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Originally Posted by Burning Down
Generally yes. In the program I was in, some upper year courses are called "topic courses", and the professor sets a broad topic to be discussed throughout the term, so every year the course has a different focus. The topic for one course that I took was "Romantic Music", and the student's personal topic for their thesis has to fit under that umbrella. So a history of the era, or a biography of a specific composer, or a complete analysis of a composer's works would all be acceptable topics. There are only like 12 people in the course and it's basically an independent study course. You go into class once a week for 2 hours, and each week 2 people have to present something pertaining to their research, and then there is discussion on whatever material was presented. So everyone still learns something outside of their own research. Your professor mentors you throughout the term as well.
I did two of those courses, and if I had an extra credit assignment on top of all that, I probably wouldn't do it either. It's better just to focus on the main homework and do the extra stuff only if you can manage it.
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Sounds like it'd be an interesting class as long as you dig the topic. Probably a lot of work and research though which isn't everybody's cup of tea haha. I'm a far bigger fan of the traditional classes that are basically: here's a textbook. Read it dilligently and you get an A, otherwise you don't and that's all there is to the class. I've always felt that it's much easier to control your own destiny in classes like that, whereas classes that are nothing but papers can pretty much be random depending on how the grader feels about what you did.