New Year, New Classes!
Although I wish I were a freshman again and had four more years at Vanderbilt, there are some perks to getting older and being closer to the dreaded “G” word (a.k.a graduation!). I always look forward to registering for classes and planning my schedule for the next semester, and being a junior, I got all the classes I wanted. Registration is based on seniority, so the seniors go first, then the juniors and so on. There isn’t much of a gap between the fall and spring semesters, and I can’t wait to start the classes I’ve picked for spring 2017!
- Introduction to Econometrics: This will probably be my most rigorous class, and even though it is optional for Econ majors, you can’t really call yourself an Econ major without taking Econometrics! Taking a class such as Econometrics will be very useful for me to hone my quantitative research skills, which are useful for any career field.
- Sex and Society: I’m taking this class to lighten my workload. It’s a smaller class, so I expect lots of stimulating discussion. Professor Simplican has amazing reviews, and I’ve always had a soft corner for Women and Gender Studies.
- Early Renaissance Florence: This is an honors seminar, so it will be a writing-heavy class. Although I’ve taken a lot of classes in a lot of different subject areas, this will be my first art history class. The icing on the cake is that it’ll be held in one of the most beautiful buildings on campus, Cohen Hall!
- Health Care Policy: With so much public and political discourse about the Affordable Care Act, I thought that I should learn more about health care policy, and this class also counts towards my Economics major, so it’s a win-win!
- Construction of Reality: This is the second honors seminar I am taking, and it will be focussed on psychology. Like art history, I have never taken any classes in psychology before, so it’ll be a whole new experience for me.
- Junior Honors Research: This is a one-credit course that I am taking with Professor Driskill, who was also my professor for the Maymester I went on last summer. I need to come up with ideas and topics for my senior-year research as a part of the Honors program in Economics, so this class will help me flesh out my research proposal, which will probably focus on economic liberalization policies in India.
Other life stuff: I plan on taking the GRE later this semester. GRE scores are accepted at all the graduate school programs I am looking at, and even if I do end up taking a job right after college, the scores are valid for 5 years, so I’ll be able to use them when I apply for masters programs later. I spent some of winter break studying for it, but having my mom and dad spoil me over break (not doing my own laundry or getting my own food) made studying so much easier. Having a cute golden retriever to cuddle with during study breaks was also fun :)
