don't understand elective courses

[Garnier Fructis]

Example? Particularly to where getting a calculator wouldn't work?

You need a basic grasp of algebraic concepts to know what goes into the calculator. It may be that you just don't consciously think about what you're doing.

And if you're truly passionate enough to strive for something that requires a higher degree than a 4-year, you probably value knowledge in general enough to not mind electives.

I personally view it as a challenge. If people expect me to do bad in humanities since I'm a STEM person, it just makes me that much more motivated to prove them wrong.

[alturic]

Monthly bills. Particularly after something that happens (vacation, car problems, emergency, etc) where you need to figure out which need to be paid versus income versus free spending. (Now if you have savings that counters this example, congrats. Fewer and fewer people do currently.)

Similarly: at a new job you have insurance, 401k, stock options, etc that you need to decide how much you're going to allot into each.

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Most of those fall under the heading of "health electives" that, honestly, you should have covered by college. Those are the ones that I always considered "pointless", especially since they do not count towards the 120hrs to graduate!

As for the "monthly bills" aspect... unless I don't look at bills like college grads do in both my personal life but also as a business owner... I don't see how anything but a simple calculator/basic math is needed? As for the "new job" scenario, please tell me you're not considering percentages to be something that's not taught in what, 6th grade?

[Kasierith]

I learned something about the Vietnam War in junior year. It was most interesting . . . and I've forgotten all of it already. Got a decent grade in it though, so its cool.

I'm sure Vietnam is going to help me do what I went to college for . . . which was air traffic control.

For my history class, I took Western Civilization II; pretty much the progress of the European powers and how they went from a scraggly lot with little prospect compared to China or the Middle East to the dominant superpower of the world. A lot of focus on how societies progress and how civilizations form and historically interacted with each other, and key concepts like how the feudal system breaking up the power of the monarchies led to a bunch of colonists breaking away from the world superpower. If you run into an elective that you can't find practical application for, look for something very interesting that serves to balance out a class heavy semester. 16 credit hours of hard sciences is harder than 16 credit hours + 3 hours of something fun, light, and interesting.

[alturic]

I learned something about the Vietnam War in junior year. It was most interesting . . . and I've forgotten all of it already. Got a decent grade in it though, so its cool.

I'm sure Vietnam is going to help me do what I went to college for . . . which was air traffic control.

See, that's the thing. From a TRUE perspective of what college is for, it really is nothing more than "advanced" general studies while having a generalized focus on a specific area. Trade schools are honestly what the majority of people should be looking at but saying you have a diploma from "XYZ Technical Institute" doesn't sound as good as "Oh, I went to Penn State/Notre Dam/insertchoicecollegehere". You know?

With that said, I understand there's not a technical school for every "field" of work out there, at least I'm fairly certain there isn't. :P

[Garnier Fructis]

As for the "new job" scenario, please tell me you're not considering percentages to be something that's not taught in what, 6th grade?

Expecting people to know how to work with percentages is, in my experience, a tall order.

Edit: As a general note, this is exactly why you take as many AP classes as you possibly can in High School. In the end I really only had ~3 classes that weren't part of my major out of all 4 years I've spent in college/university so far. Everything else got waived due to AP credits. So I've basically experienced uni as a glorified trade school.

[Crissi]

I wish they'd drop language requirements completely. There are some exceptions for science heavy majors (declaring a B.S in Geography got me out of language requirements, but not before I failed one class), but many of us are just not good at learning languages this late in life.

elective courses can be fun and a break from your major heavy load, although being forced to take a health class such as Woman's health was annoying.

[Angella]

I don't understand elective courses in college. I'm a networking major and in my curriculum I had to take one elective. I had to choose between like 4 humanities electives none of which had anything to do with my major. I don't understand why colleges want people to do these. Wouldn't those credits be better used with maybe another tech course towards my degree. So why do they do this?

In addition to the history/broad education stuff it's b/c colleges need your money and/or to have a broad professor pool.

[Wells]

I don't understand elective courses in college. I'm a networking major and in my curriculum I had to take one elective. I had to choose between like 4 humanities electives none of which had anything to do with my major. I don't understand why colleges want people to do these. Wouldn't those credits be better used with maybe another tech course towards my degree. So why do they do this?

Specifically what kinds of classes were available to you? Because your education will include a lot of stuff that will be useful to you in your career that has nothing to do with your actual vocation.

[alturic]

In addition to the history/broad education stuff it's b/c colleges need your money and/or to have a broad professor pool.

Fundamentally speaking that's the students fault? What I mean is that if students don't seem to want X course but pick it "just because they have to", maybe it's time for the college to re-think some things? :-/

[Angella]

Fundamentally speaking that's the students fault? What I mean is that if students don't seem to want X course but pick it "just because they have to", maybe it's time for the college to re-think some things? :-/

It's not only about you.

[alturic]

Specifically what kinds of classes were available to you? Because your education will include a lot of stuff that will be useful to you in your career that has nothing to do with your actual vocation.

Ok, so humor me, what exactly would english, algebra, etc have any usefulness to me performing web design? Network Admin I could POSSIBLY see for cable runs/network planning but even that I could easily spin around and say calculators will work just fine.

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It's not only about you.

I'm fairly certain a HUGE percentage of students have the same mentality I do? I mean let's be real here no-one goes to college because "I can take bowling!" or dance, or yoga, etc, etc, etc.

[Wells]

Ok, so humor me, what exactly would english, algebra, etc have any usefulness to me performing web design? Network Admin I could POSSIBLY see for cable runs/network planning but even that I could easily spin around and say calculators will work just fine.

English: You have to communicate via the written word at least once don't you?
Algebra: This is an early highschool late middle school topic and is irrelevant to the thread.

[Garnier Fructis]

I wish they'd drop language requirements completely. There are some exceptions for science heavy majors (declaring a B.S in Geography got me out of language requirements, but not before I failed one class), but many of us are just not good at learning languages this late in life.

This is a horrendously evil thing to say, but the best part of language classes for me was watching everyone else struggle. I'm going to hell, aren't I?

English: You have to communicate via the written word at least once don't you?
Algebra: This is an early highschool late middle school topic and is irrelevant to the thread.

Well, for some reason lots of people are required to retake algebra in college so I wouldn't totally dismiss it. Must have done spectacularly bad on the math placement exams.

[Kasierith]

Ok, so humor me, what exactly would english, algebra, etc have any usefulness to me performing web design? Network Admin I could POSSIBLY see for cable runs/network planning but even that I could easily spin around and say calculators will work just fine.

I'm actually trying to understand what university is going to accept algebra as the minimum mathematics requirement.... pre-calc is shaky, calculus is fine, but algebra is like, grade school level. Basic mathematical interpretation and logic of numbers.

[Crissi]

This is a horrendously evil thing to say, but the best part of language classes for me was watching everyone else struggle. I'm going to hell, aren't I?



Well, for some reason lots of people are required to retake algebra in college so I wouldn't totally dismiss it. Must have done spectacularly bad on the math placement exams.

heh, I did poorly in Spanish in HS and Latin in university before I got out of that

[Angella]

Ok, so humor me, what exactly would english, algebra, etc have any usefulness to me performing web design? Network Admin I could POSSIBLY see for cable runs/network planning but even that I could easily spin around and say calculators will work just fine..

Honestly if you're running web design you should be using english to write up wth you're doing and algebra is a building block for optimization, something you need if you want to perform at a high level.

[Kraenen]

i dont get the stem people who only want to learn about things for their job

[Azrile]

I don't understand elective courses in college. I'm a networking major and in my curriculum I had to take one elective. I had to choose between like 4 humanities electives none of which had anything to do with my major. I don't understand why colleges want people to do these. Wouldn't those credits be better used with maybe another tech course towards my degree. So why do they do this?

When I was 7, I couldn´t understand why I had to memorize multiplication tables.

When you get older you will understand. And just to put it into gaming terms.. think of all the little historical or literary references that were added to WOW, thanks in large part to the computer science devs having to take humanities.

BTW.. if you think taking tech courses are going to teach you much that is useful after college, think again. College teaches you how to think and how to learn, what you are actually learning is a small part of what you will need to know to do your job later in life.

[Kasierith]

The calculator isn't going to model the problem for you. I'm not talking about anything terribly complex when I say it's useful in daily life. If you need to buy a quantity greater than one of something that costs $4.99 per unit, but have limited funds, you can set it up as 1.06 * 4.99 * x < y where y is the funds you have available, then solve for x (1.06 is the MI sales tax).

Or, to use an example in the medical profession, how about this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...calculator.jpg

Giving a loading dose, maintanance dose, pharmacokinetic properties, and patient characteristics, could you figure out how to graph a blood concentration level to ensure that their dose of phenytoin (a nonlinear clearance drug) stays within therapeutic ranges, if you didn't know such basic things as how to form a graph from multiple variables and constants? In fact, if you've never had a calculus course, could you figure out how to do much of anything on a graphing calculator on the fly?

Oh, and if you mess up phenytoin dosing, they die. Soooo...... no second chances.

[aztr0]

I majored in finance and some of you might find electives useless or tedious, but mine were helpful. Example. Ballroom dancing. Self explanatory in the world of business when going to business gatherings.