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I'm a current undergraduate majoring in physics at a major US university, and I strongly disagree with the assumptions and the conclusions that comprise this article. Firstly, the article lists two anecdotes as definitive proof that everyone hates their gen-ed classes. This is almost invariably wrong: because students have enormous flexibility in choosing their gen-ed classes (these literally be any number of classes out of thousands at a liberal arts college) they are much more inclined to pursue a legitimate area of interest outside their major. In fact, many of my friends actually change their major _because_ of a gen-ed class they were required to take. This leads to my next point about not having a set major: upwards of 50% of undergraduates at my university change the major that they applied to the school for, and over 90% of graduating students conclude that they ended up in the correct major. To reduce all flexibility whatsoever in majoring, I think, is a fatal flaw that does much more harm than good. In fact, the little "good" the 3-year-major approach has – i.e. less money/time spent at college, end up more advanced in respective field – is far less valuable than the tangential skills one may pick up from gen-ed requirements. That point about scheduling being so complicated "that at least one company, Hobson’s, makes money selling software" to navigate the process is just ridiculous: companies make money delivering burritos; does the burrito selling process need to be rethought? My high school had software that they paid for to schedule classes, and so do many. Finally, the author's conclusions are not only contradictory but paint a worrisome future for undergraduates. We should "give students more freedom to pursue their interests," but also create "less choice" for classes? In addition, his last point about teaching students "communication, facility with widely used software, and teamwork" is literally the purpose of gen-ed requirements. Undergraduates should be treated as adults: many (if not all) colleges have time-honored "honor code" traditions, wherein students are expected to act honorably and maturely in examination requirements. If we are to instead prescribe each course each student should take, remove all flexibility to study unrelated subject areas, and create a uniform assembly line through which every undergraduate passes without deviation, not only would students lose the most valuable parts of a university education, but they would also be woefully unprepared for the variety of challenges that life faces. |