Courses & Faculty

Best Class/Professor

• AAAD 101 w/ Sebastian

• Al Duncan (Greek or Classics) and AMST 210 Intro to the American South with Seth Kotch

• Al Duncan, Greek Drama seminar and Henry Veggian, ENGL 147 Mystery Fiction

• Any class with Dr. Penn

• Any of Matt Andrews' history classes

• Ariel, Yaakov (RELI): In particular, consider RELI 161 (Introduction to Christianity) and RELI 542H (Religion and the Counterculture)

• Bio 101 with Dr. Hogan

• BIOL 426 - Diseases of the Blood

• Brandon Bayne is the best for religious studies classes! My favorite was RELI 448, I learned so much!

• CJ Skender is my favorite teacher (teaches BUSI 102). My favorite class was INLS 161.

• CJ Skender, Busi 102

• Dr. Daniel Riffe (I had him for MEJO 153 and he is one of my biggest role models)

• Educ 181 with Kara Hume and Clas 76H with Al Duncan!

• Educ 325 with Meghan/Sara Walter

• Education 181 with Kara Hume

• Elizabeth McLaughlin - Math 232

• ENEC 201

• ENGL 136 with Ross White

• English 128- Stephanie Kinzinger

• EXSS 275L: Human Anatomy Lab

• GEOL 072H

• Highly recommend SOCI 468 or any APPLES service-learning course! History of Healthcare in the South (FYS)

• Hugo Mendez-Reli professor, Psyc 68: First-Year Seminar: Psychology of Emotion

• I loved Poli 66 with Gary Marks

• I've loved all of my classes so far. I highly recommend taking MUSC145: Intro to Jazz with Professor Anderson to knock out 3 gen eds in an easy, fun class.

• Jodi Magness

• Mario Giacommazo and Michelle-Sherman Andrews are both great!

• MEJO 245: Sports and the Media; Prof. Tim Crothers

• Prof: C.J. Skender; Class: HIST 140 (The World Since 1945)

• Prof: Lanier Walker (does not teach this class but) Class: HIST 395

• Professor Navin Bapat (POLI 150)

• Thomas Reinert (ENGL)

• Todd Ochoa - Reli 122

• Dr. Hummer! He is an awesome sociology professor! He cares so much about his students and ensuring that they get the most out of his class. He is a renowned health-focused sociologist and is the director of Add Health (a huge nation-wide longitudinal health study)! His classes provide students interested in healthcare and population health a better outlook on well-being and health in general that many natural science course do not.

• Professor Sathy is in Psych department is an absolute sweetheart. I took a first year seminar with her and she made it a point to have dinner with all of us and really cared about us as people. Jeff Summerlin-Long in the Public Policy department is hilarious. Reli 127 Claims of Science and Religion, Loeb for Psych 101! So it’s kind of wild because I’m a chem major and have never liked English or those types of classes, but my British lit class, English 120 from freshman year with Katherine Walker is one of my favorites I’ve taken. Also History 220-History of the Olympics with Matt Andrews is the probably my favorite overall, even if you don’t like sports the class is so interesting and engaging and Andrews is really cool. For chemistry purposes, Todd Austell is a good Professor. He cares so much about his students and tries equipping us as much as he can and he’s a believer which is cool as well as Michael Crimmins and Thomas Freeman are great as well for chem classes.

Academic Tips for First-Years

• I already had my gen eds done coming in but some advice would be to not be afraid to drop a class while your sitting in it on the first day (make sure you have enough hours) if it seems like it’s going to take away too much time from your other classes. You want to have balance and an elective should not be your hardest class. Chem will be harder.

• Religious Studies classes are awesome for gen ed requirements! (you can even make a major or minor out of it) I don't recommend taking a gen ed that doesn't seem interesting to you.

• Take MUSC 145: Intro to Jazz with Stephen Anderson for an easy, fun class to knock out your VP, US, and NA gen eds. If it is offered, take professor Wei Mei for the marine sciences Oceans and Atmospheres first-year seminar class. He is the nicest man ever. I also recommend Mark Hetherington for Poli 100. He is so nice and funny. Make sure to use ratemyprofessor.com to look up professors you are considering taking.

• Try first year seminars (though it's fine to wait to take them in the spring). They can be fun and can get some gen-eds out of the way.

• Everyone should take ENEC 201- it's super informative! If you take SPAN 361 take Dr. Carasco- she's. really caring and engaging! Geography with Dr. Valdivia because she's SO COOL and engaging! Everyone should take GLBL 210 with Dr. Osterweil- she starts every class with a meditation, and it teaches you about alternative perspectives of the world. SO helpful for developing empathy!

• Don't take a Bio and Chem classes at the same time your first semester. Don't overload your schedule or push yourself to the limit. I only took 12 credit hours my first semester and it was one of the best decisions I've made at UNC. Give yourself space in your class schedule to adjust to college, make new friends, go to professors' office hours, go to the Study Center, and go to bible studies.

• Even if you think you know what you want to study, take classws that sound interesting because it's the best way to figure out what you actually want. If you're zero-ed in on a field then take some cool classes along those lines to figure out which major you like that leads into that feild. If you have no idea what to take then just pick fun sounding things. Keep in mind that you should major in things you love, not just the obvious choice for a career path because you can do lots of things with your major.

• Don't take a bunch of random gen-eds for the sake of taking them. Gen eds like LFIT and VP are great to get over, but a lot of gen eds you can get down the line in classes you're required to take for your major.

• If you are pre-med, BALANCE!! Try your best to balance heavy natural science courses (CHEM and BIO) with pertinent and supportive general education requirements. Look into pairing your natural science courses with medical sociology classes (look into the Health and Society minor) or even medical anthropology classes (look into the Med Anth minor) so that you can have a different outlook on health and classes that are still relevant to the medical field but not as taxing.

• Take a first-year seminar!! Get your gen-eds out of the way first (plus you take cool classes you may end up majoring in)!

• AAAD 101 with Lydia Boyd is good. Take Dr. Freeman for Chem 101. Prof. McLaughlin for Math 232 is the best.

• I'd recommend for pre-business majors not to take Econ 101 during the first semester. It is doable, but taking math prerequisites and maybe Busi 102 would be a better idea, then take Econ 101 second semester. The workload for that class is more than the others and it would be good to get used to other UNC classes before taking it. For the business school (if that's what you're looking into) it is important to have a high gpa in your prereqs, and taking Econ 101 second semester might be a good idea to make sure you do well in that class. Also, pay attention to ratemyprofessor! I came into UNC a little overconfident, thinking that I would be fine regardless of the professor, and looking at ratemyprofessor ratings did nothing to influence my class selection. If the professor has a 1 or 2 quality with a 4 or 5 difficulty, I highly recommend taking the class with a different professor if possible! I didn't look for other professors thinking that it wouldn't affect me, but those classes with bad ratings really were tough. Also, if you're looking for easy gen eds and have a solid foundation of Biblical knowledge, Reli 103 and 104 are really great options, especially if Hugo Mendez is teaching them. Geog 111 is a pretty easy science gen ed if you aren't interested in taking science classes. The exams are tough, but Professor Konrad gives you plenty of opportunities to do well. Hist 106 is also an easy gen ed for an HS credit. Finally, I would say don't be afraid to switch things up and change plans if you find that you don't like your major or the classes you're in. I do think that as you progress through majors, they become more interesting and sometimes less challenging if you can get through boring weed out 101 type classes, but if you really want to try another area, go for it! It's not too late to change your major or field of study, especially freshman year or first semester sophomore year.

• Take GEOL 072H if at all possible - literally involves going on a trip to California!

• Japanese with Fumi Iwashita is a lot easier than other languages, and it's pretty interesting as well! ANTH 231 is a bit boring, but really easy and can get you three gen eds.

• First year seminars are awesome because they allow you to explore random topics that you may not learn in "normal" classes, are heavily discussion based in smaller class sizes, and typically require less work! Stem classes hard- don't overdo it your first semester! Interesting but not strenuous: GEOG110, MEJO137, EDUC 181, SOCI 445 *always dependent on prof.

• Comp 110 or 116 is work, but is definitely beneficial for so many major paths, especially anyone who likes math/stats/science!!! I took 116 and learning Python helped me land my internship!

• Do not stress about your first semester schedule. Registration is just a nightmare, but there will be so many chances to get classes you want/need! Every semester, ask around for recommendations for non-stressful classes to build in some margin.

• I personally avoided Bio and Chem because my major didn't need it :) Geology was interesting and apparently much easier!

• Look up professors on Rate My Professor and read about them—this is SUCH a lifesaver!! Use UNC Coursicle to help make your schedule and use the search tool for gen eds to figure out which classes are available. Branch out when you take gen eds—I’m an English major but discovered my love of classics classes through a first year seminar!

• RELI 246: Supernatural Encounters (easy A and gets you a GL); DRAM 115 with Jeff Cornell (easy A, LA credit, and he's the kindest professor ever)

• As a student in the MEJO/J-school (journalism), it will be difficult to get into your major classes and that's probably the same for every major. Try and knock out as many gen-eds as possible. My favorite classes were RELI 103, MEJO 245, and MEJO 137. Most freshman get their LFIT done during freshman year so I'd suggest to knock that out. Also, use "Rate My Professor" and don't pick a professor under a 3.5 or so unless you have no other choice.

• Use rate my professor, professors make a HUGE difference!! First year seminars are a great start to getting genEds out of the way. If a prof has a bad rating, do not take the class even if it sounds interesting. Likewise, if the class doesn’t sound super interesting, but the prof has good ratings and if covers requirements you need, take it!

• Definitely knock out your GenEds by taking the lowest level classes possible (in the 100s)! Also if you're not a STEM major and need to take your science GenEd, definitely take biology

• Take AMST 101, ANTH 101, POLI 280 (so fun with Prof. Wiedenfeld), COMM 170 (Jackie Olson makes it so fun), LFIT 115, & GEOL 101.

• Look every single potential prof up in rate my professor. I’ve started only adding classes into my shipping cart if they have plenty of good reviews because I’ve had some bad experiences with profs that didn’t have any reviews! Professors make or break the class.

• Communications classes are usually pretty easy (and open note) for gen eds. I also took a lot of religious studies seminars that weren't too hard for my gen eds (RELI 420H for philosophy credit is awesome). If you are taking BIOL 101, I definitely recommend Hogan. The beginning jogging LFIT is a lot of running, and I would recommend to not sign up for an LFIT right before another class in case you get sweaty!

• This first point is kind of self explanatory but don’t wait a semester to take a class if it’s part of a sequence like chem 101 and 102 or Orgo 1 and 2 because they do build and you don’t want to risk forgetting stuff. Also id highly recommend taking a first year seminar, they’re usually pretty interesting and don’t have a final which is nice, plus they max at like 30 people maybe so the small classes are a lot nicer in my opinion and can get a couple gen Ed’s. Next thing is I’d say you don’t have to marathon through your major requirements, find random stuff, preferably that knocks out gen Ed’s that you think would be very interesting, I would’ve never known I secretly liked old British literature if I hadn’t taken English 120 freshman year. Lastly, I only have a chem perspective so I don’t know much for other majors but at least for stem, I’d avoid more than one of those types of classes unless it’s very general like chem or bio 101/102 and maybe math 130 or 231 etc your first semester because the adjustment to college takes time and can be difficult so you don’t want to be loaded while trying to figure that out.

• If you need a PX/PL, take Geology 101 instead of Astronomy. I thought Astronomy sounded really cool (and it sort of was at times) and easy, but it got way harder than I thought it would. Also, don’t be afraid to take classes that don’t get you any new gen eds. I took about a few classes that didn’t get me any and also weren’t part of any major I was interested in, and while I can’t say I ended up loving those particular classes, don’t let that get in the way of you taking something that piques your interest.

• Utilize the First Year Seminars to knock out the Gen Ed. Use them to knock out the more obscure gen eds like PH of US that don’t have as great of a class selection later on. HIST 127 with Glatthaar is good also if you need a US. If you take ECON 101 don’t load yourself up with 16 hours.

• I'd go all in on gen-eds early so you don't worry about them later. Take all your first year seminars because they are usually easy-A's and give good gen-eds. RELI 140 was pretty easy as well as RELI 103. I think I got most of my requirements through the RELI department even though I'm not trying to major/minor in it. That department usually has the easiest classes in my opinion.

• I loved my indoor sports LFIT (I recommend taking LFIT first year), psych 101 is pretty easy and Loeb is awesome!!!!, Arth 105 is an easy VP gen-ed, chem 101/102 are weed outs and just difficult if you have to take don’t worry it gets better

• I am majoring in journalism so stem is not my thing! For my QR (Quantitative Reasoning) credit for gen-eds, I took MATH 118 with Linda Green and I definitely recommend it! If you need a lab credit for gen-eds, GEOL 101 Lab is the easiest by far! For your SS (Social Science) credit for gen-eds, I loved SOCI 122 (Race and Ethnicity) with Kathleen Fitzgerald. For your VP (Visual Performance) credit for gen-eds, take ARTS 132 (Collages) with Joy Cox!

• Journalism people - everyone is required to take MEJO 121 (Introduction into Digital Storytelling) and MEJO 153 (Writing and Reporting). If you can, take 121 with Katie Malloy and 153 with Daniel Riffe.

• If you're on the fence about whether to start in span 105 or 203, I recommend taking 105, as it prepares you extremely well for 203.

• If you need a science without lab gen ed requirement, take geog 111 (weather and climate) with Konrad; he's a nice guy, the workload is light, and the material is interesting If taking busi 102 (a half semester class), take it in the first half of the semester so that when finals week rolls around, you're already done with the class

• Don't take Chem 102 and Bio 202 at the same time; definitely take advantage of all FYS; take gen eds to get them out of the way; Blom for English 105 is really good; Really just take advantage of taking any class with friends you know from various ministries or events on campus

• Take classes you are actually interested in for gen eds if you can, and try to take them in a range of departments to be exposed to more stuff!! I recommend Soci 101, Comm 120, Mejo 137, plcy 210, and Educ 181 if you have room or even if you aren't interested in those majors--they all just have good interesting things to know and were pretty easy! Also, don't re-take something you already have credit for!! even if it's a pre-req for the next class and you feel like you don't remember the material. Just go ahead and take the next level becuase it will save you a semester's worth of time and energy (and no one really remembers the stuff from pre-reqs anyway.)

• I would definitely not take too many 100 level big lecture hall courses your first semester! They tend to have a good bit of busy work and can be a difficult transition to college level courses. I would also not take more than 2 STEM courses your first semester. They can take up a ton of time during an important semester of getting adjusted to college!

• COMM 160 w/ Sonny Kelly was a great first-year GenEd class. RELI classes can be super interesting, but the workload can vary a lot from class to class.

• If you need your PX credit take GEOL 101 with Megan Plenge! She is super passionate and helps you enjoy Rocks for Jocks, despite how boring geology may sound! also the easiest PX out there if you ask me (to all my humanities kids). If you don’t NEED ECON 101 for your major: DO NOT TAKE. Same with a lot of the early CHEM courses I have seen my friends go through them and it does not look pretty. But do not stress if that is you! All of my friends have made it through and you make fabulous friendships through shared pain!

• Take AAAD 101 with Matthew Sebastian!! Such a great class!! Phil 160 is hard, especially if you are not into philosophy! Chem at Carolina is difficult, but do not be scared! It is definitely doable!

• As much as you can take gen-eds that are interesting to you and have good professors. First year seminars are great, highly recommend. Generally, don't overload your schedule. People are more important than academics. Yes, study hard and do your best but remember people last longer than your grades.

Interest Groups

Pre-Med / Pre-Dental

Tips & advice from Adam Engasser, a senior studying pre-med:

• Pre-med is very large at UNC
• For classes, there's a broad range in terms of difficulty
• Some of the intro classes are tough, so use AP credits if you can
• Check out ratemyprofessor.com when you're registering for classes
• Don't pick classes solely based on the grade distribution - there are more important things than your GPA
• You don't have to major in biology or chemistry - if anything, it's better to do something that you enjoy and that makes you stand out
• You don't have to become a doctor! You are not a failure if you drop out or decide that another field is more interesting to you

Pre-Health / Pre-Nursing

Tips & advice from Brooke Jordan, a senior studying pre-health:

• Get involved with research or volunteer at the hospital
• Join a club based on your academic interests
• Go to office hours for chemistry lab - it will save you a ton of time
• Take the human anatomy cadaver lab if you can

Public Health

Tips & advice from Juan Castro, a junior studying public health:

• There's a separate application process for public health and you can only apply once
• UNC is pretty gracious with AP transfer credits
• It's good to space out the pre-requisites
• Don't take econ and a natural science at the same time unless you have to
• Try and knock out your gen eds in the first two years
• Try and get involved on campus in groups that are aligned with your public health interests

Pre-Law

Tips & advice from Madison Urban, a senior studying pre-law:

• Take a logic class if you can, for the LSAT
• Allow yourself time to get adjusted
• Invest in relationships and people in addition to your education
• Enjoy every moment of every day at Carolina!

Business / Economics

Tips & advice from Matthew Donnalley, a junior studying pre-med:

• Knock out your pre-reqs as early as possible
• Take advantage of ratemyprofessor.com
• Mooch off of the free food in the dorms
• Don't spread yourself too thin

Computer Science

Tips & advice from Daniel Manilla, a junior studying computer science:

• It's a big major with large classes
• If you have coding expereince, you can get out of some classes
• There are lots of jobs available within the department