Are Gen Eds in college useful or just a drag on finishing? (schools, geography)

[mitsguy2001]

Originally Posted by TexasLawyer2000

Liberal arts:

Life sciences (biology, ecology, neuroscience)
Physical science (physics, astronomy, chemistry, physical geography)
Logic, mathematics, statistics, computer science
Philosophy
History
Social science (anthropology, economics, human geography, linguistics, political science, jurisprudence, psychology, and sociology)
Creative arts (fine arts, music, performing arts, literature)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_arts_education

So basically everything except engineering and business.

[mitsguy2001]

Originally Posted by jobaba

Just for one, it should be easier for people to switch careers. I mean, it's doable but it takes a lot of effort, and sometimes expensive degrees and making the right choices.

People are more productive and better teammates I feel when it's not a 35 year grind. When you're faced with that, you look for the easy way out.

You should be thankful you have a public sector job where you can retire after 35 years, at age 57. Those of us in the private sector can't realistically retire until we are eligible for Medicare at age 65 (43 years of work) at the absolute earliest. So for us it's a 43+ year grind, not a 35 year grind.

[TexasLawyer2000]

Originally Posted by mitsguy2001

So basically everything except engineering and business.

Hence the term "liberal".

Engineering is just the application of liberal arts to real world use cases. The scientists, mathematicians, historians, anthropologists, etc. do all the research and discovery and engineers use that to move society forward.

[jobaba]

Originally Posted by mitsguy2001

You should be thankful you have a public sector job where you can retire after 35 years, at age 57. Those of us in the private sector can't realistically retire until we are eligible for Medicare at age 65 (43 years of work) at the absolute earliest. So for us it's a 43+ year grind, not a 35 year grind.

I don't work in the public sector. My job is as private sector as it gets.

[mitsguy2001]

Originally Posted by jobaba

I don't work in the public sector. My job is as private sector as it gets.

Then how do you retire after only 35 years? What do you use for health insurance?

[mitsguy2001]

Originally Posted by TexasLawyer2000

Hence the term "liberal".

Engineering is just the application of liberal sciences to real world use cases. The scientists, mathematicians, historians, anthropologists, etc. do all the research and discovery and engineers use that to move society forward.

I've mostly heard the term "liberal arts" to mean non-STEM.

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by mitsguy2001

Why is it that it seems that the groups that want to skip math and science courses in college are almost always liberal arts majors?

I know that was aimed at me but I certainly didn't want to skip them and know no one who did. In fact, even the basic ones were of great use later in what I did before becoming a teacher (industry, both labor and management and Naval Aviation (which is kind of STEMmy what with Aeronautics and all).

[WestRiverTraveler]

I liked most of my Gen Eds. I took classes I wouldn't have taken otherwise. Have they been necessary in my career? Probably not. Did they make me a better thinker and enrich my life? Absolutely.

I'll say one thing for sure, EVERY college should require a class in formal logic. I took it in my 1st semester, and it was easily of the most valuable classes I took as an undergrad. It counted as my Philosophy gen ed.

[TexasLawyer2000]

Originally Posted by WestRiverTraveler

I'll say one thing for sure, EVERY college should require a class in formal logic. I took it in my 1st semester, and it was easily of the most valuable classes I took as an undergrad. It counted as my Philosophy gen ed.

In high school, we were taught this in Geometry. Formal logic is required for doing geometric proofs.

[WestRiverTraveler]

Originally Posted by TexasLawyer2000

In high school, we were taught this in Geometry. Formal logic is required for doing geometric proofs.

Yeah, my college class covered other stuff, too. Text analysis, logical fallacies, etc. After this class, the logical reasoning portion of the LSAT was a piece of cake. Most high school Geometry doesn't even do formal proofs anymore, even mind logical reasoning from text.