Fall 2023 wrapup

2023-12-18

My first semester at UMich is over, so here's my review.

Course review

2025-12-18 update: I used to put these course reviews here in this blogpost, but I realized that makes it too long. So, I made them separate posts.

MUSIC 210

Rating: 4/5

Theme: Rap songwriting

Instructor (Deidre Smith, aka D. S. SENSE)

She's a nice lady who unfortunately missed a lot of lectures due to illness. Nevertheless, she was nothing but encouraging to every one of us.

Creativity does not constrain me; language is the barrier. I can sometimes fail to understand her accent, and I'm not a fluent English speaker when it comes to rap. I took this course partly to train my spoken English, but it didn't seem to work that well. (skill issue)

Every in-person class we would be given 25 minutes to work on a short piece of hip hop. I abused this opportunity to:

  • rant about NFTs
  • write a piece that goes between 7/8, 6/8, and 9/8 time
  • ask people in the room to decide on my grocery list

Anyway, this course gave birth to my first original song, This Song Will Uncure Your Depression.

CHEM 130

Rating: 4.5/5 (relative to my expectations and wishes, which are low)

I took CHEM 210 two years ago and sucked so much it wasn't even transferable. I had to repeat it to fill in that hole on my transcript. But here, I almost know everything, and routinely get full points on the tests.

There are two hypotheses why I sucked:

  • CHEM 210 is inherently harder than 130
  • skill issue

I believe both factors are at play. On one hand 210 defintely covered something extra (entropy and electrochemistry), but on the other at that time I was a fresh college student who didn't even know how college worked. This course was chemistry "principles". It's nothing like high school chemistry that's just "remember this experiment" and "remember that phenomenon". Instead it's built upon physical and statistical principles, which I did not know at that time. Now that I've taken a course on electromagnetics and one on statistics, I can actually understand what's going on with these "dipoles" (they're just two opposite charges on a stick) and "electron clouds" (they're just probability density functions). This is why I wonder why this course is so often taken in the very first semester of college, when it's not a prerequisite for any other ECE course. In fact, that makes the experience a little like high school — learning the "principles" without learning the principles of the principles.

General comments & concerns

  • I am aware that, as far as infrastructure goes, universities are among the best places in the US. But even so, there's not enough buses.
  • Food too expensive. But not terrible.
  • Drinks too expensive.
  • The nature is well preserved and air quality is good.
  • It snows sometimes which is fun if I wasn't waiting for a bus outside.
  • I have to learn to slow down. When I'm walking in a dining hall, my instincts urge me to hurry up, which is not a good strategy in a place packed with people carrying plates.
  • People here are more welcoming and diverse than expected. I have witnessed zero cases of xenophobia or racism so far.
  • I wanted to get an FCC ham radio license but never got around to. Next semester I guess?

Significant material gains

  • I bought a blåhaj
  • I bought a bass
  • I bought a laptop
  • I got a "Michigan Pride" T-shirt at the drag show
  • I got a "Know two ways out" shirt at a fire safety awareness event
  • I got an "Arts & Resistance" T-shirt at the Duderstadt gallery
  • I bought a second-hand CD of The Black Parade
  • I bought two books "just because" and three more for reasons