In college, are the required gen ed classes different for each major? Or are they the same for everybody?
How much room is there for elective courses unrelated to my field of study? If I have one major and one minor, will there be enough room in 4 years to take a couple of elective courses just for fun/interest?
Depends upon the college and major. For the Cal States and UC’s, everyone has a set amount of GE courses that need to be fulfilled to graduate which includes Science/Humanities/English etc… If you are Science major for example, then your GE science requirements can be fulfilled with some your major courses. Some majors have many pre-req and required courses to complete your degree so the amount of electives may be few, while other majors may have more electives and flexibility.
If you have a major and school in mind, many will post 4 year course plans required for the degree and you can see how flexible or inflexible these majors are in taking electives/minor course requirements. There is always summer session to add more electives/fun classes if needed.
Also AP/IB credit can fulfill some of the GE requirements, freeing up your schedule.
Since you go by @socalkid1, then I will give you a link for SDSU Mymap which has a 4 year plan for all their majors:
Not unlike high school, at most colleges, you select from a list of courses that meet a particular requirement.
The rest is highly variable based on your field of study and your school.