Let's face it... a liberal arts education has been getting a pretty bad wrap on WSO recently. In the "Why College Isn't for Everyone" thread, the uselessness of history or philosophy courses seemed to be a common theme among posts. I tend to agree with this sentiment, mostly because I feel that a traditional liberal arts education is not a cost effective way to create productive workers. That being said, there had been many instances back in my college days when I reluctantly took a class to meet some sort of requirement, only to have my perspective on certain things changed completely. I am thankful to have taken them, as they had a greater impact on my life than any class on vector calculus or microelectronic circuits. Here are just a few:
basic argument writing: I used to think that I was a real stud of a writer because I got A's on my high school term papers. that shit didn't cut it in this course... i got a straight C on my first assignment. i ultimately came out of the class with an A-, and more importantly, the ability to build a solid thesis and defend an argument.
linguistic anthropology: awesome class that exposed me to how language shapes human culture. had an introduction to Noam Chomsky's deep structure, as well as other interesting tidbits like Grimm's law, which explains how language changes over time. came out of it with a newfound understanding and respect for linguistic variation.
economics of law: turned the way i viewed political policy upside-down... realized that the economic impact and cost to society is more effective way to judge the merits of a law than qualitative assessments of "fairness".
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any of you monkeys have similar experiences? what was the most impactful "useless" course you took while in college?
sociology
i never realized how oppressed african americans are and how the reason why rich people are so rich is because they have all the gold
LOL. [imaginary] +1!
But, honestly, that's sociology in nutshell.
In order of preference:
Introduction to Astrophysics
History of Capitalism
Sustainable Development [mostly because it was taught by a celebrity-ish professor]
Honorable mention: Financial Economics
ok i'll bite... who?
Jeffrey Sachs.
That "Economics Of Law" class you took actually sounds really interesting.
I double major in History. All of the classes have been great. Wish the job market for history PhDs wasn't so completely terrible. (I mean it always has been...but still.)
Anyway, History of the Soviet Union was amazing. Professor was an ex-KGB guy. Amazing lecturer. Wouldn't say what he did. Our TAs told us they'd give us an A if we could get him to talk about it in office hours, but he never cracked.
World Regions. Professor was a charismatic guy who basically spent 80% of the lectures discussing world news. He told it like it is and didn't give two shits about being politically correct. Learned a ton of stuff about how the world works. But more importantly, he instilled in me a little bit of his passion. Before the course, I was very ignorant and didn't give a shit about history, other countries, and current events. Now I have a genuine interest in all that stuff.
Morality & Justice. We basically read about/discussed different controversial issues like abortion, the death penalty, animal rights, helping poor people, etc. It was my first philosophy course and I found it fascinating and helpful. It definitely improved my analytical skills and taught me how to think critically. I'm a math major so I'm decent at proving abstract theorems, but I had never really applied this sort of thinking to real world issues.
Creative Dance: This was like a throwback to elementary school. The class consisted of me, a gay dude, a frat bro, and 20 chicks. I had a great time.
Public Speaking: self-explanatory
[quote=JDawg] 3. Creative Dance: This was like a throwback to elementary school. The class consisted of me, a gay dude, a frat bro, and 20 chicks. I had a great time.
This is awesome. I took a yoga class like that once. Two buddies and myself, along with 15-20 girls. Good times.
U.S. Government 101 - In 13 weeks, I understood 99% of what I see on TV.
Native American Indians - The real story
Physiological Psych 407 - explained hardwired behavior, extremely useful principles
Minor in Religion, best decision ever. A LOT of reading, but really opened my eyes. If I had it to do again, I'd study finance and anthropology.
political science 21: i finally know how the system works...
The hate on liberal arts is incredibly misguided and sad. Yes, you should get a good foundation in the hard sciences or practical business courses, but good liberal arts classes can really expand your mind and ::gasp:: make you an interesting person.
I was an econ major, but took a few courses outside of it in politics and philosophy and honestly wish I had taken more. You have your whole life to be a business person / office drone, don't obsess over it in college.
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