I loved my run of digital electronics courses, most computer science courses related to programming or computer internals, and my design projects. I also had a humanities credit for The History of the Reformation, and that class was fun.
I hated analog electronics, Discrete Mathematics, and the rest of my humanities.
Somewhere in between the two extremes is the run of calculus and differential equations. I love the topics, but some classes sucked in execution while others did not.
Cosmology: Our class was simultaneous with the COBE satellite mission, and our professor showed us in class the real-time data confirming the anisotropic results as it was coming in from the COBE team, before the media and general public. It felt like being involved in history.
Complex systems: Electrical engineering class on complex math. Would normally be dry, but we had a crazy professor who dedicated a 4-hour lecture to a fundamental development of i that blew my fragile little mind. I felt like I’d suddenly seen the dribbly green text of The Matrix revealed.
German: A hot professor that left me in a constant saturated puppy love swoon for 3 months.
It wasn’t so much the classes as the teachers and students. There were a few teachers that I had in wildly divergent classes, and those classes were always good (or bad).
But some favorite classes included:
Atonal Solfege – The teacher was OK, but the material was fun and challenging.
Arranging – All 4 or 6 levels (whatever is was) were fun, but the bigger the band, the more fun it was.
History of John Lennon – The teacher was OK, but the material was a hit. I graduated at the end of the fall semester, and that was my last class on my last day. I ended my college career with Happy Christmas in my head.
At Columbia, we were required to take two semesters of Contemporary Civilization- a course dedicated to many of the great philosophical and political texts of the Western world, from Plato through Augustine, Maimonides, Montaigne, Locke, Hume and assorted other great thinkers.
I enjoyed those two classes more than any other I’ve taken.
Socrates,Jesus and Buddha-Exactly what it says on the tin. Very interesting class comparing their philosphies. We’d meditate for 5 minutes tgo start each class.
I went into Art because I loved it, was fairly good at it, and it meant that I didn’t have to buy many books. Any of the practical classes were fun, even the hard ones. Specifically:
Animation - this was hand-drawn animation (the class is all Flash now). Such a pain in the ass, but so much fun.
I don’t remember what the class was called, but it was basically a computer drawing class. It was a small class, about 10 of us. Loved the teacher, loved the assignments. I don’t think I learned very much, but it was good practice.