Something to bear in mind when choosing your UBC courses are AP/IB credits. There are two schools of thought when it comes to students arriving at UBC with AP/IB credits. Some choose to avoid duplication and so dismiss those courses. Others realize that although they may or may not acquire further credit for a specific course (check with Arts Academic Advising to determine your status), to the extent that there is treatment of the same issues or events, or even use of readings already encountered, you are able to deepen and broaden your understanding in the new context. And, of course, with the Library and faculty resources so much broader than in high schools, there is almost no limit to the extent you can develop your understanding.
This is why we have many AP/IB students in Arts One! In addition, upon successful completion of Arts One students achieve the Faculty of Arts Writing Requirement, as well as 3 credits of the Literature Requirement.
Students should take courses that interest them the most, for those are the ones they will benefit from the most, and are the ones that will leave them most eager to continue learning. Having picked subjects that they find most rewarding, and being in touch with fellow students of similar interests, and with instructors who are truly experts in their field, students very often find that the ‘work’ seems less onerous because the study is enjoyable and rewarding. Students are able to deepen and broaden their understanding of issues or texts previously encountered.
We remind students considering Arts One not to be intimidated by material you’ve never taken or deterred by material that you may be familiar with. The program offers a small-class learning community with a network of student colleagues and professors that encourage and support. If it’s material or a text that you’re familiar with, we encourage you to share your viewpoint of the material while being open-minded to other opinions during dynamic discussions with your student colleagues and professors, and enjoy experiencing new perspectives at a university level.
If you think you would enjoy Arts One, we hope you join us, even if you have AP or IB credits!
“Arts One was amazing; it was everything I was hoping for and more. It is really not comparable to my IB A1 or A2 courses just because it brings in so many different elements and truly makes you see the power of literature as a vector of change throughout history, apart from being far more challenging and exciting. You learn it’s not just words. Arts One is like a course in archaeology; you rush back in time, and grapple with concepts you’d never imagined you could find in a book; you excavate, past the surface, past the obvious, to discover shards of meaning that you later piece together; you end up with a whole new message, the actual core of the text. The lectures are interesting. The seminars are relaxed, difficult, different, backed up by anything and everything that the professor finds to support his/her point. The tutorials are very helpful and terrifying (!), but they really develop your writing skills.”
— Paula Z., Arts One 2009W, ‘Borderlines’
