So here I am sitting at senior status and I have pretty much EVERY class done I need to have. I have like 8 credit hours I need to complete my degree, but the less I do class wise the worse I do grade-wise (pressure makes me work I guess). So what classes would people thing would be of some use for me to take next semester that are worthwhile and not a complete waste of money (art appreciation and drawing I can do on my own time, raquetball I can play with friends, etc - theres no need to waste money on em). Any suggestions?

Edit: Sorry, that would be helpful to mention my major: Nuclear Eng. Right now I'm kinda looking to go on to grad school. Double checking, I actually have ten hours I'm looking at - I can finally take partial Difi Q thats been kinda blocked by other classes the previous semesters. I also want to stay away from classes like the aforementioned because I don't see paying exorbinant fees for things I can do basically for free on my own time.

I hear art appreciation and racquetball are good.

On a serious note, it might help to tell what your major is.

Take one more math or stat class (200 or up) and get a math minor.

If you're thinking toward grad school anyway, dual enroll. Take 6 hours of graduate credit and make grad school that much easier to get out in a year. Plus, make PDE be your graduate math credit--you need one anyway.

The Registrar's office will get you set up with the necessary paperwork. You'll have to apply and be accepted to grad school here, and there's a minimum UGPA for dual enrollment. Otherwise it's just a matter of filling out forms.

Well the PDE is a given for the math minor (to graduate in Nuc you're required to have a math minor with math 204 and a 300 lvl math course), but I was wondering the type of class PDE would be (I hear dificult obviously). The reason I'm hesitating at this point for the duel enrollment is a friend of mine in PDE this semester and he tells me that theres something like a 20 percent or better drop in what you need to get to get an A if you're an undergrad instead of a gradstudent. What are thoughts on this? (Though I should probably just force myself to work harder anyway?) What graduate level classes might you suggest then? Our department won't really have any grad classes till fall semester that have been advertised for us.

It depends on your prof. Two of my friends are taking it and the one with that prof (the one that has a different grading scheme for ugs) dropped it because he said the guy never taught you anything.

Sorry, I didn't realize that CS 228 counted as a math class.

Is there really a point to bothering to get a math minor as a engineering major?

You never know what will seperate you from the guy you beatout. It looks good on a resume, that is my reason to care.

It would be silly for an engineering major not to get a math minor. One extra math class shouldn't kill ya.

Um...Well as far as nuclear engineering goes you automatically have all of the requirements for a math minor in order to graduate - so thats covered. But still looking for some useful class so I dont just toss away money or waste one of the few chances to get some decent education.

Have you taken a speech class at UMR? Having that under your belt can help with interviews and also could look good for companies that expect you to get up in front of groups and make presentations, etc. Same might go for some writing class... doesn't hurt to get more practice and feedback there, I bet.

I woulda liked to get some of those in, but frankly the classes in those that we had here were less then useless. The Tech Writing class was a sad joke that I had hoped I might get something out of...all I got was a reference book that will sometimes my proposals nicer. Every single person I've talked to about the speech classes theyre required to take for their majors say that they were a complete waste of time (likely more so since I did debate in HS and had alot of that experience). I also took foreign language here and already have a minor from taking all the classes in it... So... At this point with two phase flow (a hard class thats really just to give me something to do I guess) I think I'm up to 11 hours... Are there any really good history classes that you can take at any time maybe? I've stayed away from those and some economic classes just because I feel that the benefit from UMR is in the Engineering and most of the classes for other things non engineering are really much less then a different university more oriented in that direction - and basically not really worth the time or money.

I've heard that there are definitely good history courses. Example: McManus has awesome ratings and teaches WWII history classes that are his specialty and look really interesting from the description. I also think there are a lot of good psychology classes, and if even you're just gung-ho engineering you would get something out of a leadership or organizational course there....

Really I'm not gung ho engineering...In fact I don't like alot of it all that much - I've just not been impressed by the level of the other classes and effort I've seen going into other non-engineering type classes. I figured I'd try to find a better university for some of the things so they wouldn't be so engineering focused - but I'll see if I can try a WW2 class, I'm rather interested in that.

Re: good history class

Hist/PolySci 316: The American Presidency with Dr. Meagher. I was mad that my previously selected H/SS class, Philosophy 15 (Logic) wouldn't count for an HSS elective. I grumpily signed up for this class. Without a doubt it turned into my favorite outside-of-major class, and gave even some of my favorite in-major classes a run for their money.

And I hear you about the speech thing. I too did debate in high school and was kind of disappointed with SMS 81. While Williams was still there he piloted a 301 class on argumentation and debate. The first few weeks he did the typical argumentation and persuasion gauntlet, and the remaining time we basically did high school debate on a topic he picked (that was the semester that 9/11 happened so it provided us with a rather interesting time). The only problem with it was that 3 people started out in the class. There was a CompSci guy who wanted to go into law school, a 40-50-ish woman from Vienna, MO looking to get her teaching certification, and me, a CompSci wanting to get his debate on. CS-Law guy dropped after the first day. When we got to the debate-debate part of the class it got ugly. I gave my 1AC, and when she started to give her 1NC she started crying because she didn't have any idea what to do.