by hewins » Tue Feb 26, 2013 6:06 pm
I'm going to be brutally honest in my reply here but first give a quick note of my personal situation.
I took 401, felt very good about it but was not expecting to get accepted into Adv Study (to be clear, I was not expecting to be denied either.) I did not get into Adv Study and it was recommended that I take one of the 4-week courses, which I did. I took 412, completed that class and then got accepted to Adv Study. (yay)
Here's why I think people may not like or take the 41x classes (and here's the brutal honesty): It felt like a collection of "us losers." It's the only class specifically for losers. I use the term even though I don't think anyone in the class was a "loser" but, in some sense, we all were losers because we'd all failed to get into Advanced Study. 401 classes may have some students who failed to get into Adv Study but the class (probably) is not comprised 100% of them. Again, to be clear, not that that's a bad thing. I got denied and I'm still alive and cool and funny and not depressed. So, for me that's the main reason. Perhaps because of that reason, the class didn't feel like it had as much energy or gung-ho as my 401 did, but that could be due to my specific classes. If I didn't get into Adv Study after 412, I would not have taken another 41x, I would have bit the bullet and taken 401 again as many times as necessary.
Pros/Cons of 41x & 401 for those who have failed to get accepted into Adv Study:
Advantages of 41x: shorter, cheaper, focused.
Disadvantages of 41x: only classes comprised of all "losers," no shows
Advantages of 401: shows, class cohesion
Disadvantages of 401: longer