LPPL 2100

I cannot recommend this course enough. I honestly did not really know what to expect going into it, but it turned out to be such a great experience. In lecture, Professor Davis is so caring, and you can tell he is so passionate about how he talks about. There is a lot of engagement with peers, and you are suggested to sit next to someone new every class. There was a certain mutual respect among the class that I never really experienced that I loved. Once a week there are discussion groups, but it is nothing like other classes. My group all became friends by the end of it, and became so vulnerable with one another. The community was a safe space, and my group leader, Walker, was fantastic at setting our atmosphere. If you can choose her, I ABSOLUTELY recommend it. Especially as a first semester first year, this class helped with the college transition a lot, and I am so thankful for it.

This class is a great way to meet people, especially if it's your first semester at UVA. Professor Davis is a very engaging lecturer and the material is very interesting. He doesn't allow computers in class, so you will have to take hand-written notes. Final grades are made up of participation (mostly in discussion), a couple of reading quizzes in class, and the rest are assignments/reflections. The biggest grade is a resilience project that you have to pick a topic for. Grading is very dependent on the TA you get, as they will be the ones grading all of your work (minus the reading quizzes, which are multiple choice). Overall, I would definitely recommend this class.

This class is a complete waste of time, just read the course title and you'll get the idea. I strongly advise against taking it, especially when there are far more valuable options available through Batten. The course material turns basic ideas into something complicated, and you’ll be expected to complete three quizzes based on dense readings and lecture notes, along with a personal resilience project that ends up defining your grade. Participation is also heavily weighted and I was fortunate to have a kind and personable TA, but not everyone will be that lucky.

If you're hoping this is an easy A (probably why your friends recommended it) you’ll be surprised. Unless you enjoy spending hours reading about the psychology of making to-do lists, it won’t feel worth your time. At times, it felt less like a college course and more like group therapy for productivity hacks. I think overall what really disappointed me is not that it is a waste of your time, but I found Professor Davis to be haughty and I can't seem to relate to some of the reviews on him here.

Again, the class isn't terribly hard (as the grade distribution confirms), but slogging through irrelevant readings while watching the professor cater to TAs and overly eager students makes it feel harder than it should. You’ll leave the course not more resilient, but more cynical about how low the bar can be for what counts as a college education - especially in a class that turns a surprise guest lecture from Liz Cheney into a forced exercise in applauding her political views, whether you agree or not.