I live in Australia where if you study a particular degree, all (or the vast majority) of your subjects are directly related to that field.
I may be wrong but movies tend to give me the impression that at American universities/colleges, all students study a wide array of subjects, attend random lectures, and students room with people studying different things.
It also appears to be a lot about the lifestyle and not just get in, do your study, get your degree.
Are American studies specialised or more general?
Thank you! 🫶
In: 84
I’m an American university student in engineering. Out of the 40 courses I have to take, 31 of them are engineering classes (most of which are directly related to what I’m doing, although 1 or 2 are more general science requirements), and an additional 3 are free electives which could be related things if I felt like it
I don’t know about Australia, but in many developed countries, there’s a whole year of secondary school beyond what we do in America. Students here usually start university at age 18, but it’s not unusual to meet a 17-year-old university student. That pretty much guarantees a year or so of general education in the university setting before any specialized courses.
When asked why we had to take so many classes not related to our field of study, a college professor I had said “The goal of college is not to give you everything you need for that one thing, that one thing will always be changing. The goal of college is to teach you to think.”
When asked why we had to take so many classes not related to our field of study, a college professor I had said “The goal of college is not to give you everything you need for that one thing, that one thing will always be changing. The goal of college is to teach you to think.”
When asked why we had to take so many classes not related to our field of study, a college professor I had said “The goal of college is not to give you everything you need for that one thing, that one thing will always be changing. The goal of college is to teach you to think.”
Probably depends on the school and what you’re studying. Most movie script writers majored in some kind of art, and so their exposure to college is a bunch of general courses like you see in the movies. Science and engineering majors are generally more focused.
That being said, there are still distribution requirements. For example, I was required to take a few engineering classes outside of my major. (My favorite was structural engineering lab [I was a CS major]; basically, we built stuff then broke it and did a whole bunch of calculations as to how far the bridge would move before catastrophic failure, how much force would be required to destroy it, etc.) I’d say this was useful because as a software engineer, you’re not doing theoretical computer science, you’re building software for the real world. There was also an English requirement, but the English classes weren’t literature; they were reading and writing technical reports and documentation. And there were electives, but depth was required, not just breadth. We were not permitted to take just easy-A humanities classes; we were required to concentrate on a field of study and advance to a certain level there. (I concentrated in ancient and medieval studies, which I was genuinely interested in, and I got to go to the fun wine socials in the history department, and there was this cute girl there….)
But about 75% of my coursework was related to my major.
Probably depends on the school and what you’re studying. Most movie script writers majored in some kind of art, and so their exposure to college is a bunch of general courses like you see in the movies. Science and engineering majors are generally more focused.
That being said, there are still distribution requirements. For example, I was required to take a few engineering classes outside of my major. (My favorite was structural engineering lab [I was a CS major]; basically, we built stuff then broke it and did a whole bunch of calculations as to how far the bridge would move before catastrophic failure, how much force would be required to destroy it, etc.) I’d say this was useful because as a software engineer, you’re not doing theoretical computer science, you’re building software for the real world. There was also an English requirement, but the English classes weren’t literature; they were reading and writing technical reports and documentation. And there were electives, but depth was required, not just breadth. We were not permitted to take just easy-A humanities classes; we were required to concentrate on a field of study and advance to a certain level there. (I concentrated in ancient and medieval studies, which I was genuinely interested in, and I got to go to the fun wine socials in the history department, and there was this cute girl there….)
But about 75% of my coursework was related to my major.
Probably depends on the school and what you’re studying. Most movie script writers majored in some kind of art, and so their exposure to college is a bunch of general courses like you see in the movies. Science and engineering majors are generally more focused.
That being said, there are still distribution requirements. For example, I was required to take a few engineering classes outside of my major. (My favorite was structural engineering lab [I was a CS major]; basically, we built stuff then broke it and did a whole bunch of calculations as to how far the bridge would move before catastrophic failure, how much force would be required to destroy it, etc.) I’d say this was useful because as a software engineer, you’re not doing theoretical computer science, you’re building software for the real world. There was also an English requirement, but the English classes weren’t literature; they were reading and writing technical reports and documentation. And there were electives, but depth was required, not just breadth. We were not permitted to take just easy-A humanities classes; we were required to concentrate on a field of study and advance to a certain level there. (I concentrated in ancient and medieval studies, which I was genuinely interested in, and I got to go to the fun wine socials in the history department, and there was this cute girl there….)
But about 75% of my coursework was related to my major.
Wait, so if you were a history major for example you would never take a math or business course in Australia? That’s wild
Wait, so if you were a history major for example you would never take a math or business course in Australia? That’s wild
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