Favorite College Classes at UMass

I am majoring in Communication Disorders and minoring in Linguistics (that's the plan at least) and I have taken a lot of electives/gen-eds and thought I would tell you about my favorite classes so far.

My first semester I took Linguistics 201: Intro to Linguistic Theory and did really well, and also really really enjoyed it. It focused on speech sounds and syntax which surprisingly really caught my attention and really related to my major in school.

I also took Microbiology 160: Biology of Cancer and AIDS which was a difficult class but it was so interesting that I never skipped a lecture. The teacher was super smart and made the class interesting and tried to think of things that would help us remember what he was talking about. Luckily, I had some friends in my classes so I had study buddies. But this was one of the most informative classes I've taken. It's about real life, it just informs you about the actual science of two major diseases.


My second semester I took Psychology 380: Abnormal Psychology with the same teacher I took a psychology class with the semester before and was super interested. I always thought learning about mind disorders and personality disorders, depression, eating disorders, etc. was super important and am really happy I took this class. I feel like I was able to understand people more, and not jump to conclusions.

Many people disagree with me, but I LOVED Freshman Year College Writing (ENGLWRIT 112). I never thought I was good at writing until this class. The prompts were quirky and relatable. I wasn't forced to write about Beowulf or Shakespeare. I was able to talk about my life, or about things I was interested in. I actually enjoyed getting a new assignment and reading other people's papers.

I didn't do so hot, but this semester I took a class on Indigenous People of North America, which is History 170 at UMass. This class was enjoyable because it wasn't the same boring history about the Europeans finding North America and making it better, and learning about the boring European details/recollections of the wars. It gave me some insight and taught me to look at history from a different perspective. It also taught me that the Indigenous people today are still fighting for complete rights. This is a great way to fulfill one of the history Gen-eds. Super interesting and easily no final.