Fun in Your Curriculum
An Inside Look at Out-of-the-Box Choices
By Ava Neumaier
Academics that are manageable in high school can become overwhelming in college.
The high school status quo is well-known: early mornings, eight classes, seven hours a day for five days a week. The class options are few and essential for proper graduation. The average teenager will become accustomed to this schedule, and those in higher-level classes will be used to even more responsibilities.
But when entering college, these expectations can be turned on their heads. Suddenly, students can have one or no classes on Fridays, hundreds of different courses to choose from, and vastly different requirements for one’s major. This change can be jarring, and honors students may cling to the same maximalism they operated by in high school.
“In my first year, my friends picked so many classes and were like, ‘I have to do all this first and do it right now,’” said Lauren Abbott, a University of Iowa Honors Program peer mentor and second-year Spanish and world languages education major. “I got into that mindset too,” she admitted.
But another way is possible: picking a balance of classes that sound fun as well as ones that fulfill prerequisites.
“I definitely don’t think first-year success is linear,” Abbott said. “You can take a class and say, ‘That was fun but not for me,’ or you can discover a new passion or hobby.”
Not every class has to fill the quantitative and formal reasoning requirement or rhetoric credit — college is for exploring anything interesting that strikes you as compelling. There will be plenty of time to knock out graduation requirements. So take Backpacking, Jewelry and Metal Arts, or The Mathematics of Pokemon Go. Take your pop culture knowledge to the next level with Classic Cult Cinema or Poetics (Taylor’s Version). Having a wider breadth of experience will result in being a more well-rounded student and person.
One of the greatest aspects of the honors program is that its experiential learning component allows honors students to pursue hands-on interests outside of the classroom while still fulfilling honors credits. Hawkeyes can study abroad, participate in student research, intern, work an on-campus job, be a TA, and more. This allows students to explore their interests with the freedom of unconventional learning. Traditional classroom education doesn’t have to be the norm every day for all four years.
Students on the publishing track, for example, can take the English at Work course, but they can also swap out the in-person class for a local or online internship, allowing them to gain real career experience to apply their skills. Freshman students coming from the limited possibilities of their high schools should explore every possible option available to them, not just the ones that seem familiar.
“You’ve got to mix in the fun stuff,” sophomore Charlotte Hagen said of her time as a first-year at the UI.
A double-major in English and creative writing and ancient civilizations who also plays cello in the campus orchestra, Hagen successfully navigated all of her responsibilities in her first semester of her freshman year.
Her first year academic advisor was Nathan Morton, who “was pretty cool with me rolling every which way.” Hagen has many interests and, after coming to Iowa from Ohio in 2023, found time to nurture them while also taking general education courses.
“A lot of colleges really stress getting all of your gen-eds out of the way in your first two years,” Hagen said. “But Iowa is really nice in that it doesn't really want you to do that: That's something that you can complete alongside your degree, ending up with a more balanced education.”
Hagen had taken Magic in the Ancient World in the spring of her freshman year, a course taught by Justin Vorhis about the rituals and beliefs of ancient Rome, Greece, and Egypt. Critically, she selected an honors discussion section.
Hagen found pursuing her interests paid off.
“It was super handy because I got to be up close with Dr. Vorhis who now convinced me to take Greek, and now I’m down a whole other rabbit hole,” she said. “It introduced me to a lot of teachers in other departments that were really kind.”
You never know where a class taken for fun might bring you. Opening one’s world to different types of people, interesting teachers, and previously unexplored passions is the purpose of college just as much as a degree.
