Now, we all know Boston University’s College of Communication is a top-notch school with the best in terms of academic classes, but we seldom hear about the other classes available to us as BU students. It’s true, while completing our general requirements, we’ll likely be exposed to a wide variety of classes in the many colleges throughout our university. We’ll probably take an incredible philosophy course or a foreign language course we’ll fall in love with. But what I’m talking about are PDPs.
“What’s a PDP?” you may be asking yourself (along with the question, “Does BU purposefully abbreviate everything to confuse new students”). I’ll be honest, don’t ask me what “PDP” exactly stands for, but I do know they’re BU’s Physical Education Credit Classes. Offering an insanely huge amount of diversity, students can sign up from anything to rock climbing, yoga, or even scuba diving with a PDP course! You can check out over a hundred different classes in categories like court sports, dance, mind and body, aquatics, and more!
Courses are usually somewhere in between 0.5 and 2.0 credits, and since our regular academic classes usually only take up 16 credits, why not fill up the remaining two credits available to you with a class like cardio-jazz funk?! Or if you have the GPA requirement for it, you could go crazy and literally overload with PDPs! (Yes, I am overloading with Hip-Hop, Tango, Springboard Diving, and Intermediate Sailing, but don’t judge me). If your still hesitant to sign up for one (not sure why you would be after you read “rock climbing”) just think about all the added benefits.
For one, it would definitely have you visit the gym more frequently. I know many of you are familiar with our state-of-the-art fitness center, but probably only familiar with it from afar. I’ll be honest, I visited the gym here in my entire freshman year probably a total of two times and know plenty of students that did the same. Perhaps a cooking class that meets for two hours a week would help you learn a little more about FitRec. It could even give you the little extra push you need to actually start visiting our gym independently!
You’re also bound to meet some great friends. Whether you’re taking a class in something you already have an interest in and find people with common interests, or find someone who is just as clueless as you are about the class; you’re bound to make some great friends!
Finally, I know things can get hectic as a college student. With a part-time job, school work, and classes; scheduling some fun can be extremely beneficial. Step out of your comfort-zone a bit and sign up for that dance class you’ve always wanted to learn. The Pass/Fail system of PDPs won’t give you the same amount of stress a regular class would (since passing is only graded on attendance) and you’ll come out of it with a new skill.
By the way, you still have time to sign up for a PDP on the student link! As for me, I can’t wait for the weather to clear up and sailing to begin!