College Classes and Real World Application

[mimartin]

Something mentioned in Kavar got me thinking this week about my collegiate days and the different classes I took during that time. Some of the instruction was very good and they helped prepare me for everyday life, both my personal life and professionally. Others, even today, seem like they were utterly useless and held no value beyond the credits earned.

 

So my questions are:

 

1. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the most:

 

2. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the least:

 

3. What is the class provided information that you use the most in everyday life:

 

4. What is the class provided information that you use the least in everyday life:

 

5. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the most, but is the most useless in everyday life:

 

6. What is the class do/did you dislike/disliked the most, but still find useful in everyday life:

 

7. What class did you hate while taking, but after completing the class, look back on it with fond memories:

 

8. For perspective, what was your field of study:

 

My answers:

 

1. Art Appreciation - Before taking the class, I cared very little for art. Art Appreciation actual did what it was designed to do, I now appreciated art.

 

2. Philosophy - It was required and I made good grades in it, but I still resent the fact that I was forced to take this class.

 

3. Algebra – Most of my job deals with problem solving. I know the answer, what I have to do is fill in the question. Algebra is followed closely by all the Accounting classes I have taken.

 

4. I took a graduate level class in Juvenile Delinquency as an elective. I found the class interesting at the time, but have never found any use for the knowledge learned.

 

5. Chemistry – Not saying Chemistry is useless. I have 16 hours of Chemistry, but my profession is insurance agent and unless someone vandalizes a house by pouring ammonia all over the home, chemistry is useless.

 

6. Marketing – I thought 99% of marketing was common sense, but I still use it every day.

 

7. Statistics – This was the class everyone said was the “weed out” class. I guess I did not really hate the class, but worried about it until the final exam. Funny thing was even if I had made a zero on the final I still had a B in the class.

 

8. Finance/Accounting

 

The class I hate the most was not even a college class. It has to do with the licenses I carry for my profession. We are required to consistently take Ethic classes. 1. I don’t believe you can teach ethic, someone is either ethical or they are not. 2. If someone is unethical, don’t make them take a class, revoke their license.

[Achilles]

1. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the most:

I enjoyed the critical thinking and decision making classes the most. During the first one, I had one of those *whir* *click* moments where everything in my head shifted and I never looked at anything the same again. Each successive class built on that.

 

2. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the least:

Math/Statistics

 

3. What is the class provided information that you use the most in everyday life:

To difficult to narrow down.

 

If forced at gunpoint to pick one, I'd have to say my employment law courses, as I am constantly checking my decisions against what might get me sued.

 

4. What is the class provided information that you use the least in everyday life:

Arizona history.

 

I took history for all my electives while I was still trying to figure out what I was going to select for a major. This particular history class was probably one of my least favorite.

 

5. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the most, but is the most useless in everyday life:

N/A

 

I've made use of all the classes that I enjoyed and even the classes that I didn't enjoy are called upon daily (math/statistics).

 

6. What is the class do/did you dislike/disliked the most, but still find useful in everyday life:

Math/Statistics

 

7. What class did you hate while taking, but after completing the class, look back on it with fond memories:

Brief Calculus.

 

8. For perspective, what was your field of study:

Organizational Management

[Salzella]

4. I took a graduate level class in Juvenile Delinquency as an elective.

 

did they teach you how to be a juvenile delinquent?

[Boba Rhett]

1. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the most: Circuit Design and Implementation

 

2. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the least: Statistics

 

3. What is the class provided information that you use the most in everyday life: The good math ones

 

4. What is the class provided information that you use the least in everyday life: Music Appreciation

 

5. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the most, but is the most useless in everyday life: Radio Communications

 

6. What is the class do/did you dislike/disliked the most, but still find useful in everyday life: Advanced English

 

7. What class did you hate while taking, but after completing the class, look back on it with fond memories: Intro to Analog Circuitry

 

8. For perspective, what was your field of study: Electronics Engineering

[tk102]

1. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the most:

Thermodynamics, Process Control, Introduction to Hindu Thought

 

2. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the least:

English Literature, Physical Chemistry

 

3. What is the class provided information that you use the most in everyday life:

Intro to Electrical Engineering, most philosophy courses, Music Appreciation, Physics I, Calculus I

 

4. What is the class provided information that you use the least in everyday life:

Fencing, Separation Processes, Differential Equations

 

5. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the most, but is the most useless in everyday life:

Organic Chemistry

 

6. What is the class do/did you dislike/disliked the most, but still find useful in everyday life:

Technical Writing

 

7. What class did you hate while taking, but after completing the class, look back on it with fond memories:

History of Western Civilization

 

8. For perspective, what was your field of study:

Chemical engineering w/ minor in philosophy

 

tk bonus question

9. Class that you never ever thought you'd find a use for, but did:

Fortran

 

edit: Rhett, you don't appreciate music?

[Boba Rhett]

Do you know how many times she made us listen to 4′33″? DO YOU?

 

 

 

I left that class disliking "music".

[mimartin]

did they teach you how to be a juvenile delinquent?

No, but if I'd been a juvenile at the time it could have given me some very good ideas.

 

It was a class mainly for teachers going after their Masters. I took it because I needed a graduate level elective outside of my major and it fit my schedule (Saturday Class). I will say it gave me a different perspective in not judging people. The real funny thing about it was besides a friend, that had the same major and work schedule as me, everyone in the class were getting their masters in the field of teaching. What I found funny about that was teachers have to speak in public every day, but when it came to the final which was an oral presentation my fellow business school friend and I had to make the two presentations. I also found it funny that these teachers did not know how to make a PowerPoint presentation.

Do you know how many times she made us listen to 4′33″? DO YOU?

 

I left that class disliking "music".

I took History of Rock and Roll to avoid that. Too bad it wouldn't transfer.

 

tk bonus question

9. Class that you never ever thought you'd find a use for, but did:

Speech

[Jeff]

Well I am in my second year of college but I'll still answer the questions with what I've had so far.

 

1. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the most: So far it was my Introduction to Computing class. Incredibly easy for me, but the professor was so great, he made it interesting with tech news and discussion. I am taking Internet and Media this semester which is basically web design so I think this class will also end up in this category.

 

2. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the least: I probably enjoyed both Java courses equally little but if I had to pick one I'd say the more advanced of the two. I by far spent more time on that class than all my other classes combined this past semester, and it was still my worst grade.

 

3. What is the class provided information that you use the most in everyday life: I suppose writing, as I don't have a job besides working on my own on websites (which I am currently taking a class on, finally a class on what I want to do).

 

4. What is the class provided information that you use the least in everyday life: Probably European History, though History of Art which I am taking currently might top that.

 

5. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the most, but is the most useless in everyday life: Can't really think of one, as most of the classes I have enjoyed so far have at least some practical use, while the ones I didn't enjoy were more useless.

 

6. What is the class do/did you dislike/disliked the most, but still find useful in everyday life: Can't really think of something in my current life but accounting will probably be useful later in life.

 

7. What class did you hate while taking, but after completing the class, look back on it with fond memories: Can't think of one for this either, so far it's been pretty straightforward with whether I enjoyed a class or not.

 

8. For perspective, what was your field of study: Information Systems

[Jae Onasi]

1. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the most:

Almost all of them. History of science, history of medicine, history of the French Revolution, anatomy and physiology, any of the professional classes where we saw patients, Arabic, piano, choir, psychology, sociology, French civilization (in French), both of the Bible/religion courses I took (taught by a liberal Episcopalian who had converted from Judaism. He brought a very unique view to the whole subject).

 

My absolute favorite was the class I took in professional school on anatomy and physiology--the prof was the best I ever had--he could take the most complex concepts and break them down in a way that made it completely understandable for us, and he was hilarious. Here we were, very first class of the very first day of professional school, all of us nervous, excited, and a host of other emotions anyone in a professional program experiences the first day. He walked in, introduced himself, and then slapped this unbelievably complex math formula full of square roots, sums of cubed numbers and derivatives, etc. up on the overhead. 59 other heads bowed as they furiously scribbled down this formula. I sat back and cocked an eyebrow. He waited a few moments and then said, "This is the formula I use to determine the difficulty of your tests." A few mouths dropped open. He continued, "Now let me explain this. This is the square root of points of Notre Dame squared, over the points of their opponents squared, with a little difficulty factor worked in, plus the square root of the points of the Chicago Bears squared, over the points of their opponents squared, with a difficulty factor worked in. Now the point of this is, if Notre Dame loses on Saturday and the Bears lose on Sunday, you don't want a test on Monday." 59 pairs looked at him shell-shocked while I sat in my chair trying hard not to guffaw loudly. We had 3 classes with him, and we worked our butts off learning the stuff but I was sad on the last day of the last class with him because I enjoyed his classes that much.

2. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the least:

a. Organic chemistry taught by the 2nd worst professor I've ever had. I got a 52 on the first test. That was considered a B because the average was 35. There's something wrong with your test construction and teaching if the average of 200 students is 35....Not to mention that I have zero interest in learning how to brominate ketones and dienes or playing with carcinogens like carbon tetrachloride on a regular basis.

 

b. History of the world 1, taught by the prof who has the honor of being the worst prof ever. What he lectured on in a monotone had nothing to do with the books he required, and what was on the test had nothing to do with either his lectures or the books. Half the class failed the first test and dropped the course after he railed at us for half an hour on how terrible we all were. Somehow I ended up with a B in the class anyway.

3. What is the class provided information that you use the most in everyday life:

a. Math--use it every day on the job

b. Any of the professional patient care classes

c. pharmacology, anatomy, and physiology

d. biochemistry

e. statistics

f. intro to psych

g. abnormal psych (because I do get psychos in my chair from time to time)

h. human growth and development (especially useful raising kids)

i. intro to business and intro to marketing (since my job has business aspects in providing patient care)

j. History of the Middle East, History of Russian/Soviet Union (helps with understanding the background behind current events in those regions)

k. Communication theory (I talk to around 2000 patients a year, figuring out how to communicate a medical concept in a way they can understand it is critical)

l. Intro to speech (helped greatly with getting over that 'I'm terrified of giving a speech' thing, and I talk to around 2000 patients a year)

4. What is the class provided information that you use the least in everyday life:

The class I had to take for nursing school on nursing care plans. Whoever came up with nursing care plans had an idea that looked good on paper, but it has zero application in Real Life. In hospitals you have to put care plans related to the patient's condition in their chart. They end up in the back of the chart, never read, because the nurses already know what they're going to do anyway. It's a complete waste of paper and space in a chart.

 

5. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the most, but is the most useless in everyday life:

Chapel choir, piano, history of the French Revolution, any of my French classes, none of which I use unless you count music appreciation and understanding of French culture as 'use'. I translated for someone one whole time since I got my undergrad degrees. I was working at a hospital and they called me to translate for a Vietnamese family who spoke no English but did speak French. We spoke in French, and I translated into English for the rest of the staff. It was weird to hear French spoken with a Vietnamese accent, but we got through it. I can't really call any of the classes useless, however, because I invariably will have a patient who works or has a hobby in those fields, and we'll end up talking about that, which helps break the ice.

6. What is the class do/did you dislike/disliked the most, but still find useful in everyday life:

Geometric optics. It was ungodly boring, but I use optics every day.

High school typing. Another ungodly boring class, but touch typing is incredibly useful. If you have the chance to take a typing class (or keyboarding, or whatever they call it now), do it, you won't regret learning touch typing.

 

7. What class did you hate while taking, but after completing the class, look back on it with fond memories:

I absolutely dreaded taking Intro to speech, but it was required. I ended up loving the class. The prof was fantastic and the second best I've had in college.

Despite being a history major, I also really dislike US History 1--colonial American history is incredibly boring. I actually put it off to my very last semester of undergrad, I hated it that much, but it was required for my history major. However, the prof was such a riot and made the subject come to life so well that I ended up enjoying it. I had him for my senior thesis class that same semester, and on the first day of classes I had him at 9am for senior thesis, and 4pm for US 1. He walked in at 4pm, saw me, and said "What are you doing here?" I replied, "I hate US 1. I put it off as long as I possibly could." He gave me an evil grin and said, "We're going to have fun, then." It was great.

 

8. For perspective, what was your field of study:

Undergrad--history, French, pre-professional training, some nursing school. My college advisor quipped at one point, "One cannot major in everything, although you seem to be giving it a good try."

Grad/Professional--History of medicine, doctor

[Rogue Nine]

1. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the most:

Medical Ethics - The topics were consistently interesting and I actually cared enough about them to have pre-formed opinions on them.

 

2. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the least:

Calculus - I don't care what the damn area under the curve is or why we have to find it.

Java - Most bloated and idiotic programming language I've ever used.

 

3. What is the class provided information that you use the most in everyday life:

Elementary Logic - At least, I try to apply it everyday.

Japanese - Helps me when I watch my animu!

 

4. What is the class provided information that you use the least in everyday life:

Calculus - I still don't care what the damn area under the damn curve is!

 

5. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the most, but is the most useless in everyday life:

Irish Language - Wonderful to learn and use, but not very practical as I don't live in Ireland.

 

6. What is the class do/did you dislike/disliked the most, but still find useful in everyday life:

Constitutional Law & Politics - Taught me legal research skills and how to view things legalistically. Tremendous bitch of a class, though.

 

7. What class did you hate while taking, but after completing the class, look back on it with fond memories:

Literature and Psychology - It had nothing to do with literature or psychology. It was basically a seminar on Korean cinema. Don't ask, my university's literature department was and still is kinda screwy. I didn't particularly care for any of the films we watched, but it was a total BS class and it was at the end of a long day of classes, so it gave me time to relax and doze off.

 

8. For perspective, what was your field of study:

Philosophy, Politics and Law.

[Ctrl Alt Del]

I'm probably (hopefully) entering college this year, but I may already answer partially one of the questions.

 

3. What is the class provided information that you use the most in everyday life:

English courses. Besides the obvious applications of learning a foreign language - and not just any language, but the most important one currently - it also helped me greatly to better understand the French classes I'm currently undergoing.

[Darth InSidious]

So my questions are:

 

1. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the most:

I probably enjoyed the most the modules I studied on Egyptian Religion and its relationship with Egyptian geography.

 

2. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the least:

Archaeological Theories, Methods and Practice. Dull. Stuff.

 

3. What is the class provided information that you use the most in everyday life:

"Information" is really the wrong word. What I acquired from my course were skill-sets and a great deal of less definable things - more methods of thinking and understanding than clear-cut facts/figures/knowledge-base.

 

That said, Middle Egyptian is something I've kept up since and found pretty useful - if nothing else than for wowing people with.

4. What is the class provided information that you use the least in everyday life:

Again, I find most of what I studied pretty useful. Aside from the three lectures of basic cuneiform, which was enough to put me off all such languages for life. It's all ruddy triangles and lines.

 

5. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the most, but is the most useless in everyday life:

My dissertation. Having done it, it really wasn't much further use. Or is that skirting the question?

 

6. What is the class do/did you dislike/disliked the most, but still find useful in everyday life:

Egyptian technology/material usage.

7. What class did you hate while taking, but after completing the class, look back on it with fond memories:

Coptic.

 

8. For perspective, what was your field of study:

You need me to spell it out?

 

9. Class that you never ever thought you'd find a use for, but did:

Not really a class, but reading Roman playwrihgts is something I'm glad I did, and it's been fairly useful knowing The Rope from The Ghost.

[SW01]

Only halfway through second year, but here are my thought so far:

 

1. Constitutional Law in Context. A good portion of the subject revolved around some very debateable political issues, and we made proper use of the chance to argue! Anything involving Monarchy v Republicanism, devolution, etc. always gets a good argument here!

 

2. European Community Internal Market Law...that was horrific. All talk of imports and exports, levies and taxation.

 

3. Not so much useful in everyday life, but the basic legal principles from Constitutional Law are most useful in all the other subjects I've studied so far, and there were some good points for arguments on politics and reform.

 

4/5. Both of these have the same answer: Crime and Criminal Process. It had a sizable Criminology element, which was the highlight of the semester, but had no real application to anything else. I expect that will change if I get the chance to study Roman law next year though - it will be an utter and unashamed indulgence of interest.

 

6. Another European subject, this time European Constitutional Law. Again, the constitutional aspects are useful for other subjects, and it gave me a better understanding of the EU (that sort of thing interests me, y'see!), but by God I hated it...

 

7. Equity. Just finished it now, actually. While studying, it was desperately confusing. Even the tutors and lecturers said we were thrown in too early, but all the same the large historical aspect was really interesting, and looking at the development of some principles over a long period - one spans 400 years - was good, too.

 

8. Northern Ireland Law. Mostly the same as English law, with a few notable differences and extra requirements.

[JediMaster12]

1. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the most:

Geez that's a tough one since each region of Latin America and the Middle East is broken into several classes

 

 

2. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the least:

Myth, Metaphor and Symbolism- required capstone for Humanites and being the idiot I was I didn't take Race and Racism to cover three areas at once

I liked the choice in literature since we focused on Joseph Campbell's Hero but when you are in a lecture hall with 200 other students, real drag

 

3. What is the class provided information that you use the most in everyday life:

My theory classes in anthropology and communication mainly because I learned how theories can be applied to real life and I amuse myself by being a Freakanomics wannabe

 

Next on the list was my required online course on ethics particularly regarding human test subjects. Since I wish to pursue academia, a big step up

 

The topper though is all the culture classes I took because I teach a culture curriculum at the elem, middle and high school level and my knowledge and my willingess to research other areas is a big help in supplementing materials

 

4. What is the class provided information that you use the least in everyday life:

Calculus and trig- don't use it

 

 

5. What is the class do/did you enjoy/enjoyed the most, but is the most useless in everyday life:

My painting, life drawing and glass blowing- totally useless in that it has nothing to do with intende goal pursuit but it does have a use in keeping my sanity since I have a creative bent

 

 

6. What is the class do/did you dislike/disliked the most, but still find useful in everyday life:

Archaeology theory/history- Taught by a good professor who actually likes me. Yep Dr. Robertshaw was boring in his descriptions but tough and fair in his grading and loved a good argument if you could back it up. Old school archaeologist.

 

 

7. What class did you hate while taking, but after completing the class, look back on it with fond memories:

Philosophy- before I transferred back here to California, philosophy was a GE requirement at Loyola so I took what was required. I remember learning about different eras and I developed a vehement hatred of Hume. I hated Hume so much that when his name popped up in my theology ethics class, I banged my head on the table.

 

 

8. For perspective, what was your field of study:

Undergrad- Anthropology

Graduate- Communication Studies

 

Now you tell me how those two go together

[Boba Rhett]

You wanted the shake and fries that come standard with a communications degree?

 

 

 

*runs away*

[Det. Bart Lasiter]

You wanted the shake and fries that come standard with a communications degree?

 

 

 

*runs away*