So basically I started this thread because I am unsure of all the courses I am going to be taking next year and I was wondering what fellow Totseans are taking or have taken.

What was your favourite/ most informing course you've taken?

Mine would be a first year philosophy Critical Thinking course. We learned everything from propositional logic to common fallacies and even statistics and sampling. The professor was also very down to earth for a philosophy guy which might have been a major reason why I loved the course so much.

Sounds like a good one.. I took a course called "strategic studies" Political Science 350.. very excellent class taught by a dude who knows a shitload about the state of international security, having been a nuclear arms negotiator for the SALT treaty in the early 70's..

topics like how various nations choose to further their national interest.. and the different ways in which governments and people determine their national interest, then decide in what ways to act on it..

we read machiavelli's art of war which largely influenced the creation of modern national armies; read thucycides' history of the peloponesian war, read some about the various american thinkers like George Kennan on the strategy of nuclear war and how our nation squared off with the soviet union and for 50+ years had a government willing and able to destroy the entire world.. excellent thought provoking discussions, texts, and the class was small with only 10 students.

Probably a high school class actually. AP European History. I had a great teacher that really helped me refine my writing and how to use and present facts.

In college, maybe Organic Chemistry. My course only scratched the surface, yet it was amazing to me the depth of the field. It's incredible really.

for me, it was History Extension in highschool

basically its historiography and we learned to understand the reasoning behind different opinions by analysis of context, background etc

it set me up to think more critically about sources. overall very helpful, even though the course in university now has got nothing to do with it

psychology 110 (intro)

I had never taken a psych class in high school, so I decided to take it first semester of freshman year at college. What an eye opener! At first, I thought, "Wow, this is gay that people bothered to break down stuff that everyone knows..." and the class was not easy (snotty psych teachers design their tests to really prove students know everything they need to, annoying but worth it). Since that semester, I have noticed psych principles in every class I take, everyone who talks about their problems, and even in my own thoughts. Basic psych is just a very "college" class, not really necessary to know, but definitely "higher education." If you get a good teacher, intro psych can truly change your life forever

Information Systems was quite the entertaining class. An Iraqi professor who taught us that 2+2=5.

It was completely worthwhile. Maybe.

Electricity and magnetism taught me a lot about how the world works. It was one of the toughest, but most enjoyable classes I've ever taken. It cost me about 30 hours a week of study time, but I was motivated to get through it. I guess I just had a really good professor.

Barely made it out with a C though. :)

Abstract Algebra. I liked how it starts from such simple and fundamental notions but is able to describe so many complex topics. I would've liked it even more but the professor was really bad and didn't convey to us any of really fascinating parts of the subject, I had to learn a lot of it on my own to appreciate it all.

Psychology I and Philosophy I were by far the most interesting courses I've taken so far. :D

I think it was mainly because of the professors. Both were witty and down to earth, and evidently had been teaching for a while.
My philosophy course was basically an overview of the history of philosophy so far; the class covered different stances on government, god, individuality, knowledge, etc and the reading consisted of excerpts ( Hume, Kierkegaard, Tolstoy, Dostoevski, Plato, Locke, Goulde, Descartes, Tocqueville, Marx...to name a few that I remembered ).
My psych course was just introductory psychology stuff -- memory, dreams, learning, sexuality, development, psychopathologies, etc. Most of it I'd encountered already through independent reading, but the professor was possibly the most amazing person I've ever met. She tended to go off subject a lot and discuss various things at length; at one point she even started out on a whole tirade about how to use psychology to evade police tickets and talk your way out of trouble.
Maybe that's why I liked the course so much...It's amazing how much an instructor can make ( or ruin ) a class.

Grade 11 Oceans course, Learned all about oceans.. shit was spectacular.

CIS102A Cyber Security and Safety

The instructor was very knowledgeable in the field and what he taught us was just freakin' wow. Some of the things he showed us, especially in cryptology was so amazing. I learned so much.

Mythology in Literature.

Physics was the BEST course I took.
My mark reflected it too.


I now base everything on science, and I'm always right [/gloat]

Medieval English lit

The two best courses I've taken both had amazing professors which is the sole reason why I enjoyed them so much, as both were courses I had originally dreaded taking.

Philosophy 300: Ethics... never enjoyed philosophy until this course. Down to earth professor who drew from a lot of sources, ranging from Dostoevsky to his own personal life and everyday examples people could relate to. His lectures often times borderlined genuine stand- comedy, which made the class even more amusing.

and,

French 100. I took 5 years of French in high school and always just kind of simply got by. By the time I took this course I had virtually forgotten everything. Again, the professor just taught the class in such a way that the material just seemed to come naturally to me. This class inspired me to continue on with French and luckily I was able to continue on with the same professor for several of these courses.. as a result I can now understand a lot of French and even speak with a somewhat native accent.

Philosophy: Plato (optional and completely outside of my normal college classes, I enjoyed immensly, basically started my interest in philosphy)
Consumer behavior
Marketing

MARKETING? how the hell did you get insight out of that? (honest question)

Chem 1050

An amalgamation of physical chem, organic chem, and a shitload of coordination compounds in between, with a lab. It showed me what chemistry could be like without the math and subsequently sparked my interest.

Physics was the BEST course I took.
My mark reflected it too.


I now base everything on science, and I'm always right [/gloat]

This.

I majored in philosophy and minored in religion and French, so most of my classes were what you'd call "insightful".

Best ones? Philosophy of Religion, Ethics, Ethical Theory, Meta-Ethics, Classical Philosophy, Comparative Religion, Mysticism, Religion and Healing, and the study abroad course on Tibetan Buddhism IN Tibet.

'Twas made of win. Win and learn.

Paleobiology - Almost entirely a borefest (professor lecturing style) but the course was very interesting. Studying the fossil record and taxa gave may a great insight into understanding not only the theory of evolution but its history and origins as a theory. Honestly, I don't know how people can talk about evolution without having first studied taxanomy and the fossil record.

Mediated Communication. I've had philosophy, psychology, sociology, a bunch of general ed stuff and a crapload of business classes, but mediated opened me up to really see how we are controlled by the media and all the shit that they're feeding us.
American film survey was pretty cool too.

Mass Media. Like the guy above me ^^^ it talks about how much of an influence the media has on our brains, values, morals and what is socially acceptable and stuff like that... it goes into a lil bit of psychology too by explaining how they get into our mind, and a whole bunch of other stuff... my teacher was an english teacher and it was her first year teaching the subject, but I still enjoyed the class (other students criticized her for not knowing what she was teaching, but I ever thought that)...I signed up for it for next semester in college so hopefully I find this class even better

Sociology,Humanities II {Renaissance to present day} and my world civiliztions II class {same time frame as humanities}have been the most informative and enjoyable classes i have taken so far