<p>You guys must have some cool schools across the pond. I know my high school didn’t offer anything like: criminology, contemporary moral issues, urban planning, logic, history of rock music, etc. All courses that satisfy some of the core requirements at my uni.</p>
<p>We have two “fundamental studies” that we need: ENGL101 and some math (I think at least pre-calc). Both can be waived through SAT scores, as was the case for me in English. We need one literature course (I satisfied it with AP), one “history or theory of the arts” course (taking a class on rock ‘n’ roll!), and an additional arts and humanities course. You need a “math or formal reasoning” course which several majors satisfy anyway due to their requirements (business calc did it for me). Two science courses, one of which has to have a lab. One social or political history course (AP credit). And one behavioral/social science course. I’m pretty sure there are AP exams for all of those requirements. That’s just ten required courses, some of which you’ll get anyway through your major.</p>
Those types of classes don’t fulfill my gen ed requirements for the most part. “Fun” classes might make up a humanities requirement, but otherwise it’s all stuff that’s boring that I had in high school already.</p>
<p>For me, fun classes are reserved for electives, which I don’t really have many of because I’m a double major.</p>
<p>I don’t agree with any type of core. Luckily, my school only requires a freshman English class and then you pick classes out of a long list that fit within certain categories. I kinda like this because it forces me to take classes I am interested that are separated from my major, classes which I wouldn’t have taken had I not had to.</p>
<p>If you mean general studies, then yes, it is an antiquated notion. An institution whose time came and went. A lot of people (mainly humanities people) hate the idea of universities and colleges becoming occupational training centers, but guess what, that’s what 90% of the population already wants them to be: a place where you will get an education that will get you a good job. Even the art history majors want that, they’re just naive about the market value of their diploma (well, not all of them are).</p>
<p>Let ivy leaguers, people who already have money and connections, spend four years and a ton of cash on a degree that would be unsuitable for 99% of the population. Unfortunately ordinary people hear about the “successful art history major who is now a multi-millionaire businessman” and assume that this could be them. Well it could be them…if their room mate was a Saudi Prince and their campus friends all had summer homes in Europe and the name of their school alone is enough to put their resume on the top of the pile. We’ve all seen the “results not typical” disclaimer in snake oil diet pill commercials. All humanities degrees should have the same thing.</p>
<p>No, it’s not degree snobbery, it’s a realistic attitude to have based on objectively verified statistics.</p>
<p>Can be useful/interesting but annoying in a lot of ways. I just hate science and labs >.< And I don’t want to take Philosophy. #FirstWorldProblems</p>
<p>That’s a very biased spin. Nothing is preventing you from doing that otherwise, this policy does not give you the chance to meet/work with other majors, having a variety of classes and majors does that. All this does is force you to take various classes.</p>
<p>I dislike breath requirements. From a pragmatic viewpoint, no one uses them to educate themselves in a variety of subjects, almost everyone simply takes the easiest thing they can to get it out of the way. From an idealistic viewpoint, forcing paying customers to consume one service in order to be allowed to consume another is simply bad business practice and would anger people in any other industry (except maybe telecom - but that’s another issue). The problem is that people don’t look at colleges and universities with the same skepticism that they look at Walmart and McDonald’s with, so when a college implements more restrictions people spin it in their own minds as for their own benefit. </p>
<p>It’s never better for you to have more regulations guarding your own life.</p>