My mom has been obsessed with class registration ever since my oldest brother was a freshman at Notre Dame twelve years ago. The youngest of four, I’m the last of her kids in college here at Notre Dame, and she still geeks out every time I get to pick classes and receive my syllabi. When I caught myself procrastinating on my class search a couple weeks ago, I realized that I’ve inherited her fascination with course selection. Because of this, I have crowned myself queen of finding “hack” classes – seriously, ask my friends.
As an Arts and Letters student, I have a lot of freedom in my schedule, which allows me to explore my passions in psychology, film, art and design without having to sacrifice one for the other. Here is my comprehensive list of “hack” classes I have taken or intend to take based off of the enticing class descriptions. Arts and Letters students, listen up!
- Drunk on Film
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Cross-listed under FTT, psychology and anthropology, this is hands down the best class I’ve taken at Notre Dame (although I’m literally a freshman so don’t come for me). The full title of this class is “Drunk on Film: The Psychology of Storytelling with Alcohol and its Effects on Alcohol Consumption,” but don’t let the long lengthy name scare you away! This discussion-based class is very low maintenance – you literally watch movies for homework and have a two page reflection due every other week. On top of that, it’s taught by the literal kings of campus: Ted Mandell and Anre Venter (and if you don’t know these professors already, it’s time you do). I’m not entirely sure if this class is open to non-majors, as it is pretty popular, but it’s definitely worth sending Anre an email or two begging him to let you in!
- #Wanderlust
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You’ll have to be on the lookout for this class, because I don’t think it is offered every semester. #Wanderlust is a travel writing class, taught by the wonderful Logan Quigley. Although this isn’t something I would normally gravitate towards, I stumbled upon this class while searching for an upper level writing course, because I tested out of Writing and Rhetoric and needed to take something else. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this class also satisfied my literature requirement. In this class, we did exactly what you would expect – we read, wrote and discussed travel writing. Professor Quigley is young and woke, which made me feel very welcomed and at ease in the class.
- Design Matters
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Taught by Ann Marie Conrado, Design Matters is a project-based class that implements the design thinking process. Design thinking is a major part of all successful companies today – it helps to ensure that products and services are human-oriented and are satisfying people’s needs, wants and preferences. This class has completely changed the way I understand problems and their solutions, and I can’t recommend it enough!
- Barn Stories
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I can’t say I’ve taken this course, but the class description makes it sound SO cool. As I was searching for a class to satisfy my history requirement, I stumbled upon Barn Stories, offered by the FTT department. The class description says that students “research, design, manage and produce short documentary film projects” about a local assigned barn. While it sounds obscure, this seems a lot more appealing and engaging than a conventional history class where you read tedious old documents and cram as much information in as possible for tests. I’m not sure how popular this class is, but I might need you to actually stay away from this class so I make sure I can get a seat.
- Furniture Design
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I haven’t actually taken this class yet either, but there’s no way this isn’t an amazing class. Based off of the class description, this class focuses on the process of transforming a conceptual design into a fully functional physical design. This class teaches students a variety of skills, from sketching to model-making to woodworking and finishing. Not only does this sound like a very enjoyable class to take, it’ll also teach skills that will be very useful for my DIY future.
- Fundamental Financial Literacy
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No, I haven’t taken this class either. This 1.5 credit class is open to non-business students and teaches about financial planning in one’s personal and professional life. Personally, I think having a broad understanding of financial resources and budgeting is a very helpful skill to have, regardless of what field I go into (and I can assure you, it won’t be accounting or finance). Did I mention that it only runs for half of a semester?