OT question about American College education.

[lrcjestes]

No: HPFGUIDX 5101

> Final OT point someone I think it was Carole said something about only
> having to take one humanities course on her Science based degree. Is it
> usual to have to take courses from another discipline in the US? In the UK
> unless you are doing a modular degree (This is a generalisation but
usually
> you only do those if you didn't get the grades for your first choice or
you
> decide at the end of your first year you hate your subject and want to
> change.) you stick purely to courses on your subject. Sometimes you are
> encouraged to do a European language course alongside and I had a
compulsory
> computer course but it was not part of the degree nor did my mark count
> towards my final mark. Sorry if this sounds garbled I'm just very curious
as
> discipline boundaries are rarely crossed in the UK. This could be
partially
> a result of the restrictive nature of A-levels. In most cases you chose
arts
> or sciences at 16.
>
> Heather, waiting for the torrent of rebuttals to land in her inbox.

As Dee explained usually the first 2 years of college are kind of a survey
of the realm of education.  Most schools require lots of liberal arts
courses(english, history, philosophy, music, art, etc.), a little science
and a little math. You get very few courses in your major those two years.
The final 2 years of a Bachelors degree are made up mostly of your major
courses and related courses.

I went to an engineering college so I  was not required to take a lot of
liberal arts type courses (except for 1 set of music and 2 writing ...one
basic and one technical) However I still really didn't get into courses in
my major until the last 2 years.  My first 2 years were packed with math and
physics and chemistry and biology.

I think I like your system better, but chosing your track at 16 seems kind
of scary!

carole