Im a junior and a finance major. Havent used any of my free electives yet. any suggestions? easy and informative preferably.

3/14/2006 9:08:27 PM

Distance Ed courses:

PHI 214
PHI 221 (both w/ Hettche)

IDS 201 (Tavakoli)

All those are madd easy A's and actually very insightful.

I suggest Bowling for credit-only if you haven't taken it, and I heard BUS 225 was a very useful class for life.

3/14/2006 9:20:36 PM

I took an extra sociology class. Something like Social Problems in our World today. It would have been an easy class if we hadn't had a girl in her first year as a college professor trying to prove herself. It was an interesting class though and I learned a lot. Got like a B+ or A- with a decent amount of effort.

I took an Oceanography class online....I would definitely avoid that. That class was a pain in the ass.

Take a PEH class. If the same professor is there (some hilarious bald dude), then you have to take it. He teaches one alcohol and substance abuse class and another Sex Ed class. I couldn't fit the Sex Ed class in, but the substance abuse class was fun. It's only two hours, so you'll have to take another PE if you're trying to make your electives in increments of three hours.

There's a PHI class...like 313 or something...that's not listed as an online class but it basically is. I never went and you're not required to go...all the notes, tests, and quizzes are online. The tests are fucking ridiculously hard, but you just have to make sure to do all the quizzes and little extra credits things and it's an easy B+ or an A. The grading scale is like 70-100 is an A and so forth.

If you're done with your Science requirements, then take Bees and Beekeeping. It's an ENT class. If you haven't finished your science requirements, then take Bees and Beekeeping as a Science. It's easy and interesting.

I always wanted to try another Psychology class but never got into it. You could also just take a bunch of PEs. I know a few people who did that. Take some interesting crap like archery.

That's about all I remember from my electives.

3/14/2006 9:26:08 PM

^ It's PHI 340, not 313.

I've heard horrible things about it; although most people somehow still pull out an A or B, I wouldn't try my luck in there.

3/14/2006 10:48:49 PM

^The tests are absolutely horrible. I mean...they're just mean. But if you have a little bit of intelligence, you can make around a 50 on them. And then you save them, and the final is full of old test quesitons. So you ace the final, which gives you an A on that and replaces your worst test grade. Then you take and do well on all of these one question quizzes (which are pretty easy)...and you got your high B or A.

It's really not a bad class. You just have to make sure you take all the quizzes...I'm pretty sure they're weekly. The tests just make the class seem a lot worse than it is.

May I also remind you that you never have to go...which I liked because I always had a job so it made my schedule easier.

3/14/2006 11:31:40 PM

these PHI 214 and 221 classes that you speak of, how much work is involved compared to a regular lecture situation? And how does the tution fee for each compare to a regular class? <i know southpaw knows... he's the shit >

3/14/2006 11:41:45 PM

Both the Hettche courses & Tavakoli courses were the easiest courses I took at NCSU. Each required about 3 hours of time PER WEEK to make an A+. The hardest part of the course is a 1-2 page paper and a 3-5 page paper, but both are 100% opinion with no research (nor "Works Cited") involved. Great classes though...the IDS 201 is really neat b/c Tavakoli goes all over the world and you end up doing stuff on Egypt and stuff. Each week there's an online quiz based near word-for-word from the required PDF reading(s) for that week. If you're an expert "skimmer", you can do quite well w/ minimal effort. I will admit that the readings were really interesting if you dig the stuff.

As for costs, on-campus summer course (3 hours) is $438. Details here: http://www7.acs.ncsu.edu/cashier/Tuition/summerund.asp

A Distance Ed. summer course (3 hours) is $120 per credit hour, so $360. Details here: http://distance.ncsu.edu/tuition/tuitionandfees.html

I think somebody a few months back tried to tell me that in summer, Distance Ed. was just as much, if not more expensive, than on-campus. Unless I'm reading the numbers wrong, that's not the case *shrug*

But if you want minimal work, interesting reads, and a surefire A+ if you do your work, go for those 3 courses.

3/15/2006 12:38:08 AM

YES take Tavakoli's course! He is one of my favorite teachers ever.

3/15/2006 12:41:38 AM

i needed phi 214/221 for my business major anyway

thanks for the insight

3/15/2006 2:08:01 PM

^^^ thanks, you're awesome

3/15/2006 2:08:33 PM