<p>As a math major alumni myself who wasn’t so psyched about the humanities/social science core when I entered the university:</p>
<p>It’s important to realize that College is about personal growth. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, and it’s important to focus on your weaknesses as well as strengths. Not only that, the humanities and social science core is structured to be interesting, novel, and analytically rigorous to all students. Actually, given their analytical ability, math majors can perform really well in a lot of the courses.</p>
<p>There’s always the opportunity to take the watered-down, easy core classes, but they’re not nearly as fun or challenging. They won’t contribute to your intellectual development, and depending on the professor, they might actually have harder grading standards. I was dreading HUM/SOSC when I first entered the college, but ended up taking Greek Thought & Literature and Power, Identity, & Resistance for my Core classes. They were wonderfully enlightening and interesting, and I got As nearly all quarters, despite the fact that I was simultaneously taking the very time-consuming Honors Analysis in the math department.</p>
<p>Actually, I took a single quarter of the watered-down Mind (SOSC) course when I was trying to escape my SOSC requirements by taking something a bit less social science-y. But after that quarter, I realized that it would be much more fulfilling to take a more orthodox SOSC class, so I switched into Power, where I read intriguing philosophical writings from giants like Marx, Durkheim, Adam Smith, Kant, and Hegel. In fact, I regret taking that one quarter of Mind, as it prevented me from taking the last quarter of Power, where I could’ve read writings from Arendt and Nietzsche (which I did on my own personal time after graduation, actually).</p>
<p>In conclusion, you can take watered-down HUM/SOSC courses for your Core. But you really shouldn’t. They won’t contribute to your intellectual foundations, and you might actually find traditional Core classes closer to your mathematical mindset, given their analytical focus.</p>