<p>Engineering curriculums are so full that there is not much time for exploring via electives. Although S is taking a double major in a language, I wish he had more time to try a philosophy or econ or ??? course. </p>
<p>Do any of you engineering students feel that you are missing out on the exploratory aspect of college? How do you deal with this?</p>
<p>As a "former":</p>
<p>Yes they are missing quite a bit.</p>
<p>Little choice, if your goal is to be an engineer. Architects have the same problem.</p>
<p>But I believe there is, or at least can be, substantial value to a well-rounded, liberal arts education. Personally.</p>
<p>Typically engineering curriculum require you to take some humanities and social science course (not many but some) so you still should be able to do at least some exploration with other subjects. Its debatable as to what you find satisfactory in terms of the number of courses outside of engineering though. For me personally, I think it is more important to study what you enjoy studying. I am going to get a lot more out of a class on jet and rocket propulsion than on a class on middle eastern politics. To each their own I guess.</p>
<p>yea....women</p>
<p>not at all.You can do almost EVERYTHING with an engineering degree AND a language degree.</p>
<p>I did a minor in Philosophy while I was in engineering and I enjoyed the some of the liberal arts classes. I do think there is value in a well-rounded education. Even so, I don't feel like I was missing all that much. And the liberal arts folks are missing out on things too!</p>
<p>True. I guess there just not enought time to sample everything.</p>
<p>Simply put, yes, engineering majors are missing a lot. However, that is the price of achieving a "professional" degree at the undergraduate level.</p>
<p>My plan is to try to take the min amount of humanites classes, and of course when I do have to take a humanities class, I'll try to find the easiest gut classes. Seriously, I hate anything to do with writing, so I could care less if I miss out on philosophy(Ooh I want to be a philosophy major, so I can have deep thoughts on unemployment) or econ.</p>
<p>I felt like there were some classes that I would have enjoyed taking... but that was the point of my second major. I did enjoy taking language, history, and literature - and having it all be one major. I also took extra math courses, philosophy, and poetry - so it was a very, very full college schedule, but I don't feel like I missed much.</p>
<p>Would not be the same if I had taken a narrow second major, where I would be taking 10 courses that were all very similar. IMO, since the engin. degree is so structured and focuses on one part of the brain, it doesn't make sense to take a second, similarly-limited, major.</p>
<p>My son is considering improving the breadth of his education by taking some summer classes in areas he might not otherwise have time for. Good idea?</p>
<p>Actually, the language major has classes on cultural periods, philosophers, literature, etc. So maybe it's all good. Still though, I would encourage the summer classes for fun.</p>
<p>I love languages. Luckily, the school I'm going to (GA Tech) offers all of its engineering degrees with concentrations in certain languages. Lit I can do without (I'm just trying to pass AP Lit right now...).</p>
<p>if u come in with a lot of AP credit, u'll have plenty of space to take liberal arts classes, although some might be extra than what is required to graduate</p>
<p>For me personally, it's free time, sleep, and, possibly, social lives (well, one can argue that you can always socialize in the computer lab...). And yeah, engineering majors do need to take some humanity and social science classes, but seriously, aside from fulfilling the distribution requirement, I honestly don't care about what I get out of those classes.</p>
<p>I took several classes in linguistics. I took half as many music classes as I did engineering classes. I learned to tune pianos. I was drum major of the band. I took acting classes, architectural history classes, planetary science, accounting, psychology... I took self defense and I learned to ballroom dance.</p>
<p>AP Credit helped, granted, but college offers so many opportunitites. I had to take 19 hours of classes while I was drum major of the band and I felt a bit nuts at times, but I never regretted working hard to be able to take advantage of all the different opportunities that were presented to me in college.</p>
<p>It's tough, sure. Life's tough. If you're motivated to experience as much as you possibly can out of life, and out of college, though, then it's perfectly doable to sufficiently explore everything academia has to offer. I found that those courses that I took that had nothing to do with engineering only served to richen my life. There was nothing about those classes that was a waste of my time. I think... I KNOW... that an ability to relate to all types of people and all fields of study enables me to be a much better engineer than I would have been otherwise, because I am marketable to my clients and potential employers.</p>
<p>Take those opportunities. It's the only time you have to learn about sociolinguistics, or piano tuning, or underwater basketweaving. Take it!</p>
<p>aibarr, did you take some of that stuff in the summer, or during an extra year? You seem to have tried many departments to fill in as the few electives that engineers are allowed.</p>
<p>I agree with you that it is important to try out some things. Maybe diversity in course work is like a breath of fresh air in a jam-packed engineering curriculum. It can only make you a more interesting person.</p>
<p>Nope, four years, no summers. It was a heavy courseload, sure, but I think that all the extracurriculars were what kept me sane during all the engineering courses. I took things that I really enjoyed from really good professors. I think if I had just had things like diff eq and mechanics of materials and such, I'd have burned out.</p>
<p>What can I say, I value quirk.</p>
<p>How many linguistics classes did you take? How many music classes? I kinda thought that ABET requirements limited you severely....Your lists of classes seems kind of, well, hard to believe without taking summer classes or more than 4 years worth.</p>
<p>Or, aibarr took a whole buncha credits every semester!</p>
<p>understood, and maybe where he/she went for u-grad is completely out of the norm, but most schools limit the number of classes you may sign up for each semester. And I suppose its also possible that he/she just audited some courses as well. Sorry to come off so accusatory....but most engineering curricula don't allow such freedom unless you are willing to go WAY above and beyond.</p>