Most important college courses?

[Two Espressos]

I've been mulling over this idea the past few days, and I've decided to post a thread on The Grad Cafe to see what everyone thinks about this!

My question: If you were in charge, what classes would you make mandatory for all students? Worded differently, what classes do you think are the most vital for any college student to take in the course of their academic careers?

Perhaps you think there are no courses like this. If so, explain why!

I'm thinking about the courses I'd say are most important/should be mandatory and will post my thoughts later today.

Have fun!

EDIT: I just read this today, which is somewhat relevant to the topic at hand, minus its alarmist, absurd tendencies at times: http://www.imaginativeconservative.org/2012/10/dark-satanic-mills-of-mis-education.html

Edited October 12, 2012 by Two Espressos

[GreenePony]

Public speaking... I am finding it appalling how many students have no idea how to present or even deliver an intelligible response to a question. Is it really that difficult to construct a statement without using "um" or "like" repeatedly? I did not even take a speech class in undergrad, just my freshman year of high school and I still benefit from it.

I would like to also say a basic poli sci class but it was required at my undergrad (someone gave a lot of money to the university on the condition that all students take this class) and it did very little good.

Edited October 12, 2012 by GreenePony

[fuzzylogician]

1. Basic communication skills for Academia (and life): understand the tasks that you asked to perform (i.e., read all the questions in your assignments) and do them concisely (answer all and only what the questions that you were asked). Support your arguments with facts and data (and present them in full grammatical sentences). Read texts critically and efficiently. Present your arguments both in written form and orally. Debate effectively, learn to structure an argument correctly. Learn to make handouts and slides and structure them effectively. Learn to teach.

2. Basic economics and life management. Learn how to create a budget for yourself. Plan ahead for a whole year, if not more. Have a general study plan for your degree. Learn a bit about taxes. Learn about banking, investments, fees and expenses related to money spending and earning, learn about using credit, taking loans. Learn to shop wisely, compare prices, understand the benefits of buying vs. doing things certain things yourself.

[EquationForLife]

I think life management/finances/speaking should be high school courses.

Every student in general should be required to take a critical thinking/logic course. In terms of specific subjects, every science/engineering person needs to be required to take some basic history/political science courses while every humanities/social studies person needs some basic science courses.

[Eigen]

Personally, I think the sciences are under-represented as general education requirements.

Were I designing a core curriculum, I'd require:

2 courses above Algebra/Trig in mathematics

2 courses with labs in Biology, Chemistry and Physics.

I think along with this push, departments would have the resources (through more students) to design courses designed to be rigorous, but for non-majors.

I also think 3-4 courses in the Social Sciences would be good- with at least one at a higher level (junior/senior course).

2 English courses past composition.

2 courses in History/Political Science.

And personally, I think an introductory course in Renewable Resources/Environmental Science would be hugely beneficial across the board.

Its a rough outline, and would probably need to be intensely revised for a particular type of program, taking into account the offerings, but you get the gist.

What I found, personally, was that students majoring in the sciences were way more likely to take a wide array of upper level humanities/social science courses. In comparison, most students majoring in humanities & social sciences took as few and as easy of science courses as possible. It's a rough generalization, but I see it reflected at my current institution as well. Most of the science grad students have significant grounding in at least one SS/Humanities discipline (second major, multiple minors) but most of the SS/Humanities grad students have little to no background in any of the life or physical sciences.

People view the sciences as "hard", and as such their presence in curricula is minimized relative to the SS/Humanities general ed requirements.

[Parnassus]

Latin and Greek! Personally, 4 years each.

[Eigen]

Oh yeah! Languages! Forgot languages!

I loved Latin, and found it very useful. But I'd personally say 3-4 semesters of a language, students choice.

My personal preference would have been German or Russian, but we didn't have those, so I went with Latin instead.

[Two Espressos]

Lots of great responses so far-- thanks everyone! I agree with a lot of what has been said.

Here's some things that I think should be mandatory:

-undergraduate logic

-statistics, or another mathematics course beyond the basic requirement

-an economics course

-a course on American politics

-public speaking

-an intensive verbal reasoning course, preferably an upper-level philosophy or English course (this is a biased answer )

-four semesters of a single foreign language

I should note that I myself haven't taken a statistics/math course beyond the basics. I wish I could, but I graduate next spring and have no room for it. I have taken--or in the case of logic, will take-- all of the other courses I've listed as essential.

I agree with Eigen that sciences are underrepresented in many students' coursework. I've taken general chemistry 1 and lab, biology 1 and 2 with labs, and intro to psychology. I probably should have taken more, but like Eigen alludes to above, some universities, such as mine, have few rigorous science courses designed for non-majors. It's basically either the standard science student's courses or suspiciously easy ones.

At my university at least, non-major English literature courses--and a couple upper-level courses, I'm sad to say-- are piss-easy and inaccurately represent the field, its rigor, and its concerns. It's a problem.

Edited October 12, 2012 by Two Espressos

[ZacharyObama]

Intro to American History.

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

A lot of people are saying public speaking, but isn't that already a requirement? My university required a basic public speaking course. It wasn't really helpful because it was a freshmen course so lots of the kids were shy 18 year olds and the professor wasn't gonna go drill sergeant on them for making a mistake.

[rising_star]

There are a lot of good ideas already but I'll throw in a couple more.

- global issues/current issues type course where students learn to critically engage with topics important to society

- 5-6 semesters of a foreign language or, ideally, 2

- mandatory study abroad in a non-English speaking country or a country in the global South

- geography! seriously, learn where places are since people didn't in high school

- research, writing, and presenting. basically, a course that combines public speaking and writing to teach different forms of writing and presenting material

[practical cat]

I definitely couldn't afford study abroad so I wouldn't have been able to complete a degree had that been mandatory.

- Statistical literacy. I don't think everyone needs to be able to gather and work with data but I do think we should all be able to read it.

- Intro to Women's/Gender Studies. Being able to understand identity/privilege/oppression is fundamental

- Upper level writing courses, beyond freshman comp

[kateausten]

I would add a Professional and Academic Communications class. It would incorporate the basic writing and speaking skills that students need whether they will be joining the workforce or continuing in academia -- how to deliver a presentation or lecture (and how to put together an effective powerpoint to do so), effective written communication besides papers (such as email, proposals, etc), things like that. When I was an undergrad TA it was scary how little the students knew about delivering a short presentation -- I had to talk them out of putting everything word-for-word on their powerpoint slides.

I would incorporate how to conclusions from scientific studies, correlation vs causation, etc into non-major science and social science classes. Since entire scientific studies are conducted as marketing projects right now, people need to learn how to critique them.

[stell4]

Foreign language for 4 years. I think the US needs to catch up with the rest of the world, myself included. I only wish I would have stuck with any language for more than the bare minimum, which amounted to little more than the ability to navigate the menu at a tasty Mexican food cart.

And maybe a scientific/technical writing course for science/engineering/... majors. That would sure make lab reports with partners go much smoother.