I'm a pre-med neuroscience major, but I've tried to take as many humanities courses as I can. (After all, I am a classics minor as well!) I'll just list the courses I've taken and give my two cents on them:
Fall 2006:
* Elementary Latin (Part I) - As with a lot of (but not all) elementary language courses offered at Hopkins, Elementary Latin (which is offered through the Department of Classics) is a two-semester course in which you must take both semesters. My freshman year Elementary Latin class had about twelve students, and it was taught by a graduate student in a seminar-like setting. I'll admit that when I first found out that my teacher was a graduate student, I was disappointed--I thought he wouldn't be a good teacher because he was just a graduate student and not a professor! It turns out he was very knowledgeable in Latin, and he was great at getting us interested in the language as well as explaining the numerous grammar rules that we spent our two semesters studying.
* Introduction to Fiction and Poetry Writing I - If you haven't heard by now, this is the first semester of a popular two-semester course offered by the Department of Writing Seminars. You're not required to take both semesters, although you must take IFP I before taking IFP II. In the fall of my freshman year, I enrolled in IFP I because I wanted to try out a writing-intensive course, and I thought it'd be fun to test my creative writing abilities rather than write essays and papers for a change. There were about ten to twelve students in my IFP I class, and it was taught by a graduate student. We spent our classes either ( a ) discussing poems or short stories or ( b ) analyzing our classmates' poems and short stories in a laid-back, but constructively critical, atmosphere. With that said, our homework assignments consisted of reading poems and short stories as well as writing our own poems and short stories. Meanwhile, our end-of-semester assignment was to assemble a portfolio with a certain number of poems and short stories--and these poems and short stories were ones that we'd written earlier in the semester, but that we'd revised for our portfolio. I thought it was an enjoyable class overall.
Intersession 2007:
* Power, Glory, and Gladiators - This was a one-credit course offered during the Intersession of my freshman year through the Department of Classics--and it was taught by my Elementary Latin teacher! Once again, the graduate student who taught this course proved to be an excellent instructor, and I think it was fascinating to study the history of the "games" and gladiator fights in the ancient Roman Empire. Given the fact that it was only a one-credit course, it didn't go in depth into the material, but I still thought it was a nice introduction.
Spring 2007:
* Elementary Latin (Part II) - See my description of "Elementary Latin (Part I)" for Fall 2006.
* Introduction to Fiction and Poetry Writing II - Because I enjoyed IFP I, I decided to take IFP II in the spring of my freshman year. IFP II had the same set-up as IFP I--however, there were slightly higher expectations of us when it came to our writing because we were expected to build upon the techniques covered in IFP I. Also, as with IFP I, IFP II was taught by a graduate student, although the one who taught my IFP II class was a different graduate student. I thought IFP II was noticeably harder than IFP I, but I still liked it.
Fall 2007:
* Art in the Age of Augustus - This course was taught by Professor Michael Koortbojian of the Department of the History of Art, and it was cross-listed with that department and the Department of Classics. Not only did it teach some historical information about the late years of the Roman Republic and about Emperor Augustus's reign, but it also taught us how to use that historical knowledge to understand the message conveyed by a given sculpture, mural, et cetera from that era. Professor Koortbojian is an excellent lecturer, and he's usually teaching a course related to the artwork or architecture of an ancient Roman era each semester--I recommend taking at least one course taught by him before graduating!
* Great Books - This course is open to freshmen only this year, but it was open to all undergraduate students when I was a sophomore, which is why I took it! It was--and still is--an interdepartmental humanities course taught by four professors, although I think there are only three professors teaching it this year. Each professor selected two written works related to his/her department (e.g., Professor Hérica Valladares of the Department of Classics had us read an English translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses), and those eight works comprised the syllabus of the course. Approximately half of the classes for that semester were lectures on the works; for the other classes, all the students in the class broke up into four sections. Each section was headed by one of the professors, and section meetings were spent discussing whatever work was discussed in the most recent lecture. I've posted a lot more of my thoughts on this course in other threads on this forum, so I'll end my discussion of that course now. :)
Spring 2008:
* Intermediate Latin Prose - FYI, Intermediate Latin Poetry was offered in the fall of my sophomore year (it's offered every fall), but I couldn't take it because of a schedule conflict. Anyway, I enrolled in Intermediate Latin Prose during the spring of my sophomore year, and I was able to manage it, despite my one-semester hiatus from the language. :) There were only four students in my class, which was taught by a graduate student in a seminar-like setting. Because we had already learned the basic Latin grammar rules in Elementary Latin, our entire class time was spent either translating passages out loud or taking exams. The syllabus for this course varies each year--as long as it's a Latin work in prose at an "intermediate" level of Latin-to-English translation, anything goes. The graduate student who taught my Intermediate Latin Prose decided to have us spend the semester reading Cicero's Catalinian orations, and like my Elementary Latin teacher, he was a pretty easy-going and helpful teacher.
Fall 2008 (Present Semester):
* Advanced Latin Poetry - As with Intermediate Latin Poetry (which is offered every fall) and Intermediate Latin Prose (which is offered every spring), Advanced Latin Poetry (which is offered every fall) varies each year with its syllabus. For that reason, there are some students in my Latin class who are taking Advanced Latin Poetry for the second time because what we're studying this year is a different work from last year. This year, the course is taught by Professor Matthew Roller in a seminar-like setting, and there are somewhere between 10 and 15 students in my class. We're reading the play Amphitruo by Plautus, because (as those of you who are more knowledgeable in Latin than I probably know) it's written as a long poem. Since my Elementary Latin course barely discussed scansion and I skipped Intermediate Latin Poetry, I'm practically learning scansion for the first time--I think it's pretty cool stuff. And, yeah, I've found that the Latin in Amphitruo is probably the trickiest Latin I've had to translate so far. But, of course, I think it's fun. :)
* Introduction to Greek Philosophy - This course is cross-listed with the Department of Classics and the Department of Philosophy, and it's taught by Professor Richard Bett of the Department of Philosophy. So far, I've loved this course! As the course name says, it's currently introducing us to the theories of various ancient Greek philosophers. We haven't gotten to Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle yet, but we're still studying a bunch of Presocratic philosophers. By the way, did you know that Pythagoras was a philosopher and that the Pythagorean Theorem might not have been devised by Pythagoras himself, but by one of his followers?
