I don't have any particular questions but I can't help but notice that all the forums and advice are aimed mostly towards students going into engineering or some sort of science program. I'm just wondering if anyone could give me any insider information on what the humanities department is like? Specifically, the English program because that's what I'm heading into next year.

I.e. cool profs? what courses would you recommend? and any other tips you'd have for a first year...

thanks

H, H-U-M, H-U-M-M-E-R-S HUMMERS HUMMERS ARE THE BEST!

Just saying.

Specific questions would probably help you get more responses. Its kind of vague to just ask what about Humanities. Other than that we're awesome I don't know what else to tell you at this point. I'm not in English though so I can't tell you about cool profs or good English courses. There's gotta be at least one English major around here though so hopefully they'll check out this thread.

Every course I've taken at Mac so far has been a Humanities course, but alas, no English.

You should meet up with some potential profs, check out old exams, and talk to people in the programme. From what I gather it is fun but the marking is harder than in other courses - you really gotta know your English. Perhaps take courses related to English as well? For example, CMST, Critical Thinking, etc.

The biggest difference I'd say between Humanities (& SocSci) and other faculties is the marking. You'll be writing a lot of essays and the marking can be quite subjective.

Honestly, you just have to manage your time well, never leave anything until the last minute and it's always great to forge a relationship with your prof/TAs by asking questions if you need help. Most of them are really nice and don't bite, and are happy to help.

My favourite profs in Humanities? Hmm, I'd say Dr. Moro and Dr. Yoon - but they teach linguistics courses so I'm not sure how much help that'll be to you. If you ever take any anthropology courses, because a lot of people mix humanities with socsci in first year, don't take anything with Dr. Arratia -- save yourself some trouble. She's a nice woman but... yeah.

Check out:

http://www.macinsiders.com/showthread.php?t=1717 0

http://www.macinsiders.com/showthread.php?t=2738 6

You will write a lot of essays, and they will be marked subjectively. It sucks, but it's true.

I was in Humanities first year, and Social Science for the following three years. I have only experienced a TA marking me worse than I deserved in ONE class - and it was easily cleared up by the professor.
This isn't to scare you off. But Humanities and Social Science are much different than Science and Engineering in terms of marking. Long story short: don't disagee with your TAs (?)

I had Professor Bruce for English 3F03 last term and she's very sweet. I'm sure you won't face many problems with English or Humanities professors, they all seem pretty easy going.

I'm minoring in Engish, and just finished 2nd year. My favourite english prof is most definitely Dr. James King, he is extremely smart and his courses are very interesting.

To be honest though, there isn't a lot of choice for students in humanities at mac... at least in my opinion. If I could do it over, I'd chose a school catered more towards humanities as opposed to science.

This may be a bit biased, since I began studying at Mac as solely a Classics student, but really, if you want enjoyable classes, almost all of the profs from the Department of Classics are fantastic. I'd highly recommend Classics 1B03 (Greco-Roman Mythology), which is taught by either Dr. McLean or Dr.Murgatroyd, both of whom are great.

Although not an English-like course, Classics 1A03 (Classical Archaeology) with Dr. Pope is certainly another class worth taking.

Outside of the Department of Classics.....well, I'm not entirely sure. Only 3 of my 10 first year classes were outside of Classics, and now I'm switching into Anthropology and Linguistics after I've finished my summer courses and enter 2nd Year; let's just say, I have a few beefs with the Department of Philosophy lol.

However, for your literature-related interests, I would most certainly recommend Classics 1B03. I hope this helps.

My professors in the humanities were all good - my history professors and TAs in particular were excellent, especially Dr. Mukharji, who taught History 1BB3. In comparison to science courses, I liked that the tutorials were much smaller in size.

There was less variance in my humanities professors / TAs based on discipline than there was in my science courses, where the math and physics departments were very approachable while the chemistry and biology departments were not quite as approachable, presumably due to the massive size of first year chem and bio classes...
From this, I suppose English should be similar to History in the approachability of professors and TAs.

All I can say is, from taking soc. sci. and humanities courses and being a science student (and now, switching into soc. sci. lol), the humanities are a very nice faculty. Most of the profs are very nice, very helpful and very approachable. Like everyone else said, the hardest (or the easiest, depending on what kind of person you are) part is the essay writing. You can easily overcome that by (basically) sucking up to the prof/TA and not leaving things off at the very last minute. Good luck!

Originally Posted by kunaltandan

You can easily overcome that by (basically) sucking up to the prof/TA and not leaving things off at the very last minute. Good luck!

Or just write good essays?

Originally Posted by knox

Or just write good essays?

I thought that was assumed xD? I meant to write that, but I forgot.

It sucks horribly when you get a bitchy TA who you're pretty sure marks all assignments to make his/her students cry. I had a nasty one in my first year poli sci course, but that course was altogether crappy anyway.

Originally Posted by feonateresa

It sucks horribly when you get a bitchy TA who you're pretty sure marks all assignments to make his/her students cry. I had a nasty one in my first year poli sci course, but that course was altogether crappy anyway.

It's like something's up their ass. I don't get the kind of vendetta they have by giving out horrible marks on purpose. It's a little sad, actually- taking out their rage/sadness from their own horrible experience from year one on the newcomers. Sigh. What has our system come to now?