As I finish my last quarter at UCLA, I am now able to reflect on all the classes I’ve taken and decide which ones were standout courses. For reference, I am a political science major with a minor in conservation biology, but I’ve also taken a liking to the music industry courses that are offered. I am also a transfer student, so these will mainly be upper-division courses. Although these three fields are pretty different from one another, I’ve found classes that I’ve liked in all of them, and if you like any of these subjects, then I definitely recommend these classes:
- pol sci 141e – electoral politics: Elections, media and strategy
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Professor: Sherrer
I’ve taken many Political Science courses at UCLA that share a lot of the same material and can be really dry in terms of lecture material. Professor Sherrer completely broke free of that standard with this course. This was one of my first classes at UCLA, and I walked into class every day very invested in the lecture and excited to learn. The setup of the class is pretty standard, with midterm exams and short papers all leading up to a final. A pet peeve of mine in my major courses is the use of convoluted language when it is pretty much never necessary, and I found that Sherrer was great at engaging with students by asking us questions and speaking like an actual human rather than in big terms. In all of the complexities of political science, Sherrer did an amazing job at highlighting the bigger picture of lectures and making his teaching accessible to all students!
- COMM 101 – Freedom of communication
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Professor: Kassabian
This is by far the hardest class I’ve taken at UCLA, and I honestly really enjoyed it. I recommend taking this course if you’re interested in going to law school, as this is basically the same structure as a 1L course. The grade is almost entirely made up of just your midterm and final grade, which are super writing-heavy tests in blue books. Kassabian is an attorney himself and was excellent at bringing in super interesting guest lecturers from all across the legal field. I loved doing the readings and being able to answer a lot of my own legal questions by studying the course material. These readings were all briefs of major Supreme Court cases as well as the concurring and dissenting opinions by justices. If you are not interested in law school, I definitely don’t recommend this course because odds are you will find the material boring.
- FILM TV 4 – INTRODUCTION TO ART AND TECHNIQUE OF FILMMAKING
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Professor: Huang
FILM TV 4 was a welcome change of pace from my typical schedule. I needed to satisfy one GE when I transferred to UCLA, and this fulfilled my necessary Diversity Requirement! Although 5 hours long, the class was split into two halves: lecture and film. Since this class was located in the James Bridges Theater on campus, it was magical to watch classic films on the big screen, accompanied with red curtains and all! Huang himself is a director, so he always spoke very frankly about the film industry and brought in some cool lecturers to come speak to the class, including the voice of Ron from “Kim Possible,” Will Friedle! If you like movies or learning about the technical aspects of film, then I recommend this course!
- MSC IND 114 – Concerts and venues: producing special events and live concerts
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Professor: Edgren
I signed up for this class not expecting anything from it other than finding out more about live events, as I have always loved attending concerts and festivals. I finished this course with a new career path in mind that I’m excited to explore! Edgren spoke about his experiences in the music industry and all that goes into producing large-scale events. The course encompassed some discussion assignments, as well as a final project to create the event of your dreams with direct guidance from Edgren. During this course, we also got to go on field trips, such as backstage at the Forum and the Royce Hall Theatre! This was also my first small class at UCLA, with about only 25 people in my class, so there was a great balance in being able to interact with the professor and speak with guest lecturers.
- msc ind 110 – music business now
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Professor: Jampol
Although probably one of the more nerve-wracking courses, this is also the coolest class I’ve ever taken. “Music Business Now” has four main professors, all of which actively work in the music industry, that bring in guest lecturers every week to speak on different elements of the music industry. What makes this class stand out has to be the final project: each group of students is assigned a real-life artist to manage and come up with a marketing strategy for. These artists aren’t just anyone, they are all personally recommended by the course professors, and have included the likes of Billie Eilish, Kodak Black, Gracie Abrams and more! The final project is also viewed by an entire panel of speakers, as well as the artist’s management team. This class offers a great balance of business advice as well as great life advice and will teach you how to communicate with everyone. I truly think that unless you don’t like public speaking, any music lover could take this class and leave fascinated by the subject.
- EEB 140 – biology of marine mammals
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Professor: Dines
If you love marine animals and the ocean, this is the class for you. Dines made this class really fun, with each lecture talking about the fascinating abilities of marine mammals like whales, dolphins and polar bears. Also, points were added for all the dad jokes he included in his lectures! This is another example of a course with a typical class structure yet super engaging lectures. A stand-out moment for me was Dines bringing in a baleen sample from a whale carcass that everyone got to handle and feel. As an ocean lover and enthusiast, I walked out of class every day with a ton of new fun facts about these fascinating creatures.
As you can see, a lot of the courses that have stuck with me the most aren’t solely major courses. What made my education so worth it was being able to explore as much of the school as I could during my two years here. Taking chances and filling gaps in my schedule with subjects that fascinate me may now culminate in me choosing different career paths that I had never previously considered. I encouraged all UCLA students to be open-minded with their degrees and to explore as much as possible!