Course Picking Time

As engineering students, we are forced to take courses in other departments to give us some non-technical education. While I find artsy courses extremely interesting (unlike our typically dry courses) I always have trouble with which courses to pick. My criteria for a good arts course are as follows:

a) I have to like the subject (no problem for me, since I’m easily amused)

b) The timing of course has to fit well within my schedule (no night courses)

c) The professor teaching has to have a good reputation (multiple choice exams, easy, and interested in teaching)

d) The course requires no essay writing (time consuming, and frankly a weakness of mine)

Taking all that into account, and filtering through the list of the courses that we are allowed to choose from (not all courses are open to satisfy our graduation requirement) I ended up with these three.

GEOG 101 Geography and Human Habitat

An introduction to human geography through a survey of some of the concepts, methods, techniques and applications of geographic analysis to the human cultural environment. Directed towards people-land and location analysis themes.

ANTH 102 Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology

The dynamic nature of socio-cultural systems is examined. Topics include language, technology, social organization, economics, politics, and religion. Data are drawn from a broad ethnographic base, including both 'primitive' cultures and modern, developed societies.

MSCI 311 LEC Organizational Design and Technology

The focus of this course is on the procedures and variables involved in the design and redesign of organizations. Issues such as departmentation, differentiation, integration, internal politics, innovation, authority and control are discussed in the context of the underlying technology of the organization. Emphasis will be placed on how one designs both the technical and the organizational systems to ensure their compatibility, noting the effects that one has on the other.

This is where you come I, which one do you think I should take and why? Have you taken a similar course before and found interesting? Boring?

Should I print out a copy of these three and throw a dart at them while blindfolded, and pick the one the dart is closest to?