Through the hours I spent in STEM-related classes as a Humanities person, the part of college that most excited me was the freedom to choose my classes. I always dreaded the bell marking the end of my English class as I begrudgingly packed up my things and headed to the chem lab. I have nothing against STEM people, as I am glad to have the foundations that I do, but I won’t say that the periodic table doesn’t trigger my fight or flight.
A big part of the reason I chose Oberlin was because of the diverse classes, thoughtful assignments, and minimal course requirements. If courses can be taught by students, they must be interesting. While the Quantitive and Formal Reasoning credit requirement gave me pause, I found plenty of courses, such as the Learning Lab, for students like myself who want basic quantitive life skills--but would prefer to leave it at that. Shockingly, this was the easy part.
As I scrolled through the course catalog, I found seemingly infinite classes within the English, Philosophy, Sociology, and Politics departments which excited me. However, I felt intimidated for the first time in a non-math or -science class. There must have been 5-10 intro courses that I would have loved to take, but what mostly caught my eye was the specialization of the level 200 courses. I found myself torn between taking classes for a broad understanding and exploring the specializations of different regions, philosophers, theories, or ideologies.
While in high school English classes it felt great to learn things that I already knew, put in little effort, and get good grades, I knew that this shouldn’t, and couldn’t be the case in college. So, I made a pact with myself. I took two courses that I felt confident and ready to take on and two courses that were out of my comfort zone. I even tried to align their content to feed off of one another, something I strongly suggest doing. My intro-level philosophy course, Human Nature and Morality, helped me solidify the philosophical basics, which I felt self-assured. My level 200 politics class, The Odyssey of Critical Theory, was a challenge. At first, I found the readings denser than I was used to, the class discussions intimidating, and the content challenging to keep up with. However, as I combined my knowledge of political theory with philosophical theory, I was able to paint a better picture in my mind.
This is not to say that incoming students should take classes they know absolutely nothing about--it is to say that course balance and room to grow have been the most rewarding aspect of my curriculum.
