I got an A, and I dropped this cluster after one quarter. Here’s why.

First: Your experience depends heavily on your TA. In my case (Luciana), the course felt extremely rigid for a GE. Participation is compulsory and graded stringently, which means people speak to avoid losing points rather than to contribute meaningfully. Discussions often become a two-hour rotation of meaningless and extremely boring comments, which is unfortunate for such an interesting topic.

Attendance and participation penalties are harsh. Students were docked 15 points for missing a 15-minute Sunday Zoom meeting. That enforcement-heavy approach makes people anxious about points rather than interested in the material. For participation, only 2 students in our entire section got 100.

All lectures are mandatory, and the writing workload is significantly heavier than a typical GE. This is not a “light” class, but may be considered if you want to satisfy Writing II. I spent as much time on this as I spent on Math and Chem.

The topic itself is interesting. The structure is what turns people away. My friends had much better experiences in their GE, and I've loved my new GE classes.

I dropped because I didn’t want two more quarters of that structure. If you value flexibility and organic discussion, think carefully before enrolling.

This class is super easy. It wasn't taught by Osman, but by a PHD candidate named Taylor-Hasty. Either way, the class is the perfect GE to take since all you have to do is attend lecture and take decent notes to pass. If you're looking for an easy A, you should take this class.

Such an easy GE. Attendance isn't required and midterm and final are papers that they grade so lightly.

There are a lot of readings! Plus, it's really confusing...at the start. It took a while to get use to the material, but once I started to take notes on each reading and lecture in my own words, everything started to make sense. Looking at the grade spread, I can't believe that in Fall of 2015 I was 1 of like 2/3 who got an A+. That's why I want to help my fellow bruins and sell copies of my notes that I used to ace the class. I am selling them for $20, and you can text me at **********. The class, overall, is very interesting but I spent so many hours trying to comprehend the different concepts. So trust me when I say my notes are going to save you probably dozens of hours trying to understand this class.