This is a list of all* the classes I took in college, and a few thoughts on each one. I left out the minor ensembles that I enrolled in as there are too many to name. Some headings incorporate multiple classes. They are grouped loosely by subject, and the order I took them.

Music

Orchestra - 8/10

I had this every semester and it was fun, although it took so much time. We were always getting volunteered against our will to perform for various college events, which made the 1 credit I received for this ridiculous.

Contemporary Chamber Ensemble - 10/10

My favorite ensemble, I loved everything about it. I liked the professor, the other musicians in it, and usually the music we played.

Lessons - 10/10

These were the main part of what being a music major means, and I learned a lot and I liked my teacher. I had lessons in violin, viola, and piano.

Studio Class - 10/10

This was the weekly performance class with the violin students. I liked my studio and we were all friends.

Music Tech - 3/10

This met once a week on Friday at 8am, and I didn’t learn anything I didn’t already know. Mostly a waste of time for me since I could’ve learned everything much easier and faster on my own by reading the documentation.

Academic Writing - 1/10

The most dreaded Ithaca College requirement, it was such a boring class and I don’t remember what I wrote about. I took it before chatGPT too. I remember being so shocked at how terrible the grammar of my classmates was though.

Musical Styles - 10/10

Such a fun class, with a really passionate teacher. It was a survey into a bunch of different styles of music, teaching us how to discern between them. I learned a lot of different terminology and ways to describe the music I heard. This class had a reputation for being extremely difficult, which is funny because this class was a breeze.

Music History 1, 2, 3 - 3/10

I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the least attended class at Ithaca College. There was no penalty at all for missing class. I think I missed only 1 or 2 classes between all three semesters. This class was a huge waste of time. I don’t remember any of our units, or anything we did. The structure was terrible, where you complete projects and essentially teach your classmates. No one put any effort in since it was impossible to get a bad grade (remember there was no attendance policy, so you didn’t even have to show up), so as a result on one learned anything. Students have complained about this class for years, but the teacher insists on teaching it her way, and nothing is done.

Jazz History - 8/10

A pretty fun class, but I think I would’ve rather just read a book about it. I heard some cool new music, and I liked doing the assignments.

Aural Skills 1, 2, 3, 4 - 10/10

Probably the class I most looked forward to taking in music school, and appreciate the most to this day. Having a good ear for chord progressions, intervals, and key changes feels like a superpower when listening to music. It also inspired my everlasting love of solfége, much to the annoyance of all my friends.

Music Theory 1, 2, 3 - 10/10

Music theory gives you the vocabulary to specifically talk about what you like about music, and is an invaluable skill. I loved all the teachers I had, and they each had a different perspective and used different examples to demonstrate the topics.

Jazz Theory - 10/10

This class pretty much completed my basic music theory understanding, so now I can read all sheet music in any style and easily read all the symbols.

Form and Analysis - 9/10

Musical forms are probably my favorite aspect of classical music, and I liked studying them so specifically. My teacher was so dynamic and engaging, and I looked forward to every class. I only wish we had spent more time on sonata form, symphonies, and concertos, as to me those are “the big ones”. My professor was a pop/rock/contemporary music guy mainly, so I think he was trying to emphasize that while sonata form is an important form in classical music, it is just one form out of many, which I can understand.

Analysis of Music Since 1900 - 10/10

Again I loved this professor, he clearly was so into the weirdest sounding music imaginable. I was not unfamiliar with contemporary classical music, but somehow this class showed me way crazier music than I knew existed.

Math

Calculus I, II - 7/10

These classes were very computation heavy, but I loved my teachers, and I found the central idea to calculus to be so inspiring. I wasn’t quite set on a math major yet, but I experimented with different note taking styles and learned a lot about how to learn math.

Calculus III - 9/10

This class is what really made me want to be a math major. It was a little more theoretical than calc I and II, and it was so fun seeing how mathematics in several dimensions works algebraically, even if you can’t easily picture it. This was also the class that started my passion for math books because the textbook was just so clear and helpful.

World of Math - 8/10

This is Ithaca College’s “intro to proofs” or “transition to higher mathematics” that you sometimes see at other colleges. I was exposed to a lot of mathematical jargon and notation, and many other professors came in to talk about their respective fields. I think I was too busy when I took this class, as I don’t remember much of it, and I remember feeling like I had more important homework and other things to do while in class.

Statistical Analysis - 7/10

This was my second introduction to statistics, the first being AP statistics. I think having a second time through the basic statistical ideas of sampling, hypothesis testing, and confidence intervals was enormously helpful. This class had two huge projects to complete, which I found more tedious than instructive, and I personally feel that I was graded unfairly.

Intermediate Statistics - 7/10

I felt this class had too much review for being a statistics II class. We went over basic hypothesis testing again, whereas I wanted to learn about more methods you can use for different kinds of data. We also had to perform many statistical tests by hand, which is very tedious with a lot of manually inputting data and formulas, which I personally didn’t find helpful.

Linear Algebra - 9/10

A pretty computation heavy class, but it was very different than the math I had done before. I only wish there was a linear algebra II class I could take, since I know how powerful and important it is in machine learning, statistics, and AI.

Numerical Analysis - 9/10

It’s hard to rate this class, since while I was taking it I didn’t really like it, but now I’d give it an 11/10. Right now, I’m trying to learn more about algorithms and doing math with computers, and I am so glad I had this class to introduce me to floating point arithmetic, big O notation, and methods like gradient ascent and QR decomposition.

Research Experience - 10/10

I got to work closely with one of my best friends and two professors who I really liked, and I presented at two math conferences, both of which were so much fun. I also got to typeset a lot in $\LaTeX$, which is so nerdy but I love doing it. One reason I have this blog is just so I get to type more math and see it rendered.

Ethnomathematics - 8/10

The best part about this class is how it made me comfortable with different base systems and converting between them. The math history part of it is also interesting, and I want to know more. Some things we did in this class weren’t really motivated, in that I wish we were told how these ideas were used.

Abstract Algebra - 10/10

If I was at all shaky on liking math before, this class really made me fall in love. The professor was constantly connecting ideas to other areas of math, and showed how powerful the simple theorems we proved in class could be when used together in just the right way. Algebra might be my favorite area in math, and I always plan on going back and learning more about rings and fields.

Data Science - 10/10

This class showed me the unbelievable power of these machine learning algorithms. Data science techniques really are like magical clairvoyance. Although we did a some analysis, this class was kind of a broad introduction to many different methods. I would love to go more in depth on truly understanding how some of these methods work.

Complex Analysis - 10/10

I’m really proud of my notes for this class. I took this in my last semester, and comparing my calc 1 notes to these just shows how much I learned. My favorite thing was to plug complex numbers into formulas I knew and see what would happen, or what it would mean. For example, does it make any sense to talk about a probability of $i$, or to have an interest rate of $i$?

Probability - 10/10

I also took this in my last semester, but funnily enough my notes are pretty terrible. Instead, I had pretty comprehensive flash cards that I used to memorize everything. I was able to pass the actuary P exam with only a little more extra studying, so I have no complaints. The professor was also a huge help when I was studying. Probability, statistics, and data science are another one of my favorite subjects. I love the counter intuitive results and paradoxes that can arise.

General

Mathematics and Politics - 10/10

This was about the mathematics of gerrymandering, voting, and apportionment. It was my seminar class, so kind of my “Introduction to Ithaca College.” I wish I could now take an advanced version of this class that went deeper into the math, as things like Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem were super interesting.

Anthropology - 2/10

This class was meant for freshman, and I took it as a senior to fill a requirement so I found it very boring. It was a very broad overview of all of human history, and nothing really that interesting or that I hadn’t been exposed to before.

Intro to Philosophy - 8/10

I loved the professor, who chose good topics with well-written papers to go along with them. We discussed some really interesting arguments about god, veganism, free will, among others. The only downside was my classmates, where I sometimes felt like I was the only one who cared to actually engage in class.

Intro to Poetry - 8/10

I took this class because I wish I liked poetry, and hoped it would help. The teacher was a recent PhD graduate who looked exactly how you would picture someone with a PhD in poetry analysis would look. He wore scarves everyday, black pants, and often pretty extravagant boots. He so clearly loved poetry, and I thought he was a great teacher. Unfortunately, I still don’t see the appeal of poetry as an art form. I think it’s just not for me.

Zuangzi - 10/10

I took this class because some of my friends said the professor was brilliant, and sure enough, he was. He so clearly loved religious philosophy, and also obviously loved being a college professor. Everyone in that class was engaged and supplied good ideas to talk about. We read the writings of Zuangzi, a Chinese philosopher who helped establish the ideas of Daoism. They were such fascinating ideas that I hadn’t really heard before.

Nature of Nature - 10/10

Same professor as Zuangzi, and I took this class only based on the professor. I never would’ve taken a class on the intersection of religion and environmental science otherwise. This class was so interesting, and showed me how religious studies can be applied to so many areas that don’t seem religious on the surface. I wish I could’ve taken more classes like this, but I didn’t have any space since I was a double major.

More thoughts

I really liked all of the professors I had at college, and I think they all really liked teaching and were passionate about the subjects they taught. In math, I definitely left with a desire to learn as much more as I can, and the ability to work through introductory graduate-level textbooks. I wish I had been able to take real analysis, which is a core class at almost every other school I’ve looked at. Topics from it show up in a lot of books and on a lot of standardized math tests since they assume that everyone had a class on it in undergrad. At the risk of sounded too pompous, I also wish there was a class that really pushed me. My classes were definitely challenging, but I was able to get an A in almost all of them and I was never worried about failing a test. I know it would’ve been frustrating at the time, but I wish there was a class where I tried as hard as I could but still only received a B. Overall though I had a good time, learned a lot, and made a lot of friends.