What to expect in university philosophy class?

Usually Philo 101 is the students starting out with Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Then you move on till you get to Kant, Hegel, and so on. Basically I think Pirsig's "philosophologists" jazz is totally unfair. You have to walk before you can run, so of course academic philosophers are familiar with other philosopher's work, and demand that their students learn about their ideas. That doesn't mean they do not have original ideas of their own. It's just as Beethoven could play anything Mozart wrote.

You probably don't have to worry very much about lively debates in a first year lecture with 200 other frosh.

Philosophy is 'original critical thought';

Critical Thinking Mini Lessons

http://www.skepdic.com/refuge/ctlessons.html

Bertrand Russell on Critical Thinking

http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Educ/EducHare.htm

As opposed to the 'scholastic';

"..."philosophologists", a term coined by Robert Pirsig ("Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", "Lila") to denote people who study other people's philosophy but cannot do philosophy themselves. He also says that most people who consider themselves philosophers are actually philosophologists. The difference between a philosopher and a philosophologist is like the difference between an art and aesthetics; one does and the other studies what the other does and theorizes about it."

A bunch of lies! And people sitting next to you every once in a while...