Hi, I want to know if it matters what classes you take in college.
Yes it matters, if you plan to graduate with a degree.
College will have general course requirements as well as specific ones for your major.
Here is an example of what courses an Electrical Engineer would be expected to take at CWRU>
https://engineering.case.edu/eecs/node/209
Note that there are technical electives and general electives. Those classes you have more latitude on deciding.
Here is an example for graduation requirements at SUNY Binghamton:
http://www.binghamton.edu/general-education/
Most colleges have graduation requirements for a diversity of types of courses plus requirements for your major.
You may want to take advanced classes in your major beyond what is required, especially if your school’s requirements are lenient and/or you’re planning to go to graduate school. Depending on your career goals, you may also want to take classes in fields outside your major. Of course, you will probably have room to take classes “just for fun.”
I’m talking about electives.
You will probably need to take a certain number of electives in your major, as well as some open electives that don’t have to be in your major (although they can be). Employers (as opposed to graduate schools) won’t usually ask about specific classes, but the skills acquired in certain electives (e.g. programming, but the specific classes that would be useful depend on your field) could help you get a job.
If we’re talking school/graduation requirements/grad school pre-reqs, then yes it does matter. You have to have such and such hours in such and such categories and subcategories (major, gen ed, etc).
However in the long run (ie employment) the major is the important thing. The classes themselves don’t really matter. If you go to grad school your undergrad classes are meaningless for employment.
For electives, some colleges have different categores you must take electives in…e.g., Global Studies, Language, Physical Education, etc. Some want you to take a sequence in a particular area. Look at the graduation requirements for teh college of interest and see what they want.
You should have a certain amount of free electives that you’ll need to take to meet the unit requirements for graduation. Those, as the name implies, can be anything you want: More classes in your major beyond your requirements, classes towards a minor, random classes… You do need to look at your school’s specific requirements though. For instance, if you need to have a certain number of upper division units to graduate then some of your “free” electives may be restricted to upper division classes if you don’t already meet that requirement.
That said, if you major in something unit-intensive like engineering or nursing you most likely won’t have many truly free electives.
Beyond that, in most cases your major will require at least a couple electives within or related to the field that go beyond the core major requirements. And if your school has GE requirements, you may have flexibility there depending on how the requirements are structured. On the other hand, some schools have very well-defined core classes that everyone takes. If you’d rather have flexibility in your general education requirements, you’ll need to look at each school individually.
Take a writing class. Unless you are unusual, writing is hard and you can only master it by doing it. I mean…write a paper a week. Edit. Re-edit. Have your peers review it. Work hard at it.
If you master writing, the rest of college is easy. Plus…it’s a huge skill to have in the real world.