Hi, I’m currently in the process of making my college list.
I know I definitely know what major I want to pursue (CS), and I want to avoid writing as much as possible; thus I am making my college list based on how many GEs they require and how many can be satisfied with APs.
I guess it depends on each college, but are the GE classes bearable, or should I apply to colleges that have the least GE requirements? Do you feel like GE classes are a ‘waste of time’ when you could study something related to your major? I really want to start major related-courses in my freshman year.
I am also considering UK universities ( because you only take classes related to your major), but will likely attend a US college.
It varies college to college, but overall GE’s aren’t something that needs to be a huge part of an education unless you go the liberal arts philosophy. I was in the same boat. If I could recommend some good schools for this for CS:
Northeastern U - not too many, AP credit can be used very easily
RPI
U Rochester - pick 2 concentration areas, if you have any humanities / social science interest this works out best.
WPI - a few more than the others but great CS that you will dive straight into
I currently attend NEU and through 1 year with summer classes (by choice), I am on my 5th CS class. This is not uncommon at all for the major. The rest of my classes have been a mix of math (for CS) and two humanities courses that have satisfied all but one of my GE requirements. I couldn’t be happier with the program. I have an interest in philosophy, which helps satisfy my GE requirements.
The other three schools also have very impressive CS programs and GE’s that aren’t too extensive. I only searched in the northeast so there’s plenty more, these are just a few examples.
I started college with 58 transfer credit-hours from AP and dual enrollment. (I go to Case Western Reserve University, which is a good STEM-oriented school you might want to consider.) When I was looking at schools, I wanted a college with either
a) an extensive core curriculum, or
b) hardly any requirements at all.
A lot of colleges have requirements that don’t cohere in any meaningful way. The students see them as an inconvenience rather than as an opportunity to learn about the human condition. I didn’t want to deal with that.
My university doesn’t have many requirements, mostly because of my transfer credit. It’s good because I can take whatever I want, but it’s bad because I’m going to graduate with very little knowledge of the humanities and social sciences.
Some random comments:
You probably don’t have to take 100-level classes to fulfill your requirements, and I’ve always tried to avoid them (when they’re not required) because I think there’s too much hand-holding and fear-mongering. Upper-level classes are more chill, and I seek them out even in departments where I don’t have much experience.
You don’t need to finish all your requirements in your freshman year. If you still have some left in your junior year, it will be very simple to throw them in among your major classes. Your major requires specific classes, and they should have priority over distribution requirements where you can select from a whole list of courses. You should start taking classes for your major as soon as possible, even if you still have requirements to fulfill.
It’s really important to be comfortable with writing. Applications for jobs, internships, REUs, and graduate programs may require it. I know you think it’s a different kind of writing and you’re already good at it, but it’s easy to lose your skills over time if you don’t have a way to practice. (This doesn’t have to be through a class, though.)
As one other thought, while I get what a lot of people are saying, GE classes expose you to things that you otherwise may not get. Learning about society, our history, anthropology and getting some background in the arts is something that may not apply to your ‘major’, but will make you a more rounded person in the long run. As someone who works in the CS field as a Programmer, I have to tell you that getting a programmer is fine, but getting one who understands context, societal issues, history and government is far more valuable than a guy who programs perfectly in a language that may or may not be the main language used 10 years from now. The skill we most look for in programmers in my shop isn’t someone who just writes great code…it is someone who learns quickly and easily and has the ability to code. Embrace the liberal arts and enjoy the classes. I loved Anthropology. I have no desire to become an Anthropologist, but the class taught me a great deal about people.
You don’t need liberal arts to have writing skills, historical knowledge, and a knowledge of modern society and its issues. I’ve learned the most from other locations than college, and these days high school writing in the later years is very similar to college writing unless you’re going specifically for English.
Just because OP wants to avoid GE’s it doesn’t mean he can’t be well rounded. I love CS and want all but a few of my classes in it and relevant topics, but most of my personal time is spent elsewhere.
I think GE’s are very important to a rounded education. It’s important to understand culture and what it means to be human in the first place. Some of my interests that are now going to be lifelong hobbies were originally sparked in my philosophy and anthropology classes. I’m a physics/math double major, so this stuff is pretty irrelevant to my major. But I find that these classes apply more to every day life and an overall understanding of the world than my actual major classes do.
Personally, I think picking schools based on lowest number of GE courses and writing courses is a bad strategy.
I agree with all of that but the last line. My first and strongest passion IS philosophy. I was exposed to it long before college though. I got my understanding of culture by living it, not studying it. I wrote my college essay’s on it. I wanted a college with low GE requirements because at my schools, the GE’s don’t work properly because they end up being restrictive. I’ve taken my general electives in much more interesting subjects that aren’t CS related, but aren’t part of GE’s either.
halcyonheather put it well:
To be fair, it does mean that you have to pursue it outside of the classroom yourself to get the same or better life effects, but to say that low GE’s as a part of a college search is inherently bad isn’t fair either.
Obviously opinions on this are going to vary significantly. I work as a tutor in my campus tutoring center, and I have to regularly deal with the “math has nothing to do with the real world” type of people. And yet it has everything to do with the real world.
There’s a drastic difference between simply living as a part of culture and learning about culture in a formal setting. Personally, I couldn’t even imagine college without my GenEd courses.
Thanks for the responses everyone! They did change (a bit) my perspective on ge classes. I’ll try not to just cross out a college b/c of its GE requirements.
I think another reason why I’m trying to avoid GE is that I’ve heard so many horror stories about GE classes (esp. in big schools, which I plan on applying). idk, maybe they’re just myths and are probably exaggerated a bit.
The drawback to a lot of the GenEd classes at larger schools is a lack of direct interaction and personal attention. Classes like intro sociology or intro philoosphy often take place in large lecture halls and sometimes have enrollments of 300+ people. At UIUC, some of the GenEd classes and lower level major classes have almost 500 students in them. I took these classes at my community college, and my average class size was around 15-20 students. The largest class I’ve had at my CC was General Chemistry I, which had almost 100 students. The only other class at my CC that’s comparable to this class in size is Principles of Biology. People in a lot of different majors have to take these specific classes though, so they tend to be larger.
What horror stories have you heard? I went to a big state school, and GEs were often considered the easier classes. They were often GPA boosters or fun classes. Some students liked to spread them out throughout their four years so that they could break up the monotony of their major classes or have an easy class to balance out their really difficult classes. I’m not sure what horror stories you’re talking about.
Perhaps, you shouldn’t worry so much about the amount of GEs, but instead, prioritize schools that have very flexible GEs. Some schools let you pick from a variety of different classes, rather than having a rigid core curriculum. But I wouldn’t recommend you write off an otherwise great school because of the GE requirements. GEs really aren’t that big of a deal. Some of my favorite classes and classes where I learned the most were GEs.
Depending on prerequisites, you won’t necessarily have to take the same classes as everyone else. That’s what I was getting at when I suggested taking upper-level classes.
If you’re looking for a school with flexible GE requirements you may want to consider Johns Hopkins. Hopkins employs a “distribution” GE system which allows students a lot more flexibility in terms of which GE type classes they have to take.
@NavalTradition yeah I’m sure gen ed classes at Harvard and such elite schools are of “better quality”, but the thing is im not going to (or can’t) go to ivy league
@bopper@aldfig0 thanks for the warning; I know I’ll have to write something whatever I do, but I meant that I want to avoid writing as much as possible as in like writing literary analysis papers (currently suffering from ap eng ): ).
Still, thanks for the tip. Never knew about that.
Upper-level classes are more chill, and I seek them out even in departments where I don’t have much experience.
They did change (a bit) my perspective on ge classes. I’ll try not to just cross out a college b/c of its GE requirements.