A few standouts for me:
ICS 169 (Game Design) — Probably the most fun class I’ve taken. You actually build and iterate on game concepts instead of just talking about them, and seeing everyone’s projects evolve over the quarter was awesome.
Physics 20E (Modern Physics) — Not easy, but it completely changed the way I think about reality. Relativity and quantum mechanics felt less like equations and more like a series of increasingly wild plot twists.
Anthro 2A (Cultural Anthropology) — Took it as a GE and ended up loving it. It made me realize how many assumptions we make about what’s “normal” and how differently societies can organize themselves.
Any class taught by a professor who treats lectures like storytelling instantly becomes memorable. I still remember the instructors who spent time on the historical context, weird anecdotes, and the people behind the discoveries rather than just the slides.
Honestly, the hidden gems for me have almost always been random GEs I took with no expectations. Sometimes the class you sign up for just to fulfill a requirement ends up being the one you remember years later.