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Approximately how many electives do you feel were valuable to your education?

Eh?

  • I did not go to college/Show me the results

  • Every single class was worthwhile to attaining my education

  • The majority of classes were worthwhile

  • About half and half

  • A minority of classes were worthwhile

  • None of them were worthwhile

Results are only viewable after voting.
HamburgerBoy

HamburgerBoy

Lifer
College education, that is. At my state college we have to take 9 credits of social sciences, 6 credits of humanities, and 3 credits of fine arts, no matter what the major. I'm pretty sure that similar requirements exist for all public colleges, and if not, I'm sure many here have taken classes unrelated to your specific major because they were required and not because you valued them. Approximately what percentage felt like they were helpful to your education? State your major as well, plz.

(If you are a liberal arts major (and not economics or such), flip things around and opine on the importance of taking college algebra.)
 
I took CS, sub sociology as my previous college roots.

Nothing from CS is still in use, everything is outdated.
Calculus 1/2/3, never used
Physics - rarely used
Sociology - good for P&N and racist stuff around here

Then as a postbac, I took the natural sciences, all the stuff I didn't take the first time
Biology - good usage, brings understanding to everything on the biological level. Works a lot in daily life on understanding news articles, drugs, etc.
Chem - not my forte, but crucial stuff in organic for biochemistry related

Everything in the bio/natural sciences feels like it's worth the education, but it is a lot of work while in studies.
 
I posted it in the bad parody thread and I think it bears repeating here.

Liberal arts classes are about teaching you HOW to think. The problem is at a lot of CCs and crappier colleges they're just BS fluff that fills time and you're not actually learning how to think. Go over to P&N and look at all the people who can't manage to form a well thought out and written argument. That's all the proof you need.


I'm an accounting major. I'm a terrible student and have taken classes at a lot of schools. The discrepancy in what you get is astounding. I took a rhetoric class at Berkeley that was absurdly difficult for me and very valuable in teaching how to critically think, evaluate and write effectively. I've also taken core business classes at my current school that are complete garbage wastes of time. It really all comes down to whether or not the class shovels you material or makes you think and apply what you've learned.

As far as math goes, stats and college algebra are useful for everyone. Anything more does seem pretty useless.
 
one of the best classes i ever had was humanities. and another was greek mythology. helps raise cultural awareness
 
GoodRevrnd said:
Liberal arts classes are about teaching you HOW to think. The problem is at a lot of CCs and crappier colleges they're just BS fluff that fills time and you're not actually learning how to think. Go over to P&N and look at all the people who can't manage to form a well thought out and written argument. That's all the proof you need.
Click to expand...

This guy's got it.

While liberal arts seems "silly" as a general stereotype, you may notice a trend in where developing a coherent, well thought comment in a thread online or writing papers and such often seems to lie around "Yes/no, I think this is because I said so" rather than questioning and finding the logic behind the presented issue.

To me those philosophical courses are more of an exercise 'the other lobe of the brain', if you notice a stereotype between hard core programmers or engineers where their social understanding of something is lacking, I get the feeling it has to do with being restrained to a certain thought process.
 
EVERY course, except one, I felt was worth my time and money. The art class was a waste of time - there was no instruction whatsoever; just vague assignments and lots of time to work on them.

Apparently you go to a really shitty school if you find those courses to be a waste of your time. One of the best courses I took was Intro to Sociology. If it wasn't to fill a requirement, I'd never have taken that course in a million years. And, it has greatly affected how I form opinions on a wide variety of topics.
 
I ended up getting a lot of my elective credits with introductory classes in fields I never would have studied otherwise; sociology, anthropology, psychology, biology, art history, economics, etc. I find that having a broader base of knowledge has helped me in my general life, and I consider very few classes I took "worthless." If nothing else, it allows me to occasionally impress my friends when we're watching Jeopardy.
 
Helpful to my field, probably none. But some did enrich my general knowledge and were definitley worth the time and money, especially political science, German, and geology.
 
Honestly, most of what I know today I retained from my honors classes in high school. The college courses I took only marginally added to that existing base knowledge. The only elective that has really left a lasting impression on me was Fundamentals of Music. I thought I would abhor the class, but ended up coming out of it really, really enjoying Classical music as a result.
 
I double-majored in two completely unrelated disciplines--Biology and English (then some Genetics and Film for minors).

so, all of my elective credits were used to fulfill the requirements in my other major/minors.

I'd say 100% useful in my case.
 
I enjoyed my philosophy class. Other classes only served to let me know "this is a crock". For example, my psychology and interpersonal communications class.

Psychology because of how much emphasis they placed on unprovable psychological models (Introspective crap). And communications because it was stuff that anyone who advanced past a kindergarten education should have learned (IG it makes people sad when you ignore them).

My major classes, while I don't expect to use a lot of them, were fun just for the fact that it is awesome to be able to say "Yeah, I know how a CPU works".
 
I had tons o' fun in my Astronomy 1001 course. Easiest four credits ever since I love astronomy and it was mostly stuff I already knew. I didn't learn a whole lot (obviously) but I did learn a little bit and I got the opportunity to help out a lot of my classmates.

It wasn't a required elective though; at that point, I had already satisfied all of my LibEd requirements and I just needed a few more credits.
 
All classes 'could' be valuable to anyone, though any class could also be crap due to a bad teacher, bad school policies, or poor materials. In general ANY learning is beneficial to the individual, and therefore society as a whole.

Btw, Associates general requirements in this state:

• Communication skills (minimum of 16 credit hours: four courses in communication to include one course in speech communication. Courses qualifying as communication intensive courses also may be applied to this requirement.
• Social and Behavioral Sciences (minimum of four credit hours): a minimum of one course in the social/behavioral sciences.
• Arts and Humanities (minimum of three credit hours): a minimum of one arts or humanities course of at least three credit hours
• Mathematics and Natural Sciences (minimum of four credit hours): a minimum of one course in mathematics or the natural sciences.

Additional general ed requirements depend on school and degree type. State school BA in History towards Secondary Education might look like this:

ADDITIONAL UNIVERSITY REQUIREMENTS

1) CERTIFICATION OF MAJOR

2) WRITING PORTFOLIO COMPLETED

3) APPLICATION FOR GRADUATION

LOWER-DIVISION GENERAL EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS
-----------------------------------------------------------------
* [A] WORLD CIVILIZATIONS - 3 CREDITS

* [W] WRITTEN COMMUNICATION PROFICIENCY - 3 CREDITS

* [C,W] COMMUNICATION PROFICIENCY - 3 CREDITS

* [N,O] MATHEMATICS PROFICIENCY - 3 CREDITS

* [G,H] ARTS AND HUMANITIES - 3 CREDITS

* [S,K,U] SOCIAL SCIENCES - 3 CREDITS

* [S,K,U,G,H] HUMANITIES OR SOCIAL SCIENCE ELECTIVE - 3 CREDITS

* [I,G,K] INTERCULTURAL STUDIES - 3 CREDITS

* BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE & [P] PHYSICAL SCIENCE
AND [Z,B,P,U] SCIENCE ELECTIVE - 10 CREDITS

* SCIENCES LABORATORY REQUIREMENT - 3 CREDITS

-----------------------------------------------------------------
COLLEGES OF SCIENCES & LIBERAL ARTS GENERAL EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS

1) [H,G] ARTS AND HUMANITIES AND [S,K,I] SOCIAL SCIENCES
REQUIRED: 6 HOURS (ADDITIONAL)

2) [B,P,U,Z] SCIENCE ELECTIVE
REQUIRED: 2 HOURS (ADDITIONAL)

3) SCIENCES LABORATORY REQUIREMENT
REQUIRED: A MINIMUM OF 2 COURSES WITH LABORATORY
COMPONENTS

4) FOREIGN LANGUAGE
ONE YEAR (2 SEMESTERS OR 3 QUARTERS) OF ONE FOREIGN
LANGUAGE AT THE UNIVERSITY LEVEL OR 2 YEARS OF ONE
FOREIGN LANGUAGE AT THE HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL ARE REQUIRED.
DEMONSTRATED PROFICIENCY BY MEANS OF THE FOREIGN
LANGUAGE PLACEMENT EXAMINATION MAY SUBSTITUTE FOR
ACTUAL COURSE WORK.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
OK GENERAL EDUCATION TIER III REQUIREMENT - 1 COURSE

1) THE COURSE MUST BE OUTSIDE OF THE MAJOR DEPARTMENT
AND MAY NOT BE CROSSLISTED WITH A COURSE IN THE
MAJOR DEPARTMENT.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
NON-HISTORY REQUIREMENTS - TEACHING OPTION

1) SOCIAL SCIENCES REQUIREMENT - 2 COURSES

-----------------------------------------------------------------
HISTORY REQUIREMENTS

1) UNITED STATES HISTORY REQUIREMENT - 2 COURSES

2) LOWER-DIVISION EUROPEAN HISTORY REQUIREMENT - 2 COURSES

3) LOWER-DIVISION NON-WESTERN/GLOBAL REQUIREMENT - 2 COURSES

4) UPPER-DIVISION EUROPEAN HISTORY REQUIREMENT - 1 COURSE

5) UPPER-DIVISION NON-WESTERN/GLOBAL REQUIREMENT - 1 COURSE

6) EARLY US HISTORY REQUIREMENT - 1 COURSE

7) MODERN US HISTORY REQUIREMENT - 1 COURSE

8) PACIFIC NORTHWEST HISTORY REQUIREMENT - 1 COURSE

9) SEMINAR REQUIREMENT - 1 COURSE

10) TEACHING METHODS REQUIREMENT - 1 COURSE

11) WRITING REQUIREMENT - 1 COURSE

-----------------------------------------------------------------
WRITING IN THE MAJOR REQUIREMENT - 2 COURSES
-----------------------------------------------------------------
HISTORY MAJOR TOTAL HOURS REQUIREMENT - 36 CREDITS
-----------------------------------------------------------------
HISTORY UPPER-DIVISION REQUIREMENT - 21 CREDITS
-----------------------------------------------------------------
TEACHER PREPARATION PROGRAM ADMISSION REQUIREMENT

PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION CORE - 1 COURSE
(ALL 4-12 & SELECTED K-12 PROGRAMS)

1) PSYCHOLOGY REQUIREMENT - 1 COURSE

2) ENGLISH REQUIREMENT - 1 COURSE

3) 4-12 PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION CORE - 11 COURSES

-----------------------------------------------------------------
ADDITIONAL EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS

1) FINGERPRINTING AND BACKGROUND CLEARANCE

2) WEST-B READING REQUIREMENT

3) WEST-B MATHEMATICS REQUIREMENT

4) WEST-B WRITING REQUIREMENT



While a State BS in Mathematics would be something like:

GENERAL EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS (LOWER LEVEL)

Writing/Speaking - 9 CREDITS
Quantification - 6 CREDITS
Health and Physical Activity - 3 CREDITS
Natural Sciences - 9 CREDITS
Arts - 6 CREDITS
Humanities - 6 CREDITS
Social & Behavioral Sciences - 6 CREDIT

LOWER DIVISION (MATH, CSE, CMPSC):
PRESCRIBED COURSES (20 credits):
ADDITIONAL COURSES (6-8 credits):

UPPER DIVISION (MATH)
PRESCRIBED COURSE (3 CREDITS)
ADDITIONAL COURSES (15 CREDITS)

SUPPORTING COURSES AND RELATED AREAS (34-36 credits)
FOREIGN LANGUAGE (8 CREDITS)
ELECTIVE MATH (12 CREDITS)
ELECTIVE NON-MATH (14-16 CREDITS)
 
American Jazz History: Helped me understand a running gag in an MST3K episode. Totally worth it.
Intro Econ: Actually a bit useful, even if it was all terribly basic info.
World History: Same as Intro Econ. Some interesting stuff in there.

...and I know I had a total of 6 of those arts/humanities type courses. I can't remember the others.


...

Ok, I went to Penn State's site to look at the course offerings to figure out what I took.

Theater: Really not terribly useful at all.

And I think some of the requirements were satisfied by courses taken at a community college several years ago. Those would have been philosophy courses, which were actually interesting.
 
College forces you to take a bunch of useless, irrelevant classes. They want your money. They don't care if you actually learn anything.
 
I really liked electives. I didn't want to focus on just one thing or even an area. I had far ranging interests. Many of the classes outside my major subjects were phenomenal and a revelation to me, including music, English and history classes and others. I liked that fact that at the university they gave you credit for taking classes you wanted to take, had tremendously more freedom than at high school. Also, the campus was beautiful (like a park), not the tarmac, brick and concrete of my high school.
 
TalonStrike said:
College forces you to take a bunch of useless, irrelevant classes. They want your money. They don't care if you actually learn anything.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you're going to the wrong school.
----------------

As for the topic at hand:
I didn't have to take many electives because my major filled most of my requirements, but my school also had a large core that made up about 1/3 of all the classes I took. Sure, on the surface, humanities and social science seem useless to a science major, but going to college isn't just about learning one thing and being narrow minded. It's about expanding your realm of knowledge, giving you more perspective and learning how to reason your way out of a paper bag. Learning these other things helps you think, be a good citizen, make coherent arguments, etc...

If you didn't get anything out of those "useless" classes, you probably either a) took a bs class in the first place instead of something more challenging that would fulfill the requirement you needed to fill, or b) you didn't really make an effort to get the most out of it.
 
Science and engineering should take more humanities and liberal arts classes so that students can make better and more informed decisions outside of solving logic puzzles. This applies to pretty much everything, ranging from career and life decisions such as which job to take to when to move out of the parent's house to which candidate to vote for.

Of course, there's a lot to be said for free choice and if you are receiving this education in a top notch high school then you certainly don't need it repeated at the college level. Perhaps they should allow students who score in the top 5% of the SAT to opt out of certain classes, or add more AP type of courses.
 
gophins72 said:
Science and engineering should take more humanities and liberal arts classes so that students can make better and more informed decisions outside of solving logic puzzles. This applies to pretty much everything, ranging from career and life decisions such as which job to take to when to move out of the parent's house to which candidate to vote for.

Of course, there's a lot to be said for free choice and if you are receiving this education in a top notch high school then you certainly don't need it repeated at the college level. Perhaps they should allow students who score in the top 5% of the SAT to opt out of certain classes, or add more AP type of courses.
Click to expand...
Would it be possible to make the humanities courses a bit more relevant though?
American Jazz History: Seriously, the only thing of value it had to me was making some "Watermelon Man" jokes in an MST3K episode make a bit more sense. Yes, I have some knowledge of jazz now...but I really don't feel that it was worth $1500.
Theater: I guess it taught me that dignity can be quite fleeting. And it helped tell me what I could have figured out on my own: I'm not good at acting/lying.

Oh, and some other electives in that category:
Ballroom dance: It was just awkward, at least for me.
Ice skating: No injuries, and I learned that skates need to be sharp to function correctly. And a bumpy ice surface isn't ideal for skating. Also not really worth the ~$750.


More useful courses:
Econ: Yeah, useful. This kind of thing seems like it should be included in a middle or high school curriculum.

World History: It was a lot of things I'd heard before, except in more detail. Also focused on intensely was the role of stable food and water supplies in shaping our history, which was admittedly interesting. It also reinforced my ideas that a lot of humanity's large-scale conflicts have ultimately been waged by very small groupings of individuals, for very petty and selfish reasons. A lot of it amounts to, "I like your dirt better than my dirt, and I'm going to convince my people to kill your people until you give me your dirt."
 
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TalonStrike said:
College forces you to take a bunch of useless, irrelevant classes. They want your money. They don't care if you actually learn anything.
Click to expand...

Either you went to the wrong college or you went with the wrong mindset. If you just want to learn a specific skill, go to a trade school or get an apprenticeship. Part of a good college's curriculum for ALL majors is to give you a well rounded education beyond just what you're majoring in. In theory, it helps people understand the world and better communicate their feelings. In practice, most students try to take the easiest stuff they can find and learn as little as they can just to get by.
 
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