This thread makes me glad that the only requirement for the CS degree I took was that roughly 60% of the courses I took had to be either CS or Math papers. I could choose whatever courses I wanted to make up the rest of my points.

From the responses in this thread though, it seems normal wherever the majority of the posters are from that you don't get complete control over your own studies.

One thing I recommend to people going into mathematics or science based majors (you are a little late for my advice) is to take not just advanced placement math/sci courses in secondary school, but to also take many advanced placement courses in literature, art, music, psychology, history, art history, etc. so that you can take them for free in secondary school, and get credit for them at university. I knew people that had done that and skipped two years of university, only taking and paying for very advanced math/sci courses.

Knowledge is never useless. In the worst case scenario, which is you ending up not using all the knowledge you've learned, you'll end up having a richer cultural background.

My feeling is that if you don't relish taking every possible course outside your major, you deserve to be in college at all. Maybe I'm just an elitist snob, but there you have it.

Nobody wants to talk to a mindless Computer Science drone, nobody wants to date one, and for the most part, nobody wants to hire one either...

Aww, those whining about education threads.

Seriously, if you can't "bear" this situation and you waste your time whining about it instead of getting through it, you're into some tough life.

How about instead of classifying his post, disrespecting him, and tossing it to the side, you offer an opinion that's actually of some worth?

Anyone who sits behind their keyboard and says stuff like "Well if you don't like college, don't go" is sucking on some strong alcohol. The kid has a right to complain about stuff he doesn't like. Instead of trying to be tough guys and saying "Well deal with it" or attacking him personally, saying he doesn't deserve an education, why don't you do the hard thing and actually debate him on the subject if you disagree? Why don't you offer constructive advice and opinions to help him come to enjoy his humanities classes the way you apparently did? If you had the same opinion he did when you were his age, why are you doing exactly what everyone else did to you? Why don't you relate with him and help him with your experience, rather than acting like the cool old dude who knows it all? Maybe because that would be hard. Maybe because then you wouldn't have the fun job of just piling on a guy, post after post, joining the horde of "You don't know anything, young blood. You just so stupid and young and oooh."

/rant off

Anyway, to the OP. My school is very similar, though the price for each course is an order of magnitude higher. I actually started off as an English major, and I hated the humanities courses so much that I was just ready to drop out rather than spend another semester being murdered slowly. The funny thing is, I only really started enjoying humanities courses when I got into science and math. I started seeing that science and the humanities are relatives, not enemies. Philosophy and Mathematics are two sides of the same coin. Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology and Artificial Intelligence are all like siblings to each other they're so closely related.

If you can find a way to stomach the boring lectures, try looking at your textbook from the perspective of someone who's fascinated by the subject. Be calm, and make no assumptions. I thought my Racism/Sexism class would be a horror show of boring stats and tales of racial struggle. But going at it with a calm, open mind--and stomaching the lectures and other students--I actually find that my perceptions about the world are being challenged, and some of the messages in the textbook resonate. Some don't, but that's part of the fun, too. At least once, give it a try and see how it turns out. It could change everything. It did so for me, at least.

Advice has already been given. He is in college, he's not a child any more. We may act like tough guys, but these childish threads are just as irritating as our responses may be. In my opinion, it's bad that I have to work 8 hours a day in my job, and usually in any jobs. So fucking what? (point is, why does an opinion matter is a fact like this? It's totally pointless. Sure, we should fight for ourselves etc, but seriously 'd pick stomaching some boring course instead of fighting politics)

Well, whatever

Oh, so he disagrees with your opinion on education, and therefore does not deserve one? And you're supposed to have a Philosophy degree? You're a joke. I'm honestly stunned that this is how the community on this site is. Honestly. And I hope that last sentence about Computer Science drones was a joke. I pray it was. I'll assume it was.

I appreciate that sarcasm can occasionally be a little hard to recognise over the internet, but I couldn't have been a lot more obviously sarcastic if I tried...

That said, there is more than a grain of truth to what I said:

• If you don't want to deal with the humanities, then don't get a liberal arts education - there are plenty of trade schools that will be happy to feed you a steady diet of 1s and 0s, and the qualification you end up with isn't all that different (provided you actually want a pure tech job).
• I encounter a fair number of people who can program rings around me, and yet are unemployable due to their lack of ability to hold a conversation outside of technical fields. Perhaps it's disingenuous of me to suggest that a lack of knowledge outside their field is to blame, but it certainly doesn't help.

I found it helpful to try to relate every class to game development somehow, to make them more interesting. In the case of art history, that is not even a stretch! It is useful for picking an art style for a game, or at least being literate enough to work with artists effectively, and generally helps build awareness of the context in which players live their lives. A lot of visually distinctive games get their look from picking unusual art styles that you might learn about in art history, like Braid, Bioshock, Okami, Journey, and Incredipede.

Since you have no choice in the matter, you might as well make the best of it, and to do that you need to find something in the class that can hold your interest. Otherwise it really is a waste of time and money!

And I hope that last sentence about Computer Science drones was a joke. I pray it was. I'll assume it was.

Actually, I'd say that there's some truth to it. It applies to more than just computer science, too. If all you can talk about is your field, then the only people who will want to talk to you will be in your field and (by definition) the only conversation you'll get will be related to your field. If all you can talk about is your field, I can guarantee that other people will have a lot of difficulty relating to you. Some people might prefer this state of being, of course. I know very few people for whom that is the case. I know even fewer people for whom the idea of socially interacting with such "drones" is a palatable one.

How about instead of classifying his post, disrespecting him, and tossing it to the side, you offer an opinion that's actually of some worth?

Perhaps you've noticed that pointing out problems with another person's ideas is not considered disrespectful here. Perhaps you've noticed that this is a technical forum. Perhaps you've noticed that the entire purpose of (most) technical forums revolves around pointing out problems with other people's ideas in order to help them. This is not a place where we pat each other on the back just for having an opinion. If you post an opinion here, you should expect that someone will eventually point out a problem with your opinion. That's what we do.

Personally, I'm of the opinion that posts that seem like teenage-level whining should be called out as such, so I don't blame people for doing just that if they make such a judgement. I'm sure many of us have had similar feelings to those OP expresses. I'm likewise sure that most of said people have had those feelings called out as detrimental to one's personal growth by our elders, our peers, or even those more junior than us. Personally, I welcome such calling out as useful to clarifying my own self-perception. I would rather have the entire internet tell me that my way of thinking is unhelpful - and therefore be aware of the fact and able to contemplate how to correct it - than remain unaware and potentially fuck myself over later in life.

Anyone who sits behind their keyboard and says stuff like "Well if you don't like college, don't go" is sucking on some strong alcohol.

Not really. College is not yet a mandatory aspect of one's education. It is also the case that not everyone has the mindset to both succeed in and enjoy college/university. Furthermore, For all activities (and college is no different), one may ask the following question: if you don't enjoy what you're doing, cannot deduce that what you're doing is good for you, and it isn't mandatory, then why are you doing it?

The kid has a right to complain about stuff he doesn't like.

And we have just as much of a right to point out that his complaints are both futile and based on a mindset which is unlikely to be helpful to him. ;)

If you had the same opinion he did when you were his age, why are you doing exactly what everyone else did to you?

I did, and therefore I can say something about the matter, and I say this: we do this because we have come to perceive what "everyone else did to us" was good for us. You make it sound like pointing out that a mindset is unhelpful to one's personal growth is some form of bullying or torture. Where did you get such an idea?

Why don't you relate with him and help him with your experience,

It looks to me like that's what's been happening in this thread.

Maybe because then you wouldn't have the fun job of just piling on a guy, post after post, joining the horde of "You don't know anything, young blood. You just so stupid and young and oooh."

I'm no longer certain that you and I are reading the same thread.

Oh, so he disagrees with your opinion on education, and therefore does not deserve one? And you're supposed to have a Philosophy degree? You're a joke. I'm honestly stunned that this is how the community on this site is. Honestly. And I hope that last sentence about Computer Science drones was a joke. I pray it was. I'll assume it was.

I appreciate that sarcasm can occasionally be a little hard to recognise over the internet, but I couldn't have been a lot more obviously sarcastic if I tried...

That said, there is more than a grain of truth to what I said:

• If you don't want to deal with the humanities, then don't get a liberal arts education - there are plenty of trade schools that will be happy to feed you a steady diet of 1s and 0s, and the qualification you end up with isn't all that different (provided you actually want a pure tech job).
• I encounter a fair number of people who can program rings around me, and yet are unemployable due to their lack of ability to hold a conversation outside of technical fields. Perhaps it's disingenuous of me to suggest that a lack of knowledge outside their field is to blame, but it certainly doesn't help.

I dunno, I understand that personality and appearance are often worth quite a lot more than any actual skill, although you only really need a certain baseline before technical ability kicks in, but if all these people complaining about the poor social skills of some people, one would think they could use THEIR apparently masterful social skills to work around the kinks and get the most out of the people with limited social skills. Perhaps they should have the same requirement of thinking outside their own world view. The double standards applied to smart people annoy me quite a bit even though I actually do have social skills and can talk about a wide variety of topics with at least slightly above average knowledge.

I've always gotten on okay with people obsessed with their one technical field, and I'm not even making money off those skills. I find it takes only a slight bending of the mind to get along with them. So I've never understood why in a work environment where those people could be worth a lot of money, their bosses/coworkers cannot achieve the same result. I've occasionally gotten in trouble in my volunteering, since until recently I had no desire to have a job, for not being "professional" enough. And yet those same people get mad at the people who are paradoxically TOO FOCUSED on the work. It's all quite confusing.

I've noticed that the average joe has problems even taking in my world view, which in most cases is far closer to theirs than that of the super focused somewhat anti social super brilliant person, yet they never cease to complain that even the only mildly differently minded people never seem capable of looking at the world from another point of view, which is basically code for their own world view.

From my dabbling in social justice and gifted learning I am pretty sure that the people on the outside of the average/majority/dominant culture are FAR more aware that other people have different points of view that people on the inside. Having had to butt up against the majority world view their whole lives while people on the inside can totally ignore the differing views of others since outsiders have no power due to their low numbers.

I can see having problems with low functioning autistic people maybe, but not moderately or highly functioning ones, and the same for other non neurotypical conditions. But how many of those managed to get a degree really? Or are you referring to hobbyists who can program rings around you?

Games are not created in a vacuum. You need to pull inspiration from places, communicate with other people, and learn techniques from other disciplines. Taking these humanities courses are VITAL to expanding your non-specific skills. Your team members are going to ask for feedback from YOU.

-Your artist is going to produce compositions and ask for your response. If you took a brief course in art history were they had you analyze art from a specific time period that will help you! You will know what terminology to use and what to look for.

-You game designer is going to ask for feedback on a feature he is thinking about. If you took a class in psych or communications you can explain why this feature would work or not. You can even expand on that feature and improve it with your own ideas.

-Your audio guys is going to need help getting the game to sound just right. If you took a brief music intro class you could tell him it needs a little darker tone, maybe use a minor key. Or point him to composers/songwriters you remember from that class that had a style that would fit.

You need all these skills to better interweave with your team members. Working together means you are going to need to go a little cross discipline. Absorb as much information as you can!!!