<p>I really question the ability of the Liberal Arts to be able to make one “critically think.” I’ve taken some college courses in the liberal arts, and they were all about regurgitation. Some of the multiple choice questions were really ridiculous. I had one about the amount of people living on Earth (I missed it because I misread “million” for “billion” though…) and another in a religion class about the first and last books of the Bible. (And I wasn’t even raised in a Christian family) </p>
<p>And I think a lot of humanities majors make their majors harder than they actually are. I think if the math and English majors at a school switched positions, the mathies might not do so hot in English. But I don’t really think that many English majors are capable of doing upper division math.</p>
<p>General rule of thumb: if it’s multiple choice, it’s not supporting the idea of a liberal arts education at its most basic level. MC questions don’t make you think. Like you said, it’s all about regurgitation. Unfortunately, education has really taken a beating in the last few decades, making even philosophy courses center around open book tests or rote memorization.</p>
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<p>Of course English majors can’t do upper-level math! That’s why they went into English in the first place. ;)</p>
<p>And as to humanities majors making courses harder than they really are - making a course harder than it needs to be is called challenging yourself to get the most out of it. </p>
<p>Example: you have a paper to write and can choose a topic. Don’t pick what you think will be easiest. Pick something that will cause you to stretch yourself and puzzle about it. If you run into difficulty, ask the professor for help. And then do more than is required - not for a grade (that will follow) but for a deeper and more complete understanding of your topic.</p>
<p>chaosakita, when I went to a large university, my “liberal arts courses” had multiple choice tests. When I went to a loberal-arts college, I never saw another multiple choice question again. YMMV on the school, etc but the ability to write, persuade, research and articulate a point is something that goes along with a liberal arts education and that is not always found among scantron sheets and 200+ person classes.</p>
<p>Some of my engineering friends do this, too. “This material is so hard!” It’s calculus I. You learned it junior year of high school. Get over yourself.</p>
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<p>They’ll always appreciate a genuine interest in their class/subject.</p>
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<p>MizBee, I think this also depends on the professor. At my huge school, the econ professor taught a 300 person intro to economics class the math behind all the graphs/formulas, which you then had to reproduce on free response exams. This made it much more difficult than the other professor’s class, which involved lots of WebAssign multiple choice assignments (which you got to do until you got 100%) and lots of extra credit opportunities. It’s been a while, but I still remember what I learned in that econ class.</p>
<p>I really meant that they “make out” their course to be harder than it actually is.</p>
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<p>Personally, I would go for whatever gives me the highest grade. I already like to write papers for fun and learn on my spare time. I can work on my own pace and not worry about grading. I don’t understand why I would need to do the same when I have a teacher over my shoulder and a grade looming ahead. </p>
<p>This probably sounds heretical, but I don’t think the key purpose of school really is to learn. Yes, I think that learning should be a part of school. But to me, school is more about developing general skills. I didn’t get to understand and know as much as I do now by being the best student.</p>
<p>Try to either major in an in demand field you love or major in what you love and have a skill you can always make money at to support your passion till you can live off it. College is not just about vocational training. Its about being educated. Not for pride but for depth and breadth. Don’t forget that you can take night classes and work fulltime if you have to, but the college experience can also be life changing. </p>
<p>As for loans, don’t have kids till you pay them off and you should be able to pay them off in a reasonable length of time if they ate not huge. Work during school and summers, apply for scholarships galore, hold off on the fancy car and dwelling till the loans are paid off and don’t waste your money on booze and other vices. Be willing to study where you have the best financial aid, and get the best grades possible and best related work experience to get the best job afterward. A lot of good jobs really are flexible on what you majored in so long as you have a degree.</p>
<p>Polarbear I don’t happen to think that is nutty at all. I graduated debt free (Thanks Dad) and my husband paid of his loans in 10 years. Since he graduated 3 years before we got married and we were married 8 years before our first child was born. And I was still only 31 at the time it pretty much sounds like how it is done now days. What is nutty is thinking you can do it with 120k in debt.</p>
<p>“Try to either major in an in demand field you love or major in what you love and have a skill you can always make money at to support your passion till you can live off it. College is not just about vocational training. Its about being educated.”</p>
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<p>That’s about as good advice as anything for the directional part.</p>
<p>For the cost part, I’d work a little backwards. I’d almost first thing check out that CC thread from a couple weeks ago that listed schools that still had freshman spaces available after the May 1 deadline. There were some kick-tail universities in there. </p>
<p>Point being that whatever floats a kid’s boat major-wise, whatever the stats are, the schools on that list will possibly be more negotiable (than in-demand schools) for merit aid in the next cycle if applications go in early enough. I’d start there looking for value, and if the kid is a rising senior, take some road trips to check a few of them out. Then branch out from there to the state schools & other non-costly options. A good-to-great HS student should not have to overpay for a college education.</p>
<p>I’ve been through the college selection process twice, and thank goodness don’t need to do it again. Yes, college IS worth it–with very few exceptions, you must have a degree, with experience in between, to get a job shortly after graduation. Really doesn’t matter in what for undergrad–although a high GPA, being able to interact coherently with normal people & the ability to write well with current skills in the Microsoft & Adobe arenas will give even a nondescript major some shine.</p>