Be careful when saying things of the form "$DEGREE_PROGRAM should also include at least one class in $SUBJECT." You can make persuasive arguments for the relevance of a dizzying range of subjects, and at some point you have to prioritize.
University education forces you to take courses that may be outside of being directly related to your field.
My computer engineering degree also included classes in the following subjects, some mandatory, some chosen by me:
- Film history
- Multiple English/Literature courses
- Geology
- Physics
- Chemistry
- Macroeconomics
- World History
All these subjects made me a more well-rounded person, not to mention the diverse relationships with people that didn’t just come from my particular small town.
right on! imho, one of the main points of a diverse undergraduate education is to give you exposure to introductory-level courses in lots of different fields. it's unreasonable to imagine that you can master a field just by taking a few undergrad courses in it, but that's not the point of those courses. that's why i think that general-education and non-technical elective courses are such important parts of the curriculum, even though they don't directly teach you anything applicable in your future job
Another thing: assume that the people designing the curriculum might possibly know a little more than you do about what subjects are useful later on. I.e., don't say stuff like this:
"But why do I need to learn about matrices? I'm a meteorology major! We don't use matrices at all, it's all just partial derivatives!"
(This is an actual complaint I received when TAing ODE's, which was required by the meteorology major. I didn't even bother explaining how you discretize a linear PDE into a system of ODE's, or why that matters for weather prediction, I just referred her to her department head. )
Perhaps my opinion is colored by being a person interested in studying many fields. It is very true that if your interests lie entirely in your major, you will be forced to take classes outside of that.
Are you suggesting that engineering students have no choice about which areas to study, just because they have labels? Many study more than one, and take multiple degrees. I knew one who got seven bachelor's degrees in various engineering and science fields.
Nice catch, I didn't even read it that closely to notice that it excluded STEM degrees.
It is interesting because my undergraduate degree in a social science, economics, required that I take at least 2 stem courses. Typically the requirement is filled by 2 introductory level science courses but I'm sure higher level science courses would have satisfied it as well. It would certainly be a risk to offer courses with out further guidance from the state department.
Yes, most U.S. universities require a broad range of subjects outside of one's chosen major. This is a good thing in my book. You have your whole life to develop an ever-narrowing level of specialization.
Agreed. The options are not mutually exclusive. I also was an engineering major and picked up two minors outside my field specifically in the social sciences.
I wonder how common the reverse is? As in [choose: English, Art, History, etc] majors taking Calculus or Physics..
From undergrad, I have a double major in East Asian Studies (concentration on Japan) and Aerospace Engineering. I no longer bother trying to explain the simple truth (they are both very interesting fields!) because no one seems to believe it possible for someone to be interested in both these things at the same time. Now, I just mention whichever major is more relevant to the conversation or job I am applying for etc.
My experience with public research universities would say that yes, in general you are required to take quite a few courses in many fields that may be outside the realm of your major.
I'm an Information Systems major (BS) and I took two philosophy and two psychology courses, plus archaeology and a bunch of other things in other subjects.
I agree with you: that's about the best you can do if you want to graduate in 4 years.
At least at the universities I know of, majors being too specialized isn't really considered an issue.
>Oxford and Cambridge are certainly exceptions. In general, if an institution offers both a BS and BA in the same subject (at least in the sciences), the BS tends to be more technical.
Are you sure? In my case the difference between a BA and a BS was taking two biology courses and one English course, versus taking two of English and one of biology.
The mathematics requirements for my degree in mathematics were no different.
I'd just add take a few classes outside your chosen field (and required courses) in an area of secondary interest. You get acquainted with different people, get a different perspective, etc.
My main undergrad was actually originally BioChem, which I flipped over to straight Chemistry and added Computer Engineering because it was easy. I never worked in the Chemistry field. I threw in Lit and Politics classes (upper div/grad level) just to meet and discuss different topics with different groups of people.
All too often if you pick an impacted degree, need to take lots of the same classes with the same people, and are spending all your time on that subject you will miss out.
I'd like to mention that my alma mater (The University of Texas at Austin) has an honors program (called Plan II) that allows (and encourages) students to major in both liberal arts and other, often technical fields: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/progs/plan2/admission/application...
My particular program combined liberal arts and engineering and had institutional support and a student group to help.
Of course, many other students still thought we were crazy to do both. I'm glad I did. Many of my Plan II instructors did a better job of teaching critical thinking and scholarship than most of my engineering professors.
Pretty much all of grad level engineering classes, all of grad level Stats classes, all of grad level Econ classes include applications of LA. Heck quantitative research work in social sciences are still included via stats.
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