{"id":2405,"date":"2016-10-11T11:45:36","date_gmt":"2016-10-11T15:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/?p=2405"},"modified":"2016-10-10T17:28:35","modified_gmt":"2016-10-10T21:28:35","slug":"kreag-why-the-com-foundation-requirements-are-great-even-if-they-seem-scary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/2016\/10\/11\/kreag-why-the-com-foundation-requirements-are-great-even-if-they-seem-scary\/","title":{"rendered":"Kreag: Why The COM Foundation Requirements Are Great (Even If They Seem Scary)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his most recent blog post, CA Zach talked a bit about the CAS Focus that all COM students must complete and the ways in which you can work it into your major. That got me thinking a lot about the upcoming Spring semester scheduling as well as one of the biggest concerns potential students always seem to have: our liberal arts foundation requirements, AKA the COM Foundation Requirements.<\/span><\/p>\n

As an employee of COM Undergraduate Affairs, I constantly speak with prospective students about he various classes they would need to take as a student here.\u00a0 Something that always seems to concern or at least surprise people is the inclusion of the COM Foundation Requirements, previously known as our Freshman\/Sophomore Foundation Requirements.\u00a0 Often times people seem to worry about fitting these classes into their future schedules or finding classes that will interest them.\u00a0 Whenever this seems to be a potential students concern, I love to tell them about the endless opportunities that the College of Arts and Sciences provide us in order to fulfill these requirements.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

So, if you are looking at BU and you\u2019re concerned about what you\u2019ll have to take a student here, listen up!\u00a0 You have so many choices over in CAS.\u00a0 As a Film student, I was very stressed at the idea of having to take Humanities, History, Philosophy, etc classes.\u00a0 However, once I actually looked at the extensive list of the classes offered, I discovered just how many options I had.\u00a0 I took a Film and Philosophy class my first semester here, something that ended up being one of my favorite classes, and guess what?\u00a0 There goes my philosophy foundation requirement, completed!\u00a0 I know quite a few people taking a class called Politics of The Wire right now that counts as a Political Science class.\u00a0 Honestly, any class that lets me watch TV as homework is okay in my book.\u00a0 And for all you Journalism majors, there is a huge selection of history classes, many of which cover topics relevant to journalism and its history. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But you know what else is cool about the Foundation Requirements?\u00a0 The classes you take don\u2019t HAVE be relevant to your major.\u00a0 As much fun as it is to take a Film Anthropology class, it can also be very cool to take a basic archeology course, or learn about the potential for life on other planets in an Astronomy class.\u00a0 I think one of the greatest strengths of COM\u2019s liberal arts requirements is that it really forces us to explore other topics, things we might not ever have had an interest in. I know I discovered a love for anthropology because I had to take a social science class, and now I\u2019ve taken that interest and made it into my CAS Concentration (maybe a minor, but that\u2019s still up in the air).<\/span><\/p>\n

As we approach Spring scheduling (yikes, this semester is really flying by), stay open minded. \u00a0 Find the classes that seem interesting to you, or find a class that covers a topic you\u2019ve always wanted to learn about.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are some recommendations for some great liberal arts classes:<\/span><\/p>\n

AN101: Cultural Anthropology: This class was great.\u00a0 I never expected to find anthropology as engaging as I did.\u00a0 I think what appealed to me most is that much of the course material is old in story form via first hand reports on various cultures, and as a writer, this really connected with me.<\/span><\/p>\n

Philosophy and Film: This was a great philosophy class, especially for someone without much knowledge on the more \u201ctheory\u201d based side of film studies.\u00a0 It was also a great way to pick up some basic terminology and concepts before taking Understanding Film, a required FTV major class.<\/span><\/p>\n

MA113: Elementary Stats: Okay, math is not my favorite subject.\u00a0 But this class made it bearable.\u00a0 Whenever someone comes to COM Undergrad Affairs to talk about math classes, I always urge people to check out this class.\u00a0 Its simple, especially if math is not your strongest subject, but everything you learn is valuable in real world situations.\u00a0 Plus, you don\u2019t have to use a graphing calculator, which is honestly fantastic.\u00a0 I hate graphing calculators.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his most recent blog post, CA Zach talked a bit about the CAS Focus that all COM students must complete and the ways in which you can work it into your major. That got me thinking a lot about the upcoming Spring semester scheduling as well as one of the biggest concerns potential students … Continue reading Kreag: Why The COM Foundation Requirements Are Great (Even If They Seem Scary)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2018,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[44416],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2405"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2018"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2405"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2407,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2405\/revisions\/2407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}