Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. That means no classes -- well for most of us anyway. An extra morning to sleep in, an extra night to party and an extra day on the slopes for some. Yeah, you'll probably have a million and one x-hours later in the week but it's still a day off! But science majors beware. You're classes may be canceled, but I'm afraid those labs aren't.
Hey, wait a minute -- what is this? Prejudice against science people? Does this mean that humanities and social science majors get to take it easy while pre-med types have to spend eight hours in the lab cutting up frogs and making molecule models?
This is unfair. Martin Luther King, Jr. wouldn't have agreed to this. He wanted equality for all -- blacks, whites and bio majors. There's already enough debate on campus between science majors and non-science types over whose classes are more rigorous and demanding. This could lead to conflict and struggle between the two groups -- even a protest outside Kresge or Burke.
Seriously, are Science classes more difficult than those in the humanities and social sciences? While most of my pre-med and engineering friends would strongly support this being the case, I am of a different opinion.
As a senior, I've taken classes in all three areas -- humanities, social sciences, and science guts. I'll admit it -- I've never set foot in a lab. Despite my personal ignorance about "real" science classes, I've talked to enough of my friends so that I think I know what these classes are about too. And here's what I think ...
Picking classes at Dartmouth is like picking games to play in a casino. No particular game guarantees that you are going to hit the jackpot and get an A, but some games (and classes) are more reliable than others.
I like to think of humanities classes as blackjack in the Casino of Academia. Blackjack is a conservative kind of game -- if you bet low, you don't have a lot to lose. Unfortunately this means you won't win big either. Most students agree that humanities classes follow a similar rule: if you show up and do the reading, you won't get less than a B, but getting an A is unlikely -- you're better off settling for the B and checking out the band and showgirls.
Social science classes are slightly different from their humanities sisters -- they are more like poker. Most gamblers would agree that poker requires a little more advanced skill and strategy than blackjack. If you're not familiar with the game, one of poker's key moves is the bluff -- making the other players think you have better cards than you actually have.
In academia, this means making your professors believe you are more industrious and committed to their class than you really are. This requires going to some office hours just to "chat" and mentioning the outside reading that you are doing -- even if you aren't doing it. If all of this works, you'll probably get an A or at least an A- if it's your first time. Watch out though! If the professor calls your bluff, you look stupid and your grade is most likely somewhere in the C range.
Science classes are the riskiest type because the final outcome often depends on the performance of your fellow classmates. In other words, there's a curve. The outcome of your grade is as unpredictable as the outcome of rolling a dice -- you might get an A or you might fail. In this way, science classes are most like the game craps.
So really, science classes aren't more difficult than social science or humanities offerings, they're just a little riskier. Whether you roll the dice yourself or ask the guy next to you to give them a throw -- it doesn't matter in craps. Some people say that science classes are the same way. Whether you decide to attend lectures or just get the notes, it's up to you.
Whether or not my analysis has merit is up to you to decide. A trip to Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut would be one way to test the theory. If you're not in Orgo, you can go this weekend -- after all we have Monday off.
