~ UT Courses ~
I am a Mechanical Engineering / Plan II major at the University of Texas, Austin. Last semester I was a Petroleum Engineer, but I decided that I did not enjoy that field at all. I chose Mechanical Engineering mainly because I enjoy Math and Physics. For a description of what Mechanical Engineers do, click here. For a description of what Plan IIers do, click here. Anyways, I wanted to provide brief descriptions of the courses I have taken so far, so here goes:
E603A/B: Bertelsen - This is the Plan II World Lit. class that everyone has to take. Luckily you get to pick your professors way before registration. I picked Bertelsen mainly because of the books he had picked out. Some of my favorites were Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Once and Future King, Not So Quiet, Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, and The Sun Also Rises. For more on books click here. We also wrote 5 to 6 essays per semester. And I must say that Bertelsen really helped improve my writing a lot! To read my essays click here.
TC301: King - "India and the West" - I was originally signed up for a different TC, but I am very glad that I took this class. Dr. King, who has a degree in everything from Math to Linguistics, has had a good deal of experience in India. Though this class was not overly challenging, I learnt a whole lot about myself. Unfortunately, certain people in the class took advantage of Dr. King's laid-back attitude, which led to a fiasco at the end of the semester. Nevertheless, Dr. King treated us all to a lunch buffet at Clay Pit, a white-washed Indian restaurant in Austin. I didn't like it. We only wrote two essay for this "writing intensive" class which are here.
GER508K: Van Hynning - Worst German class ever. I had to walk all the way to Jester everyday for this class. The people in the class were all idiots. Van Hynning was a terrible TA [yes, the first four semesters of German are taught only by TA's]. She could hardly speak German herself. On top of that, we would have homework every single day. Euggh.
GER312K: Oestereich - Best German class ever. Not only was this class only three days a week, but my class was full of really funny people. Since most of them had had Tina [Oestereich] last semester, we all got to know each other really quickly. We also had some very interesting discussions - mainly because there were a lot of Philosophy majors in the class. Tina was very fun and good teacher. My German essays can be found here.
PGE102: Chenevert - Despite Dr. Chenevert's enthusiastic efforts at teaching Intro. to Petroleum Engineering, I found myself despising it everyday. I am actually very glad that I took this class, otherwise I might not have realized that my major sucked.
GEO312K: Sharp - This Engineering Geology class was definitely the most boring class I have ever taken. Being right after lunch time didn't help much. Since this was a general course about EVERYTHING in geology, we had a gazillion things to memorize. Luckily, the class isn't all about rocks - it got interesting as the semester progressed. The most annoying part about the class were the slides we had to watch in the last five minutes of class. Euggh.
M408D: Palka - Never ever ever take math at 8 AM!!! Anyways, here is where Calculus becomes interesting. Series! Sequences! Multivariables! However this class is also difficult. The homework was extremely challenging [here's where you really need a study group]. Luckily Palka's tests were not. Always go to your TA sessions for your math class!
M427K: Rubenstein - Best Math class EVER! Until I took Differential Equations, I did not realize that Math could be this exciting. Everything in this class relates to real life situations. Though at first you have no clue what it's all about, by the end it's just mind-blowing what you can do with what you have learnt. Besides the material being really fun, my professor, Dr. Rubenstein was a blast. The first day of class we weren't sure whether he was a student, a TA, or the professor. The broken blackboards were a constant source of humor. Check out his webpage here.
PHY303K: Sharp - This is your typical weed-out class. If you don't read the book and do your homework, you're outta here. Having had Physics in high school [though from Garrity/Evans], certainly helped out a lot - I could understand the concepts much more easily. But the weekly homework is just painful. Luckily every class has a discussion board - just hope your's has something posted on it. Despite the painful homework and mind-blowing tests, I actually enjoyed this class a lot - after all, I am a Mechanical Engineer..
PHY103L: [unknown] - The Physics lab is the best reason to take the AP test in high school. This two hour lab in a dusty room in RLM completely ruined my Wednesdays. I'm not sure GER508K was the worst class anymore. Trying to decipher the lab manual is just horrific. And I still don't know how to calculate uncertainties!!!
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