A question for the college grads.

[Rain Man]

Serious two-part question here, so get the smart-alec questions out of the way first and then answer.

What was your (undergraduate) college degree, and what was a concept, skill, or fact (preferably a concept) you learned in that degree program that has value to you in your post-college life? Please be as concrete as possible, as opposed to really broad stuff like "I learned how to think critically".


For example, my undergraduate degree was in aerospace engineering. A couple of concepts I learned in that program that have value to me in my post-college life are:

1. I learned how to quickly convert units by including unit measures in my equations. In other words, to convert miles per hour to furlongs per fortnight, you multiply mile/hr * ft/mile furlongs/ft * hrs/day * days/fortnight, and cross out the units that cancel out, and voila! Correct answer.

2. I learned the equation for estimating the depth of a canyon if I drop a rock off it. S = 1/2at^2+Vt

3. I learned about how orbits work, which helps me understand news stories about satellites, geostationary orbits, and the like. I like reading those stories, so it's useful.

[keg in kc]

My undergraduate degree was in music composition, and the truth is that I didn't learn a thing in that degree program that's had any value whatsoever in my post-college life.

[The Franchise]

My undergraduate degree is in Web Design and Multimedia and honestly I could have learned everything I've learned so far by looking at tutorials on the innernetz.

[Rain Man]

Okay, we're 1 for 3 so far.

[The Franchise]

I learned how to create animations in Flash....if that helps.

[bdeg]

Economics - I'm a senior. How to go many steps further than is easily visible in identifying costs and benefits of a project or choice compared to alternatives. Externalities - how that choice causes other (sometimes unintended) changes.

Going a step further how to assign monetary value to these costs and benefits in the long and short term. Using statistical analysis to figure out what changes might work in an ongoing project.

How to use excel to work spreadsheets with equations.

[MIAdragon]

International Relations

Its really helped me analyze problems/situations from all angles/there is very little "black and white" everything's gray.

[Zebedee DuBois]

It's been so long ago, I forgot what I learned when.
Degree: Biology. Career: Chemistry.
I'm sure I use some of my college knowledge in my job, but the actual applications are far more advanced technologically than how we were exposed to it in college.

I use algebra all the time, but I learned that in H.S.

[Portlantis]

English and Journalism (News Editorial). Now I work at Home Depot.

I should have majored in German.

[MagicHef]

My undergrad was in Mechanical Engineering, and so far the skill that has proven to be the most useful in my job is using Excel. I am definitely in the market for a new job.

[MagicHef]

Originally Posted by MagicHef

My undergrad was in Mechanical Engineering, and so far the skill that has proven to be the most useful in my job is using Excel. I am definitely in the market for a new job.

I'd like to clarify. I actually used Excel at my last job. My current job, I use it only in the sense that some of the forms I have to fill out come in .xls format.

[cdcox]

Chemical Engineering

1. Stoichimetry of chemical reactions and its applications

2. Conservation of Mass and its applications

3. Conservation of Energy and its applications

4. Description of the world in terms of differential equations and its applications

5. The law of mass action and its applications and its applications

6. Second law of thermodynamics and its applications

7. Computer programming

8. Numerical methods that allow me to approximate math I'm not smart enough to solve directly.

8. The unit cancellation thing

9. Integration.

10. The flux of a quantity (electrical current, heat, mass, fluid flow etc.) is proportional to the gradient of its potential (electrical potential, temperature, concentration, hydraulic head, etc).

11. How to conceptualize the world so that it can be expressed mathematically.


Seems like I got my money's worth.

[Time's Yours]

Information Systems.

Now I'm in law school, so I don't use a single thing I learned. But you have to have an undergrad degree to get into law school, so I'm using it in that way, I guess.

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by phillip

Information Systems.

Now I'm in law school, so I don't use a single thing I learned. But you have to have an undergrad degree to get into law school, so I'm using it in that way, I guess.

So you could have earned the score you did on the LSAT as a HS senior?

[DJay23]

Undergrad in secondary education:

How to manage a classroom of 12-13 year olds and not lose my mind.