As the days get colder and Thanksgiving break approaches, it means one thing here at Rice: It’s Spring Registration time! Currently, Rice students are browsing the spring semester course catalogue and signing up for classes before the registration deadline, November 12. Every semester, there are your major requirements and prerequisites, but at Rice, there’s always a niche course to help tap into your unconventional wisdom.
In honor of course registration season, we’ve rounded up some of our personal favorite classes for Spring 2022.
To start us off, we have Chemistry of Cooking (CHEM 178). If you’re anything like us Social Sciences students, then you know anything chem-related tends to scare us off. However, CHEM 178 is targeted towards non-majors with the basis of the course built on high school chemistry knowledge. This course examines the chemistry involved in the composition, transformation, and consumption of food. Lectures and hands-on kitchen experiments are taught in conjunction with Rice Dining Service.
While chemistry may not be everyone’s favorite subject, at Rice you can explore a variety of classes in the School of Humanities like Black Sci-Fi (ENGL 279). In this class, you can examine how black science and speculative fiction blurs the division between reality and fantasy and details the inequities short-circuiting the lives of brown and black peoples around the world.
For those interested in entrepreneurship and venture capital, we suggest the Student Venture: Evaluating Startup Investment Opportunities (BUSI 465). Students will identify, screen, and evaluate start-ups for investment by the Rice venture capital fund. Through this highly experiential course, students will learn tools for evaluating startup ventures for investment, valuing early stage companies, and structuring investments, with the goal of presenting their recommendations to a committee and awarding funding to a start-up.
Not in the Shepherd School of Music, but also not a pre-med? We found the perfect combination for you: Creativity Up Close (MUSI 379). This course explores creativity in human behavior and society. Students develop hands-on creative projects in oral history, music, industrial design and video. With no necessary prerequisites, this class is open to anyone!
To finish out our course roundup, we thought it would be fitting to include a College Course. These 1-credit student-taught College Courses are offered for academic credit on the same basis as departmental courses. While there are a wealth of college courses, we found one to be particularly promising: Memes and Internet Culture (COLL 170). This course aims to explore the powerful nature of memes and how the increasing reliance on internet culture informs our society at large. Students of all disciplines and meme expertise are welcome to join exploration of the internet culture we exist in.
Head over to the course guide to check out more fun classes Rice is offering next semester.
Keep Exploring
As a Rice University student studying abroad in Madrid, I (Izzy L., Chao ‘29) spent six weeks navigating Spanish immigration law at my internship while exploring the country’s rich history of convivencia. This experience cultivated a deep sense of empathy within me while also providing a sharper critical lens to bring back to campus.
When I (Tamara L., Martel ‘29) was first considering studying abroad, the thought of moving across the globe felt exciting AND intimidating. The Rice in Paris program turned out to be a perfect three-week compromise, providing the support I needed to navigate a new culture while building lasting connections. Here’s how stepping out of my comfort zone changed my perspective on international learning.
When I (Lexi O., Baker ‘28) was applying to college, I assumed getting involved in medical research was something that would take years to accomplish. But after my first year at Rice, that goal took shape sooner than expected. Here’s how I ended up working in an Alzheimer’s research lab in the Med Center.
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