Small Group Courses

[littlelaw]

Does anyone have opinions or suggestions for what the best course to select as your small group course it? Also open to any advice on block selection -- the whole thing is somewhat overwhelming to me. 

cheers

[Theysaidwhat]

I personally don't think you can go wrong with any one that you choose unless you have a strong preference for one of them. Something you can consider is looking up the professors on rate my prof or just googling them to see if you'd be interested in building a relationship with them. 

I didn't have a strong preference for any of them so I chose based on what the schedule looked like. The first term of 1L is quite overwhelming and I am not a morning person so I looked for the schedule with the least number of morning classes. 

[woahnelly]

I did exactly the same thing^ when choosing my section last year!

I personally had no preference for small group topic, so I based it on the general group of profs for all the courses of the section (among the whole series of professors,  sections are going to have one or two who are less recommended on rate-my-prof or this forum) and the actual day schedule.

As well, on the course calendar with individual course descriptions (released for this upcoming year on June 3), you can generally see the breakdown of assignments, whether they have an exam or not, percentage weights of exams, etc. I ended up having 2 exams plus a takehome in my first semester, whereas I had friends who had 4-5 exams. So I would consider your own preference for exams vs assignments and time management abilities as well!

The exam schedule will be released around the same time that the courses are released, so you will be able to see when the exams are/how many before registration too.

[peppermint]

I'm a bit overwhelmed by the number of choices and their supposed differences. I guess I really should have looked them up earlier in the month, so I know that's on me, but when I realized we had to select only one block I thought it wouldn't be much of an issue.

They all look so different, even the same courses! One professor will have multiple assignments or textbooks listed and the other will not. One will be a lecture and the other is a seminar... And then when they are actually scheduled in the week. 

I know I'll be fine with whatever I choose or be given but still.... 

[goodisgood]

Professor McGill won Prof of the year in the 2021 uOttawa Common Law program, she is a great prof. Professor Pal is great too, as is Professor Stewart. To be honest, every prof I interacted with in 1st year was at least good (this is subjective of course), and all were helpful as long as you put in the effort. I chose those 3 because I know they all did small groups for the 2021-2022 cohort and took classes with all of them.