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Savante said:
Why did I have to take a literature class? I took Classics! I learned the Odyssey. Why? I'm a programmer. LAME.

I assume you are at Ohio State, so let me tell you why...I used to have to do this all the time as an academic advisor to business and science students.

You are at a university that is interested in making you a well-rounded, educated person. There is more to a university education than simply learning a trade for a future career. The education provided at OSU is suppose to broaden your horizons by teaching you how to think critically from multiple perspectives. Part of this process is for you to understand different disciplines. Furthermore, look at the school's motto: Disciplina in Civitatem, which can be translated as "Teachings in Citizenship". This is the mission of the OSU curriculum, including the GECs.

If you simply wanted to learn programming, Ohio State is not the place for you. There are a lot of good technical schools that can provide that type of education.

Also, you will make a much better general message board poster if you have a well-rounded education. :biggrin:
 
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Mine was fine in this part but one thing that really bothered Me was she went and each paragraph bracketed the topic sentence. Like I said mine were all fine as they were at the beginning of each paragraph, but this is a 300 level class not basic english composition. Then a student ask if there was a special way to document things since it was all from the same aurthor and she said Yes. The student then said well how do you do that. And she said, you need to look that up on your own. That really bothered Me to. I really felt like she was talking to us, not even like we were freshman in college but more like freshman in high school
 
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Does she look like this?

otl_mcgill_inline.jpg
 
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buckeyegrad said:
I assume you are at Ohio State, so let me tell you why...I used to have to do this all the time as an academic advisor to business and science students.

You are at a university that is interested in making you a well-rounded, educated person. There is more to a university education than simply learning a trade for a future career. The education provided at OSU is suppose to broaden your horizons by teaching you how to think critically from multiple perspectives. Part of this process is for you to understand different disciplines. Furthermore, look at the school's motto: Disciplina in Civitatem, which can be translated as "Teachings in Citizenship". This is the mission of the OSU curriculum, including the GECs.

If you simply wanted to learn programming, Ohio State is not the place for you. There are a lot of good technical schools that can provide that type of education.

Also, you will make a much better general message board poster if you have a well-rounded education. :biggrin:
Beer made me a well rounded individual in college. Beyond that, I still don't get it. If they want me to take a business class, sure. Some type of management class? I get that. Political science and history even make some sense. But some of the requirements are pretty bad. The "Visual/Performing Arts" GEC is ridiculous.. I mean, I'm taking Eastern Asian Language and Literature. I think it'd be better served with something else. I just don't like the GEC requirements at OSU. They want people to be able to make a broad decision of courses? Fine, but I hope nobody's shocked when they learn that every student pretty much picks a GEC based on padding their GPA.

Beyond that, there's CSE courses that have 0 programming. I'm in one now that basically teaches the business of it. So not every course is programming. I just want classes related to what I pick. Electrical engineering is great for people who want to build computers, or Electrical and Computer Engineering students. Not people who just want to write software for them.
 
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I had a TA that looked like that once.... I thinnk it was for Legislative Politics...

Not only that she change her name from (cahnged to protect the innocent) like Teresa Jackson to Ndaye somthing or other African sounding.... I guess for whatever reason people do that.

Anyhow, I was scared as hell of this girl... and then I was doing my paper for the class and the floppy disk I was saving it to blew up... (I was actually writing the paper on a machine that was like a knock off Commodore 128 that I found in my dad's closet which I had to use because my 386's--33mhz baby!-- hard drive fried itself a couple weeks before... and I hadn't had a chance to get a new one...) Anyhow... we salvaged about half the text off the blown up disk so I could show her that I had done something but that my paper was going to be late... Anyway, she turned out to be the second coolest TA I've ever had... as she told me not to worry even thought the professor had told her not to accept any late papers... gave me like 5 more days to get the thing done... set up a time so I could give it to her personally and the prof didn't know any better and then bought me a beer at Woody's because she could tell I was having a tough week...

Beer made me a well rounded individual in college. Beyond that, I still don't get it. If they want me to take a business class, sure. Some type of management class? I get that. Political science and history even make some sense. But some of the requirements are pretty bad. The "Visual/Performing Arts" GEC is ridiculous.. I mean, I'm taking Eastern Asian Language and Literature. I think it'd be better served with something else. I just don't like the GEC requirements at OSU. They want people to be able to make a broad decision of courses? Fine, but I hope nobody's shocked when they learn that every student pretty much picks a GEC based on padding their GPA.

Beyond that, there's CSE courses that have 0 programming. I'm in one now that basically teaches the business of it. So not every course is programming. I just want classes related to what I pick. Electrical engineering is great for people who want to build computers, or Electrical and Computer Engineering students. Not people who just want to write software for them.

Then don't go to a liberal arts university... and though Ohio State isn't one, per se... that philosophy is still in effect, obviously. :wink2:
 
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AKAKBUCK said:
I had a TA that looked like that once.... I thinnk it was for Legislative Politics...

Not only that she change her name from (cahnged to protect the innocent) like Teresa Jackson to Ndaye somthing or other African sounding.... I guess for whatever reason people do that.

Anyhow, I was scared as hell of this girl... and then I was doing my paper for the class and the floppy disk I was saving it to blew up... (I was actually writing the paper on a machine that was like a knock off Commodore 128 that I found in my dad's closet which I had to use because my 386's--33mhz baby!-- hard drive fried itself a couple weeks before... and I hadn't had a chance to get a new one...) Anyhow... we salvaged about half the text off the blown up disk so I could show her that I had done something but that my paper was going to be late... Anyway, she turned out to be the second coolest TA I've ever had... as she told me not to worry even thought the professor had told her not to accept any late papers... gave me like 5 more days to get the thing done... set up a time so I could give it to her personally and the prof didn't know any better and then bought me a beer at Woody's because she could tell I was having a tough week...
So, what are you saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover" "Can't we all just get along?" "They're all pink on the inside"? :biggrin:
 
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Which brings me to my old but relevant situation.
I was an engineering undergrad and homework was a large part of your grade, up to 33% in some classes.

They expected you to write down all the information given to you in the book already along with the assumptions and equation you would use. You were supposed to draw a diagram in some classes.

It did not take long for me to figure out what a huge waste of time all the copying was taking and I stopped doing it.

We had new Amerricans as TA's and they did all the grading.
On my homework one linguist wrote, you no write given data, you no get full credit. He had docked me 25%.

On my next homework assignment I wrote, You no give me full credit, I will kick your ass. This prompted a nice discussion with the prof. No I did not have to rewrite all the useless garbage from the book.

Anyone take a second or third year pych class? Volunteer for extra credit?
There you usually were working with some rather young cute TA's and the subject always seemed to be sexual or deviant behavior. I was always volunteering for extra credit.

As far as the well rounded education. I also took art appreciation and for my initial physical education class I took indoor riflery. We shot .22's in the basement.:) I was on scholarship but even then I looked at it as a waste of time and for someone that had to pay, money. That is why we have a lot of well educated cab drivers.
 
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So, what are you saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover" "Can't we all just get along?" "They're all pink on the inside"?


yeah, sure, and YES.

I did one of those pych extra credit things. They made me sit in a room with a girl I'd never met and watch the rape scene from Higher Learning.

Was she hot?
 
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AKAKBUCK said:
Was she hot?
No, short and stumpy. The kind of chick that would never have to worry about getting raped. I'm sure the experience was a little different for her having to sit there with a 6'5" 300 lb guy that she didn't know. If I could go back and do it again I would go Tucker Max on the whole deal.
 
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I can give you the perfect example of why those Arts and Humanities GECs can pay off later:

A friend of mine was a Speech & Hearing Major who decided to pick up a minor in Classics. The first job she got in the Speech & Hearing profession was because of the minor. Turned out the guy she interviewed with was a Classics major in his undergraduate years. He ended up spending about 20 minutes of the interview talking with her about Homer, Sophocles, Aristophenes, and other Greek writers he enjoyed.

About a week into the job, the guy told her she got the job because of the Classics minor.
 
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buckeyegrad said:
I can give you the perfect example of why those Arts and Humanities GECs can pay off later:

A friend of mine was a Speech & Hearing Major who decided to pick up a minor in Classics. The first job she got in the Speech & Hearing profession was because of the minor. Turned out the guy she interviewed with was a Classics major in his undergraduate years. He ended up spending about 20 minutes of the interview talking with her about Homer, Sophocles, Aristophenes, and other Greek writers he enjoyed.

About a week into the job, the guy told her she got the job because of the Classics minor.
Getting a minor in Classics isn't the same thing as having to take one class. Especially since the intro classes are usually taught so poorly you learn jack AND shit. I don't agree here. I took Psych100, got a straight up 100% and I don't remember really anything from the class, because I never went. If they made you pick useful ones or made it worth your while to go (beyond just taking attendance), then maybe. But she chose to get a minor in Classics and randomly met a guy who also had the minor. It's just an example but it's a really random one. If I ever get a job because of my Classics 222 credits (which I don't remember hardly any of), I'll be shocked.

I know why, from their perspective, we have to take them. But from my perspective, it's dumb. Economics, Political Science, History, those are 3 GECs that make sense. Classics, Eastern Asian Language and Literature and Rural Sociology? Do not.
 
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I guess it comes down to the old saying you get out of your education what you put into it. Sure, if you don't look for any value in the GECs then you probably won't find any. If you simply took classes to boost your GPA, you aren't going to get anything out of them since you took what was "easiest", not what would interest you the most.

Maybe it is a little different because of my majors, but I really enjoyed and benefited personally from my Arts and Humanities GECs which were Modern Hebrew Literature in Translation, Colonial and Early American Literature, and Introduction to Theatre. The last course was a cake walk, but the other two were pretty difficult as GECs go. I also took a second foreign language because of the personal benefit I received from the first one...I've yet to use Latin or French in my career. The only two GECs I thought were complete wastes of time were English 110--I didn't learn a thing about writing in that class, and Macroeconomics--because the professor made the class too easy...I didn't learn anything I couldn't have learned by just reading the book on my own.

I think it is funny that you seem to think Econ, PolySci, and History are legit courses, but not others. I have had numerous students say these very topics aren't worth their time. So, I guess that is just a matter of preference.

In addition, as I said, I was an academic adviser at OSU (for 4 years), so I could tell you about 50+ stories that were similar to my friend's. No knowledge is worthless and it is surprising when it will come up in your life. Personally, I never would have imagined needing to know logarithms for my job as an administrative aide at the statehouse, yet they popped up and I was glad I had studied them beforehand.
 
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