What you might have heard at some point—perhaps from a high school guidance counselor, a teacher or a relative—is that you have to go through college to pick up analytical tools, specialized knowledge and modes of critical thinking that you might need to apply in the capacity of your future career. You might have also heard that college is a time for great, burgeoning personal growth, which you would attain by perhaps joining Greek life, or a slew of clubs and extracurriculars, or volunteering with regional communities. Personally, I did not realize I was able to seek this sense of mastery over my environment and my growth through my classes as well—at least, not until I kicked off my first quarter taking classes I was genuinely excited to be in, ones that challenged my fundamental understanding of the world.
Without further ado, let’s get into the seven types of classes that I think everyone should be taking in college to make their experience an electrifying and humbling one:
- A Class That Six Year Old You Would’ve Been Thrilled About
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This was advice I got from one of my favorite high school teachers and it spurred me to take a class on the ocean. As a child, alongside the usual Rainbow Magic series and anything by Judy Blume, one read I found particularly fascinating was an introductory book to the ocean, including a discussion on its correlation with weather patterns and the bountiful ocean-life underneath the surface. At 6, I wanted to be a marine biologist so that I could spend my days studying the way whales sing.
That may no longer be my dream profession, but there’s no reason to put off doing a class that younger you would have been thoroughly captivated by.
At 19, I enrolled in EPS SCI 15: Blue Planet; An Introduction to Oceanography, which dazzled me weekly with in-depth explorations of the many changing, moving parts of the ocean—including the many purposes of bioluminescence in the deep ocean, the origins of the cell, algal blooms, the food system, the unique set of organisms growing along shores, and more. The day we did a whole lecture on the behavior and features of whales, I thought I was dreaming!
- A Class That Envisions The Future
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This quarter, I’m taking A&O SCI 1: Climate Change: From Puzzles to Policy and I find myself unable to look back. With environmental changes happening all around us, I think the importance of getting up to date with the scientific community’s findings and speculations on the future of climate change cannot be understated. College is an excellent time to invest time and effort into taking a comprehensive class on this—especially given the amount of misinformation circulating about climate change. If you’re feeling apprehensive about the ways that you can take action to make your lifestyle a little more sustainable, or just wondering how we could be measuring the pace at which our world is adapting to human activity, this is the class for you.
- A Class That Discusses The End Of The Future
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Taking a class on gerontology, i.e. aging and death through CLUSTER 80A & B: Frontiers of Human Aging, has been quite positively the most incredible academic experience I’ve ever had. The textbook itself confronts our worldly assumptions by asking why we generally avoid thinking about or articulating our feelings about death, even though it’s basically the only thing we can be certain about in our whole life. We spend more time planning for two-week vacations than we do for the two weeks that we might maybe be able to control for before we go! This class allowed me to invest serious consideration into the way we design aging policy, the way we think about our own lives and that of the people that we care about. It also impresses the importance of end-of-life planning on us!
- A Class On The Whys And Hows Of Decision-Making
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I took PHILOS 22: Introduction to Ethical Philosophy on a whim to fulfill a General Education requirement, whilst appealing to the part of me that earnestly followed The Good Place through its four seasons. It was a class that tormented and delighted me in equal parts, with a heavy focus on writing clearly and adapting to understanding the foundational belief systems of different philosophers. Every week, I was challenged to rethink my academic prowess at developing papers. Every day, I was challenged to reconsider why I made one certain moral-laden decision over another. All in all, I do believe that we should occasionally force ourselves out of our comfort zones, if only so that we are compelled to take greater accountability for our actions.
- A Class On California
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My very first quarter at UCLA, I was a wide-eyed freshman hailing from the tiny Southeast Asian nation of Singapore with an understanding of Californian culture that was limited to its portrayal in Western films and entertainment. It was ironic that to change that, it took a class on dissecting documentaries about the vivid and enriching persons living in California. FILM TV 19: Californian Stories in Documentary & Film took me on a journey through the miniature Chinatown model built by a resident of San Francisco, the ups and downs of single motherhood and battling gender inequities through the eyes of the Ovarian Psychos bicycle gang, and the strenuous clean-up efforts tackling the dust and toxicity of the Salton Sea. Even if you’ve lived in California or in the USA for your whole life, I would whole-heartedly recommend exploring the unique character of this state through a wholly different medium.
- A Class On The Design Behind Built Landscapes
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Everything we see on every street has been influenced by decades, if not centuries, of rich history, political interests and land-use planning by various stakeholders. The class ARCH & UD 10B: History of Architecture & Urban Design: Baroque to Contemporary rapidly unraveled my lack of interest or understanding in this history. There was a breadth to the class that I deeply appreciated because it contrasted the American-centric view that most other classes have to be restricted to; every week we delved into different regions across the world and the characters of different buildings and cities relative to their regional cultures. Urban density is a two-sided coin, and it is crucial that we are able to unpick our assumptions about the way that cities that are beautiful on the exterior were created—oftentimes at the expense of marginalized groups.
- A Class With A Field Trip Component
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One of the numerous ways that CLUSTER 80A&B challenged me was by requiring me to fulfil a service learning component through taking regular visits to the nearby senior living center, specifically engaging the older persons at the Memory Care unit. We were tasked with writing a memo on our understanding of the current systems and processes in place at the center, including suggestions on how to improve these. I found the application of theory to my real-life experiences getting to know a great diversity of people, including staff and older person clientele, reinvigorating. In my view, one of the most valuable things we can do with our college education is to carefully practice matching it where relevant to our lives! Field trips are one way to take the pressure off traditional assignments while giving us that first taste of moving beyond words on paper to policy in our community.
I believe that all seven types of classes are worthy options for you to spend your units on before you graduate. A big unique function college performs is compelling you to sincerely reevaluate your belief systems and lifestyle, and this, in addition to engaging thoroughly in student organizations and pre-professional opportunities, is one way to open that door.