Ready! Set! Fail! The Unorthodox Class Worth Taking

Something that I have very much enjoyed about being a Drexel student is the openness of the classes I can take in my major. Most of Drexel's undergraduate programs have classes already chosen for you that you must take to complete the program, and these classes comprise the majority of credits a student must earn to graduate. Yet, there's also a small set of credits in those undergraduate programs that is every student's favorite kind of credits: free electives. When I say favorite, I mean both the excited kind of reactions like "yes, I can take classes I want to take!" and the sarcastic reactions like "wait, I have to take more classes?" As I said in the beginning — Drexel's classes are usually open to students of all majors.

In all walks of life, failure is inevitable, but as this class teaches its students, it's how you choose to look at the failure that will determine its impact on you.

As an Entrepreneurship & Innovation major, I chose to take free electives that interested me — some in marketing through the College of LeBow, one in architecture, and another in philosophy. Yet, one of the best classes I've ever taken was actually one chosen for me through my undergraduate program. It is also a class I've recommended to every one of my friends who has asked what classes they should take to fill up their free credits. The class, taken through the Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship, is called Ready! Set! Fail! and is by far one of the best classes a student could take.

At first glance, the name is somewhat jarring — why would there be a class on failure in an academic setting? It's not only a class about failing but specifically failing with grace. In all walks of life, failure is inevitable, but as this class teaches its students, it's how you choose to look at the failure that will determine its impact on you. Throughout the class, we looked at what it means to fail, how to identify key decisions that led to failure, how to interpret the failure, and how to walk away from failure feeling like you've succeeded. It may look out of place as a class to take through a university, but life lessons being taught in classes are rare and this course perfectly incorporates personal development with real examples of companies and entrepreneurs who had to both learn and recover from failure.

Thus, I would encourage anyone who is looking into attending Drexel University to write down this class: ENTP 205. Stick it on a note on your desktop, include it in your plan of study Excel document, or just remember the name "Ready! Set! Fail!" — for it is a class that is unlike any other at Drexel University. While I will say that making sure you get good grades and taking the classes you need is extremely important, it is also important to enjoy your university experience, and taking some unique classes is something I will always recommend.