| Eleanor Roosevelt College (ERC) is one of the six component colleges of the University of California, San Diego. ERC is the second newest of the colleges (after, get this, sixth) founded in 1988. Its emphasis is on the international view of the world, with all of its peace corps type implications. The centerpiece of this all is the Making of the Modern World (MMW) series of courses which basically is just a six quarter lower division history track with freshman composition and writing integrated.
MMW
It doesn't sound that bad, but believe me it is. I transferred from another UC, so I have some experience (and yes, transfers do have to partake in at least three of these even if they have filled out their lower division requirements elsewhere) and I can say with some certainty that it does in fact suck, both absolutely and relatively. Perhaps the worst thing about MMW is the writing project required each quarter. tangent Now, let it be known, I have no problem with writing assignments, I have two due in the next 5 days and two more due the following week, all of a substantial nature, and I have no problem with this. /tangent The problem with the MMW writing assignment is the tedium involved. A ten page paper is no problem, its a few hours work. The problem though is that the student is assigned a ten page paper, plus a four page prospectus discussing what they are going to write about (why not just assign a 14 page paper?) and in addition, all sources cited must be photocopied and handed in with the final paper. The anal retentiveness of the whole process reminds me of filling out IRS forms. They claim this is all meant to prepare students for their upper division classes, but this is simply not true I fulfilled my lower division writing requirement, and I have something like 70 upper division units in History and Political Science and yet I've never encountered such. In addition, the computerized plagiarism detection service has a tendency towards false positives for what its worth. I was warned against choosing ERC by a friend who hated these courses, and I discovered why. Choose Earl Warren College instead.
Someone feel free to write part II, student body | 
