The CardBoard
"Easy" classes at Stanford? - Printable Version

+- The CardBoard (https://thecardboard.org/board)
+-- Forum: C-House! (https://thecardboard.org/board/forum-4.html)
+--- Forum: The CardBoard (https://thecardboard.org/board/forum-5.html)
+--- Thread: "Easy" classes at Stanford? (/thread-1313.html)

Pages: 1 2

"Easy" classes at Stanford? - Class_of_75 - 03-09-2011

Say it ain\'t so! From the Comical.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/08/MNBT1I6G8J.DTL

Re: "Easy" classes at Stanford? - anshulw - 03-09-2011

While I attended Stanford during the first half of the last decade, there was a course called EDGE: Ethics of Development in a Global Environment.

It was labeled as ENGR297, when it had absolutely nothing to do with engineering.

4 units, minimal work, the median grade of an A, 200-300 students (> 75% athletes).

The biggest travesty was that it could be taken three times during your Stanford career (ENGR297A in Autumn, ENGR297B in Winter and ENGR297C in Spring)

I believe that there was quite a bit of controversy surrounding this course, and it was either modified or discontinued.

Re: "Easy" classes at Stanford? - needle - 03-09-2011

Quote:Nearly 200 courses in 16 academic departments and programs offered during the 9 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. time slots were left off the list.

If the list isn\'t about scheduling, then it does seem that it might be a list of easy classes. This list as a university publication is worrisome to me, though all alums know about things like EDGE that were around that could be a bit of a GPA boost. I\'m glad the list has been discontinued.

I would be more concerned if there was evidence of talk between athletics department academic advisors and professors about creating classes for athletes, but the article seems to suggest the opposite.

Re: "Easy" classes at Stanford? - washingtonismoney - 03-09-2011

having a quarter of classes not meet any GERs is pretty meaningless. I never thought about GERs at any point of scheduling my classes, and I turned out alright.

Re: "Easy" classes at Stanford? - 97fan - 03-09-2011

I don\'t like the way the Athletics Department handled these reporters. The AD should have just acknowledged the obvious truth. The denial is almost laughable and really unbecoming.

The article states that this list has been around since at least 2001. I was not a varsity athlete, but I seem to recall hearing about the list during my time on the Farm in the mid-1990s. (At that time, "Portuguese Literature in Translation" was a particular favorite of many Stanford athletes, as well as non-athletes, who were looking for an easy GPA boost.)

On some level, the existence of a written list is almost beside the point. This information will continue to be passed along informally. Going forward, I\'d guess that the Athletics Department will just make sure not to put it in writing.

Re: "Easy" classes at Stanford? - 82lsju - 03-09-2011

see a copy of the list at the bottom of this page

http://www.stanforddaily.com/2011/03/09/1046687/

GE requirements - yvonne - 03-09-2011

Garvin,

Most universities -- as opposed to say, vocational schools or technical institutes -- strive to provide both depth, in the form of a major, and breadth across a spectrum of subjects. Stanford calls this requirements general education. Other schools may refer to them as distribution requirements. In addition, Stanford requires students to take a foreign language and a year of humanities.

So basically, courses not meeting GERs will count toward fulfilling the overall 180 credits required to graduate, but won\'t help fill a key graduation requirement. Ergo, taking classes can help a GPA, but it\'s not possible to graduate by taking only those classes.

http://www.stanford.edu/dept/undergrad/cgi-bin/drupal_ual/AP_univ_req_index.html#2

http://www.stanford.edu/dept/undergrad/cgi-bin/drupal_ual/AP_choosing_courses_ChoosingCourses.html



Not much to get one\'s knickers in a twist - Redrum - 03-09-2011

It seems there are two issues:

That "Easy" classes exist   and   Some sort of process of identifying "easy" classes for athletes.   Which of those is an outrage?

Under a jihad against "easy" classes,   my  Speech & Public Presentation class sophomore year would not have counted.  But it was the first time anyone ever took the time to dissect the essentials of a structured speech (which is different from the plodding essay thesis/sub-thesis/assertion/evidence  structure we had drilled into us in HS).  And it was the first time I had to actually get up and speak (and spend the time preparing) multiple times.  Practice, practice, practice works for cellists and ball players.  Why is it a bad discipline for non-athletes developing a skill?   Sure, it is "easy" compared to the problem sets that fullmetal had to do,  but it added an enduring, useful communication skill.   Didn\'t count toward my major,  so why get upset that it\'s available as a free choice for a student?    There were two football players in the class.  One,  Pete Lazetich, was one of the most naturally funny speakers I\'ve ever encountered.

Not sure I understand the issue of letting athletes know what these classes are.  The enrollment was open, not restricted to athletes.  If the university commits (as most Div. 1 schools do) to helping its athletes make it to graduation,  why is this a bad thing?  For years Kal had an  almost criminal graduation rate for its football players.  I hate almost everything Kal,  but I applaud their efforts to do right by their student athletes and the improvements they\'ve made under Tedford.   Athletes, if they take the academic opportunity seriously, often have a very tough road through school.  There are hours that other students have to work on , say, their calculus problem sets that student athletes just don\'t have.   If Kayla Pedersen or Owen Marecic  take an art class along with Hum Bio,  good on \'em.

I support any student who will spend time digging for facts, as the students credited at the bottom of the story did.   Still, it smacks a bit of Revenge of the Nerds.  Why this subject?  Angry former HS valedictorians whose minds are in a kink over somebody else\'s path through life?   There\'s a whiff of it in this "expose".  Maybe they should take a class in lightening up.  For credit or not.





Re: "Easy" classes at Stanford? - CrazedZooChimp - 03-09-2011

It should be noted while the article was in the Chronicle, this was written by a whole gaggle of people at the Daily.  And to think Garvin complained the Chappie fake Daily hurt the papers cred just a few days ago... ;)

Quote:
Quote:Nearly 200 courses in 16 academic departments and programs offered during the 9 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. time slots were left off the list.

If the list isn\'t about scheduling, then it does seem that it might be a list of easy classes. This list as a university publication is worrisome to me, though all alums know about things like EDGE that were around that could be a bit of a GPA boost. I\'m glad the list has been discontinued.

That\'s not really true.  Look at the classes on the list, almost all are introductory.  Providing a list to student athletes that includes E.E. courses with 10 pre-reqs or graduate level history seminars that fit in the desired time slots would be really unhelpful.  The broad sweeping comment is a lack of actual investigation as far as I\'m concerned.

To me it\'s clearly a list of intro classes intended to help young athletes find classes that fit in their schedules, the same way all frosh (at least 8 years ago) were encouraged to take a fun intro classes in a wide range of subjects.  Heck, the bottom of the list even encourages kids to take frosh/soph intro sems, the same way every academic adviser does.


Re: "Easy" classes at Stanford? - Farm93 - 03-09-2011

This coach over here made calls against the rules!
This coach over there hid the fact that players were selling away their gear!
Minor violations, major violations, they are everywhere!

Everyone is guilty.  Oh, except Penn State and Stanford.  
Ummm, ummm, at Stanford the athletes are told which classes have minimal prereqs and fit into their busy schedule.  SHOCKING! See!  See!

Yawn!  When I think back there were classes that dinged students if they missed Saturday labs.  There were professors that dinged students if they missed a few days.  There were classes that had big group assignments that required significant Saturday and Sunday participation.  It would be terrible if the AD didn\'t help the athletes navigate through the maze.  And as a student without AD obligations, I would have been angry to see student-athletes assigned to my "team" if the prof required a lot of group assignments on Monday mornings.

Thank You AD!  Sorry to see your convenient list will now be replaced by less formal verbal discussions.

Re: "Easy" classes at Stanford? - Leftcoast - 03-09-2011

I suspect this was meant to be a list of classes with minimal pre-requisites that could fill schedule holes.

To me the real story is how badly academic advising handled the PR angle.   We\'ll no doubt be forced to hear Bea.rs crow for years about a Stanford list of "Easy A classes" for jocks.  

(And while we\'re at it shame on the Daily Editors for allowing such a non-story to be written with such a breathless expose-style presentation.  Once you\'ve read the actual list anyone who went to Stanford is going to wonder what the big to-do is all about.)



Re: "Easy" classes at Stanford? - washingtonismoney - 03-09-2011

Well, the PR is especially clueless for this quote:

"(Stanford) accommodates athletes in the manner that they accommodate students with disabilities," said Donald Barr, who teaches a Social Class, Race, Ethnicity, Health course, which was highlighted by resource center advisers.



Ted Miller gives PR lessons - yvonne - 03-09-2011

http://espn.go.com/blog/pac10/post/_/id/19816/report-easy-class-list-at-stanford

Miller nails it. - jacketree - 03-09-2011

"Few folks would really care if this wasn\'t Stanford, which is supposed to be, you know, Stanford-y."

This is the only reason the Chron picked it up.  I think we all know athletes at Stanford aren\'t spending their seasons simultaneously perfecting cold fusion, but people enjoy the reminder.

When I was an undergrad, we didn\'t exactly have a list of easy classes (my major allowed 12 hours of free elective - total - so \'easy\' was a pretty relative term), but we had very detailed lists of classes/sections/professors to avoid like the plague.  You tried to wait until sections were taught by those in the \'Santa Claus\' category rather than the \'Shaft\' or \'Super Shaft\' category. This list was so non-underground that it was available in the campus bookstore. Eventually Ma Tech figured it out and replaced professor names in the course catalog with "Staff" which is only two letters removed from "Shaft", which is what we just assumed we would get.

We also had "Word" (old tests and such), which could be very helpful, particularly when you had a lazy prof who had taught the same class for decades.  Last fall I found some of my old word in our frat\'s store room. Can\'t believe anyone still uses it after 25 years, or maybe they just don\'t clean much.  (Well that is a true statement.)

We had Word at Stanford too, if you knew the right people. One of my friends who shall remain nameless, but is a tenured professor in Berkeley, was caught with Word in class during a test. We all pretended to ignore what was happening, but she responded to the professor\'s confrontation with "but everyone uses it and you never change your tests!" You couldn\'t hear a pin drop due to the collective smacking of foreheads....

Re: "Easy" classes at Stanford? - yvonne - 03-09-2011

That was my favorite line in the whole blog post. :)

Re: "Easy" classes at Stanford? - Leftcoast - 03-09-2011

Greeeaatttt !

I\'m now listening to an interview going on at KNBR, the dominant bay area sports radio station, with two of the Stanford students from California Watch (Ryan Mac and Amy Harris. who I\'ll) who both sound inarticulate and halting.  The entire tone of the interview is how Stanford is making easy A\'s available to athletes.

One example - the interviewer drew attention to the "recent loosening of academic admittance standards" and Stanford\'s Orange Bowl success and asked if they were related.   "Uhhhhhh ... We looked into it and, uh, I can\'t comment on that".   Even the interviewer followed up in the next section by noting the students "were just getting started and probably not used to doing this sort of thing."  

And the suggested subject for the next segment?   Listeners were prompted to phone in with "the easiest class YOU took in college."  

I wonder how many will call in with Calculus 19.   :P

Good potential subthread(s) courtesy KNBR - jacketree - 03-09-2011

Easiest class I took:

PE1010 (Drown-proofing; required for graduation). A generally feared class often deferred to the graduating quarter, but I found that I was able to float with basically zero effort. Final: Survive 55 minutes in a cold pool fully clothed (\'You might be in a business suit if your plane goes down over the Pacific!\') with hands and feet bound.  Piece of cake as circling sharks and killer waves not included. Major difficulty encountered: boredom - 55 minutes is a long time with nothing but your thoughts.

Honorable Mention: Introduction to Ceramic Engineering, Food Research Something or Another

Hardest Class I took:

ESM20xx (Mechanics of Deformable Bodies). About as hard as it sounds.

Honorable mention: Stochastic Methods in Hydrology, Advanced Numerical Methods, EE Partial DiffEqs, E-mag (self shaft, no less)

Best Class I took:

Typing. Seventh Grade.

Re: "Easy" classes at Stanford? - fullmetal - 03-09-2011

The engineers among the student-athlete population, current and alumni, are suitably upset at the insinuations of the national media.  Feh.

Re: Good potential subthread(s) courtesy KNBR - Nan3cy - 03-10-2011

Quote: Major difficulty encountered: boredom - 55 minutes is a long time with nothing but your thoughts.

Had to have an MRI on my head a few years ago after a TIA (baby brother to a stroke, caused by a heart arrythmia). Anyway, I was told I had to stay absolutely still for an hour inside the MRI thingamajig, which as Jacketree notes, ain\'t easy. I filled the time by singing Tom Lehrer songs to myself (silently) and seeing how many of the songs off his second and third album I could remember. When the guy pulled me out of the machine I said, has it really been an hour? and he said, no, you stayed so still that it only took 45 minutes.

I\'m sure my dad had no idea when he came home with those albums 50 or so years ago what good use they would be put to. When my internist asked how the test had gone, she thought my technique was a good call, though she did take off points for forgetting all about "Masochism Tango."  8-)

Re: "Easy" classes at Stanford? - Kathy - 03-10-2011

This is it? Really? One 677-word story  in the Chron\'s Wednesday sports section -- written by a "team" of student "journalists" -- has everybody\'s panties in a bunch?

Maybe it\'s just me -- reading the news is simply a busman\'s holiday anymore -- and everything I read gets filtered through my editor\'s mind, but this story essentially says nothing. Whoever edited this at the Chron did a pathetic job. Just two athletes and two professors quoted, and none of the four advisers who purportedly compiled the list. There are so many holes in this story, so many missing essential details that would give a more precise picture of what these courses are about ... but then we would have no story, right?

Interesting comments by the sociology professor -- was she offended because her class was perceived to be easy, or did she just not want the AD directing athletes to her class -- seems like "interpersonal relations" would be a valuable subject for them.

And why did it take 16 people to write this piddly little story? They had enough manpower to write a long-form Sunday exposé. The only place this "story" belonged, if it belonged anywhere, was in The Daily with details and context aimed at the audience most familiar with Stanford\'s current offerings.


This little tempest points up one of my most grievous pet peeves. I have come to loathe the end of each semester in Columbia -- that\'s always the time when the J-School students polish off their semester-long projects and their professors point the way toward our office, where they attempt to get their little masterpieces published in the magazine. The price is right for the company bean-counters, but it\'s always more work than any story is worth to edit, rewrite, reinterview, rewrite, re-research, rewrite, re-edit ... ad nauseum.

Somebody must have been desperate to fill space that day.