Blog Post 5: Changes to my study program

I am currently in my second year of Anthropology at the Universidad de Chile, and to be honest I have generally liked the program of studies very much, except for some details.

Throughout the first two years of the mandatory curriculum there are subjects in archaeology, physical and social anthropology. Many people already know which course to take from the beginning, and others do not, so the compulsory study of all 3 branches can have both pros and cons.

For example, there was a subject called "Taller II: Materialidad y Bioantropología" in which I was taught archaeology and bioanthropology. The truth is that the archaeological field of this subject was quite boring for me, since I was not interested in the archaeological details taught, the teacher was good, but still I could not find a real interest in the archaeology taught in that subject. Also, the assistants in the subject were not very nice. I wish that taking certain subjects had been optional, it would have saved me the trouble I had trying to pay attention to the classes.

Another thing I would change about the curriculum would be that some subjects do not have weekly homework assignments, since it adds a lot of academic load and studying for those subjects is not enjoyable.

I would also like to have more instances in which to participate in the physical anthropology labs, where we are also taught correctly how to use the computer programs that are used for the subject.

In general, the professors I have come across have good teaching methods, except for some who do not do very didactic classes, which makes them boring for me.