Semester one is done (and has been for the past two weeks, but that's besides the point (as I have been busy the past couple of weeks)
Semester recap:
Psych 101 (with my friend d.hang) with Richard Ennis. He was a cool prof who made learning pretty fun, for the most part. Granted, it was not an easy course (mainly 'cause the textbook was gigantic and, while being an avid reader, I'm also a professional procrastinator). The course was held bright and early at 8:30am in the Hagey Hall Theater, and my class was made up of about 500-700 some odd students. He taught through overheads but he was really organized and had a lot of fun stories that added to the intrigue of the subject. I think my favourite class was about persuasion. 72!
Music 140 (with d.hang) with Simon Wood. He was my favourite prof this semester. The thing I loved about his class was that it was a mix of history, politics, music, psychology... basically everything, mixed together to create this linear, step-by-step walk through of pop music history. It was a fun class, made up of 197 students, and was held from 8 to 9:50pm. Alike to eggtart's recommendation for her econ teacher, I'd like to recommend Prof. Simon Wood for anyone who's interested in an awesome music class ~ I found out of that he was teaching a second year music class, but by the time I realized it was being taught by him, the class was full (which seriously sucks). Note, his classes fill up in like seconds, so if you want to take it, grab it as fast as you possibly can. How's the course? It's actually really interesting. Basically, you start with the years of African slavery, and get carried through to the years of Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Woodstock, and into present day Rap. This course is quite easy, so long as you go to class, and you take notes, and you listen. There's like a tiny amount of textbook reading, but overall, it's a lecture based class. In all honesty, it was a fantastic course ~
English 101A (I was lonely, though I did make a friend or two) with Paul Kreller. If you ever want a vague picture of him, he looks kinda like Mr. Dressup. It was a simple English class, and it was fairly easy to pass. He gave away a lot of information for the books and really told you what to write in your essays and such. Other than my struggle through The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the course was easy (though I'm also thinking of majoring in English, so the fact that English was easy for me could be because I'm actually good at it).
French 151 (with eggtart) with Mikalai Kliashchuk. This was an easy course. Again, this could be because I'm actually good at French, but I found it quite simple, so long as I followed the textbook, and attended the labs and tutorials, I did fine. I had a lot of fun in the tutorial sessions, mainly because I befriended a number of people and we (including my TA) joked around a lot. You basically got the run down of our teacher through eggtart's post, so... yeah that's French. (Note: my TA was different from eggtart's)
Econ 101 (alone again) with Wokia Kumase. Right down to the point. Unlike eggtart, I hated this course. Maybe it was the prof (who knew what he was talking about, but, compared to my others, just wasn't up to par), or maybe it was my utter distaste for microeconomics? I don't know. All I know is, I hated this course. Hated. No words for my hatred. Basically, the lectures were nap time, and the textbook was so dry, I wanted to burn them by the end of the semester (okay, after the first midterm), but I'm selling them, so that wouldn't have worked out. But yeah, hated this course.
How is living on res?
I thoroughly enjoy living on res. It's fun and a lot less stressful living on my own than living with my parents. I'm really glad I decided to leave. My only regret is leaving my brother. He's only six and basically, I'm missing most of his childhood by being away. However, I do think that living on my own really helped me become really self sufficient and independent.
How's the university of Waterloo?
I like the school. The libraries are great for studying, and I like the set ups. The food on campus is really good. If you have a taste for Timmies, you probably won't after a year on campus and a meal plan. The piano rooms are fun, the SLC is always buzzing with sales and interesting events. The clubs are fun, and the people are great. There's not much else to say. It a great school. Is is better than UofT, Laurier, or Ryerson? I honestly couldn't tell you. Why? Because I've never been to the other schools. I love Waterloo. Is it the best? I'll never really know (unless I take a summer semester at one of the others, which I won't, so... yeah, I'll never know).
How is university?
It's basically high school, except you have to learn on your own/you have to teach yourself a lot more than you would have to in HS. You go to class, and then, instead of homework, you have chapters to complete at home. Often, each week is about one or more chapters from the textbook, and teachers expect you to read everything for exams (unless they tell you otherwise, like my music class). So is it harder? I wouldn't say it is, but that might be because I have a fairly concrete work ethic. Do I procrastinate? Hell yeah, but I do know the limitations to my all-nighter abilities. Now-a-days, it's more of a week of work with many breaks.
Advice for first years?
Don't let the amount of free time you have fool you. It's not really free time. Read the assigned stuff before classes, or soon after. Don't wait until a midterm comes around to check the chapter lists and have a heart attack when you see you have 25 chapters to read through in the next day or two (trust me, it's not fun. I'm speaking from personal experience). As an art student, I have a lot of free time, even with all the readings, so don't think that uni's a total fun killer. Granted, engineering's a lot different, as is science, so those programs will result in more work time than free time, but that's expected. So schedule your time wisely, and don't leave readings 'til the day before a midterm/exam.
-fishandchips
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