Anybody who has ever been to a four year college knows it’s not supposed to be easy. You’re not supposed to just get by; you’re supposed to spend hours studying and go to class because you are the best this society has to offer (or at least that’s the bullshit we feed ourselves). We know it’ll be expensive and we all plan on being done with our undergrad degree in the planned four years.
But that doesn’t happen.
I don’t know anybody who can graduate in four years. Well at least not without Summer school. Four year universities don’t exist anymore, but there are plenty of five year schools.
How come? Surely majority of people who go thru those big school house doors don’t fail that many classes to hold them back. Some of them do but everybody has their fuck ups. There has to be another reason…and I think I found it.
The reason it takes so long to graduate is all the unnecessary classes students are forced to take.
Why does a pre-med major need to take British lit? Why does a TV broadcasting major need so many semesters of science credits? What the hell does science have to do with TV? I know what you’re thinking “People need to be well rounded and know something about multiple subjects.” That’s true but that’s what high school is for. When you go to college you want to focus on what you’re going to do for the rest of your life. If I wanted to know about different rock formations I’d sign up for the class on my own don’t force me to take it. Kids nowadays have to take just as many hours out of their major as they do in their major. That shit cray! And it’s a waste of time and money. I don’t give two craps if the lawyer defending me doesn’t know how the slave revolt of 1712 affected upper class whites in New York. But he sure as hell better know how to keep my black ass outta jail!
I would rather be a master of my craft than a jack of all trades master of none.
Schools just want your money. The longer you stay the more you have to pay. They couldn’t have most of their tuition checks…I mean students leaving in two or three years. Gotta squeeze every penny they can out of ‘em. Make us take a ton of useless classes =in school forever. Let us just take our major classes =done in a couple years. True there are thousands of two year schools out there but they don’t offer as many majors as the four years. Also, those two years don’t have the same respect in the job market.
So we’re doomed. We can either pay a ton of cash for 4-5 years to take a bunch of classes filled with information we’ll never use just to fulfill a credit or we can go to a two year school and get a degree that won’t hold as much weight. I didn’t go to college to get an education; I went to get a job. If I wanted to learn about subjects that span the universe I’ll go to the public library. I want to be the best at what I chose to do and I’ll take two or three years of training in just my profession over random math classes.
There has to be a solution to this problem. I wouldn’t have addressed the problem if I didn’t already have a way to fix it.
Schools should start letting students choose different plans. Some people don’t mind taking as many classes as they can. So let them. They can have their math112 and their history 319 and all that. But let people who want to get in and out as soon as possible do that. No need to keep people there longer than they need to be…but then of course they wouldn’t get their checks.
