Unique and Interesting Classes to Take at DePaul
There are a ton of really cool classes available at DePaul. The way that our programs are broken down makes it so you can get a really nice variety of topics included in your studying by the time you graduate. Your degree is split into three sections: major courses, liberal studies courses, and electives. This allows almost any program to still maintain a good balance of coursework and ensures that anyone who graduates from DePaul has a diverse education and has experience with a ton of different topics.
The first type of course I have to bring up is any that are related to Chicago. For most people, myself included, being in Chicago has been the best part of their DePaul experience. The university prides itself on its amazing location, and there are many courses offered that either incorporate Chicago topics into the coursework or are solely focused on some aspect of the city. When you enroll at DePaul, you are required to take a Chicago-quarter class during the fall quarter of your freshman year. The class that I took has been one of my favorites, and was focused on how the city rebuilt after the great fire in 1871. There is an insane range of topics for these Chicago-quarter classes, and the goal is to immerse students in the city and help them feel connected. On top of those, there is such a huge catalog of options for Chicago focused classes you can take during your degree. There are classes that focus on Chicago museums, unique events, notable figures, basically anything you can think of. I think those courses are such a unique and cool aspect of learning at DePaul and I highly recommend them.
Being that at least a third of your courses at DePaul are going to fulfill some type of liberal studies requirement, I want to mention some of the coolest options. A couple that always get brought up come from the hospitality program and are titled, “Craft Beer Education & Management” and “International Wine Education & Management”. Now, most students will likely need to wait until their senior year to take these courses as you do have to be at least 21 years old, but I have heard only amazing things about them. These classes not only discuss the beverage-making process for their respective industries, but also talk about sales and marketing and the entire business process for alcoholic beverages, offering a really unique experience for students. Additionally, having a very prestigious film program here at DePaul comes with many benefits, and one of those is the different classes that focus on film and TV franchises. These typically shuffle around and incorporate new releases, and some popular options in the past have been classes that focus on “The Bachelor”, “Harry Potter”, and “Game of Thrones”. The “The Bachelor” class even got to participate in a live Q&A with one of the cast members which was a really cool experience for those students.
The classes I have brought up at this point are all somewhat focused on really fun and cool topics, which is great, but most people go to college to pursue a rigorous academic degree and learn some tough material. With that in mind, I want to highlight a type of course that I have personal experience with, the courses within the honors program. The honors program at DePaul is set up in a simple way: your liberal studies courses are removed and replaced with honors versions. These classes typically have the same topics of study, but have smaller class sizes and are very discussion focused. I took the photo to the right during a class trip to the Art Institute of Chicago for my Japanese History honors course, we got to go into the back storage area and get up close with those prints which are over 200 years old. I think some of the best learning I have done at DePaul has come as a result of the discussions during my honors courses and I think they are very impressive from an academic standpoint. You can also make deeper connections with professors, and in my experience they seem to care just a little bit more about the content in the honors classes. Please consider applying for the honors program when you apply to DePaul, it is something that most people can and should take advantage of.
Like most large universities, DePaul offers a great variety of topics to take classes on and as a result maintains a vast catalog of courses each quarter. The difference comes when you add the location and specific attributes of DePaul to the mix, and you’re left with some really cool classes that are both challenging and interesting. Whether you want to learn about the city of Chicago, a crazy specific liberal arts topic, a cutting edge new technological practice, or anything in between, DePaul will probably have a course for you.
~Jeff