FunWiki: HumClassReview

Ever signed up for a hum which you thought would be fun and easy only to find out that it's more work than CS70 and the prof curves between a C and an F? This page was created so people could leave feedback on the hum classes they've taken. So when you're registering for classes, you won't be forced to guess the right hum and hope you get a good one.

Would anyone mind if this were alphabetized in order of course name? --KatieLewis

I propose that we change this so all subsequent courses reviewed are added at the bottom. Control-F isn't that hard anymore if you're looking for a course, and it's nice to be able to tell which reviews are recent, and which come from the days of Professors who have long since retired, or are not longer as cool as they once were (for a case study of both, see Professor Geerken). --DavidLapayowker

Also, it might be nice if we had another get together to give people recommendations on hums before scheduling for next semester. Especially for the frosh.. Or has this been planned and I never heard about it? --KL

(Might also check out: MuddTextBooks, HumDepartment, and BookSale)

Everyone is encouraged to leave feedback here.

Work load: light reading, some papers, quiz or five, ...
Grading scale: 4-5
Would take another class from this prof again: Definitely!
Comments: I don't remember the course number, but it doesn't really matter as the course I took is now split into two courses. At any rate, the prof is a Buddhist Nun so she knows her stuff pretty well + she is good at making the material interesting. Lots of neat stuff: Early shamanism / death rituals, Buddhism (many forms), Confucianism, Taoism (philosophical and religious) - Sinto too in Japan. Lots of explanation of overlap / interrelation of religious traditions - Chinese religion tends to often be "mix/match" in a lot of ways, which is a neat change from more western traditions. Some religious artwork (Buddhist caves near silk road were covered and very interesting). Very neat to see how buddhism / other religions change over time / place. If I had to take either of her two courses, I'd probably opt for the Chinese semester but the Japanese section was very interesting as well. very highly recommended, *great* class - probably my favorite hum at mudd -- BenZeckel
- Um... who is the prof? --KatieLewis

Class: ANTH 10: Historical Archaeology
School: Pitzer
Professor: Miller
Work load: Three short (5 page) papers. We were supposed to have a longer paper but it was cancelled. Daily reading assignments (about 15-20 pages). One field trip (supposed to be two). No exams except final. Attendence taken, grade reduced for unexcused absences.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 3
Would take another class from this prof: Yes
Comments: I found this class very enjoyable. The reading was interesting and the prof is really cool. I stay after most days to talk to her. It's also interesting to have a ratio of 3:11 (male:female) when most of your classes are the other way around... -- TimBuchheim

Class: ANTH 111: Intro to the Anthropology of Science and Technology
School: Mudd
Professor: de Laet
Work load: A reasonable amount of reading each week. Some short (2-3ish pages) response paper. A huge portion of the grade is the ethnographic study, in a team, culminating in a group-written 30 page paper.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 5
Would take another class from this prof: Yes
Comments: Personally, I liked this class. De Laet tends to babble, but she formats most of the discussions in small groups of 4 or 5, limiting the amount of time she spends babbling to the whole class. Experiences vary, but I found that as long as you demonstrated you had some idea you knew what was going on, she graded fairly and it's not too hard to do well. The ethnographic study is a lot of work, but spread it out well over the semester and throughout your team and you'll be fine. Don't do all your observations in the last month of the semester! The end result should be fun, and a neat way to find out how your fellow Mudders tick. Plus, it's an IE; bonus. --RobinBaur

Class: ARHI 52: Monuments of Asia
School: Scripps
Professor: Coats
Work load: Minimal. You don't have to do any of the reading because he only tests on what he said in lecture. Just take good notes and study them a bit. The only real work you will have to do is going to the Norton-Simon Museum in Pasadena once or twice to look at a piece of art, and then writing two or three pages about it. Annoying and time consuming, but you can get there easily with the 187 bus.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 2 or 3, maybe?
Would take another class from this prof: Maybe; I didn't find him amazing, but lectures were fine.
Comments: It's a really interesting class; you learn a lot and get to look at lots of pictures of really cool stuff. I actually quite enjoyed it. At the same time, it entails very little work, once you realize that the readings are completely unnecessary. (The readings are a good supplement, of course, but if you're pressed for time, you can ignore them.) Usually offered in the spring, so not relevant right now, but worth keeping in mind. --AmandaKlaus

Class:ART121- Beginning Ceramics
School:Scripps
Professor:Hunter
Work load:~50 journal entries describing things you find beautiful over the course of the semester; ~six sculpture projects, including a final project with one page explanation; attendance is mandatory (duh, it's a studio art class)
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 2
Would take another class from this prof: Yes
Comments:A lot of fun, and the prof is a great, easygoing guy. I'll note that this class is more clay sculpture (coil, slab, other techniques), and use of the pottery wheel is not taught (that's ART123- Advanced Ceramics). Classroom had a door code, so you can come in and work at all hours. --TamaraReimer

Class: ART142: Intermediate/Advanced? Digital Imaging
School: Scripps
Professor: Hollis Cooper
Work load: Three or so big projects, one presentation, and a museum visit. If you work hard in class, you can finish all the tutorials during class time. The big projects take as much time as you want them to, and varies a lot with your design choices. In the semester I took this class, there was a museum visit scheduled especially for people taking art classes at Scripps, so the museum visit/write-up was easily taken care of also.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 2: as long as you do the work, you'll get nearly full points. The points you don't get, you can go back and edit your work to earn them back.
Would take another class from this prof: Yes; it's clear that she has a strong design sense, but she gives students a lot of room to do what they want. Note that she's a visiting prof- I hope that Scripps will keep her, but it's not guaranteed.
Comments: You choose between learning either Adobe Illustrator or Adobe InDesign?. I think that Illustrator is a lot more versatile- you can use it to make illustrations, logos, graphics, web designs, T-shirt designs, etc... InDesign? is more if you're really interested in making booklets/pamphlets. You can petition to take this course without the prerequisite- in the prerequisite, you learn Adobe Photoshop, and the skillset is entirely different anyways.

Class: Art 198: Black and White Photo
School: Mudd
Professor: Beckman
Work load: Only meet 1/two weeks. Lots of picture-taking, developing.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 1
Would take another class from this prof: Yes, if it were photo. But that's fine, because he only teaches photo now. (We didnt get along very well in HUM 1.)
Comments: You want to take this class. But you have to get his permission. So ask early. -- MarkEphair

Class: ART ???: Typography
Professor: Maryatt (Scripps)
Time: MW 10:00-12:45 (no, that's not a typo)
Work load: Heavy. Further, there's really no good way to slack and hide it. You may be able to do so with writing your text (and most people do, or most in my class did), but woe betide you if your stuff isn't printed in time to bind. Lots of work outside of class as well (it's a studio art class, therefore...)
Grading Scale: 3? Hard to say. I came out okay, but then I did almost as much work as I was supposed to... --AndrewSchoonmaker
Would take another course from this prof? Possibly. It wouldn't be a no-brainer.
Comments: Apparently the most popular comment about Maryatt is that she's a control freak (I've heard this from a couple of other people who took the course); I'd agree, though I didn't have overly negative experiences with it (a couple of people in my class will tell horror stories, though). She's generally a nice person, though given the chance she'd happily eat all of the free time you even contemplate having (and I never really got on her bad side...). Some of the work is quite fun, though time consuming and repetitive. Perhaps the most important aspect of the course is that it's a team effort: you're effectively chained to 10-11 other people, and if one of you falls behind, the others have to pick up the slack or fail to complete the project. I had numerous long Monday mornings in which I frantically prepared work for class, spurred on by the fear of death... On the whole, however, the experience was very worthwhile; there were a number of cool people in the class (there's nothing like griping about Maryatt with other classmates on the weekend to bolster team spirit) and the completed book is quite the memento (not that certain parts of the text aren't etched indelibly into my memory...) Highly recommended (but make sure you're ready for a studio art class; I think Typography killed Num Anal) --AndrewSchoonmaker

Class: CLAS 008: Introductory Latin
School: Scripps
Professor: Finkelpearl
Work load: 1 short quiz per week; homework due almost every day, but all assignments are very short; three exams including the final.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 3
Would take another class from this prof: No.
Comments: Her method of teaching is to go around the room, having everyone do one exercise out of the book. This effectively meant that I spent about 7% of class actually doing something and 93% of class waiting to get to do something. She also tended to babble, which reduced even further the amount of class I spent being productive. I was bored out of my mind the whole time. --ArielBarton

Class: CLAS018: Ancient Novel and Romance
School: Scripps
Professor: Finkelpearl
Work load: A fairly light quantity of reading - a Greek, Roman, or Judeo-Christian novel or group of short stories each week, maybe 50-100 pages? A few short papers, one longer term paper.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 2
Would take another class from this prof: Maybe (I have, but then, it's my major)
Comments: The best part of this class is the readings. Most of them are entertaining, some of them are just plain weird, and some of them make you want to scrub your skull out with Brillo (viz. the Satyricon). Finkelpearl's standards for paper quality are low, but not nonexistent. Also, her humor's kind of dry, and she'll take over class discussions if you let her, so don't. Overall, a worthwhile class, but a little slow-moving. Beware the film showing of the Fellini Satyricon. We have not yet established whether it would make more sense while smashed and high, but it probably would. --RobinBaur

Class: CLAS020: Fantastic Archaeology
School: Pitzer
Professor: ProfessorBerenfeld?
Work load: Reading, fairly large bit of it is conspiracy theory websites, so not sure it counts as much work, couple small projects
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 1
Would take another class from this prof: Yes.
Comments: Holy crap this class is entertaining. If you can take it do it you won't regret it. It's basically how do we diagnose and make fun of people who go ALIENS! Expectations for classwork are low, lectures are amusing,

Class:Clas032?: Advanced Intro Latin
School: Scripps
Professor: Listed as 'staff,' I got Dang
'''Work load: Translate 5 easy sentences, 3 times a week. Less than a half an hour of homework per week.
Grading scale:3
Would take another class from this prof. Yes.
Comments: The material goes really quickly because you're learning a year's worth of Latin in a semester, and 3 days a week instead of 5, but if you can keep up with the concepts, the workload is a cakewalk. Plus, it's Latin. Which is cool. Because it's Roman, and Dead. I'm glad I took this class. I don't know if Dang always teaches it, but her teaching style is lots of in-class grammar drills and translation. Not incredibly creative, but effective. -LoganGordon

Class: CLAS 121: Classical Myhtology
School: Pitzer
Professor: ProfessorGlass
Work load: One ten page paper. One midterm. One final. Weekly reading (50-100 pages).
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 8
Would take another class from this prof: Yes
Comments: Glass is cool. I've had three classes with him, and although this wasn't my favorite, it was fun. -- TimBuchheim
- Excellent class. The Prof knows what he's talking about and is an entertaining lecturer. Was wondering why I was taking a classical myth class, but I think it is handy to know the references one sees in literature and culture. Learning a lot. --KatieLewis
- Pretty enjoyable, but it doesn't matter so much because he's now retired... this (and other) classics courses at Pitzer are taught by Professor Berenfeld. She specializes in archaeology and the provinces of the Roman Empire, so lots of her classes relate to archaeology or Rome. She's an amusing lecturer, coursework and reading aren't too heavy, but sometimes the organization of her lectures confuses me. -- KatieBennett

Class: CLAS 161: Greek Art and Archaeology
School: Pitzer
Professor: ProfessorGlass
Work load: One ten page paper. One midterm. One final.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 8
Would take another class from this prof: Yes
Comments: Glass is cool. This class is really cool. You get to look at slides every day. Pictures of cool architecture in Greece, as well as a lot of pots (you'll get tired of pots, but they're not that bad). -- TimBuchheim
- The workload doesn't look like much, but do get started on the research paper early. I only had a week to work on it because of my other courses (and a bit of slacking off) and I'm wishing I'd had more time. The midterm requires you to remember a lot of terms about Greek pottery and walls; dunno what the final will be like but I suspect more of the same. I'm getting better at my Greek pronunciation.
- Pretty sure this class is now Roman Art and Archaeology with Berenfeld.

Class: DAVIS XXX: Various HIST and GOV Courses (HMC, time varies)
Professor: Davis
Work load: Midterms and finals (essay format) Final research paper. Storytime with Davis is an amazing educational experience. Hear about his tours with Khrushchev, survived assasination attempts in central american countries, and tales of Nixon Whitehouse intrigue. A formidable storehouse of information and knowledge of Russia, eastern Europe, and beyond. Nuclear Arms Control is highly recommended. THE best class at Mudd, hum or otherwise.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 2-7 (variable on your level of interest and motiviation)
Would take another class from this prof: Yes
Comments: Davis is an adherant to the philosophy of grade compression, in which all grades are compressed about the central value B. Exemplary efforts (teaching him something within his realm of expertise that he didn't know, and doing it well) can produce an A. Exceptionally poor (insultingly poor) efforts can produce a D or F, although the body of lore to which I am privy does not contain such an instance. Perhaps 80-90% of his students will recieve something between a B- and B+. -- JoelTheJoel

Class: ECON 51: Macroeconomics
School: Pitzer
Professor: Botwin
Work load: Two midterms, optional final. No other graded work outside of class.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 2
Would take another class from this prof: Yes.
Comments: Botwin is a very good professor and his lectures are interesting. I learned a lot. This is totally a win-win class. If you want an A, you probably should work a few problems outside of class, (maybe buy the workbook, not the textbook) but it's also a great class to take pass/fail. --MattMacauley

Class: ECON 53: Macro Economics
School: Mudd
Professor: Evans
Work load: Two midterms, one final. Weekly reading, a few assignments (ungraded).
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 4
Would take another class from this prof: Yes
Comments: Really cool prof (gotta love his stories). Interesting subject. -- TimBuchheim; I enjoyed this class and found it easy. Excellent if you like Economics. -AlexBobbs

Class: ECON 102: Microeconomic Theory
School: Pomona
Professor: Likens
Work load: Average of only one 30-minute assignment per week. Several fairly easy exams. No papers.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 3
Would take another class from this prof: Definitely
Comments: Wonderful course material. Instead of relying on hand-waving and intuition as in the introductory micro course, microtheory is a very rigorous and mathematical analysis of economics. For Mudders, who are comfortable with lots of graphs and math, the content should be a piece of cake (you can probably excel in it even if you've never had introductory micro). Likens is extremely nice, amusing, down-to-earth, and his stories are numerous and funny. --KaiLiu

Class: ECON 104: Financial Economics
School: Mudd
Professor: Evans
Work load: Two midterms, one final. Weekly reading, a few assignments (ungraded).
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 4
Would take another class from this prof: Yes
Comments: Really cool prof (gotta love his stories). Interesting subject. Useful info for real life (stock options, mutual funds, real estate, etc.) -- TimBuchheim

Class: ENGL 159; Shakespeare as Film (Pitzer)
Professor: Wachtel
Work load: Excessively light. Read four Shakespeare plays; there's some film reading that he doesn't seem to care much about; write some stuff. As originally listed on the syllabus, "some stuff" meant twelve paragraphs and a 5-7 page paper. By the end of the semester, this had been reduced to four paragraphs, of which only two were actually graded, and the paper had become optional.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 1
Would take another course from this prof again: Yes (assuming I could get it to count for anything)
Comments: As noted above, the workload for this class is remarkably light (I get the impression that he really doesn't like grading papers...); also, classes themselves tend to be enjoyable. The prof is very opinionated, and spends a lot of time expounding on his opinions at great length, but he's always able to back them up (often in fascinating ways).--MicahSmukler

Class:GOVT 180E: Law and Literature
School:CMC
Professor:ProfessorMartin
Work load:Mostly books and short stories to read. When I took it spring semester of 2002, there were no midterms, finals, or exams. Grades were based on class participation, making a presentation and leading class discussion on one of several strange articles, and a 15 page final paper.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 2.
Would take another class from this prof: Maybe.
Comments: ProfessorMartin had plenty of amusing stories to tell, but he tended to talk a lot about his interpretation of and reactions to the texts without fostering much class discussion. It was not uncommon to walk into class, listen to him talk for the entire class period, and at the end have him apologize for monopolizing the class time and promising to have more discussion next time. The material was very interesting, and the class discussions we did have ended up being fairly informative. --LauraKanofsky

Class: GRMT 134 - Advertising the Other
School: Pomona
Professor: Kronenburg
Work load: Fairly light. Reading for every class, 3 advertising projects, a presentation and 8-10 page seminar paper.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 1.5
Would take another class from this prof: In a heartbeat.
Comments: An awesome class. The workload may easily change, since Kronenburg is still working on the course, but he's a really awesome Prof (has a kickass German accent and will use obscenities when appropriate) who's great at encouraging discussion and doing appropriate material. You spend most of class watching or looking at ads and commenting on them (and it's a hell of a lot more fun and interesting than it sounds). The projects are actually a lot of fun to do, and usually take around 6 hours (and that includes technical issues). Again, it may change in subsequent years, but it's a really fun class from a really, really cool Prof. And anyone who doesn't believe me should ponder how an insanely politically incorrect person like me could possibly like a class about stereotypes. -- DavidLapayowker I'd have to second David's opinion. I was really nervous going in for a variety of reasons, but it's actually been really cool and a lot of fun, though some of the readings have sucked. Not that you have to do it. The projects are actually fun, and it's really not harsh grading at all. And now that grades are in officially, yeah, awesome, easy class--KevinOelze

Class: HIST 20: Greece and Rome
School: Pitzer
Professor: ProfessorGlass
Work load: One ten page paper. One midterm. One final. Weekly reading (50-150 pages).
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 8
Would take another class from this prof: Yes
Comments: Glass is cool. This class is interesting, but not as cool as his other classes. There is a lot of reading, and it's mostly names and places and dates... -- TimBuchheim Admittedly I'm a bit of a history nut and I had a class that covered almost the same material my senior year of high school, but I loved this class. It wasn't too challenging but it was enough that I got a ton out of it, plus Glass is really cool. The tests are standard history tests, which are fine if you know your stuff. He does expect a lot out of the final paper. It isn't a paper you can write in a night...and even a weekend is pushing it. He expects quality research and writing. But he's awesome. --RachelGabor. DuctTapeGuy: I like history and I was not disappointed by this class. Glass is an awesome lecturer.

Class: HIST 110a: European History to 1648
School: Scripps
Professor: Geerken
Work load: 10-15 pages reading two times a week; 3 medium sized graded papers (5-8 pages); a one page pass/fail paper every two weeks
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 5
Would take another class from this prof: Yes
Comments: The style of the class is a lot different than most history classes--you get to read a lot of source documents instead of a history text; class was part lecture, part discussion; he looks for specific things in papers and tries not to be to anal about it, but you can still write a relatively nice paper and not do that great because you forgot a few things -- ElizabethReynolds; I thought this was a fairly easy class, but I did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Class periods did not incorporate very much discussion- they mainly consisted of Geerken lecturing, and the lectures were pretty dull. The readings- about 1/4 history text and 3/4 source documents- were interesting. --TamaraReimer

Class: Hum 2; Science from an "other" perspective. (HMC)
Professor: Olson
Work load: 100 pages of reading each week, two papers, a group project.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 1
Would take another class from this prof again: Yes!
Comments: Enjoyed this class. Could survive w/o doing the readings. Classes were in the format of large discussions & debates. --MattMacauley --Rick Fujiyama --AlexBobbs

Class: JAP 51A - Intermediate Japanese
School: Pomona
Professor: Miyake
Work load: If you do all of the work (including stuff you're not required to turn in) about three - five hours per class period.. Plus weekly quizzes, bi-weekly tests, required conversation portion (you either have to take the conversation class, find a native speaker, or at Oldenborg 3 times a week), and midterm and final
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 8
Would take another class from this prof: No (not unanimously No)
Comments: Japanese is really cool, but this is a warning: I highly recommend against taking this class if either you are taking anything else that sucks time, or you aren't good at waking up reliably at 8 or 9 am four times a week. See also [this essay], not entirely tongue-in-cheek

Class: LGCS 10: Intro to Linguistics
School: Pomona
Professor: Hackl
Work load: Light to moderate reading (but you get class notes). Occasional (optional) homework Three Midterms.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 4
Would take another class from this prof: Yes
Comments: Very little work, and the subject matter is extremely interesting. The professor isn't a great lecturer, however. -- DanielKagan
- Sorry, had to modify your course title: Keep in mind that Intro to Cog Sci (LGCS 11) is a completely different course from Intro Ling -- RobinBaur

Class: LING101: Language Change
School: Pomona
Professor: Kossuth
Work load: Light reading. Occasional homework. One paper. One midterm. One final.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 4
Would take another class from this prof: Yes
Comments: Very interesting subject matter. Not too difficult, not too much work. Having some linguistics background would be useful, but I didn't find it necessary. -- TimBuchheim

Class: Lit 103: Third Cinema
School: Mudd
Professor: Balsiero
Work load: Two major papers, or a paper and a project. Weekly reading, weekly film. One or two sets of discussion questions sent to class list and graded.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 7
Would take another class from this prof: Perhaps
Comments: Depressing, but interesting. The films are definitely not uplifting. Class discussions about films, a little bit of lecture. I had some disagreements with Balsiero about grading, though. -- MarkEphair

Class: LIT 110 - Shakespeare
School: Mudd
Professor: Groves
Work load: Starts off light to moderate (weekly reading of a Shakespeare play and movie), with a 4-7 page paper midway through the semester. After spring break it gets fairly heavy though, with frequent rehearsals multiple times a week. Don't expect to get much of anything else done during the last week of the course, depending on size of part.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 2
Would take another class from this prof: Very yes.
Comments: For those that don't know, Shakespeare is the class that culminates in the entire class putting on a play at the end of the semester. It's a lot of fun, so the extreme workload increase at the end isn't particularly annoying. That being said, it does feel like more than a 3-credit course at the end of the semester, and I could see how this course wouldn't be for everybody. But I really enjoyed the class and would recommend it to anybody that thought it sounded enjoyable. --MartinPyne
- Seconded; this class is effectively four or more units after spring break if you're a lead. OTOH, it was *awesome*. Groves is nice and laid back, not a hard grader, doesn't make much work for anyone *outside* of the play, and while the play takes a lot of effort, I feel it was well worth it. --AndrewHunter

Class:MS179- A Critical Study of Documentary Media
School:Mudd
Professor:Mayeri
Work load:a ~6 page midterm, an 8-10 page final paper, a ~20 minute presentation with partner + leading class discussion afterwards; attendence is noted and some percentage of grade
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 3
Would take another class from this prof: Yes
Comments: This class had two sessions- an evening one for watching a film, and an afternoon one for discussing it. Lectures weren't that interesting, but most of the film choices pretty captivating. Course material is covered chronologically, so when I took it we didn't manage to get past, oh, the 1970's as far as documentary style. --TamaraReimer

Class:MS182S- Introduction to Digital Video Production
School:Mudd
Professor:Mayeri
Work load:two ~15 minute presentations on outside films; the three big projects: a group project in which you shoot your own footage, an appropriation project in which you edit footage from other sources, and a final project that has a lot of options; attendence is noted and some percentage of grade
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 5
Would take another class from this prof: Yes
Comments: The old media studios class was one of those damn cool classes at Mudd, and this is the modern version. Lectures aren't that interesting, but who cares? You get to make your own movies. Be prepared to spend a lot of time in the editing room. I've heard Mayeri has put some nasty restrictions on what you can do with your projects before, but by the time I took it, the rules were fairly reasonable. --TamaraReimer

Class: Music 59; Brahms, Berlioz, and Wagner (Pomona)
Professor: Di Grazia
Work load: There's 3 books to read, about an hour of listening to music each week. Two short papers.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 10
Would take another class from this prof again: Not unless my work ethic drastically improves.
Comments: Class was taught well, but it's very hard to get a good grade. It's a major advantage if you know music well. You'll have to be able to tell apart different classical pieces & movements for the exams. Prof doesn't understand that not everyone's a music major. If you know music well, then you'll probably enjoy it, but take it pass/fail. (I did worse in this class than in Stems!) --MattMacauley

Class:MUS84- Jazz Improvisation
School:Mudd
Professor:Keller
Work load:Practicing for class, occasional writing assignments which weren't collected, concert at end of the semester.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): Depends on how good a jazz musician you are and how much you're willing to practice.
Would take another class from this prof: Maybe (I would take Jazz Improv again, but not neccessarily a CS class from Keller)
Comments: Though it started out slow and depends a lot on what kind of momentum and interplay you get going with your fellow classmates, this class is pretty fun, as you're basically practicing and playing jazz standards with a small group of other people, on your respective instrument. You learn a little theory and it is good to know some basic things like sight reading, intervals, triads, etc. going in, but not too big of a deal. Basically, just listening to and playing jazz with others is what this class is all about, so if that's your thing, check it out. --NickHerman

Class: MUS 88; Computer Music (HMC)
Professor: Alves
Work load: Very clumpy, but less than average for 3 units. Five projects (between 2-8 hours each), one group project, two brief writing assignments (hour each), and a final project. Practically no reading.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 3
Would take another course from this prof again: Yes. Alves' classes aren't too difficult and aren't too much work. You can usually get away with little or no reading in the whole semester (shhhhh....). Class lectures in Computer music were a little dull. I'm glad I took the class. I liked it better than reading books and writing papers. My class was about half Mudders & half Pitzer students. --MattMacauley
- I'd give this class a slightly harder rating on the work load, but that's because I considered 4 hours an awful rush job for the projects, and had a hard time summarizing 80 pages into two paragraphs of decent length for the writing assignments. The "group project" for us was a presentation on a particular topic (Alves assigned groups and topics, although you could try to switch with someone else); each person covered one aspect of the topic and created a small piece to demonstrate it. It will probably help your peace of mind if you know some music theory before taking the class (at least if you care about composing pieces that sound good to you), but Alves really does his best to grade you on synthesis techniques rather than on creative talent. (He's also known for liking very weird modernist music, so you don't have much to worry about.) He's a fairly lenient grader - when I turned in a burned CD that he couldn't play, he still gave me a C based on my description of the processing I performed and the raw sound files in my directory on the computer in the studio. (The grade was corrected when I later turned in another copy of the song.) Overall, I've had a lot of fun in the class, although I might feel differently after the final project. :P --SeleneTan
- It should be noted that this is really a tech class in disguise. Whether or not this is a plus depends on your point of view.--MicahSmukler

Class: MUS 117: 20th Century Music (HMC, second semester)
Professor: Alves
Work load: Weekly assignments, usually 1-2 page papers (responses to listening to a CD). Three in-class essay quizzes, though for each quiz, he gives you 3 questions in advance, saying that he'll pick one of the three. There's also a presentation, though it's not very much work. (Did you catch that? No term papers!)
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 3
Would take another class from this prof: Yes
Comments: A lot of people find Alves to be a very boring lecturer, though I'm not one of them. His voice is a little monotone, but he knows the material very well, and I find the subject to be interesting anyways. I liked this class because it really didn't matter how bad your writing style is, just what you had to say about the music. It's not graded too hard either. Also, the work load is very light, and pretty consistent. A good combination. -- MattMacauley

Class: Mus 127S: Harmony of Sound and Light
School: Mudd
Professor: Alves
Work load: Lots of small projects, plus two large projects. A presentation with associated substantial paper.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 2
Would take another class from this prof: Yes.
Comments: Lots of fun - you get to play with POVRAY and set animation to music. Some people think classtime itself is a little dull - but you learn neato stuff. -- MarkEphair Your mileage may vary. -- EliBogart

Class: MUS 173; Concert Choir (1 unit)
School: Joint Music
Professor: Kamm
Work load: Outside practicing admired but not required. Rehearsals are twice a week and run for 1.5 hours.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 1
Would take another class from this prof: Yes
Comments: If you sing, you should be taking this. It's an on campus hum credit A, with hardly any workload. Take this every semester and you get half a music concentration for no work.
- Also, if you are a guy, you will be instantly loved by the prof. There are never quite enough of them.-AdamField
- If, however, you are a girl who sings with the guys, you aren't so instantly loved.-DebbieBerg

Class: MUS 175; Concert Orchestra
School: Joint Music
Professor: Lamkin
Work load: Outside practicing admired but not required. Rehearsals are once a week and run for 3 hours.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 1
Would take another class from this prof: Yes.
Comments: If you play an appropriate instrument, you should be taking this. You get to play cool stuff and get on campus HUM credit. -AlexBobbs Easiest hum class EVER!!!--LizzieKadison

Class: POLI 133b: Constitutional Law II
School: Pomona
Professor: Flynn
Work load: No papers, one midterm, one final, one presentation that counts as much as a midterm. Lots of assigned reading, but it's not nearly as bad as it looks on the syllabus. Since most of the reading consists of parts of Supreme Court decisions, don't read them all yourself-- get in a briefing group within the first few weeks of class (call out, "Hey, anyone want to do an email briefing group? and take names/email addresses), distribute the cases, and have everyone email their briefs to the group by Sunday evening of the week they will be discussed in class. Then the only real reading you have to do is the interesting stuff in Lazarus's book about how the Supreme Court really works, the introductory material for each section in O'Brien, and of course all of the legal briefs.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 3
Would take another class from this prof: Absolutely! Prof. Flynn is a lot of fun in the classroom.
Comments: See above comments about getting in a briefing group; I can't stress that enough. The course material is extremely interesting, and the professor does a great job of presenting and explaining it. I've learned a lot about the development of the rights we have today and take for granted. Note that Prof. Flynn also teaches Con Law I during the first semester. Con Law I is a different course that focuses on different topics. Con Law I is not a prerequisite for Con Law II. --LauraKanofsky

Class: PSYC 108 - Intro to Psychology
School: Harvey Mudd
Professor:Mashek
Work Load: Not too bad --1 short (between 10 and 15 pages) reading every other week, lectures, group-written essay in class every other week (coincides with the reading), 3 medium-size research projects/essays per semester
Grading Scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 4 (B is not hard to get, A is kind of tricky)
Would take another class from this prof: Yes!
Comments: Fun class. Mashek really likes teaching and tries to keep her class varied enough to be interesting. (Teaching is on a 4-class rotation, with 6 modules -- there's an "intro to this subject" class, a "group discussion of readings + short essay-writing" class, an "in-class activity" class, and a 4th class that varies between modules.) She's also super-responsive to student feedback. And (unlike certain members of the Engineering department), she'll be understanding of your failure at class if you explain to her what's going on that's making you fail at life. The class is also pretty interesting and requires no previous knowledge of psychology whatsover -- it's mostly about general topics (prejudice, etc.) and case studies rather than "Jungian vs. Freudian theory". Basically A++ would take again. --SkyeBerghel

Class:PSYC 160 - Perception and Cognition
School:Pomona
Professor:Banks
Work load:Reading from textbook, occasional quizzes, 2 small projects called "labs", term project.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 4
Would take another class from this prof: Yes
Comments: Fun class. Banks has an amazing collection of illusion demos. The course schedule says "Lab - arranged", making it sound like there's a weekly lab, but there isn't. --JesseRuderman? Wait, you don't have a wiki page?! *surprised* -KL

Class: Psychology and Law (PSYC 188CM-- it's also a seminar)
School: CMC
Professor: Professor Costanzo
Work load: Light to moderate. Each week is devoted to a different topic (such as police and polygraphing, interrogations and confessions, the death penalty, eyewitness identification, recovered memories, harassment and discrimination, etc.). Each week there are assigned readings and a short multiple choice quiz on the readings from the professor's textbook. Every other week or so there is a short 2 page paper (6 papers total during the semester) based on the readings (several questions are provided for each topic and the student can also answer a question of his or her own design). Class time is entirely discussion based with an occasional video. Each student also gives one 20-min presentation and serves as the discussion leader for one class period.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 2.
Would take another class from this prof: Yes.
Comments: I learned a lot and greatly enjoyed this class. --LauraKanofsky

Class: RLST / CLAS XXX
Professor: Jackson (Pomona)
Work load: Fairly heavy. Usually a class will involve writing a 4 page paper once a week.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 5. He grades fairly, but he is a grammar Nazi. Even if you think you are a grammar Nazi, you don't know as much about grammar as he does.
Would take another course from this prof again: Yes. The classes are interesting.
Comments: He also tends to go off into numerous tangents during class and repeat himself numerous times.--TimPrescott Should be noted that his Greek language courses have a significantly lower workload - 15-20 shortish sentences of translation once every when-he-gets-around-to-it, which is about every week and a half. No papers, no midterm (so far), nor's he mentioned a final. The tangents Tim mentions are, however, often extremely amusing. --RobinBaur

Class: RLST 10; Intro to Asian Religions;
Professor: Gentes
Work load: about 80 pages of reading a week, various short writing asignments, two 5-7 page papers.
Grading scale: 4
Would take another class from this prof again: Maybe.
Comments: Good subject material and readings; lecture style is a bit scattered and hard to take notes on, but you get a good feel for the material.-AlexBobbs

Class: RLST 138: American Religious History. (CMC)
Professor: Yoo
Work load: A 200-400 page book to read every week with a short 2-page paper due for each one; a "field-work" project; one 15-20 page term paper
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 6
Would take another class from this prof again: Probably
Comments: A well-taught seminar-style class, with really interesting subject material. Grading was fair, but the workload caused several people to drop the class as soon as they saw the syllabus. You will want to be very good at being able to identify important chapters to cut down on your reading (this kept me alive when I was taking P-Chem the same semester as this class) -AlexBobbs

Class: RUST 70: Alienation in Russian Literature
Professor: Rinkus
Work load: lots of reading (250 pg / class meeting sometimes), some papers and short journal entries
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 3
Would take another class from this prof: Yes if I have time
Comments: lots of great books but you need lots of time to really get the most out of the course - take it if you enjoy Russian literature and have plenty of time to read the books - not difficult but a time suck -- BenZeckel
- What school? --KL

Class: STS1; Intro to Science, Technology, and Society (Joint; counts as on-campus)
Professor: varies (Black / Campbell) sometimes Olson
Work load: three short books to read, many articles from other course books, two page weekly response to the class, three essays (8-12 pages)
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 3
Would take another course from this prof again: definitely. Black is a very enthusiastic prof, highly intelligent and motivated. Grades essays mostly on grammer and form, not really content. --Rick Fujiyama; Olson is great and a nice grader if you can actually write --AlexBobbs

Class: Thea51? - Being in a show
School: Pomona
Professor: Varies
Work load: Obscene. Twenty hours per week of class time. Additional time out of class if you have a real part. Even worse as performance nears/arrives.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 1 (Pass/Fail?)
Would take another class from this prof: No.
Comments: Avoid the Pomona theatre department. It's absurd.
- This might change after this semester (fall '05), as Boots is leaving. I have no other data to test the hypothesis against, but I have this feeling that Boots directing is part of the reason it's so absurd.

Class: Thea82? - Lighting Design (fall only)
School: Pomona
Professor: Jim Taylor
Work load: Moderate. There aren't very many written assignments, and there are more or less weekly readings. There are also several projects throughout the course of the semester, including designing for "In The Works." There's one midterm, and a final project involving making your own light plot. The shorter projects can take only an hour, while the more involved ones can take several. "In The Works" will suck up your evenings for a week. The light plot also takes a lot of time, as you're drawing and labelling about 200 lights by hand and making all accompanying paperwork. Besides graded work there are also a bunch of time commitments to fill such as light hangs, light focuses, departmental plays, outside plays, etc. It's not a difficult class, but be prepared to lose a few of your weekends.
Grading scale (1-10; 1 being easiest): 4
Would take another class from this prof: Yes.
Comments: I really enjoyed the class. The lectures weren't that interesting and were mostly taken from the readings anyways, but the projects were great for hands on experience. If you have any interest in lighting you'll have fun in this class. I generally found that the class also helped relieve more stress than it caused. And I hope you're not afraid of heights :). The professor's also a little weird and very quiet and introverted, but a nice guy. --VictorWang

Class: LIT 117: Dickens, Hardy, and the Victorian Age
School: Mudd
Professors: ProfessorGroves and ProfessorEckert
Credits: 4, and with reason
Work load: One Dickens or Hardy novel every 2 weeks (except for Bleak House, which you have 3 weeks to read). One essay every week, alternating between 1 or 2 shortish paragraphs (when novels aren't due) and 1 to 3 long paragraphs (when novels are due). One big group research presentation (45 minutes long), due at some point during the year (when is determined by what project you do). One 3 to 5 page essay, due near the end of the year. One smaller individual research presentation (10 minutes long), due in England. 2 additional novels to be read by the time you arrive in England. 2 weeks in England over winter break also devoted to the class. (Note: it is permitted to do the reading over the summer, if you so choose.)
Grading scale (1-10, 1 being easiest): 4
Would take another class from these profs: Very yes.
Comments: As seen above, the workload is massive. The class will also consume between 50 and 75 percent of your winter break (depending on when you do the bulk of the small presentation). Class is an order of magnitude easier if you read Bleak House (which is 1000 pages long, in small print) over the summer. However, the class is really fun, and Groves and Eckert are both certifiably awesome. Also, taking this class is the only way you will discover just how a big a literature geek Eckert really is. The class is on a two-year rotation and happens in the fall, so if you're thinking of taking it sophomore year, wait. --SkyeBerghel

Class: HIST 1something: Women and Gender in Medieval Europe, 1300ish-1750ish
School: Pitzer
Professor: Carina Johnson
Credits: 3
Work load: Some reading due once a week (2 hours on light nights, 5 hours on heavy nights). 3 papers, evenly spaced through the semester, of which two were 4-5 pages and one was 8-10 pages. No exams.
Grading scale (1-10, 1 being easiest): 2
Would take another class from this prof: Yes.
Comments: I didn't finish the class (LOA), but I had an A in it when I left. A lot of the grade is class participation, meaning that you have to do the reading and talk occasionally during class, but that's most of the coursework. I got an A- on a paper that I wrote but never read or edited, and could have pushed it up to an A had I wanted to, since you can do paper revisions. Both the readings and the actual class are interesting at least 95% of the time. Making up missed classes (after the free absence) consists of writing a 500-word or thereabouts paper and talking with the professor. tl;dr FunAndEasy. --SkyeBerghel

Class: CHIN001A: Introductory Chinese
School: Mudd
Professor: Chang Tan
Credits: 3
Work load: Character workbook (easy peasy) due every Tuesday. Workbook (incredibly time consuming) due every Thursday. Take home quizzes distributed on every Thursday and due by 9pm on Friday. Must attend 10 language tables (the course is 13 weeks long) during the course of the semester. Tan Laoshi offers tables at Mudd, which makes this a little bit easier. 3 Oral Quizzes, during the course of the semester. Skit show at the end of the semester. (No essays! No final!)
Grading scale (1-10, 1 being easiest): 4
Would take another class from this prof: Maybe. Tan Laoshi is rather unexciting, but she isn't bad.
Comments: This class is wonderfully consistent - after the first couple of weeks I found it fairly easy to estimate exactly how much time I needed to complete the work (unlike classes with essays, ugh). Prof. Tan grades complete assignments very leniently, but if you don't complete the work on time you end up in trouble. As in any language, each week builds on the previous, so learning the characters and pronunciation (instead of just temporarily memorizing them for the day of the test) is a must. I love languages, so I'm finding this class to be rather easy, however, if you aren't going to be motivated to put time into the class,have poor memorization skills, or have trouble with grammar (Chinese sentences aren't constructed the same way as English sentences! My, what a shocker!), then its probably going to end up being rather tough for you. --CamilleMarvin

Class: GERM152: Drama as Experiment
School: Pomona
Professor: Friederike von Schwerin-High
Credits: 3
Work load: Read 7 or so German plays and write a response to each (500 or so words each). Write two research papers (minimum 6 pages, I think), one on a play read outside of class, due immediately after spring break, and one focusing on a theme in the class as a whole, due during presentation week. We "presented" our research papers in class upon completion, but this was a 2 minute affair that I completely winged as I hadn't understood the syllabus well enough to know that this was happening. There's also a final.
Grading scale (1-10, 1 being easiest): 3
Would take another class from this prof: Yes.
Comments: Prof. Schwerin is entirely too nice. I placed into upper division German on account of my reading and writing and skills, but my speech is absolutely horrendous and my vocabulary is severely lacking, so I really did not belong in this class (the 4 other students were German majors/concentrations and 3 were seniors). In spite of this, I somehow managed to scratch an A- since she apparently was grading me at my skill level. She gave the entire class extensions for the smallest reason, and was always very worried about how much time her class was taking from us. The only annoying part about this class is that she grades the reading responses on a check system(check, check-plus, check-minus, maybe plain old minus and plus, who knows???), and only gives letter grades on research papers (no numbers). So, I knew I was sailing on a "check" throughout the semester, but I had no idea what grade that corresponded to. Final grades were a very pleasant surprise. --CamilleMarvin

Class: HIST???: History of Soccer (cross-listed as POLI???: Politics of Soccer)
School: Pitzer
Professor: Andre Wakefield and Nigel Boyle
Credits: 3
Work load: Read ~1200 pages of stuff over the course of the semester. 2 exams (1 midterm and 1 final). About 10 quizzes on the reading through the course of the semester, which are ridiculously easy (if you did the reading, you know the answer; if you didn't, you can probably guess the answer). Show up to class.
Grading scale (1-10, 1 being easiest): 1
Would take another class from this prof: Yes. Wakefield can give you about 100 pages of information, in 50 minutes, with no slides or lecture notes, and keep it interesting.
Comments: I learned a ton in this course, I wrote zero essays, I barely studied for the exams, and I got an A. You can probably get by without doing the reading (since the lectures are really informative), but I did it because it was interesting. Unlike some other classes, the readings and the lectures are disjoint enough that class remains interesting even if you do the reading. Seriously, take this class. --SkyeBerghel

Class: SOC1something: Sociology through Film
School: Pitzer
Professor: Phil Zuckerman
Credits: 3
Work load: Write a 2-page response to every film that "relates the film to a sociological concept." Read a book and write a 5-page "paper" (really a book summary) on it. Final exam.
Grading Scale (1-10, 1 being easiest): 1
Would take another class from this prof: Yes
Comments: On the first day of class, the professor walks in and says the following: "We have certain expectations for how people will act. For example, none of you are expecting me to say 'fuck' right now." If you passed Hum 1 then the film responses should take less than an hour a week to write. If you wrote the film responses, the final exam should require no studying. (Also, he grades responses on a check, check-minus, check-plus system, where as far as I can tell a check-plus and a check are both A's at the end of the semester.) --SkyeBerghel

Class: HSID001: Intro to History of Ideas
School: Pitzer
Professor: Ronald Rubin
Credits: 3
Work load: Read a few books. Write a few two-page responses.
Grading Scale (1-10, 1 being easiest): 2
Would take another class from this prof: Yes
Comments: The teacher just talks at you for most of the class. He's generally interesting, but occasionally the class format gets to be grating. You get to read a lot of cool books: Frankenstein (well, meh), Island of Dr. Moreau, Tarzan, Dracula, The Invisible Man, The Time Machine, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. -- MattKeeter

Class: PSYCH 122: Cognitive Psychology
School: Scripps
Professor: Michael Spezio
Credits: 3
Work load: Two exams (multiple choice), one large paper written over the course of the semester, readings (1-2 papers per class), class participation is 25% of final grade.
Grading Scale (1-10, 1 being easiest): 3
Would take another class from this prof: Yes
Comments: I'm really enjoying this class right now. The prof seems a bit dull at first, but he has turned out to be surprisingly fun. If you can understand and do math, and have some experience reading academic papers, then you'll be head and shoulders above the class in terms of understanding what's going on. Typical class format is to discuss the papers that we read, so if you already understand them, it's easy to get a high participation mark. The large essay is a fairly easy assignment, and spread out over the semester. --MattKeeter

Class: JAPN01A: Introductory Japanese
School: Pomona
Professor Takahashi (there are others whose names I don't know)
Credits: 3
Work load: Meets every day, homework due every day. Also several tests, quizzes, etc. Also you have to go speak Japanese to people in Oldenborg. Midterm and final.
Grading Scale (1-10, 1 being easiest): 4
Would take another class from this prof: Yes. She seems scary at first, but she's really nice.
Comments: A great class if you're good at memorizing vocab. The homework usually takes about 30 minutes (and it's daily) plus however long it takes you to memorize things. You learn a lot, so if memorization doesn't come easily, expect to struggle. There aren't really any big projects due, though. Just the occasional test. Also the grades on tests must be padded, because every time I think I've failed, I don't get worse than a B. --SarahScheffler

Class: JAPN111A: Advanced Japanese
School: Pomona
Professor Kurita
Credits: 3
Work load: Meets four days a week in the morning (bleh), homework (mostly worksheets) due not quite every day but often. Regular quizzes (once a week, maybe?) and tests (once every few weeks?), plus a few one-page response papers to videos (which are watched in class), a midterm and a final. Also 12 required Oldenborg visits per semester, but if you miss some you can make up for them with evening events like movie showings (which are not required, but fun.)
Grading Scale (1-10, 1 being easiest): 3? (YMMV)
Would take another class from this prof: Yes! Kurita-sensei is really nice, both when it comes to grading and just in general. (One time my messenger bag strap broke on my way to class. A few days later, she actually gave me a bag she had at home, for free and without me even asking.)
Comments: OKAY SO if you're thinking about taking this class I'm assuming you like Japanese, because it's third-year and all. That's probably a requirement; this class will be substantially harder if you don't like/don't care about Japanese. I absolutely love it, and thus I found this class very easy. The worksheets only took like 15 minutes, and late homework isn't penalized unless it's WAY late, leading to many a week of waiting to do all the homework until the day I had no other work due. The quizzes were a little harder; there's lots of vocab to learn each chapter, and some of the grammar isn't commonly used, so even if you've had a lot of exposure to Japanese conversation and things there's stuff you probably won't know. On the other hand? NO WRITING KANJI :D! Recognition, yes, but you are not required to learn how to write any of the kanji in this class. This reduces the work by a lot, because reading/speaking/listening is pretty much covered in class.
Personally, I didn't think this was a big timesuck, except for maybe the four-classes-a-week+Oldenborg thing. I only spent like 15 minutes preparation (homework, studying, etc) per class period, and even though I'm pretty sure I was averaging a B or lower, grades came out and I got an A. Your mileage may vary though; my experience seems to be wildly inconsistent with some of the other students. The class was about half frosh who placed into third-year (including me) so maybe it's due to different preparation? --EmmaDavis