# What Classes Did You Take in College? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 22, 2011, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classes-did-you-take-in-college/597147 "2011-09-22T03:13:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2011, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classes-did-you-take-in-college/597147/41 "2011-09-22T18:45:25Z")
Oddly enough even after 52 years, I can still say what courses I took. I was part-time for 3 years, taking 24 credits per year (including 6 in two summer terms) and then went full-time for a year and a half, the last term taking 3 graduate courses for which I got 4.5 credits each. There were a lot of required courses: 6 English, 3 lit and 3 comp, but only 2 credits each. Three years (6 terms) of German, a year of Anthropology (one of the most interesting courses), a course in the English novel, a year of chemistry. Math major courses, something like 43.5 credits worth, including analytic geometry, a year of calc, abstract algebra, linear algebra, diff eq, advanced calc, topology, number theory, topological groups, and grad courses in real analysis, complex analysis and homological algebra. Then there were electives, but the only ones I remember were a couple of courses in poly sci and 4 terms of physics. What would I do differently if I had it to do over? Not much. I would try to fit in linguistics and instead of avoiding the German instructors who insisted on speaking only German in class (as I am embarrassed to admit I did), I would seek them out. I might have actually learned to speak the language. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2011, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classes-did-you-take-in-college/597147/42 "2011-09-22T19:10:13Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I really wish I had taken some anthropology courses, but I’ve made up for it since by reading almost everything I could get my hands on. Why do you wish you would have taken more? What do you like about it? I’m a history major and I’m taking my first anthropology class this quarter. Im hoping I like it. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2011, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classes-did-you-take-in-college/597147/43 "2011-09-22T19:19:04Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > That’s what my son wants to do. Can I PM you some questions about educational path? Sure. It’s been a while, but I may have some insights of value to offer. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2011, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classes-did-you-take-in-college/597147/44 "2011-09-22T19:21:30Z")
> [@TheBori](#): > > FairyCat…Purdue, by any chance? Yep. I spent a lot of hours in Grissom Hall. Graduated Dec 79. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2011, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classes-did-you-take-in-college/597147/45 "2011-09-22T20:26:39Z")
Probably about 30 credits in my major (Anthropology) Intro to Archaeology, Intro to Physical anthropoly, Intro to Cultural anthropology; Ethnography, Civs of Near East & Mesopotamia, Environmental archaeology, Cultural resource management, Archaeological conservation, Theories in anthropology (snoooooze), Primate behavior, Senior Thesis (required), Archaeology Field School (6 credits, summer, recommended) 15 or so credits in my minor (theater) Acting, Theater History (Greco-Roman period), Fundamentals of design, Practicum (propmaster for “Showboat”), Stagecraft (scenery construction) Plus: Writing seminar (tested out, took it anyway for funsies) Russian (3 years, 2 yrs required) Integral Calculus Physics Cosmology Buddhism (professor signed me in without prereqs) Political Philosophy (professor signed me in without prereqs) Wheel thrown pottery (professor signed me in without prereqs) 4 credits for Equestrian team (1 per semester, maximum of 4 credits given for sports) I’m probably forgetting something here and there, but that’s about the size of it. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2011, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classes-did-you-take-in-college/597147/46 "2011-09-22T20:57:26Z")
Mine is with a bit of an asterisk, as the first three years I was in college, I was on the three-term (quarter) system. Here’s what I can remember: Computer Science: 12 Mathematics & Statistics: 9 (not including two I got to skip because I passed the AP Calculus BC exam in high school) Physics & Engineering: 3 History & Political Science: 3 English: 2 Other: 6 (Economics, Geography, Meteorology, Philosophy, Logic (taught in Philosophy), Astrophysics) That’s 35, and that’s about right as I had 11 terms (3 years of 3, and one year of 2). ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2011, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classes-did-you-take-in-college/597147/47 "2011-09-22T20:58:55Z")
I don’t remember how many because you don’t think about it that way. You have a list of requirements, you choose from them and when you’ve satisfied all the requirements, you apply for graduation. It also greatly depends on the program. At my school, engineering and physical therapy students were basically on a default 5-year plan. No way to get through the entire program in four years. So, even though we went to the same school, people who majored in those two things took more classes than I did. I averaged about 15 credit hours per term; my school was on a quarter system at the time. Each term was 11 weeks, including finals week. That came out to 3-4 classes per term. I went to summer school on scholarship while I was still in high school, so I have 18 terms in. Probably comes out to somewhere around 35-40 classes. My major was 25% classes in my major and 76% liberal arts, which meant I was basically required to take two classes in just about every academic department. I think I had five core required courses for my major and maybe 4-5 elective courses for my major. The other 25-30 were classes related to Everything Else (e.g., maths, sciences, history, sociology, anthropology, English lit, economics, philosophy, psychology, and a bunch of other stuff I’ve obviously forgotten.) ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2011, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classes-did-you-take-in-college/597147/48 "2011-09-23T01:30:20Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > 1. For sciencey technical type majors, you will be given a list of which classes to take when, which may allow one or two electives here and there. Often not so much if at a liberal arts school. I majored in chemistry. The school required 32 classes\* to graduate, and 20 had to be outside the major. Now those 20 included the two math\*\* and two physics classes I had to take as prereqs for later classes. I really wish I’d gotten 5s on the physics C AP test so that I could have taken something else. My grad school classmates were often puzzled by how few chemistry classes I took. I was under the impression that they took a ton, but upon looking at the UMass website ([PDF](http://www.chem.umass.edu/Undergraduate/bsCourseSequenceSpr10.pdf)) I see that there isn’t much difference. They count labs as separate classes. We did not; organic lecture + lab was 1 credit just like an English class was 1 credit. We only had one semester of genchem, and no analytical or quant. I also took 5.5 classes for my Linguistics minor. The other requirements were minimal. I was not required to take a foreign language or any specific classes, but I did have to take at least 3 humanities and 3 social science classes (although my AP credits made that 2 and 2.) \*I think I left with over 40, but that included AP credits and fluff crap like violin lessons and orchestra (those counted as 0.5 credits each). It’s hard to graduate early with chemistry, although I know one person who did it during my 4 years there. \*\*Most everyone tests out of calc I. If not, make that 3 math classes. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_With_The_Golden_Gun)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2011, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classes-did-you-take-in-college/597147/49 "2011-09-23T03:00:57Z")
Here’s my list: Writing and Rhetoric I Critical Approach to Fiction Human Geography Precalculus Survey of Astronomy Physical Geography Calculus I History of Art Writing and Reading Western Civilization, 1648-1848 Current World Problems Western Civilization since 1848 US, 1865 to Present American Environmental History Non-Western History Before 1750 Non-Western History Since 1750 US, 1600-1865 Nazi Germany American National Government Meteorology Middle East Since 1800 Theater History II History of Art Fundamentals of Human Communication History of the Crusades Legacy of Genghis Khan Intro to Sociology Elementary Spanish Writing and Rhetoric II Intro to Law Enforcement Technology General Psychology Statistics for Behavioral Science Criminal Justice Public Speaking Introduction to Computers What did I learn from these courses? Well, that’s a much shorter list. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![T.Slothrop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3e96dc/32.png) [@T.Slothrop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T.Slothrop)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2011, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classes-did-you-take-in-college/597147/50 "2011-09-23T05:15:23Z")
Mostly Chinese Language my last two years with a sprinkling of Japanese. and, yes, I know what your user name means. ---
**Author:** ![Gleena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b3f665/32.png) [@Gleena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gleena)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2011, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classes-did-you-take-in-college/597147/51 "2011-09-23T06:10:35Z")
My first degree, English Major was a long time ago. I took lots of English classes, minimal math, history, survey sciences, statistics, other stuff. Oh, and because it was a Christian college I took heaps of religion, it was mandatory, so Old and New Testament, Comparative, Latin/Greek/Hebrew, other stuff I’ve blocked out. And I had to go to chapel every day. It was awful. My current degree, in another country, LLB - law, and if I get it, honours (well, when my transfer is done from the program I’m in). So 32 classes, 24 in law, 8 electives in any part of the college. 10 mandatory law classes (Jurisprudience, Tort x2 , Contract x 2, Real Property x 2, Legal Institutions, Constitutional, Legal Ethics), then 14 taken in law taken from a big list and one of those can be your honours class. ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2011, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classes-did-you-take-in-college/597147/52 "2011-09-23T06:31:31Z")
BS in Civil & Environmental Engineering: Math, physics, and chemistry background classwork Russian language and literature Anthropology General engineering work (programming, numerical methods, probability and statistics, technical writing, engineering economics) Civil engineering basics (statics, materials, fluid mechanics, etc.) Focused environmental engineering coursework (drinking/wastewater treatment, contaminant transport, environmental systems analysis, etc.) I’d have to look up any more details than that. Grad school (I’m a PhD student now) required a total of 16 more classes, but those programs are based on research rather than classwork. ---
**Author:** ![randomface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5fc32e/32.png) [@randomface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randomface)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2011, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classes-did-you-take-in-college/597147/53 "2011-09-23T15:04:18Z")
BS in Mechanical Engineering: Calculus I University Chemistry I (AP-Exempt) University Physics I Intro to Engineering I Composition I (AP-Exempt) Calculus II Geology American National Government (AP-Exempt) Intro to Engineering II Technical Composition II Intro to Materials Calculus III Statics University Chemistry II (AP-Exempt) CAD Thermodynamics Differential Equations Computer Methods of Numerical Analysis Dynamics Introduction to Machine Analysis Mechanics of Fluids Machine Dynamics & Control Mechanics of Materials Mechanical Engineering Laboratory I Circuits & Machine Elements Macroeconomics Heat Transfer Machine Element Design Mechanical Engineering Laboratory II Astronautics Engineering Electronics Philosophical Logic Thermal Systems Analysis and Design Advanced Composition (AP-Exempt) Professional Engineering Practices Creative Project Design I Mechanical Engineering Laboratory III Aerospace Propulsion On Death & Dying Robotics Electric Circuits Creative Project Design II Elementary German I Elementary German II Intermediate German I Elementary Spanish I Elementary Spanish II Intermediate Spanish I Intermediate Spanish II General Psychology Personal Finance Persuasion Co-op/Internship I think this is all of them, although I may have missed one or two. I still graduated within 4 years, I just also took summer classes for two of the summers for the foreign language and some other courses I wanted to take but didn’t need. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2011, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classes-did-you-take-in-college/597147/54 "2011-09-23T15:10:28Z")
One semester of psychology. Four semesters of computer science. Two semesters of: [ul][li]physics[/li][li]French[/li][li]German[/li][li]biblical Hebrew[/li][li]history[/ul][/li] The rest was math, I think. EDIT: My master’s degree was all math, of course. Later on, I took some financial mathematics courses, but I didn’t get a degree out of it. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classes-did-you-take-in-college/597147/55 "2011-10-01T00:32:24Z")
Lots of biology, then some more biology #2 would be quite a few religion classes - I blame\*\* T. Slothrop\*\*. #3 other sciences, chemistry, physics #4 math / science / philosophy/ literature - I recall I had a class with both _Orestes_ and _Billy Budd_ in’t. ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classes-did-you-take-in-college/597147/56 "2011-10-01T00:59:05Z")
Well, I’m still in college but I’m about to finish my AA in liberal arts before moving on to get my BS in Pathobiology. This is what I’ve taken since last September, to satisfy my 62 credits for my liberal arts degree: In 2004-2005 - English 1 and 2 and US History 2010-2011 Fall Intro to Sociology (3) Intro to Liberal Arts (3) State and Local Government (3) College Algebra (3) Statistics (3) Spring Intro to Psych (3) Climate and Weather (3) Biology 101 (4) Precalculus (3) Spanish 1 (3) Speech (3) Summer 1 Intro to the Human Body (4) Intro to Chemistry (3) Summer 2 Social Problems and Social Change (3) Intro to Plant Biology (4) Technical and Workplace Writing (3) Fall (now) Spanish 2 (3) Nutrition (3) US Government (3) Psych - Drugs and Substance Abuse (3) History (beginning to 1500) (3) That gives me more than I need for the degree but I didn’t want to be bored this semester so I decided to take a full course load. This degree gets most of my core classes out of the way so when I get to my next school in January, my classes will be pretty heavy in Biology - specifically PVS (Pathobiology and Veterinary Science) classes plus some chemistry and physics. There will also be a bit more math since the degree requires Calculus. I wont be taking much more than the requirements because at my age, I’m just interested in getting it done and getting into and out of grad school before I turn 40. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classes-did-you-take-in-college/597147/57 "2011-10-01T01:01:57Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > How many and what classes did you take in college? I was a business major with a concentration in Management Information Systems. Grand total of about 150 hours or so, spread between U. T. Austin and Texas State University. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classes-did-you-take-in-college/597147/58 "2011-10-01T01:56:55Z")
Economics 101, Intermediate Microeconomics, Intermediate Macroeconomics, Calculus I, Statistics II, Economics of Taxation, Population Economics Studies, Economic History I and II, ummm… Film Studies I, Western Philosophy I, Comparative History I, Canadian History II… umm… History of Sports was another elective. History of the Industrial Revolution, umm… Law and Economics… gosh, I don’t remember them all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classes-did-you-take-in-college/597147.md?page=2)