Don't get me wrong, I'm the first one to admit it—I, along with the majority of my friends, love going to college. But do we love it for the right reasons? Our whole lives we are encouraged to get good grades. Why? To get into AP classes, to prepare for our SATs, to create an impressive college application so that we'll be accepted into the college of our choice. The education system would have us believe all this extra effort is in the name of learning; that we're all smarter because of it. The problem with this system, speaking from my own experience, is that we students are forced to sacrifice genuine understanding in our pursuit of a 4.0.

I can't speak for everyone, but after cramming enormous amounts of information into my brain for a week in order to get an A on this week's major test, I forget everything I'm paying good money to be taught. I retain little to nothing of the information that is supposed to help me in my future career. I sit in classes all day long that I have no interest in to get into future programs in the hope that those may actually pertain to my career choice. Prerequisite and general education classes take up my time and energy that should be used towards learning actual skills that I can use in my particular position.

I love the college atmosphere. I love meeting new people and living with my friends and a five minute walk from anything I could want or need. I love being surrounded by people my age, feeling independent, and having endless opportunities to explore who I am and what I like to do. But do we need an education system for all that? We're told to get well-paying jobs, we need a degree, which means we need college. But what if we didn't?

What if we could learn about actual life skills like how to pay taxes, or mortgages, or how to change a tire? What if we could pick and choose specific classes we're actually excited about taking and will ultimately help us? All I'm saying is, here's the current system. You spend the entirety of freshman year taking general education classes that the school mandates for your degree, yet have little to no relation to your major or what you want to do. Sophomore year, you take prerequisite classes to get into other classes and programs in the hope you like them. Junior year, you get to actually take the classes that matter to your major and hope that it works for you.

Problem is: what if it doesn't? You just wasted two years and more than $40,000 on someone else's plan. Sure you could change your major, if you want to tack on an extra semester and $10,000 or more. Bottom line, this system needs to change. We need to do away with mandatory general education requirements, forego delaying the classes that will determine if we are in the right field. If colleges are so determined to have us choose a major, why not give us the opportunity to immediately find out if we like it or not.