<p>Student here looking for some parental opinions during registration season: is there a class (or type of class) that you think every college student should take before graduating and why? I’ve heard variants on this - take an art history class, make sure you take stats, take a microecon class, etc but wanted to see if there was something approaching a consensus, or if anyone had unusual suggestions worth taking a look at. </p>
<p>Bonus question: if for some reason a student couldn’t take the class you named, what resources would you recommend for the student to plug that gap? (“Take the class because you can’t teach it to yourself” is a perfectly valid answer.)</p>
<p>Good question, pelicularities. I would say my most useful college class was called “Business Letter Writing” or something similar. My kids have taken a good high school class called “Personal Finances”. It would have been better to have taken it in college, when more decisons begin (i.e. checking accounts, credit cards, apartment leases, loans, etc.)</p>
<p>I will second the Business Writing, and add that if there are noncredit courses or seminars at the Career Center, you should start using those resources freshman year. It will help with internships, etc.</p>
<p>agree about Business Writing. S went to Northeastern for its co-op program and students are required to take an Intro to Co-op course before they can do co-ops where they learn how to write job applications and cover letters and learn interviewing skills/participate in mock interviews both as sophs in the class and as older students working with the younger students taking the class. S may not agree but I think this was the most useful course HE took esp since it focused specifically on his major.</p>
<p>Then again, I LOVED the Logic course I took in college and tried to get S to take a similar course, to no avail.</p>
<p>Strangely I’d never thought about Business Writing. I’ve held jobs where I’ve sat in front of the computer wondering what “write a memo explaining why we want to purchase from this vendor” meant I should do, so I definitely see the value in it. Unfortunately I googled for a class like that at NYU and it’s in the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, meaning I get no credit for it. I’ll still look into taking a business writing class. </p>
<p>There probably isn’t one right answer but I think the best class I took in college to help me through college and later in life was a philosophy class freshman year. We had to take a semester of philosophy and I took it right away freshman year to get it out of the way (thinking I wouldn’t like it) but I really liked the class and I’m glad I took it. It really taught me to look at things from many sides and helped a LOT in research papers, etc. down the road.</p>
<p>There is a course at NYU called Management Communication. It may be in the Stern School of Business, but if you can take it, it’s a terrific course.</p>
<p>These courses might not be right for every student, as lots would depend on how well they are taught, but I would recommended a proof based calculus course (unfortunately no longer taught to incoming freshmen, as a rule) and a year long Shakespeare course.</p>
<p>I would also recommend taking at least one class taught by a professor who has written some of the important works in their field and can give insight into how they decide what is worthy of research, and one course that is “performance based” and requires daily participation in front of a group, such as dance or theater, public speaking, or an advanced language class.</p>
<p>Real eye opener in understanding that what is thought to be true is based on variables that may not be valid. Makes you questions assumptions and be more open to alternatives why something may or may not work.</p>
<p>Personal Finance! My son took it in undergrad school as an elective and said it was one of the best courses he took in college. HE thinks it should be a required course.</p>
<p>You don’t absolutely have to take the art history class, you can get a lot by just attending all the lectures which is what I did. I also audited a wonderful class that covered art and religion in Asia (all the way from the Middle East to China.) I always regreted not finding room in my schedule for Econ.</p>
<p>I always say that as a freshman you should take advantage of freshman seminars if there are any. The weirder the subject the better. It’s a great chance to get to know a professor. I took one called prints and printmaking. It was taught by an art history professor but had a studio art component. </p>
<p>If you can’t take a freshman seminar take at least one class is something you’ve had no exposure to at all in high school - linguistics, anthropology, etc.</p>
<p>Hands down - Decision Analysis. It uses simple mathematics (for a graduate course) to show how people make decisions that impact them financially, and how they consistently choose the wrong option because of fear, etc.</p>
<p>Things like homeowners insurance, new car vs used car, rent vs buy, and a myriad of other everyday decisions are abstracted down to simple formulas… </p>
<p>By far the most entertaining and useful course I took in 14 years of college.</p>
<p>I’m going to third the statistics recommendation. You don’t have to take it in the math department - if you don’t have a strong math background, you can take it in the psychology department.</p>
<p>I’d suggest taking something that you consider opposite to your own way of thinking thus far. If you are an atheist, take Comparative Religions. If you’re religious, take Philosophy. Politics wonks should try History of Music, and musicians should race to take Government or Econ. Shake yourself up!</p>
<p>One thing you learn in an intro stats course is that with pretty much any news story or magazine article that begins with the phrase “Statistics show that…” you can be sure that statistics almost never actually show whatever sensationalistic fact or point the author is pushing. </p>
<p>Stats was the most useful course I ever took in helping me sort the facts from bull in everyday life.</p>
<p>We added a few parent core requirements to S’s college core requirements: one course in economics and one in comparative politics. Yes, knowledge about the classics, literature, history, foreign languages, philosophy, hard sciences etc. etc. are essential in order to develop into an independent, critical, analytical, creative thinker. However, we also wanted our S to be able to understand today’s news. It helps if you can put words like ‘inflation’, ‘trade deficit’ in the right context. It helps if you realize that solid ‘democracies’ can be built on different structures.
For the same reason we would have preferred a course in legal terminology and maybe one in comparative legal systems. How to understand the news about the Amanda Knox case or the Dharu Ravi case without knowing anything about today’s legal terminology and without knowing the essence of today’s legal systems in other countries. Unfortunately, it was impossible for our S to take classes in these subjects.</p>