Help me choose a complementary studies option

[dontdisturbmycircles]

Hi,

Well I just found out that I need to enroll in a complimentary studies option in addition to the core 1st year engineering program...(kinda mad about it since I am intimidated enough by a 5 course first ever university semester let alone a 6..) I am having some troubles deciding which route to go. As I am sure that many of you had to pick complementary studies options I would be interested in hearing whether or not you enjoyed it...

To give you an idea of the options available to me that I MIGHT consider:


Faculty of Social Sciences

Anthropology (ANTH) All Area II courses
Archaeology (ARKY) All Area II courses
Economics (ECON) All courses except 305, 307, 311, 387, 389, 395, 523
Geography (GEOG) All Area II courses plus 205
Historical Studies (HTST) All courses
Linguistics (LING) All courses
Political Sciences (POLI) All courses
Psychology (PSYC) All courses
Sociology (SOCI) All courses except 311, 315
Urban Studies (UBST) All courses
Collaborative Offerings
FILM, LAST, ETAS All courses


That should give you an idea. I am leaning towards some kind of psychology course but my initial thinking is that the premed students will be kicking my a--(I think psych is popular with premed students right?) since I really don't know that I will have the time to put that same effort into a 'humanities course'. Lots of the people on this board probably have similar interests to me seeing as most of us are interested in science, so tell me which humanities you enjoyed!

Thanks...

 

[oedipa maas]

Pick a course that is taught by someone whose teaching abilities are highly regarded.

 

[dontdisturbmycircles]

Good idea, it would be bad if I got a prof who was hard to understand.

How about opinions on this.. Do you think it is a better idea to take a course that I would perhaps find interesting and enjoy (e.g. fundamentals of psychology) or something that I would find more useful to my final degree (e.g. some economics class or something (not saying I would not enjoy it, but I may not find it AS interesting ;))

 

[math_owen]

Well since there is no royal road to reality, and you're working your butt off anyway. Why not take it to the extreme? If you shoot for Pluto and land on Mars that's good enough eh.

Go with Economics. You're an engineer. So you're an analytical thinker. Why not get a jump on those who "are going to use you" and learn their game? Tough reality. Then maybe you can find yourself someday owning your own engineering firm. You never know. It only takes drive.

I'm not sure what kind of engineer you want to be. Economics would be great for all engineers.

If it's Comp Sci then Linguistics would be a solid move. Especially with all this quasi intelligent systems coming into use. And we're only going to use more.

But, alas, it's always cool to do something you really enjoy. If it's psych, forget the pre-meds. They're not going to kick your ass. They're going to be too busy kissing ass for their grades to worry about "your" ass.

 

[berkeman]

I took psychology, and it was fairly enjoyable. And I've actually used it a couple times over the years. I tried taking Econ, since it has such practical usefulness in helping you understand your finances, investments, etc. But the math just seemed so orthogonal to technical math, and I just wasn't able to get my head around the concepts. Even when I had an MBA student as a room-mate in grad school, I'd look at his homework and be baffled. Whatever.

 

[dontdisturbmycircles]

Thankyou both for the replies. I am still not sure which way I am going to go but I guess its only 1 or 2 humanities courses during the 4 yr program so it is not so bad.

I was about to sign up for fundamentals of psychology (need it for almost all other psych courses it seems) this morning but the only way I could fit it into my schedule is if I do it on saturday :yuck:.. And its a 3 hour lecture :zzz:.. no thanks.

bahhh.