Page 1 of 3

College Courses You Wish You Had Taken

Posted: May 13th, 2009, 1:10 am
by Lavabe
Way long ago in a board that shall not be named (you know, the other board yonder, KUMQUATS, TOWEL, whatever), one of the last things I tried to raise was that I deeply regret not having taken this one course when I was an undergraduate at Duke. The course was the Anthropology of Humor, by Mahadev Apte. I mean, how can you go wrong with THAT course? I have never seen it offered anywhere else, and I always wanted to learn more about the subject. It was a cross-cultural perspective and analysis of humor. WAY cool! Instead, I had to finish out my computer science degree with EE 157. ~x( :-B

What college courses did you NOT take that you wished you had taken, and why?

Cheers,
Lavabe

Re: College Courses You Wish You Had Taken

Posted: May 13th, 2009, 6:10 am
by captmojo
Fun with Numbers 101. :D

Re: College Courses You Wish You Had Taken

Posted: May 13th, 2009, 6:27 am
by YmoBeThere
Ahhh, Errors of Omission. Unfortunately, my undergrad career was more of an error of commission...

Re: College Courses You Wish You Had Taken

Posted: May 13th, 2009, 7:48 am
by bjornolf
I always wanted to take the class taught by the coaches, but I couldn't get in. :(

%%-

Re: College Courses You Wish You Had Taken

Posted: May 13th, 2009, 7:51 am
by CathyCA
I wish I had taken more Sociology courses (and ignored the remarks of my classmates about how they were for the stupid people). I wish I had taken courses in creative writing. I wish I had taken a course in accounting.

I wish I had never taken that course in statistics. I wish I had never taken those 2 courses in romanticism in literature. I wish I had never taken those two course in European history.

I'm glad I dropped French before I ever set foot in the classroom.

Re: College Courses You Wish You Had Taken

Posted: May 13th, 2009, 8:09 am
by OZZIE4DUKE
I wish I had taken Differential Equations instead of the Statistics course I mentioned "over yonder" in the Business Major at Duke thread. =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =))

OK, now that you believe that one, I've got a bridge I'm looking to sell... :mrgreen:

Re: College Courses You Wish You Had Taken

Posted: May 13th, 2009, 8:29 am
by TillyGalore
YmoBeThere wrote:Ahhh, Errors of Omission. Unfortunately, my undergrad career was more of an error of commission...

Ditto. ;)

Re: College Courses You Wish You Had Taken

Posted: May 13th, 2009, 8:31 am
by CameronBornAndBred
When I was at the Corcoran for my bachelors, there were tow courses I wish they offered. (As far as I know they still don't).
Marketing, and business. To prep artists for a career in creating art should also include the education in how to sell it. I had to pretty much teach myself all of my marketing skills. When I went back for my associate's degree, intro to business was a required course, and I got the business teacher to let me take the more advanced class after even though it wasn't in my curriculum.

Re: College Courses You Wish You Had Taken

Posted: May 13th, 2009, 8:59 am
by colchar
Forget courses, there are times when I wish I had chosen a different major!

Re: College Courses You Wish You Had Taken

Posted: May 13th, 2009, 9:52 am
by devildeac
Lavabe wrote:Way long ago in a board that shall not be named (you know, the other board yonder, KUMQUATS, TOWEL, whatever), one of the last things I tried to raise was that I deeply regret not having taken this one course when I was an undergraduate at Duke. The course was the Anthropology of Humor, by Mahadev Apte. I mean, how can you go wrong with THAT course? I have never seen it offered anywhere else, and I always wanted to learn more about the subject. It was a cross-cultural perspective and analysis of humor. WAY cool! Instead, I had to finish out my computer science degree with EE 157. ~x( :-B

What college courses did you NOT take that you wished you had taken, and why?

Cheers,
Lavabe
#2 and # 9 at Pinehurst...

OOOHH, COLLEGE courses... :roll: :lol: ;)

Re: College Courses You Wish You Had Taken

Posted: May 13th, 2009, 9:57 am
by Bostondevil
Physics and some sort of creative writing course, maybe acting too, heck any theater course.

Sorry for you folks who regretted statistics. Was my dad your professor?

Re: College Courses You Wish You Had Taken

Posted: May 13th, 2009, 11:03 am
by wilson
There was an English class all on Tolkien at Duke that I hate to have missed out on, and I have said a number of times that I should have taken a Psychology course.

I did, however, wake up at 6 a.m. on registration day so I could get into Intro to Creative Writing in my last semester as an undergraduate. Now, I thank myself literally every day for having taken it. It was the best class I took at Duke at the perfect time in my life, and it still informs a lot of my work as well as a good portion of my general outlook on life.

Re: College Courses You Wish You Had Taken

Posted: May 13th, 2009, 12:10 pm
by Lavabe
Bostondevil wrote:Physics and some sort of creative writing course, maybe acting too, heck any theater course.

Sorry for you folks who regretted statistics. Was my dad your professor?
No, I had a grad student teaching stats.

Wilson: Who taught the creative writing course?

Re: College Courses You Wish You Had Taken

Posted: May 13th, 2009, 12:15 pm
by windsor
OZZIE4DUKE wrote:I wish I had taken Differential Equations instead of the Statistics course I mentioned "over yonder" in the Business Major at Duke thread. =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =)) =))

OK, now that you believe that one, I've got a bridge I'm looking to sell... :mrgreen:

I took differential equations - you made I wise choice - I wish I had taken Stats instead.

I wish I'd taken something fine arts related. I was too much of a science/computer/math geek.

Re: College Courses You Wish You Had Taken

Posted: May 13th, 2009, 12:20 pm
by OZZIE4DUKE
Bostondevil wrote:
Sorry for you folks who regretted statistics. Was my dad your professor?
Don't remember his name, but he was working feverishly on his PhD dissertation for the last 6 weeks of the semester and didn't really care about teaching the class. Every test was open book. This would have been sometime between the fall of 1974 to the fall of 1975 - I actually can't remember when I took the class.

Re: College Courses You Wish You Had Taken

Posted: May 13th, 2009, 12:27 pm
by wilson
Lavabe wrote: Wilson: Who taught the creative writing course?
A youngish Poetry MFA named Faulkner Fox. And yes, that really is her name. She also lived right down the street from me that year. I used to see her out on the sidewalk all the time. It really was a cool time in my life.

Re: College Courses You Wish You Had Taken

Posted: May 13th, 2009, 12:38 pm
by bjornolf
Speaking of the Tolkien class, i took a religion class on C.S. Lewis, who was a close friend of Tolkien's, so we talked a little Tolkien, too. The Lewis class was pretty awesome, I must say. We didn't even read any of the famous Lion, Witch, Wardrobe series, though we discussed it a little, since the prof figured we'd all read at least part of it before.

%%-

Re: College Courses You Wish You Had Taken

Posted: May 13th, 2009, 12:40 pm
by Bostondevil
OZZIE4DUKE wrote:
Bostondevil wrote:
Sorry for you folks who regretted statistics. Was my dad your professor?
Don't remember his name, but he was working feverishly on his PhD dissertation for the last 6 weeks of the semester and didn't really care about teaching the class. Every test was open book. This would have been sometime between the fall of 1974 to the fall of 1975 - I actually can't remember when I took the class.
Not my father then, he was a prof already, got his PhD from Princeton in 1961. Undergrad - Duke '58.

Re: College Courses You Wish You Had Taken

Posted: May 13th, 2009, 3:41 pm
by DukieInKansas
Bostondevil wrote:Physics and some sort of creative writing course, maybe acting too, heck any theater course.

Sorry for you folks who regretted statistics. Was my dad your professor?
I don't believe he was for the stats course I took. I had someone named Battle from Prob & Stats - but not through the math dept as I was a business major. I remember he gave his tests at night and I would ask him to reschedule the tests that conflicted with basketball games.

I loved the classes I took outside my major - I wish I had taken more science. Do they still have the PE requirements?

Re: College Courses You Wish You Had Taken

Posted: May 13th, 2009, 4:12 pm
by Lavabe
DukieInKansas wrote:
Bostondevil wrote:Physics and some sort of creative writing course, maybe acting too, heck any theater course.

Sorry for you folks who regretted statistics. Was my dad your professor?
I don't believe he was for the stats course I took. I had someone named Battle from Prob & Stats - but not through the math dept as I was a business major. I remember he gave his tests at night and I would ask him to reschedule the tests that conflicted with basketball games.

I loved the classes I took outside my major - I wish I had taken more science. Do they still have the PE requirements?
PE requirements? I had none of those, and I graduated in 1983 (the Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans year).