<p>I am going to do EE, and I was thinking, 8 HASS subjects seems a lot. Do most take about 1 a term? That would mean taking HASS even in the upper level years, and if one squezes it in the early years, that wouldn't leave much room for classes in your major(math and science classes, is the the reason why I really like MIT, afterall)? </p>
<p>HASS doesnt seem very fun to me; I would like to take some humanity classes, but 8 just seems a bit much, when I could be taking more classes in the science that I find really interesting, from the plethora of awesome science classes that MIT offers.</p>
<p>How do you guys(people not majoring in the Humanities or Arts) feel about this? How do you guys who are Engineers/Electrical Engineers feel about this?</p>
<p>Yes, most people take one HASS class per term.</p>
<p>Just keep in mind that although all those science and engineering class listings look like a lot of fun (and they are), they are also a lot of work. It can be nice to have one class each term in which you never have "oh god, what is the professor even talking about" moments.</p>
<p>And I think it's fair that we're expected to graduate with a good grounding in written and spoken communication. To be a good scientist or engineer, you do have to be able to communicate your ideas clearly.</p>
<p>I have had friends who have taken HASS classes over the summer at either Harvard or BU. This would free you up during the school year to take more science and engineering classes.</p>
<p>we are going to college after-all, aren't we, to become productive, enlightened, worldly citizens? surely, the purpose of higher education is not to churn out specialists in one field and one field only. Engineers that can't hold a conversation about any discipline but math and science, pHD's that still write at a high school level, and brilliant theorists that stand by and let trigger-happy dumb jocks run the world because they never developed an appreciation for political science. Believe it or not, figuring stuff out is only half the battle, the other half is letting people know. So whether it be writing a paper to publish in the science journal or holding your own in a public debate about the energy crisis, communication is a necessity for each and every well-educated citizen of the world.</p>
<p>TOO many engineers are incapable of expressing their ideas clearly. They have large vocabularies of course and as a general rule, most are very intelligent. Yet with very complex ideas, the ability to understand the niche of the world into which they must fit and the people to whom one must "sell" them is relatively rare. I know this because my dad is a mechanical engineer, and some of his peers... heh. I don't think HASS courses are anything short of worthwhile, and if not, well at least they will probably be your easiest classes!</p>