College, "the best four years of your life", higher education or whatever you want to call it, is many things. It is the place where you meet lifelong friends, party like there is no tomorrow, discover new things about yourself, and oh yeah, receive an education.
An education, especially at the collegiate level, should be applicable in a career after graduation including material that is worth paying for. Most, if not all, colleges and universities require pre-requisite classes such as English and math, along with others in order to obtain a degree.
As a current undergraduate, I do not take my education for granted whatsoever but what I do think is that there could be some changes when it comes to required courses and the curriculum within a major. In my particular case, it was a Spanish class. As a communications major, I can understand taking courses related to public speaking, or writing, or marketing even are relatable to my field. When I first received my schedule and noticed I had to take "Elementary Spanish I" I was not against the idea since Spanish is an important language to learn and understand.
Let me take a step back and even go back to high school and how taking a foreign language during that time is required. I took two years of Spanish and did not learn a single thing. Sure at the time I was probably understanding it enough to pass the quizzes and complete the homework but that was only to do one thing: pass the class and get out. This for me was the same situation at the collegiate level. I did not understand why I was having to pay for a class/ take a required course that is not related to me or the career that I am trying to pursue after graduation.
With finals season coming to a close, I have noticed many other students and friends in the same position where there is a lot of frustration surrounding classes that are not related to their majors.
I see this as a major problem. Paying for classes irrelevant to our majors is only a money maker and making us fall greater into debt. Not only this but when there are courses that are "unnecessary" it is harder to put in the time and effort to go to that class.
To some who may read this, this may sound like a pity party but that is not why am I writing this.
I am writing this to make it very apparent that there needs to be some changes and improvements in the way that student's schedule and semesters are planned out. Whether you are, for example, a pre-med major taking a film class or an engineering major taking a public speaking class these credits ultimately affect GPA. I hope colleges and universities will start to realize that there can and should be a different system when it comes to students and their academics.
