III): Best summer class ever. I loved multivariate calc mainly because we got to write the integral symbol so often.

Fall 2013 (13 Credits)

  • ENGL 492 (Advanced Fiction Writing): Easily my favorite writing class, partially because of my classmates and partially because I was able to write two of my best short stories in it.
  • MATH 215 (Introduction to Higher Mathematics): OH MY GOD this was a fun class. Everyone was a total freaking nerd (including our prof) and it was fantastic. I was really nervous about this one, but it was actually pretty easy.
  • MATH 330 (Linear Algebra): Yes, I took linear algebra a second time. I had to make up for that B the first time. Also, Dr. Abo taught it this time around and it was so much better and made so much more sense. It helped that half the hooligans from MATH 215 were in this class as well.
  • MUSA 321 (Concert Band)
  • STAT 451 (Probability Theory): This was quite difficult when I was in it, but looking back on the textbook and comparing it to grad school stats, it’s not that bad at all.

Spring 2014 (13 credits)

  • MATH 395 (Analysis of Algorithms): Very laid-back and interesting class. Sorting algorithms FTW!
  • MATH 420 (Complex Variables): I have such an appreciation for imaginary numbers after this class, man. It makes me feel cool.
  • MUSA 321 (Concert Band)
  • STAT 452 (Mathematical Statistics): I have no idea how I did as well in this class as I did. Luck and fear, probably.
  • STAT 453 (Stochastic Methods): This was EASILY the most difficult class I’ve ever taken (apart from Algebra II in high school, but that doesn’t count). I got a B in this class and I was just glad it wasn’t lower, let’s put it that way.

That’s 72 classes in a total of five years. That’s a good number of classes.
(Yes, I would do it all again.)

One response

  1. An impressive amount of work in a short time!

    Like

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