Favorite Undergrad Course?

As a biomedical engineer, we had a choice between CHEM 351 (Biochemistry), BIOCHEM 415, and MCDB 310. Of these three, MCDB was supposedly the most difficult, but I found it to be simply fascinating. The lecturers (I had Dr. Ken Balazovich and Dr. Stefan Walter) showed a legitimate interest in everything they were teaching and 80% of what they taught I have come to need at some point or another in my job at a microbiology research lab.

Second: BME 221 (Biophysical chemistry and thermodynamics) with Michael Mayer. He was a hilarious teacher and he would always have engaging conversations with the class. The material was challenging, but not impossible, so it was quite fun to learn about statistical thermodynamics and biophysical chemistry.

Worst class: ENVIRON 340 (Environmental ethics). Pointless class. We talked about the beauty of socks, but with no point. And how killing animals is bad. And how we should all try to be one with nature. Ethics had nothing to do with the class whatsoever, as witnessed by the grade I received.

History 303 - Sport in the Modern World - This was my favorite class. I loved Professor Salesa. I took a History of the Pacific Islands class with him too, which was pretty good. He's leaving Michigan though, which is pretty unfortunate. 

Classical Civilization 372 - Sport and Daily Life in the Roman World - I took Latin in high school, so this class was cool because it refreshed my recollection of Roman history as well as cultivated my knowledge of Roman sport.

Comparative Literature 430 - Epic, Ancient, and Mafia - This class was just a lot of fun. We read The Iliad and the Odyssey, which were both much more enjoyable to read than high school. We also watched a bunch of awesome mafia movies.

Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences 102 - Extreme Weather - Perry Samson. Enough said.

Comparative Political Systems

Shakespeare

Both were great courses taught by great professors.  I took Shakespeare in Fall 1966 and Comparative Political Systems a year later.

Without a doubt the course which most influence me was CAAS 426 - Urban Redevelopment and Social Justice, taught by the now retired James Chaffers.  Before taking that class my first semester of senior year (1999/2000), I was pretty much narrowing in on law schools.  Afterwards, I had decided that I'd be going to grad school for Urban Planning (where I completed my Masters at Wayne and went on to working in the field, successfully, in Arizona).  Amazing class and Chaffers was the most passionate, amazing professor any student could ask for.....  Although now that I think about it, his influence in changing from law to Urban Planning did knock me down a few tax brackets....terrible class now that I think of it! 

seems like we have a lot of them.  My ChemE undergrad from fall 95 - winter 99

Thermo 1 -- Susan Montgomery.  Not a bad course, nothing too complicated, just mass and energy balances

Thermo 2 -- Ziff.  This took a lot of effort for me and there's a lot to this day I didn't really understand.  I remember not really understanding the guts of what Cp or Cv meant, and I just kinda rolled with it. 

Fluid Dynamics -- Wilkes.  This guy retired in 2000.  Easy course, exams just like the homework, nothing too complicated.  If you understand Navier-Stokes, you're pretty much good to go.

Heat and Mass Transfer -- Levi Thompson.  Tough course, and a very sharp curve.  I think only maybe around 5 people got A- or better.  I should have done better.  It was one of those courses where I'd get the exam back and I couldn't believe how stupid I was.  Seems like the wording of the questions could really trip you up on exams.

Seperation Processes -- Mark Burns.  So many different types of equipment.  Distillation columns, evaporators, liquid-liquid extractors.  I think we did ion exchange, too.  Tough homework.

Reactor Design and Kinetics -- 3 people, Fogler was on sabbatical.  This course was sort of neutered with Fogler on sabbatical.  Typically one of the hardest just due to the immense volume of homework.  I did get Fogler for grad kinetics, and one time he gave us an assignment that was just one problem.  We were like "yay, only one problem!" That problem had X (i.e. 24) parts to it.  Still a top professor in the department and his book is used by everybody for a reason.

Lab 1 -- Wang.  Horrid, horrid course.  Just brutal amounts of work, and I lucked out because they trimmed it down to 1 calibration and 2 reports (from 1 and 3) when I took it.  Your grade is completely dependant on what partner you get.  The deadbeats who hadn't transferred out to LSA yet will force you to do everything yourself and it ends up being twice the work.  This is when I learned to hate group work. 

Lab 2 -- More of the same.  Useless partners make your life hell.  I actually had a partner that I caught typing an email about how useless the group meeting was while I was sitting there banging out the 25-page report by myself.  "OK, if you could write the intro, I'll work on everything else."  He still didn't write the intro.  Partner eval: "did absolutely nothing"

Controls -- I loved this course.  Lots of math.  Learned so much and turned out to be one of the more useful courses as well.

Senior Design 1 -- More group work.  In this case, you had too many cooks in the kitchen because there wasn't enough work to go around.  Four people in a group is too many and the requirement on the process you had to size was too simple. 

Senior Design 2 -- More group work.  Same thing; four-person groups.  Really only need three.  This was more like what I expected.  Sizing, pricing, economics of a process.  We had to design a plastics recycling plant.  Still not my cup of tea and one of the reasons I went to grad school.  I did not want to do that for a living. 

So, out of all that, I'd say controls was my favorite and the only one where I really felt truly interested in the subject matter  The labs were my least favorite.

He might be the best professor in the humanities at Michigan.  If you need to write for your future employment take him.  

As I look back, it was a class on the History of the Soviet Union taught by Professor Ronald Grigor Suny, now of Columbia (not sure about the Columbia part).  He really focused on the non-Russian people of the Soviet Union and the pressure that having so many different ethnic groups put on the central government.  

What made it so interesting is that I took it at about the same time that the Soviet Union fell apart.  It was amazing to have access to one of the best minds who had studied the USSR at the same it crumbled, partially for the reason that Professor Suny had stated.  It was also amazing that nobody seemed to have an idea of what the hell was going on or what wold happen.  If you weren't at least a teenager at a time when the Soviet Union was the other superpower, it is probably hard to appreciate just how bind blowing it was to see it dissolve before your eyes. 

It also helped that Professor Suny was a hell of a nice guy.  I would see him at the CCRB and he always had time to talk.  (He wasn't exactly ripped, but he could put up some weight.)  This was true even after I was done taking his class. 

Maps and Decisions with Sandy Arlinghaus. It was awesome!

Most enjoyable:  CEE 537 - Building Construction.  Course included field trips through some of the building under construction at the time I was there.

Easiest:  American Cultures 205.  Only graded material was the midterm and the final.

Course you would think might be easy but really isn't:  PHYSICS 242.  140 and 240 were a breeze.  I wasn't prepared for wave theory.

Course I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy:  MECHENG 235 - Thermodynamics

Anybody ever take Rudi Lindner's history courses? They were pretty easy, but damn was that guy a prick. I hated going to his office hours. 

I have some pretty strong views about my favorite college courses.  Here's my Top Ten:

1. University of Michigan Golf Course (sentimental personal favorite)
2. Riviera CC (USC) [part-time, including LACC, Hillcrest, Lakeside]  
3. Bel Air (UCLA)
4. Yale University GC (Yale)
5. Ohio State University (Scarlet)
6. Williams College (Taconic Golf Club) 
7. Duke University Golf Club
8. Oakland University (Scharf)
9. University of Wisconsin (University Ridge)
10. Michigan State University (Forest Akers - West)

History. 

Didn't really have a problem with undergraduate courses as long as they didn't involve heavy use of advanced mathematics i.e. calculus / trig. Oh man, those were nightmarish classes. 

(Sorry to any engineers out there lol) 

films.  great stagecoach western.  angel hall. 

intro to architecture. built funny little paper houses.

eastern eurpean politcs, or something like that, and potical theory.

frankly, in retrospect, there weren't that many really good classes i took in undergrad or in law school that translated to what i do now.  in that respect, looking back, i really like the classes that broadened my horizons and were outside of my "wheelhouse"

Hardest: ChemE 230, Thermodynamics, Fall '00 (honorable mention: EECS 482, Operating Systems, Fall '02)

Easiest: IOE 422, Entrepreneurship, Fall '02

Favorite: EECS 487, Computer Graphics, Winter '02

Well, I haven't really had a favorite so far, but I'm looking forward to EEB 440/441. Its the Biology of Fishes and its lab. From what I've read it looks to be a fun class.

Least favorites are clear though; Calc II and Orgo II lab (chem 216). I'm pretty sure I managed a C- in calc by just a few points. I hated it, hated class, and rode the struggle bus hard. And Chem 216 was way more work than the 2 credits it was worth. I honestly put in more work to that class than just about any other class I've taken, and it was only worth two credits.

Engin 100 with Andrew Yagle "The Yaglemeister." We had a great time laughing at his pearly white tennis shoes and skinny tie that made his head look like a balloon. Then he'd give us every question that would be on the tests.

but my favorite course by far was Anatomy and Physiology in my first year of my science degree. After HS I really had no idea what I wanted to do and took a rather odd road completing it. I dropped out of school when I was 16 and went lobster fishing for a couple years, following that spent a couple years in the army and finally figured I should go back to HS and try my hand at University.

My first crack at school didn't go so well so I was nervous, but my parents kept telling me I could do it if I tried (which I admit I never did in my first attempt). So I did, and with the added maturity I ended up graduating HS in 2 years with a 4.1 GPA. I even amazed my parents with that.

Still, I kept questioning whether I would be able to hack University so my aspirations weren't very high. I figured I would try to get my BSc. and go from there. When I started Anatomy and Physiology everything became clear. I loved the course and had absolutely no problem learning (or remembering) the content. From that point I set my sights on becoming a Doctor and never looked back.  Loved the course and the professor.

Funny thing was when I left the army I figured my ceiling was getting a GED. My parents encouraged me to try HS again but I really thought I couldn't do it. I spent a week taking my GED and the teacher pulled me aside after class one night and said "What the hell are you doing here?" I thought she meant I was doing badly and should drop out so I kind of just shrugged my shoulders. She said "you are too smart for this. There is an adult HS in this building, why don't you go back and finish your diploma?". 

For the first time in my life someone other than my parents had faith in me and it prompted me to go back to HS. I owe that teacher a lot. Something I will never be able to repay, but I often drop in to see her and each time i remind her what an impact she made with one simple conversation. 

To the OP: So what are the pros and cons of all-nighters and day time naps?

back in my days, that was my favorite class which we attended on Monday nights in the fall from 9 pm until Midnight for dimer beer nite!

I love these threads because it give interesting insight into a place that I have a slim to none chance of attending.