5 Useful College Courses (Regardless Of Major)

By Julia Dunn on May 30, 2016

Many students who are particularly focused on their chosen field of study forget that there are other classes out there that could be useful in different ways.

For some history majors, an engineering class may never have even crossed their minds as useful or worth their time. A film and digital media major may find that they’d like to improve their problem-solving skills through an unexpected route: a chemistry class. Universities offer hundreds of classes in all sorts of topics; how could you limit yourself to just one field?

Regardless of your proposed or declared major, there are several types of classes that will really benefit you in life.

1. Fundamental Biology

You want to know how the world works, right? Even if you’re a business management/economics major, it’s important for life to have a basic understanding of biology. Only knowing that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell isn’t enough!

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Enrolling in the most introductory biology class offered at your university will ideally provide you with useful information about how your body works and how plants/animals function around you. You don’t have to love cells or be fascinated by photosynthesis (although you should be!) to take a biology class; learning about living things will help you understand life overall, and knowing basics about science is important to daily life.

2. Statistics

Statistics can occasionally sound scary to some students mainly because it’s typically offered under the math department. However, it really has very little to do with math if you take it. It’s more of a logic class than a math class, and it’s quite easy even for those who have an aversion to the idea of math. The course material is nearly entirely based on real-life situations and application questions that make you think about all the statistics you hear in mainstream media all the time (and even start questioning their validity).

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It is critical that students can read graphs and understand things like percentages and probability because these things can apply to any subject. A graph can describe most if not all scenarios that could come up in your own field of study, and being able to construct an effective graph is significant and powerful in certain contexts.

3. Logic

Along similar lines of statistics, a deductive logic or reasoning class is great for sharpening critical thinking skills. You’ll learn to focus on a particular problem and reason your way through it (a necessary life skill by far). Mostly these classes are required of philosophy or even majors, but a lower-division logic class can even satisfy a general education requirement (check your university’s class search to find out).

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4. Introduction to Psychology

Even visual arts majors have to deal with other humans from time to time. If you’re an astrophysics major wondering about how to understand human behavior, a psychology class may be a great place to gain a better understanding of yourself as well as others. Typically introductory psychology classes will cover social, personality, and cognitive psychology, which provides a useful survey-approach to understanding how humans function emotionally, along with what impact emotions have on behavior.

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Students from every major are eventually going to need to work with others, either in group work or other team-oriented settings, so a basic understanding of psychology could be relevant. Note that this overview class is typically a popular choice for psychology majors and non-majors, so enroll in this one as soon as possible.

5. Independent Study

Any university position or activity that is related to academics or takes place on campus could give you course units in the form of an independent study course. For most student leadership positions associated with independent study credit, you work in exchange for units rather than money, and this usually entails working for a campus organization (student run) or even serving as a course assistant in a classroom under a professor.

Students should hold a position during college at some point that teaches them leadership and communication skills relevant to any future career, and many opportunities designed for students in this way count as “independent study” along the lines of an internship/supplementary activity to your usual course load.

As far as jobs go, employers like knowing that an applicant took the time to explore and take a few classes outside the scope of their major field, and you’ll learn a lot from classes you never thought you’d take in the first place. Many classes like the ones described above teach you life skills you can use towards searching for a first full-time job, getting along with coworkers, and resolving unanticipated problems in the workplace.

Take a class outside of your major requirements and not only will you learn useful information for life success but you may even discover a new interest!

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