Verdict... (NWS)
I've decided:
Philosophy is awesome.
Philosophy classes suck. Specifically Philosophy classes in UBC suck.
I really enjoyed taking Philosophy in Langara, it was all new and shiny (and even when I was going over basic ethics again for the 5th time, the rest of the course was interesting). In UBC they made me do stuff again that I had already done in Langara.
In UBC there are two courses of Philosophy that I can unreservedly say that I enjoyed: Science & Society (which was run by the History department), and Decision Theory.
In every other class, either the material was crap that wasn't presented well, it was just inherently dull, or the prof annoyed the hell out of me for one reason or another. Granted: this isn't a big sample: I've taken/started 9 Philosophy courses at UBC, and have 2 happening right now.
Epistemology: Prof never understood any question I asked, or responded in a taking-the-piss fashion.
Moral Phil: Class was great, Prof gave no guidance for papers and was completely useless when I asked for clarification for crappy marks.
Political Phil: Same prof as Moral Phil.
Decision Theory: awesome.
20th Century Phil: omg... "Hesperous is Phosphorus is an interesting statement, but Venus is Venus isn't. Why? Let's spend 6 weeks discussing that". Utterly fucking ridiculous.
Phil of Language: Same prof as 20th C, and same damn topic. *So* annoying.
Advanced Logic: I stayed for two days of Set Theory (as in "infinite sets"). When the guy started explaining how to determine which is the bigger set between two infinite sets (apparently 'infinite' != 'infinite'....), and mentioned we'd be doing infinite sums later: I left. I didn't scream, but I hated the guy: none of this crap was on the outline.
Phil & Lit: Boring, and I hate how the prof marked essays. I want to construct a good argument, she wanted me to regurgitate the course notes.
Science and Society: Awesome, but was more a history course than a philosophy course.
Biomedical Ethics: This is an intro course, bored again.
Phil of Art: the prof is a douche. Two classes in, and he's already displaying douche-like qualities. Asks a vague question to the class, and waits for 5+ wrong answers (and we all know we're wrong, so there's a 30-40 second lag between people raising their hands), then belittles the class ("You'll all smart people, aren't you? UBC is a difficult school to get into") for not reading his mind. Or he says "that's right, but not the answer I'm thinking of" and we go on attempting to be psychic. If I didn't need this class, I'd drop it right now. Arse.
So I don't know what the deal is. I don't know why Phil at UBC sucks. I'm really enjoying the Psych that I'm taking. I really enjoyed the History/Phil course I took. I really enjoy Philosophy (doing and reading). What the hell is wrong with the profs at UBC?
Incidentally: you can transfer into second year (BSc program) in UBC with a 2.2 average, that is to say: between a C and a C+ average. The BA program needs a huge 2.6 (C+). Difficult to get into? Compared to breathing, sure...