Originally Posted by Ownaginatios

I agree, and there should be more sections for all the language courses in general. I doubt they cost much to maintain, considering they don't usually need any equipment.

Most of them only have one section, even though they have high demand.

Even if McMaster is a science/tech oriented school, they should offer a decent range of electives to choose from.

Profs who can teach a language aren't that common, especially at a science-centred university like Mac. And they want to keep the class sizes smaller to increase the quality of learning.

Originally Posted by Ownaginatios

I agree, and there should be more sections for all the language courses in general. I doubt they cost much to maintain, considering they don't usually need any equipment.

Most of them only have one section, even though they have high demand.

Even if McMaster is a science/tech oriented school, they should offer a decent range of electives to choose from.

Just because Mac doesnt offer an Arabic course, does not mean we dont have a variety of different electives for students to choose from. Maybe take a look at the course calendar, I think there are plenty of selections to be made. I want to take the course that MIT offered on surviving a zombie apocalypse, doesnt mean that Mac has poor selection of electives just because we dont offer it. If that was the case, every other school in north america would have inadequate elective selection. There is nothing wrong with Mac just the way it is! If i had to choose a university again, it would be Mac every time!

Originally Posted by Chris23

Just because Mac doesnt offer an Arabic course, does not mean we dont have a variety of different electives for students to choose from. Maybe take a look at the course calendar, I think there are plenty of selections to be made. I want to take the course that MIT offered on surviving a zombie apocalypse, doesnt mean that Mac has poor selection of electives just because we dont offer it. If that was the case, every other school in north america would have inadequate elective selection.

I mean, there is an okay number of electives to choose from - but as someone in say engineering for example, almost none of them are actually available. In first year, I wanted to take GERMAN 1Z06, but SOLAR told me it was full. I contacted the linguistics department about it, and they said seats were actually available.

What was happening was I was locked out from selecting that course, even though it's an elective that should be available for engineers, to reserve seats for humanities students. In fact, that was the case for the majority of electives on the list with the exception of really massive ones like the econ and psych classes. I eventually got into the class, but it took a lot of emailing and was overall a major pain in the ass.

As someone who has actually recently looked through the course calendars for many other schools, I can safely say McMaster's list of electives is rather small - even compared to other largely science/engineering based schools like Waterloo.

There is nothing wrong with Mac just the way it is! If i had to choose a university again, it would be Mac every time!

I bet you're the kind of person who tries to convince yourself Hamilton is an awesome city too...

Originally Posted by Ownaginatios

I bet you're the kind of person who tries to convince yourself Hamilton is an awesome city too...

Umm, i prefer living in hamilton during the school year rather than being at home. I have a great group of friends and housemates that i enjoy being around. I like the area I live in in Hamilton. I bet youre just the kind of person whose lack of social skills prevents them from enjoying a life away from home.

I don't really know if we have the right to complain about electives seeing as some programs (like english) barely have any courses available at all. Just look at the timetable for english. it's ridiculous.

but anyway, it's funny that mac should be going through budget cuts on some departments considering that they keep adding new programs (according to the sil)-- 3 new programs are being passed this year, some of them in soc sci/humanities if I'm not mistaken.

Originally Posted by ooburii

I don't really know if we have the right to complain about electives seeing as some programs (like english) barely have any courses available at all. Just look at the timetable for english. it's ridiculous.

but anyway, it's funny that mac should be going through budget cuts on some departments considering that they keep adding new programs (according to the sil)-- 3 new programs are being passed this year, some of them in soc sci/humanities if I'm not mistaken.

Do you know what those programs are?

Originally Posted by nerual

Do you know what those programs are?

Justice, political philosophy and law; and the second program is called professional communications. the article said they'd be accepting like 60 people to the first and around 40 to the second while they're still new iirc

@ Yogurt

lol thats exactly my point xD

Originally Posted by Chris23

I bet youre just the kind of person whose lack of social skills prevents them from enjoying a life away from home.

Well obviously I prefer being at school during the year with my peers, I just mean the city itself sucks it comparison to most other university cities. There was some dude going around on the forums before trying to convince everyone Hamilton is actually awesome for more or less insignificant reasons (i.e. there are a couple bike paths).

Point is, don't try and justify the school's selection based on what you feel is a good selection. McMaster actually has a lot of issues that other schools don't, so I would hardly say it's fine just the way it is.

If you dont like it, I think the school will do just fine without you in it! No need for haters at Mac

@ Ownaginatios

You know what? You might be right. But i come from up north of Toronto, farrrrr into the suburbs, and people are generally *richer* there. but i prefer it here in Hamilton. Yes ive seen the good and bad, and yes the pollution is annoying but honestly, Hamilton is unique, it has character!

Up north in the suburbs, all the houses look the same, everything is artificial and fake, and people are too concerned about the most insignificant things. Here, its quieter, slower, calmer. It has some beautiful sceneries, parks, environments, parks forests etc.

PS If you think Hamilton is bad, go to waterloo for a day. i DARE you. you'll become suicidal T_T

Or just go to Waterloo and stay there if you hate hamilton so much!

There's really no need for personal attacks.

Dillon was making a valid point. McMaster and Hamilton have concerns that they, as their respective communities, need to address. I think we all agree that leaded water is one big concern that impacts many of us, even if we don't know it.

It's perfectly fine, acceptable and probably healthy to be slightly critical of what you experience. If you don't, you won't be looking for ways to change the situation. E.g. Dillon was pretty critical of SOLAR (again another issue) and made his own timetable generator, comparable to what UofT has with ROSI.

"No haters at Mac" is a statement that stifles discussion and critical thinking because it promotes this falsity that being critical = unrational, biased hate - which is simply not true.

This is one of the reasons why we don't allow personal attacks on our forums. Because it takes away from discussion by making things unnecessarily petty and insulting. Instead of criticizing ideas, we begin to criticize each other and have huge threads that spiral out of control with several other users requesting they be closed.

Please ensure your comments aren't personal attacks from this point onward.

Pretty sure that "no haters at mac" isnt a personal insult. I go to Mac because I want to be here. I want to be in this city. Every city has its ups and downs, but instead of complaining about it I take the city for what it is. Ive grown to the point that I am more likely to call Hamilton home than my actual home. If you look back, pretty sure there are "personal attacks" coming from the other direction in this thread as well.

@Ownaginatios You say dont justify the schools selection based on what i feel to be a good suggestions? In that case you have no right justifying the school to have a poor selection simply because you feel that it doesnt not either. it goes both ways there

Yes, there were. But only one party kept up the inflammatory comments. The purpose of our forums is to promote conversation, not bash each other publicly. If you have a disagreement with a user on a personal basis, you can address it with them over a private message.

If there's an attitude of general respect, there is often no real reason for threads to be shut down. Most threads are shut down because others users feel that the dialogue has become highly personally critical and inflammatory and report messages as such. When a thread spirals out of control (as may be the case when users continue personal attacks) despite repeated attempts to steer the thread back on track, closing the thread is often (by user request) the most popular and efficient option. This eventually results in other users feeling censored because of the actions of a few. No personal attacks, please.