I only went to college for 2 weeks, but I enjoyed sculpture. Everything else seemed like a bad joke.
What class in college did you get the most out of?
51–59 of 59 posts
Re: What class in college did you get the most out of?
#52History of Science. Granted, it's not a math or CS course, but nothing has better informed the way I think about problems, technical and political. It might as well be called 'History of Problems'.
Nod, I loved "History of Math" it traced the methods people used to solve problems though time.
The strangest part was how interconnected mathematical understanding is with the rest of society. EX: Try and run a bank without basic algebra.
Re: What class in college did you get the most out of?
#53History of Imperialism
Ethics
Remember that cheesy line from Spiderman about great power bringing great responsibility? In the event that great intellect allows a person to attain wealth and/or power, I would sleep better at night knowing that person understood some past mistakes of the wealthy and powerful, and they had at least considered some of the collective guidance of humanity.
If the question were constrained to CS, then I would say Compilers. But that's a loaded answer, since it damn near requires a CS degree to truly appreciate compilers.
If you want to have fun and know yourself better, take a class in art or music.
Re: What class in college did you get the most out of?
#54acting 1, history of modern arts, public policy in econ, game theory in econ, finance, and lots of math
Re: What class in college did you get the most out of?
#55Patterns of leadership; without a doubt.
The programing classes I took I was correcting mistakes on the teachers test. I know programing.
Patterns of leadership was a class about dealing with people (read 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' for an idea of what it covered). This was a class where I learned an incredible amount.
Re: What class in college did you get the most out of?
#56Introduction to Marketing and Securities Law.
Re: What class in college did you get the most out of?
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
So, for both of you, those numbers don't mean much to the rest of us. How many credit hours is considered a full time load at your schools?
At CMU OS is actually a 36 unit course, which can be converted to 12 credits at most USA schools, where 12 credits is full time, 15 credits is normal, and 18 credits is the max. So the CMU OS course is equivalent to four normal classes.
That's impressive. So that's pretty much the only class you take that quarter?
Re: What class in college did you get the most out of?
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
At CMU OS is actually a 36 unit course, which can be converted to 12 credits at most USA schools, where 12 credits is full time, 15 credits is normal, and 18 credits is the max. So the CMU OS course is equivalent to four normal classes.
That's impressive. So that's pretty much the only class you take that quarter?
My understanding was that most CMU students overloaded and took a bunch of classes anyways.
BUT... but I just looked up the class at CMU and it is not 12 credits. It is 4 credits. Which shakes my worldview somewhat, I thought this 12 credit was proof that the CMU CS curriculum was something special.
So either I was mislead by my friend at CMU years ago when this course came up in discussion or more likely, I misunderstood him. Feel free to downmod my post above, it would ideally settle out around 0 points for containing wrong information. Sorry for spreading untruths...
Re: What class in college did you get the most out of?
#59If I had one recommendation, it would be to keep practicing any math you learn while in college. If you're like me, you basically had math classes every semester from when you were 6 years old until the end of college, and you take for granted how much you will be able to forget in 5 years without practice. The classes I got the most out of aren't the ones I'd necessarily recommend. Whether I got a lot out of a class…
>As you can see I really have no idea how to promote music. On the other hand, unlike many people who do, you know how to make music. Serious talent. How long have you been doing it?
I started plunking out twinkle twinkle and star wars on the organ when I was 4 or 5 or something. I started saxophone lessons in 4th grade, piano in 5th grade. I 'wrote' one piece as an exercise while taking piano. My teacher gave me a chord progression and I came up with a few patterns that sounded an awful lot like the overworld music in Final Fantasy IV. I stopped piano after 9th grade and did drama and choir instead. I sang in a Vocal Jazz ensemble, and played sax in the Jazz band, and had lots of opportunity to improvise.
In college my introductory computer science classes were really boring and easy, while the introductory music classes were challenging and interesting. Sophomore year I declared a double major in Music Theory. I took composition lessons for 1 or 2 semesters, I can't remember exactly, but I didn't get much out of them. Two of the "Three Short Pieces for Piano" were written in lessons. Writing for class was really hard, because I felt like I had to please the professor, though he tried to tell me to write whatever I wanted. I agonized over every detail, which got discouraging, because usually there was no correct answer. I also had huge confidence problems because of the rigid, mathematical way I thought music should be appreciated. That is, I thought there was no way I could ever come up with anything original, and I thought original==good.
One day a few years ago, after listening to dozens of Mozart pieces dozens of times, hearing how amazing it was, and knowing how many people poo pooh'd Mozart for using predictable harmonic progressions; I said 'screw it, I'm writing a classical sonata and don't care how unoriginal it turns out to be.' I did it because that's what I liked and that's what I wanted to write. I've had a lot of fun since then, though I haven't made any money.