It was not until last semester when I was planning the classes I would take in the spring that I realized just how pointless some of the classes I am required to take are. Each class is worth a certain number of credits, and you pay more depending on how many credits you take. Whether you pass the class or not, the money goes from your pocketbooks directly to the school. To graduate on time, you must take an average of 120 credits which equates to 15 credits per semester. That doesn’t sound too bad unless you decide to double major, add a minor or change majors after previously taking courses unrelated to your new major. 

Because this tends to happen to the majority of college students, many do not graduate on time or are forced to take summer classes, which nobody in their right mind would do voluntarily. The main point I am trying to make is that we must take a surplus of unnecessary classes that pertain nothing to our majors.

For example, I am double majoring in communication with a concentration in media and women and gender studies. There is no reason that I should have to take more than one math and science. Besides the fact that I loathe both math and science, I do not see the purpose of taking these additional courses. I am here to learn all I can about communication and WGS, not how to solve for X. 

I am more than happy to take classes that focus solely on my major, but all other courses are just a waste of my money.  If I only had to take courses that fell under my concentration, departmental requirements, the area on which I am focusing and maybe a few GEP courses, I could probably graduate in about three years, if not earlier, and save tons of money. 

Not only would you save valuable time and money by taking classes only related to your concentration, but you would not have to dread going to a class you know you couldn’t care less about. It would make it easier to get up in the morning knowing you aren’t going to class just to fulfill a requirement. 

I can somewhat understand why universities want us to take certain classes. Maybe they want to give us the option to take a course that interests us but is not related to our major. I get that, but maybe universities should take into consideration the wants of students, desires and pocketbooks when they decide that we need to take 15-20 useless classes.