Talking with some of my peers, calculus wasn't offered in their school. They only took pre-calc. Also, instead of having calculus-based physics, you can have algebra-based physics. My school did both for people who didn't get into calculus, but still wanted to take physics. I'm still in school, so I can't really say what helps in life. However, I thought all the physics courses (classical, special relativity, and quantum), calculus, ordinary differential equations, and linear circuit analysis were all highly intriguing and fun classes to take. Not really sure how useful they would be in the "real world." At least I think it's cool to know five or so different ways to destroy a planet. Too bad I don't have the money for it... Other classes I'm looking forward to are game theory and linear algebra. A lot of people seem to suggest taking economics, but I didn't find it very useful. It's all very obvious stuff. I'm still surprised people managed to not get an A. I'm not quite sure what's so hard about reading a balance sheet. So I guess if you're gonna take an economics class, don't go for the introductory ones? I took a couple of history courses as well, and I thought they were good. However, I don't really remember anything. It seems when it comes to history, the information seems to leave me the moment I step out of the final.