<p>I am curious if anyone has any experience with the University College classes offered at WashU. </p>
<p>I would like to pursue a cultural anthropology masters degree in a full-time program, but since my undergrad degree is in business, (a B.B.A to be exact) I feel that some undergrad work in my new chosen field is necessary.</p>
<p>My question is if anyone has any knowledge about the University College classes differing in content to the regular (or "daytime" classes as an advisor put it) classes that WashU offers in the same subject. My concern is that even though they may be the same class in name, they may not be as focused, or be more general in their lectures compared to the daytime classes as they are geared for after work, part-time students, rather than full-time students.</p>
<p>The one UCollege class I took (in a 300 level psychology class) was a complete and total joke.
I don’t know if this can be said for all UCollege classes, but I have never had to do so little work (outside of class, I put in 2 hours of work the entire semester) to get an A.</p>
<p>I think calling UCollege classes a joke is a bit ingenuous… UCollege is predominately for working adults in the STL area to take classes and get a bachelors/masters. Same idea as the Harvard Extension school. Sure, Wash U students can take courses there, but they’re really not even designed for full-time Wash U undergrads to begin with. Think - if you were a working adult with a family or other obligations, and were also taking courses in UCollege in the evenings… good luck finding more than a couple of hours per week to feasibly spend on each course. FWIW, I’ve heard that the master’s programs are rather intensive, given the nature and purposes of the UCollege as a whole.</p>
<p>To answer the OP’s concern: you’re likely to be learning the same general content as a Wash U undergrad would from the similar course in the “daytime” program as you said, but without as many assignments or readings during the semester. The course’s content is going to be more broad-based… although, I’ve seen a couple of UCollege classes in the catalog that are on really quirky topics. So I guess it might depend on the specific course.</p>
<p>I took Music of the Beatles from the U-College last year and really enjoyed it. Not like that’s a core subject or a course designed for a Master’s degree or anything. But it involved a decent amount of time outside the classroom and the professor was excellent.</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard of the chemistry courses in the U-College, the course content is the same but taught at a slightly slower pace since U-College students are likely not to have taken a chemistry course in the past few years.</p>
<p>flashmountain - that’s why I said “I don’t know if this can be said for all UCollege classes” because the only experience I’ve had was what I related.</p>
<p>I’ve heard great things about classes like the Beatles Class, and I completely understand the purpose behind UCollege, but there’s no way my psych class should have been considered remotely close to 300 level, or a college class at all. Everything covered in the class had been covered in Psych 100b (and I’d imagine the UCollege equivalent of Psych 100b) - so there was no point to it at all.</p>
<p>[To be fair, I’m currently in a 400 level Engineering class and I’m wondering how on earth it’s passing as a legitimate class.]</p>
<p>I have also got in contact with a professor who previously taught the same class in the regular WashU program as well as the University College. He said that personally he used the same syllabus in both classes, and from an instructor standpoint, the main difference in the classes is the Ucollege classes are more commonly taught by grad students and adjuncts, while the regular program classes are usually taught by the WashU faculty.</p>
<p>All and all the Ucollege doesn’t look like a bad program.</p>
<p>Note that you are limited in the number of Ucollege classes you can take as a Wash U student. (I know it’s one max a semester, there might be other restrictions).</p>
<p>Ucollege does have some pretty interesting sounding classes, like the Beatles Class mentioned above. Personally, I’d probably only take ucollege classes as interesting electives.</p>
<p>My lab professor was talking today about her Ucollege intro bio class. Apparently, she gave the exact test as a practice, and people still failed. She’s a great teacher, but she definitely seemed to feel that she was constrained by the ability of the student, which led to a less intensive course.</p>
