<p>Would a class in Partial Differential Equations be more useful than one in Ordinary Differential Equations for Engineering overall? How about for specific fields (Civil, Chemical, Electrical, etc.)? </p>
<p>I figure the former has more uses since it can apply to Diff. Eqns. of multiple variables, but I don't know.</p>
<p>Partial differential equations are more useful. Functions in real life have multiple variables. However, at my school at least, a course in ODEs is a prerequisite for the course in PDEs.</p>
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<p>I don’t know why this statement was used as a basis to support the opinion of the greater importance of PDE’s, but you do know ODE’s are not always just functions of a single variable, right?</p>
<p>Oh yikes. PDEs have (partial) derivatives wrt multiple variables. My bad. Anyway, my point still stands. In economics, physics, and engineering the models are pretty much all PDEs, not ODEs.</p>