Best Classes to Take at Portland State University

Wanna color and get 300-level English credit? How about be an ad critic? Or watch movies once a week while getting an education? Portland State University is the largest city college in Oregon, and offers some of the most innovative and interesting courses out there. From making a collage to analyzing Hitchcock, this is a place that allows you to add some fun to your schedule. So check these out, you know you want to:

1) Writing and the Visual Image

This class, taught by llama and life-loving enthusiast Susan Reese (check out a review on her here) is a delightful return to the reverence of time and creativity that often gets lost sometime between kindergarten and high school. The thing is, all the coloring and scrap booking and free writing flies by so fast you'll wonder how the heck you managed to get four credits for this course.

What You Gain:

By the end of the term, you will have a book filled with bits of your memories, experiences, ambitions and dreams. It's a reminder of why you started college at all, and what you hope to become when you walk the line.

2) Advertising (Marketing 340)

Take this course when Maureen O'Connor is teaching it. She's tough - won't put up with the smell of fast food or babbling while she's instructing, but knows her stuff and really wants to rub some of on you. This class culminates in a project in which you'll analyze an advertisement in ten pages.

What You Gain:

You will uncover the secrets of advertising: what makes us tick, what marketers try to trick us into buying, and what they capitalize on to achieve their success. You will come to appreciate the complexity of this multi-billion dollar industry and have a deeper understanding of not only how they operate, but also how it has shaped (for better or worse) your values, beliefs, and goals.

3) Introduction to Cinema

Michael Clarke heads this course as well as the new Film Minor implemented last year by PSU. He's a great entertainer and public speaker, and you will find yourself engaged in movies you would never have picked off the rental shelf. Michael teaches you how to "see" films - what their underlying components are and how they were designed to achieve certain effects.

What You Gain:

Much like the advertising class, you will begin to understand how marketers and entertainers capitalize off of human behavior and social influences and trends to incite a particular mood or response from you. Much more than that, however, you will enrich your understanding of the art of cinema and the difficulties making things look real.