I just finalized my schedule for this semester and I’d like to share it with everyone.
The class I’m looking forward the most is Systems Modeling in Biology. Systems biology tries to make mathematical models of biological phenomea. My professor drew an analogy between the state of biology today with the state of physics and astronomy in the 1500’s. Before Kepler and Newton, astronomers had collected tons of data on the positions of stars, but had no general theory to describe their behavior. Only after Kepler’s Laws and Newton’s Law of Gravitation before the real principles behind the motion of the stars. Similarly, biologists in the past fifty years or so have collected enormous amounts of data on biological processes and “plotted the stars,” and perhaps a mathematical approach will be able to draw larger conclusions from the data. Can’t tell you more than that, since I’ve only been to a week of class, but I’ll probably write an update later in the year.
Another fun class should Programming Techniques and Data Structures, where I learn how to program in C. Being a math major, I’m taking some core math courses: Real Analysis, which starts of with “measure theory” and the idea of the size of a set, Theory of Statistics, which is a more abstract treatment of statistics, and Stochastic Processes, which models random phenomena like Brownian motion.
In particular, I’m going to take Stochastic Processes Credit/D/Fail. This is an alternative grading scale where any grade of C or above shows up on a transcript as “Credit.” It’s designed to allows students to explore fields they might not otherwise take for fear of getting a bad grade. If you end up doing better than expected in a course, the course can be converted back to a regular grading scale. Taking a class Credit/D is also a good way to balance out a tough five-class schedule–which I’m doing this semester.
While it’s nice to put my final set of classes down on a list, it took a lot of work to narrow down my list from all the classes I wanted to take. I shopped Cell Biology, which is a great course that teaches you a ton of key biological terms and concepts, and Biological Mechanisms of Reaction to Injury, which is a pathology course that teaches you about the origins of human disease. I also looked at Constitutional Law and Early Sources in Chinese Intellectual Traditions. But after looking closely at all my options, I decided on my current list. It’s going to be a lot of work, but I plan on working hard this semester, and taking Stochastic Credit/D should help.