<p>So, as one of many students on this board delighted to be accepted to Chicago, and all but prepared to attend, I find myself spending a lot of time with my course catalog. It’s been marked in pen and pencil, pages tabbed with hand-cut sticky notes (the only ones on hand having begun much too large for my purposes); the book is acquiring the sense of devotion that Ted O’Neill alluded to in his accompanying letter. The catalog and its well-listed courses embody the core (pun retroactively intended) of why I love Chicago and can’t imagine complete satisfaction anywhere else. It is full of wonderful options.</p>
<p>One of the big questions occupying me as I mark interesting options with arrows and asterisks is this: how am I going to accomplish all of this? There seem to be so many subjects, topics (I differentiate), ideas, and questions to address in four short years. Where do I start?</p>
<p>That brings me to this thread. Where do I start? I’d like to ask current and fellow prospective/incoming students to alight here for a while. Discuss what you’ve taken, when, and why; and what you’d like to take. There is as much opportunity for questioning as there are classes listed in that lovely red book. Probably far more ways to answer them. I think the point of enrolling at Chicago, in a way, is to face those questions and curiosities a little blindly, knowing that we’ll enjoy (or at least appreciate) what we encounter. Still, a little guidance from those who’ve done it, or are doing it now, or hope to do so one day–that aid might be allowed in the face of all this splendor.</p>
<p>So tell me. Tell us, who love this school and its offerings enough to visit this board. What courses have you taken that thrilled you, and why? What is worth the hours of toil it required, in spite of sleeplessness and confusing reading and complicated math? What might you, particular person here, think is the best plan of attack (or perhaps of romance?) in arranging courses, schedules, and majors? Are there secret tricks to taking classes of varying or similar types? What results have you seen? Do you prefer one HUM course over another, or if you had the chance would you take three at once? Where are the hidden gems that may not be listed in this red book, and what might we do to find and utilize them?</p>
<p>In short, tell us anything. This is the place to talk about classes. I have questions, not quite as romantic as the idea of their answers, but still inquiries that might be addressed. I know others have them, too, probably even more varied and enlightening (much more so) than mine might be. And I know that there are dozens of you that have at least a word to say about the classes. Your favorites; your own schedule; delights and regrets.</p>
<p>This is the place to discuss them. Help, be helped; compare; advise, vent, rant, and apologize. Revel, in short, in talking of Chicago’s courses.</p>