<p>Hey parents, I am thinking about what classes I am going to take this fall when I start college and I was wondering what the most valuable class you ever took in college was and why. Any advice you have would be great-thanks!</p>
<p>Also... any advice on classes to avoid? ;)</p>
<p>Music - the Symphony, followed by Opera.</p>
<p>I was not a music major, and did not grow up with classical music in my home. My appreciation for these forms of music have stood the test of time. I took up the violin at age 47, and founded a community orchestra. I took up opera singing at 52 (I'm pretty good, too!) There are no classes I ever took that did so much over my lifetime to promote better quality of living (and they've also been useful for professional "chitchat".)</p>
<p>I also never regretted any well-taught language classes.</p>
<p>The most valuable class I ever took was general chemistry. It is immensely useful in all kinds of science and engineering careers.</p>
<p>I read recently that if you take an intro to art history, you will always be glad because it is good to know about art and this is a hard subject to learn on your own. (I particularly liked a comparative religion class that I took, but I never tried art history!)</p>
<p>My epiphany class was Social Anthropology. Until that time, I had a certain smugness about the superiority of my own culture's norms. In Anthro, I gradually became more accepting of other cultures' belief structures. Then one day, I finally realized that the basic assumptions of my culture's norms were just about as arbitrary as those of other cultures and that perhaps I could actually stand to learn something from the others. It's from that moment that I consider my life as a marginally "educated" person began.</p>
<p>Mini is my new hero. At 52, I'm five years overdue to take up violin, but I primed to rehearse for an operatic duet with her. Good Lord, yes - be sure to study the creative process, especially through those fine arts with which to this point you've only had passing acquaintances!</p>
<p>For general education: Art History.</p>
<p>I agree with ADad and MidWestMom: Art History. And I was an Econ major. </p>
<p>As an MBA student at Stanford, my experience was also that the very most valuable classes (for me) were not what I might have expected and not at all the "hard" "technical" "financial" stuff: my 3 most valuable at B-school:
Negotiation
Creativity in Business
Interpersonal Dynamics (what we called "Touchy Feely")</p>
<p>I don't know your needs, wants, desires, likes, dislikes, major, minor, etc. It would be foolish of me to try to give you advice. But I wish you good luck obtaining a happy, successful, fulfilling life.</p>
<p>For me the eye-opening class was Geomorphology because the prof assigned an essay which had no "right" answer. As long as you provided good evidence to support your position you did well.</p>
<p>The ability to communicate well in written form is invaluable and rare. I believe that learning how to critically analyze information and write a well-supported essay is the goal of the freshman seminars at LACs; I don't know about other schools. Wherever you go; a good writing class would be my recommendation.</p>
<p>badger - I agree with above posters who nominate a class NOT in their major. I took all the usual killer science and math courses, but I knew I what to expect with those. I had essentially no expectations with Art History, Music Appreciation, and World Architecture courses. And so I could pursue the material "without malice." Highly recommended.</p>
<p>"... any advice on classes to avoid?"</p>
<p>Abnormal Psychology. JMHO.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I don't know your needs, wants, desires, likes, dislikes, major, minor, etc. It would be foolish of me to try to give you advice.
[/quote]
I agree that it would be unwise of any of us to advise the OP on what his course schedule should look like - we don't know his interests, potential major, distribution requirements, whether his college/U prefers students to go wide in the first year (exploring different interests and completing gen ed/distribution) or dive into the possible major field or check off important prereqs.</p>
<p>But that wasn't the OP question. He asked a fun and interesting question about what was our most valuable course.</p>
<p>Calculus II - multivariate analysis... Not kidding, I always thought math had internal beauty, this showed me that it is actually a symphony.</p>
<p>Op had more than one question. In addition to asking us what valuable classes we may have taken, the OP also asked for advice on classes to take/avoid. I don't feel it's my place to recommend/dissuade Op from classes since I know so little about Op, so I chose merely to wish good luck.
I wouldn't go as far as JMMOM has to say those that suggested classes to OP are unwise. I don't really know posters here, or the OP. I just know I wouldn't feel comfortable recommending classes to Op.</p>
<p>Sheesh. I didn't say that "those that suggested classes to OP are unwise." I suggested classes myself in answer to the question of what classes were most valuable to me.</p>
<p>Economics and Family Finance</p>
<p>Money makes the world go around!</p>
<p>The most valuable class I took was a Geography class my senior year, that was well-known as a blow-off class (it met one night a week from 7 - 10 pm and there was a big social scene surrounding it), and I swear it was the most useful class I ever had.</p>
<p>Greek and Roman History. I took it pass fail because it was out of my major and I got an A!</p>
<p>I just finished my first year of college and here's what worked especially well for me:</p>
<p>I decided to take into psychology because it sounded mildly interesting (turned out to be extremely interesting) and I had heard the professor was really good (turned out he was MORE than really good--he was excellent!)</p>
<p>Since I liked the professor so much, I decided to take a smaller class offered by him in the spring. While I was somewhat unsure about the course, I took it anyway because I knew I really liked the professor and was interested in taking another one of his classes.</p>
<p>The spring class ended up being one of my favorite classes thus far and extremely valuable. It had to do with how an individual forms and displays various identities within social groups, and while a pretty specialized class, I'm now a lot more aware of my surroundings and how I'm displaying various parts of myself.</p>
<p>Thinking back many years ago I found 3 courses at the top of the list.
1. Technical writing improved my skill at composing my dissetation and technical papers far more than the freshman comp classes I took.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Social cybernetics introduced me to current world events in a way that a history course could not.</p></li>
<li><p>Music of the 20th Century opened my ears and mind to modern classical music and began a life long love affair with the music of Charles Ives.</p></li>
</ol>