Regarding taking courses more slowly, I think it is useful for students of hard sciences who do not take to the material quickly to pick up a minor in an easier soft science or even humanities class if only to avoid the blow to personal ego and potential drop in status for being a part time student. All of this is based on my own personal conjecture. However, there are other benefits to taking a minor in a slightly easier discipline. You could take a minor in history and choose to learn the history surrounding the concepts you are learning in a more rigorous class. This allows you to fit the discoveries and ideas into a narrative as you learn all about Newton’s Europe while you study Classical Mechanics. Allowing you to put Newton’s ideas in a particular time period could give a student a better sketch of the territory he is trying to paint in his map. By taking a minor in a related but ‘less pure’ topic a student can paradoxically raise his or her status while making the per semester course load easier.
EDIT: As pointed out below, I do not particularly mean easier per say. That was a terrible choice of words on my point. Rather, use a class that can supplement your current studies to gain greater context.
As someone who has their undergrad in history, I actually think it is MORE important to slow down humanities classes. Because it’s possible to breeze through them, doesn’t mean that you actually get much out of them when you do (note: I am not talking about any “intro to” or 101-level stuff, which I’ll admit is generally idiotic). However, when you have 3 other classes fighting for your time, the temptation to do so is strong. It’s much easier to get a decent grade in humanities, but its also much easier to get WAY more out of it by putting time in.
Example- In a math class, once you know the material, you know it. “Learning more” just means “getting ahead of the class”. OTOH, there is a near infinite amount of material in say, a history class. What did different historians interpret different things? What was every day life like? What was technology like? etc. I could take the exact same history class with the same professor 10 times, and although the lectures would get monotonous, I would never run out of new stuff to study.
Unfortunately, because you CAN pass with minimal effort, that ends up being what most people choose to do.
(Also, I tend to take offense when science people look down on humanities. I can see why, but I have also taken a year of full loads of ALL math/physics/engineering courses (after I got my BA, and was catching up to switch fields), and will say that in SOME ways it’s easier. (It’s always programming that kills me))
You misunderstand my intent. I didn’t mean to imply that studying history was not worthwhile. In fact the different questions one could ask:
What did different historians interpret different things? What was every day life like? What was technology like?
Were precisely the reason I think a minor could be useful. The fact that, if you need to, you can attain a passing grade, while still focusing your studies to learn the background knowledge of your chosen field is of immense value. Rather than being a ‘blow off class,’ I would recommend a humanities course to be supplementary. I have long suspected that if the history, culture, science and art of The West were presented together the fact the students can relate different classes to each other would improve their overall interest. This is what I meant by making it a lighter course load. Again I can cite no studies I know of, but when I study Mathematics I find it’s easier to learn it by tracking the ideas back to the time and place they were thought up and the effect it had. By learning these together, my subjective exprience says I learn each more efficently. In fact I would hazard to guess I work more on each class than I would have if I didn’t take them cocurrently. I apologize for not being clear.
Regarding taking courses more slowly, I think it is useful for students of hard sciences who do not take to the material quickly to pick up a minor in an easier soft science or even humanities class if only to avoid the blow to personal ego and potential drop in status for being a part time student. All of this is based on my own personal conjecture. However, there are other benefits to taking a minor in a slightly easier discipline. You could take a minor in history and choose to learn the history surrounding the concepts you are learning in a more rigorous class. This allows you to fit the discoveries and ideas into a narrative as you learn all about Newton’s Europe while you study Classical Mechanics. Allowing you to put Newton’s ideas in a particular time period could give a student a better sketch of the territory he is trying to paint in his map. By taking a minor in a related but ‘less pure’ topic a student can paradoxically raise his or her status while making the per semester course load easier.
EDIT: As pointed out below, I do not particularly mean easier per say. That was a terrible choice of words on my point. Rather, use a class that can supplement your current studies to gain greater context.
As someone who has their undergrad in history, I actually think it is MORE important to slow down humanities classes. Because it’s possible to breeze through them, doesn’t mean that you actually get much out of them when you do (note: I am not talking about any “intro to” or 101-level stuff, which I’ll admit is generally idiotic). However, when you have 3 other classes fighting for your time, the temptation to do so is strong. It’s much easier to get a decent grade in humanities, but its also much easier to get WAY more out of it by putting time in.
Example- In a math class, once you know the material, you know it. “Learning more” just means “getting ahead of the class”. OTOH, there is a near infinite amount of material in say, a history class. What did different historians interpret different things? What was every day life like? What was technology like? etc. I could take the exact same history class with the same professor 10 times, and although the lectures would get monotonous, I would never run out of new stuff to study.
Unfortunately, because you CAN pass with minimal effort, that ends up being what most people choose to do.
(Also, I tend to take offense when science people look down on humanities. I can see why, but I have also taken a year of full loads of ALL math/physics/engineering courses (after I got my BA, and was catching up to switch fields), and will say that in SOME ways it’s easier. (It’s always programming that kills me))
You misunderstand my intent. I didn’t mean to imply that studying history was not worthwhile. In fact the different questions one could ask:
Were precisely the reason I think a minor could be useful. The fact that, if you need to, you can attain a passing grade, while still focusing your studies to learn the background knowledge of your chosen field is of immense value. Rather than being a ‘blow off class,’ I would recommend a humanities course to be supplementary. I have long suspected that if the history, culture, science and art of The West were presented together the fact the students can relate different classes to each other would improve their overall interest. This is what I meant by making it a lighter course load. Again I can cite no studies I know of, but when I study Mathematics I find it’s easier to learn it by tracking the ideas back to the time and place they were thought up and the effect it had. By learning these together, my subjective exprience says I learn each more efficently. In fact I would hazard to guess I work more on each class than I would have if I didn’t take them cocurrently. I apologize for not being clear.