<p>^ You don’t really need GE because the OP will completely forget everything taught in them, you already learn writing skills on high school and you learn verbal skills by talking to people. Engineering/CS people don’t need GE classes, the only liberal art class I learned something useful were psychology and economics… the other 2 were a waste of time</p>
<p>Most colleges require a fair number of GE classes, so why not use them to your advantage. If you want to be a CEO, the basic economics classes are useful. I took a GE class that studied the labor movement starting in the early 1900’s; maybe not directly useful but I got a fairly good understanding of the origins ( and some of the mindset history) of todays unions. I also took a class that talked about the role of TV in politics. </p>
<p>You can also learn some fun skills with something like photography.</p>
<p>If you have to take the GE classes to get the degree, why fight it?</p>
<p>I have a BS in Mech Engineering. I also took a Tech Communication concentration. I found these non-MechE classes useful.
- econ (macros and micro) **
- basic mgt class **
- engineering drawing/design **
- surveying (became a free elective after I switched out of CivilE)
- rhetoric / writing - audience analysis was a key point
- business letter writing - included Resume review
** Required as part of my BSME program, but not true at all schools </p>
<p>My husband started as liberal arts / premed and eventually started over in engineering major. He has far more GE classes (with “wasted credits”), and I think that has helped him fit in better with academically diverse groups.</p>
<p>That is a really good point colorado_mom, GE classes may not help you in your tasks from day to day, but they will certainly help you communicate with other, typically higher level, employees throughout the company you work for. Not everyone you work with will be engineers, if that is all you know, you will be a very ineffective communicator. </p>
<p>Communication in business, no matter your job title, is extremely important. You will not find any successful managers who aren’t truly great at communicating and the GE courses will be a huge benefit in communication.</p>
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<p>You have to be remarkably ahem, misinformed, to think that taking some nonsense general education classes will have a noticeable impact on your ability to fit better with groups or express yourself…let alone lead a company.</p>
<p>Its a classic case of trying to justify the time and effort wasted on those courses after the fact.</p>
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<p>There is NO objective evidence to suggest this. Its just misinformation based on a “gut feeling”.</p>
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Instead of trying to find the free time to teach yourself about web design, why not take advantage of the school’s resource? I expect all the schools you offered have many CS classes that relate to aspects of web design, probably mobile apps as well. </p>
<p>A few years ago, I started a website about a hobby of mine in my free time, which grew to be a bigger source of income than my day job in engineering. It includes programming I’ve done in C, Java, javascript, and PHP; as well as the typical static HTML. It would be nice if I had taken more classes in these areas in school, as well as ones related to databases and graphic design. If you do the programming yourself, it can require very little capital to start up your own website or app business. When I started, I only spent ~$5 per month. I’d suggest going for the business while young, but also having a tech degree to fall back on. Even if your business fails, the experience will be valuable.</p>
<p>At Stanford, I did a double masters program that was setup to foster tech entrepreneurship by combining a degree in one tech field, such as CS or EE, with one in a management field such as MSE or MBA. I enrolled in this program as a coterm before completing my bachelors degree, so I was able to use some courses for multiple degree requirements. The UC schools you mentioned may offer something similar. You may want to contact the relevant guidance department and ask what they’d recommend for your situation. And regardless of what degree programs are offered, you can still take whatever specific classes you’d like as electives. The MSE degree classes I took covered case studies of successful businesses, lectures from persons who started well known companies (this class is online and free), as well as things like accounting and decision making. I used little of this. Instead I found experience to be much more valuable.</p>