I’m sure if you’re considering engineering you’ve started to hear about heavy course-loads, technical classes, and of course, no free time. At least, that’s what I was expecting. I came into engineering ready to take my major classes and grind. I heard my friends talking about how they wanted to take dance or piano and thought, “oh yeah, what’s your hardest class this semester, yoga?”

Cute pic of me in yoga last week!
This semester, yoga isn’t my hardest class, but my instructor Steve has definitely gotten it up there with those balancing poses. I’m also taking Intro to Piano this semester, and I took a ballroom dance class last year. My friends have taken everything from sailing to surfing! Don’t get me wrong, engineering has thrown some tough classes my way (looking at you Reactor Design), but that’s no reason to stop yourself from taking the Diversity and the Classical Western Tradition class you’ve always dreamed of! (Sidenote: I took this class and did you know that the word barbarian actually comes from the fact that the Greeks thought Persian language just sounded like “bar bar bar?”)

I had my first midterm in this class last week and turns out piano tests are much more stressful than chemical engineering tests ever were
Like most of you, I love science and math. I really, really do. But there’s just nothing better than showing up to yoga and knowing no one is about to surprise me with a differential equation I haven’t looked at in years. Sometimes these classes get a reputation of being a holy grail for grizzled seniors, but I took my ballroom dance class in my freshman year on a whim and ever since I’ve tried to keep using my extra units to take all of the classes I used to think were unattainable.

My eventual goal for this semester, wish me luck!
You’d be surprised how easily some of these classes fit in. A lot of fun, random classes aren’t that many units so they can fit into your regular schedule, which brings me to my main point: Make the most of your units! You’re gonna have semesters where you haven’t filled one or two units just due to your schedule, and classes like yoga and piano are a great way to keep yourself centered and relieve stress. Oh, and pro-tip: a great way to free up some extra units is to go abroad with the Viterbi Overseas Program!
So fight on for those beautiful blanks in your Viterbi Undergraduate Handbook!
[author title=”Author” author_id=””] href="#" data-color-override="false" data-hover-color-override="false" data-hover-text-color-override="#fff">Button Text