Senior year is finally here! I can barely believe it! I am pleasantly surprised and happy to report that senior year is not as scary or hard as I thought it would be. Upper division courses are actually really fun. I’m finally finished with all of the general education courses and core CHE courses and now I get to take the classes that feel the most useful and/or focus on my emphasis. For those of you who don’t know, I am a senior studying Chemical Engineering with a Biochemical emphasis.
I’m finding it rather difficult to pick a hardest and favorite class of the semester. All of my classes are challenging but I really enjoy the material in most of them. Ok I think I got it: my favorite class this semester is Advanced Molecular Biology (BISC403) aka Advanced MolBio.
First off, the professor that I have right now for this class, Susan Forsburg, is really great. The best professors are the ones that are really excited to teach and she definitely is. There are 2 professors for this class that each lecture for half of the semester. They each get to lecture about topics that are related to the research they are doing in the lab and I think that’s why Forsburg is so energetic. She gets to talk about the stuff that she finds most interesting. In addition to the professor I really like the material we are learning. Right now we are learning about epigenetics, which has to do with everything on top of DNA that controls the genome. I’ve always loved biology so it feels like a treat when I get to take bio classes that are more focused on my emphasis.
My hardest class this semester is Engineering Economics (ISE460). That might be surprising but economics is something that I have never really been exposed to. Business classes are a whole different world to me. I’m used to engineering and calculus so when my professor starts talking about interest, future values, and liabilities I get completely lost. My other classes are a lot of work but at least they are topics that I am more familiar with. For ISE460 I have to try extra hard to keep up with the material. The homework for the class is not very complicated but it takes me a long time to understand.
All in all I’m really loving this semester. On top of school and being a VSA I’m also really enjoying being a student worker for Viterbi Student Affairs. This is also my first year as the president of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and being a part of the Viterbi Presidents Council (VPC). (Don’t worry I still have time to hang out with my friends and get sleep :P) This is turning out to be a really rewarding semester and we’re only 4 weeks in. Can’t wait to see what else I’ll get to do this semester.
