Because I spent the past semester beating Mathematica into submission and drawing the same boundary flow diagram on each of the nineteen parts of my fluids problem sets, I never got around to writing about the courses I’m enrolled in for next semester. [Not that I got around to writing much of anything last semester.] Since it’s now the end of the semester, I’m combining that post with my review of the classes I just finished (if I passed . . .).
Spring 2014:
Honors Physical Chemistry II: This may be colored a bit by the fact that I had a downright awful time with the final, but I’m more than a little glad to be done with p-chem. The second semester of p-chem covers everything from partition functions to thermodynamics to kinetics. The material was interesting and the problem sets were a good way to get practice, but I found a few too many of the exam questions dependent on studying exactly the right material or else finding you had no idea how to solve the problem.
Fluid Mechanics: Fluids and I got off to kind of a rough start, but it ended well. As compared to p-chem, the material was more applied, which is why I decided to major in chemical engineering, not chemistry, in the first place. The problem sets tended to walk a fine line between challenging, but doable, practice problems and what-the-heck-am-I-doing question fests at office hours. In case anyone was wondering, Olin is very quiet at midnight on a Friday morning.
Biomolecular Engineering: I enrolled in this class because it fulfills my bio requirement in the least number of credits. From what I heard from ChemEs who took this class last year, it underwent a major rehaul. That, however, does not excuse the fact that I found the class rather disorganized. Each lecture in and of itself was interesting, but I had little to no idea how most of the topics connected to each other.
Introductory Macroeconomics: Liberal studies. I spent three times as much time on fluids as this class and both classes were worth the same number of credits. The class was decent and I don’t regret taking it, though discussions weren't particularly helpful.
Physical Chemistry Lab: If I had to sum up this class in one word, it would be spectroscopy. I enjoyed the labs overall, though some of the lab reports leaned toward the tedious side. For the record, Excel and my computer do not appreciate having to plot 33,186 data points.
Fall 2014:
Introduction to Experimental Organic Chemistry: The organic chemistry version of the p-chem lab I just completed.
Principles of Organic Chemistry: In an unprecedented act, the ChemE curriculum has given me a choice. I can either take two semesters of orgo in one semester and go into less depth or take the first semester of orgo indepth. I chose the first option partly to get exposure to a full year of orgo and partly so I could jam my liberal studies class into my schedule.
Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics: Every other engineering major has their own thermo class, and this is the ChemE version. Haven’t heard anything good or bad about this class.
Heat and Mass Transfer: Another ChemE required class.
Introduction to Creative Writing: As part of my liberal studies requirement, I have to take a couple 2000-level classes that are, in theory, more advanced than 1000-level classes. Creative writing is not only 2000-level, but it’s also from a different category than my previous liberal studies classes. I know this class can vary depending on who teaches it, but a few of my engineering friends have survived it, so I thought I’d give it a try. Blogging totally counts as a form of creative writing, right? . . .
Small Boat Sailing: I've wanted to try sailing, so I’m taking the opportunity while I’m at Cornell to do so.
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