With the start of the school year, classes become one of the hot topics among students. Whether you are asking for advice about a professor or trying to find new ways to challenge yourself, knowing which classes have been most helpful for other students can help pave your journey through college.
Here is what WSU Vancouver students said about the most useful classes they have taken.
Most useful class: English 102.
“I took APA style for English 102 when I was at Clark and I didn’t even know how to write any APA papers. I did MLA all through high school, so taking an APA English class was so helpful because my other classes sometimes need APA.”
– Zhanna Brichka, junior business major
(Sydnie Kobza/The VanCougar)
Most useful class: Climate system and climate change class.
“I have a radio show and it focuses on the environment, on KougRadio, it’s called EnviroMental with Emily Shirron and Emma Crippen [Monday’s 3 to 4 p.m.] so I get a lot of the information from that class that I use on the radio show from that class. Marc’s [Kramer] teaching method is hard but effective. He would make us explain the different atmospheric processes and he did it in a way where you are not just repeating what he says, you actually understand and can walk through it.”
– Mary-Fe Gipe, senior environmental science major
(Sydnie Kobza/The VanCougar)
Most useful class: Accounting.
“Even though it’s not my major, I found it useful and learned a lot about business because I didn’t know much about it beforehand,” Lindberg said. “It’s kind of broad which is why I like it. I feel like I didn’t know much about accounting or how businesses worked with that stuff beforehand. I ended up really enjoying it.”
– Joel Lindberg, senior entrepreneurship major
(Sydnie Kobza/The VanCougar)
Most useful class: Calculus Three.
“I’ve had to use a lot of the math that I’ve learned in that class in a lot of my other upper-division classes. It’s provided a lot of skills that I’ve needed to carry on with more advanced stuff we’ve been learning. It’s a basic framework of the skill set we need where later on we specialize further in our classes. So that provided a background for me to choose what I specialize in. I definitely wouldn’t be able to be successful without that class.”
– Ryan Wagner, senior electrical engineering major
(Sydnie Kobza/The VanCougar)
Most Useful Class: Tie between DTC 201 and Principles of Public Relations
“DTC 201, which is a lot of the practical tools in Adobe stuff has been useful to me. I’d like to start in the field where I’m doing creative and strategic things. So having that basic knowledge in video production and graphic design, I’m hoping that’ll help me in a job where I’m providing social media content or helping out with marketing. The second one, a career field I’d like to get into, the class I’m taking right now is Principles of Public Relations, which is the field I want to go into the most. I’m two days into that one but I feel like that’s going to give me a lot of skills and a better idea if that’s something I want to get a masters in eventually.”
– Shane McCormick, senior integrated strategic communications major
(Sydnie Kobza/The VanCougar)
Consider the diverse classes available to you as a student and which classes can help you achieve your own goals. Fellow VanCougs are always valuable sources for information.