Fall Semester: A first impression
For the first time in a while, probably the first time since freshman year, I feel like I'm going into a semester on the right foot. I'm rested, I'm organized, and - most importantly - I'm motivated. Hopefully I can stay on track, because I'm taking more units this semester than I've ever taken before, and I can't afford to drop any classes.
The breakdown:
11.001 - Intro to Urban Design & Development: I started this class last fall but dropped it to focus more on studio. I'm not taking a studio this year, so I should be able to push through it. It's a lot of reading, a little bit of writing, and the rest is class discussion. I've got a nice head start on this class because I've taken the first 3 weeks before (I can slack on the readings, and I've already written the first paper). The professor who usually teaches this course (Susan Silberberg) is on leave, so it's being lead by the old TA. It's a little more laid back that way, which I like.
11.002 - Making Public Policy: Counts as a HASS-D and CI-H (for non-MIT folk: Humanities Distribution elective and also Communication Intensive), neither of which I need. I have to take this class to finish my minor in Urban Planning. The class is much bigger than I was expecting, and there are a ton of bright-eyed and bushy tailed freshmen trying to get their Institute Requirements out of the way early. Even though I'm excited about the subject matter (it's basically a current evens class with some political science context), this is probably going to be my grunt-class. It's also attendance mandatory.
11.188 - Urban Planning & Social Science Lab: Counts for my minor as well as my Lab requirement. I haven't really been able to get an impression of this class yet. We've only had 1 lecture and 1 lab, both of which were very introductory. I'm happy about getting to make maps for a grade, though.
4.353 - Advanced Video: I love classes that you can repeat for credit. The professor (Joe Gibbons) and TA (Edgar Pedroza / Gary Prado) are the same, but this year the class actually has structure. We're going to be focusing on documentaries and cinema verite, which is a nice change from the "make your own course" format we had in the spring.
4.170 - International Design Workshop: Turkey: This is probably going to be the coolest, most important, most stressful, and most time consuming class I ever take. I posted the synopsis the other day, so I won't go into too much detail. Basically, there are 4 of us (down from 7) working as assistants to Jan Wampler. He's been commissioned to build a large project in Resadiye (pronounced Ruh-shaw-dee-uh, I think), Turkey. So basically I'm going to be helping design something that is actually built, which will look awesome on any grad school application. Also I get to go to Turkey. Twice. For free.
So there you have it. 5 Full courses. The cons: 60 units is going to kill me. The pros: I finish my minor. I have Fridays off. And I get to travel the globe on MIT's dollar.
I also got hired as a shop monitor for the woodshop, at a cool $15 and hour. So I won't be as poor this semester as I was last fall.
The breakdown:
11.001 - Intro to Urban Design & Development: I started this class last fall but dropped it to focus more on studio. I'm not taking a studio this year, so I should be able to push through it. It's a lot of reading, a little bit of writing, and the rest is class discussion. I've got a nice head start on this class because I've taken the first 3 weeks before (I can slack on the readings, and I've already written the first paper). The professor who usually teaches this course (Susan Silberberg) is on leave, so it's being lead by the old TA. It's a little more laid back that way, which I like.
11.002 - Making Public Policy: Counts as a HASS-D and CI-H (for non-MIT folk: Humanities Distribution elective and also Communication Intensive), neither of which I need. I have to take this class to finish my minor in Urban Planning. The class is much bigger than I was expecting, and there are a ton of bright-eyed and bushy tailed freshmen trying to get their Institute Requirements out of the way early. Even though I'm excited about the subject matter (it's basically a current evens class with some political science context), this is probably going to be my grunt-class. It's also attendance mandatory.
11.188 - Urban Planning & Social Science Lab: Counts for my minor as well as my Lab requirement. I haven't really been able to get an impression of this class yet. We've only had 1 lecture and 1 lab, both of which were very introductory. I'm happy about getting to make maps for a grade, though.
4.353 - Advanced Video: I love classes that you can repeat for credit. The professor (Joe Gibbons) and TA (Edgar Pedroza / Gary Prado) are the same, but this year the class actually has structure. We're going to be focusing on documentaries and cinema verite, which is a nice change from the "make your own course" format we had in the spring.
4.170 - International Design Workshop: Turkey: This is probably going to be the coolest, most important, most stressful, and most time consuming class I ever take. I posted the synopsis the other day, so I won't go into too much detail. Basically, there are 4 of us (down from 7) working as assistants to Jan Wampler. He's been commissioned to build a large project in Resadiye (pronounced Ruh-shaw-dee-uh, I think), Turkey. So basically I'm going to be helping design something that is actually built, which will look awesome on any grad school application. Also I get to go to Turkey. Twice. For free.
So there you have it. 5 Full courses. The cons: 60 units is going to kill me. The pros: I finish my minor. I have Fridays off. And I get to travel the globe on MIT's dollar.
I also got hired as a shop monitor for the woodshop, at a cool $15 and hour. So I won't be as poor this semester as I was last fall.