Some high schools offer AP classes for everything. Some high school students are able to take AP classes for everything and make 4's and 5's on every single AP exam. Therefore, they come into college with many of their core classes already completed.
My high school, although it did offer several AP classes, did not offer enough of them for me to AP out of every single thing. So, as a college student, I've been required to take a few core classes which have nothing to do with my major. I am seriously questioning whether some of these classes are worth my time and money.
Why should I, as a political science student minoring in journalism, be required to take eight hours of lab-based science? I changed my major from a science-based field for a reason and that reason certainly was not because I wanted to take these classes anyway. Similarly, why should a student majoring in nursing, engineering, or math be required to take so many English classes? If the student made it into a university then he or she probably already has excellent reading comprehension and the ability to write a coherent essay. So why do colleges make him or her waste more of his or her time and energy? What about a person who is not interested in traditional academia and is studying culinary arts, theater production, construction, or welding? Why should he or she have to pay so much to take the same classes that I have to take?
If someone chooses not to major in something then he or she has a reason. That reason is usually that he or she despises that subject or is just really, really bad at it. Now, a student may despise one or two of the classes within his or her major. Of course, sometimes it's still possible to make a decent grade in a course even when the subject isn't one's best. But why should a student spend a year a half and thousands of dollars taking courses that he or she not only does not like, but is literally never going to use?
If colleges and universities eliminated some of their core requirements not only would students save money, but we would be more likely to graduate on time. Actually getting a "four-year" degree in four years is difficult--fewer than 50 percent of public college students at most schools complete their degrees on time according to this study. So wouldn't it be easier to graduate within four years if we weren't taking so many extraneous classes?
If students were taking fewer classes and spending less time in school then they would obviously be spending less money. There's been a lot of debate recently on how to make college more affordable--I feel that requiring fewer unnecessary classes would be a step in the right direction
Now, the obvious counterargument is that "everyone needs to have basic skills." I agree with this reason. Everyone should know how to write, do some math, and understand how the government works. However, isn't the purpose of high school to teach those basic skills? When I was in high school I took biology, physics, chemistry, and anatomy and I can recall a few basic concepts from each of the courses. So why do I need to take any of them again? I certainly don't enjoy or excel in them. In high school everyone takes four English courses, two histories, economics, government, four sciences, four maths, and at least two foreign language classes as well as music, art, computer science, or other electives. Anyone who makes it into a university has probably retained just enough information from their high school classes to not need to retake everything. If students are coming into universities without basic math skills or the ability to string sentences together and form a coherent essay then not only are high schools failing (even worse than I would have thought), but the universities are failing by accepting under-qualified students.
Taking so many core classes is a waste of our time and money. It's time for the university system to reevaluate some of its requirements.
