Sarah

Hey Hawkeyes,

I realized after my last post that I’ve barely discussed my classes this semester. First of all, since it’s my last semester I have a seemingly random mix of classes because they’re the classes that didn’t have to be taken at a certain point. Unfortunately, for my last semester I ended up with morning classes. I am nothing close to a morning person. And when I say morning classes I’m not talking about like 10:30 or 9:30. No, I mean 8:30 and 8:00 every morning except for my one morning of 7:30. It’s been tough but so far I have not missed a single class.

My first class is Biostatistics. Basically statistics, but applied to biological examples. Like statistics for studies involving whether a new medication works as well as how to set-up experiments and what conditions need to be met. I’m not a huge fan of stats, but at least the examples are interesting.

My next class is Material Science. This class is more basic level materials class that focuses on a broad overview on how to select materials for applications. Sounds super easy, right? Not always. Since my internship was focused on polymers, the whole concept of metals has been new. And if you’ve never seen a eutectic phase diagram, you should definitely look that up; I finally figured them out!

Next is my Musical Theatre History class. It is phenomenal. I’m really enjoying a class that doesn’t make me think super hard or derive equations. We read, watch, and discuss musicals as they’ve developed over time. We focus on gender and race and how they relate to the themes in the musicals.

Finally, I have my pharmacy class. This class is based on drug delivery systems. So basically any way from getting a medication from outside the body to inside the body. We’ve discussed micro-needles, bone tissue engineering, cancer vaccinations, and gene therapy methods. I find this class immensely interesting and I’ve learned so much! Aside from the information aspect, I have also learned more about what I’m interested in and what kind of job I’d like to have in the future.

I have really enjoyed this semester with the combination of major-related classes and non-major related classes. It’s been fun exploring some of my other interests. I also really appreciate how much of my past classes are used in my more advanced classes. It’s really cool to learn difficult material and realize you have a strong background in the area.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 7th, 2016 at 9:04 am and is filed under Academics, General, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.