A Student’s Insight About Helpful College Courses And Professors

Most universities allow you to choose extracurricular courses, and in the first years of college, the first courses you take can help determine your career path and/or major. Makena is a student at University of Pennsylvania, and she shared with us the courses she found interesting as well as how her professors offered unique insight and instruction. Makena says:

I have taken a variety of classes in just the one year I have been here, and these are the three the really stuck out:

1) Introductory Arabic I and II: I have taken two semesters of the Arabic track here so far, and I love it!  I decided to try Arabic because of my interest in the Middle East as well as my desire to take a difficult language, and it worked out so well.  I absolutely love the class - the pace is incredibly quick, which can be challenging but also means that I am already conversational even after only one year!  My professor is quite accomplished, accessible, friendly, and very clear in her explanations.  She has become a sort of mentor to me because of the relationship she has formed with my class and I.

2) Introduction to Operations and Information Management: This is the introductory course for the Operations and Information Management (OPIM) concentration at Wharton.  Introductory courses really help to show you which concentration to choose - if you love the introductory course it is likely that you will love the concentration track.  This course was formatted in a really interesting way.  It was taught in two halves, one about process analysis and one about business analytics, with each half taught by a separate professor.  Both professors were clear, entertaining, and available and willing to answer students’ questions.  I truly have never loved a subject as much as OPIM and for that reason I will be concentrating in it.

3) Introduction to Business Statistics: This is also an introductory course, for the Statistics concentration.  It, as well as the introductory OPIM course, are required for the Wharton core curriculum. My professor was also very accessible - he would stay hours after his office hours were slated to finish - and was really thorough in his presentation of the material.  He also really incorporated the practical, business-related uses of the statistics concepts we learned, which helped me to make even more sense of the ideas.  Finally, he incorporated lessons about how to behave in business settings which was a really nice touch as well as a great learning experience.