Simply Serendipitous

just a little preview of the upcoming weeks' work...

Okay.  I’m definitely getting better at being a student (you know, now that it’s nearing the end of February).  I’ve consistently printed out all of my readings (and even done them, though, admittedly, not always on time), I’ve stayed awake through class (okay–I’m not really an in-class sleeper, anyway), and I’ve even memorized my schedule.  I’ve also managed to significantly expand my movie repertoire and simultaneously increase my caffeine tolerance.  All in all, despite the snow week, I’d say this is shaping up to be a pretty normal semester for me.

So, that said, I’ll go ahead and introduce you to my classes.  You know, now that I’ve finally remembered what they all are and that sort of thing.

1. Fundamentals of Epidemiology.   The final course of my Public Health requirements at Homewood campus, this covers populations’ health and illness, roughly.  It’s a very good course for any aspiring physician, as we talk about all kinds of diseases and how to track them, etc.  As an aspiring not-physician, it’s still interesting to learn about, though not exactly one of my passions.  We’ve done some case studies with real data and studies, which is definitely cool, even as a pre-law person.
2. Constitutional Law.  Last semester, I took American Constitutional Law, the pre-req for this ten-person seminar.  It’s pretty much a continuation of last semester, with a different format (more discussion-based) and just one big, gigantic research paper (“less than one hundred pages,” says Professor Grossman, somewhat jokingly, I think).
3. American Literature to 1865.  So, aside from Epidemiology, I needed one more course to finish off my Homewood requirements for the Public Health major.  An English class.  And I chose this one after being enrolled in a class that was cancelled for lack of interest.  This one is, well, not the easiest way to complete an English requirement.  It’s actually quite tough, but hopefully I’ll make it through without too much damage.
4. Courts, Politics and Public Policy.  Last semester, I took Politics and Policy Design, and this is with the same professor.  This is an entirely-intimidating, 400-level political science course that focuses on the relationship between courts and policy-making, as the name might imply.  It’s very reading intensive (and possibly writing-intensive?), but I’m learning a lot, even just in terms of getting better at reading difficult articles.  The professor told us that we should expect this to be at a graduate-level.  Yikes.
5. Elements of Microeconomics.  On a whim, as I was searching for more credits, I ended up in Micro.  I felt like it was a good thing for me to take while I have the chance, and so far, I think I made a great choice.  It’s very interesting material and I feel much less pressure knowing that it’s not required for my major.  I don’t know why that makes me less stressed about it…but it does.  Plus, the first exam is before the deadline to change to S/U (satisfactory/unsatisfactory grading), so there’s that fallback if I turn out to be terrible at econ.  I’m not a huge fan of the 9:00 meeting time, but I’m getting better at turning into a morning person, so that’s a plus, too.

So there you have it, 15 credits of wonderfulness.  To be honest, it’s not my favorite schedule ever, but I’m starting to enjoy the classes more and more (doing the reading and other assignments helps the lectures become infinitely more engaging, thus making the classes infinitely more interesting.  Even if the classes seem uninteresting, it’s best to do the work anyway, as it makes them more likely to be interesting…it’s tough, I know).  On top of that, I’m starting to get much more serious about studying for the LSAT and am still trying to apply for summer internships (which, by the way, is not going all too well…it’s amazing how difficult it is to find someone to let you do unpaid work for them).

Whew—it’s a busy semester and reading and LSAT logic games await.  But don’t worry, as usual, I’m still finding time for plenty of not-studying, including various attempts at cooking and a huge Netflix queue.