<p>funny i ran into this thread. i've been speaking to a friend about this lately. and i've taken it a step even further. not only do i think general requirements are a waste of time and useless. i think college is useless as well as far as your career goes. essentially most people go to college to get that college degree which you can show your employer when applying for jobs. more often than not, jobs will require some sort of college degree. there are exceptions for people who found other ways to make money. now here's where I get more frustrated as it turns out most of what you learn in college is rarely used at most jobs. for example, one of my former professors, an astro-physicists, had a friend who graduated in some type of engineering (I think chemical but I forget at the moment). and when he got a job, out of all those formulas and concepts he learned in college, it turned out all he needed was on formula to go through his job day in and day out. there are other examples of this in other fields. for example, my boss graduated with a math major and a minor in information systems, and what does she do? she runs projects mainly at work, something she never learned at college. essentially everyone goes to college because it's a better guarantee at getting the big bucks when you graduate as opposed to not going to college but general requirements just make the entire experience more tedious. sure there are those who are in it just for the education solely but i'd say that's the minority of students.</p>
<p>you guys think you have it bad, i have to go through TWO CORES. a liberal arts core around 4 semesters long, and the business core which is 2-3 semesters long. so basically i'm getting 1-2 semesters to study what i actually want to major in. and of those classes that i actually take it'll be interesting to how much of what I learn I end up using when i get that full time job upon graduation.</p>
<p>frankly though i don't care about any of it because there's a way around it. the way i deal with this issue is by taking the easiest professors out there even if it creates a rough schedule time wise. take easy classes and get out of college so i can tell whoever employs me that i graduated from X school and had a good GPA. if i had to recommend anything to high school students it would be to get APs or college credits going into college. This way you can register earlier than other students in your class. Then sign up for easy classes. And if you definitely can't get the easy class you want, then take classes for your major and delay those core classes until the next semester when your chances improve of getting that easy class. by your third year if you have core classes you still need to take you'll have your class standing to give you a big advantage over freshmen and sophomores trying to get into those classes.</p>
<p>i'm not in college just for the money. i'd rather get paid dirt and do what i love than earn 6 digits working in something i hate. but at least with my college degree i should expect to earn a decent salary above the national average which is one of the things I want out of my career. and yes i went into college knowing what i want to do and i am so looking forward to taking my major classes next semester. unfortunately i still have other core classes to take but at this point i'm almost done with my liberal arts requirements. and since i'll have more credits than most students and i'll have a higher standing than most students i'll be able to register for those remaining core classes that close out quickly (the easy professors) and not have to worry about losing out on classes in my major (because it isn't popular to begin with). this all makes 4 years go by faster.</p>
<p>by the way, all these general req. don't necessarily mean that students will ever find out what they want to do. i know people who have since graduated who still don't know what they want to do with their career. so even all the general req. won't make the difference because some people are just lost as to what they want to do for a living. unfortunately they don't realize that their major rarely dictates what jobs they can get.</p>