Robert Frost probably explained it best when he said: "College is a refuge from hasty judgment."
College is a time to explore new modes of thinking, delve into complex ideas, and debate sensitive topics without fear of scrutiny. It's also a time to form your identity.
The staff at Business Insider discussed our time spent at college and reflected on the classes that shaped how we think.
From the celestial to the biblical, and many more topics in between, here are the college courses that changed our lives.
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Sam Ro (Deputy Markets Editor): Dead Sea Scrolls
It was part of my religion major. As someone born and raised Southern Baptist, reading anything from the time of the Bible in a non-church context was eye-opening to me. The Dead Sea Scrolls course was particularly mind-blowing in that it exposed me to all sorts of texts that went parallel to the Old Testament.
The course really tested my ability to think critically and memorize massive amounts of information. I learned that my capacity to do something was only limited by the level of interest I had in the task or subject matter.
Jessica Orwig (Science Reporter): Quantum Mechanics
I was all ready to go to graduate school and study astrophysics, and then I took that damn class. It was hard, to say the least. And I realized that I wasn't one of those people who can learn physics naturally and that a path in astronomy would be a constant struggle.
There were other factors that led me to science journalism, but when I think back, those nine months of quantum mechanics really did me in when it came to homework assignments, physics, and school in general, really.
Erin Fuchs (Senior News Editor): Memoir Writing
I never knew what I wanted to do for a living until my senior year of college, when I took a course on memoir writing.
That was the first class I took that was focused purely on writing. A professor named Elizabeth Stone, who was faculty adviser to the school newspaper, taught us how to write short essays about our own lives. I was incredibly shy in college but realized I could open up through my writing. The class also taught me how much I love storytelling in all its forms.
Stone reached out to me and encouraged me to join the student newspaper. She also helped me realize I could pursue journalism even though I'd majored in psychology. Eventually, she wrote one of the recommendations that helped me get into Columbia's j-school.
If I hadn't taken that class, I think there's a decent chance I would have "fallen" into another profession that made me far less happy.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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