For my entire college career, I’ve been extremely proactive about earning the credits I need to graduate. Music is notoriously horrible to schedule for, mostly because we don’t have multiple sections of classes and we have a high credit load to begin with, which means that if you get behind in your classes at all, you’re probably not going to be able to catch back up. Throw in some general education credits and talk about overloading a semester (or three) and you’re good to go. Of course, adding in my second major of English made things a bit more difficult, but somewhere along the line, I managed to work my way to earning an extra class for the second semester of my senior year.

At first, I was overwhelmed with joy - I would get to take any class I wanted to on the entire campus. Well, any class that I fulfilled the prerequisites for. Regardless, the options seemed endless. I could take an additional music course not typically required for our majors, or a history class or a photography class or even a class on dinosaurs, and who wouldn’t want to learn about dinosaurs?

In the end, I did manage to pick out a general education credit to take for fun. Yes, that’s right, for FUN. Art 115 was a popular choice for many seniors looking to fulfill their last credits this semester, and I ended up taking it with my best friend and another of my good friends. The professor is amazing, the class is interesting and while I sometimes wish I could just go home on Friday afternoons instead of heading to another class, I’m still fairly certain that it’s all worth it.

Of course, in order to take this class, I’m still overloading my last semester, a time most seniors typically take as a reprieve before graduation, but that’s not really my style. After all, here I am at an acclaimed college with the world out before me, and I have an opportunity to take a course that I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to take. It may not be required for my majors, and it may not be required to graduate, but I’m bettering myself by taking the course. I’m expanding my horizons, meeting new people, learning about the world we live in and am having fun while doing it all.

So, if you’re a junior about to head into your senior year and you happen to find yourself with a few extra credits, take a look at what the rest of the college has to offer, even if it’s outside your department. It might require a bit of extra work on your part, but take advantage of the opportunities presented to you by your college while you still can. You never know when you’ll have the opportunity to learn about Vincent Van Gogh again!

Plus, if you do the math, you’re paying for 18 credits so you might as well use them!