Need some college advice

[Levitt]

Hello everyone!

I'm in need of some college advice. I'm currently a second-year college student (40/120 credits; Marketing major) and about to register for my courses this semester. That being said, I've got a few questions in regards to elective courses:

1.) How do I know when I should take them?
2.) What are the "best" and "worst" type of elective courses?
3.) For those who have taken electives in college, any personal recommendations for good electives you/your friends have taken?

I have several core classes I still have to take, but was forced to register late due to some financial issues and a good chunk of the classes are already filled up. I'm trying to look into potential elective courses to take this semester to fill up credits, but I don't want to blindly take random credits.

Any advice is more than welcome

[vitalic]

Hi, choosing electives is certainly challenging, there are many variables to balance.

- Consider what kind of job you want; do you want to work in a sporting goods company? Financial sector? Focus more on artistic aspects of marketing? Psychological? Take classes that could give you a leg up in applying to those types of companies or could give you solid complimentary skills.

- Or take courses that expand on your personal interests. Your personality has a great deal to do with your success in life. Personally, I'm in my 30's, a recent PhD graduate, and I have recently gotten a good academic job; there's no way I could have gotten this job without close very personal connections in the department (of my new employer), and those close personal friendships had a good deal to do with me as a human being and friend, not my resume. So consider taking that philosophy, painting, music history, tennis, or foreign language class, it will pay off in subtle but important ways.

- Or of course ask around the school and find classes that are easy and offer high grades for minimal effort. Your GPA is important, your amount of free time and stress are important.

I've never forgotten the strange electives I took as an undergrad. They genuinely changed my life. Have fun and good luck.

[PBitt]

I wasn't a marketing major, but you need to pick the electives that seem interesting or useful to you...or hey, if you need an easy GPA booster, you could always take something you know you won't be having a hard time doing well in. No one knows what your interests are but you. You may or may not have a choice this semester, but I'd personally save them for your last year, when you're pretty much sick of working your ass off and need a little break, and of course, for the very reason you listed, any course can fill an elective spot, whereas you don't really want to save particular course requirements for the very last minute in case you have a hard time with it or can't get into the class.

As for you problem this semester, well, I must admit I was a procrastinating son of a bitch when it came to signing up to classes and I always did it last minute, but I also was able to get in to the course I needed if I really wanted in. I guess I don't know how your university/college works, but I was actually able to sign up and drop classes directly online for a week or two after courses started without any special permissions needed, and I got in because someone else had dropped the course after it started and I took that spot. Additionally, you could talk to the professor or whoever is in charge of permitting over-enrollment in a particular course...but usually, if you present yourself to the professor well and he/she isn't a douchebag, you're going to be able to do that.

[evoco]

Electives can be the fun part or the part you go "why in the crap did I take this /grumble." In order of your questions I would say...

1. Personal advice is get all your gen ed requirements out of the way as soon as you can, it will make life far less annoying when you reach your third and fourth year and are reminded that you have to take the stupid computer requirement that they won't let you test out of because they're monkey turds (slight personal rant sorry lol). All in all save your electives for your last year or two. This could also make your third and fourth years a little easier (e.g., not having to worry about a chem and bio final while trying to write a 30 page paper (if marketing majors have to do that, I know nothing about them)).

2. Best and worst, imo, are really a matter of personal opinion and interest.

3. As for recommendations, I'll let the others give them. My electives were pretty much all in major (psychology). There were a few classes that I would have taken that seemed interesting, but I didn't want to go through the stupid pre-reqs to get to them /shrug. In addition to that our schools degree plans didn't leave much room for true electives, once you chose your major everything was pretty much laid out for you.

My best advice is to a. pick things that you have an interest in or that you won't seek out the information for yourself after you're through with college. b. talk to your advisor and see what they would recommend as either fun, or go well with your major. Have you considered doing a minor? That could make it a little easier to choose (not sure how your school works, with ours we can double dip with the degree and apply classes to both electives for our major degree and a minor on some things).

Good luck.

*As PBitt said, don't worry a ton if the class that you want is full. Talk to the professor, most of the time they will let you in because they expect 10% of the class to drop in the first couple weeks, and a few more to disappear after midterms. I have had to do that a few times, and no teacher ever told me no.

*second edit: I said talk to your advisor, but I forgot to mention something that I think is very important. If you don't like your advisor, or can't sit down and talk to them like a normal person, request a change now. A good advisor makes life so much easier when you need advice and especially when you get close to graduation (especially especially (it needed two) if you are planning on going to grad school and need to be pointed in the right direction or need help applying).

[Zamfix]

I don't really see how anyone here can give meaningful advice when we know nothing about you and your situation other than a few, vague details you provided. Your school should have some kind of academic adviser who can help you plot your courses in a way that suits you best, you should talk to them, not some anonymous gaming community about something like this.