College is the time in your life where you discover your deepest passions. One of these passions will hopefully turn into a career that you choose to pursue. In order to do this, you must first complete several rigorous courses in your area of study (major), that will prepare you for your desired career. However, you also must complete several other required courses. Most of the courses have absolutely nothing to do with your passions. General education courses are a complete waste of time.
Why learn about something that you will completely forget about in a year or two? "Oh, it's good to have a diverse subject base." I get that you should be learning about multiple subjects and broadening your areas of knowledge; but, it really sucks when you are trying to do well in your major courses and struggling due to general education requirements. The courses that actually matter, while at the same time studying your ass off for general education courses, makes it way to difficult to maintain and boost your GPA. This takes away from the time you could be studying for your major classes and thus can have negative consequences.
If you're anything like me, you know that in order for you to succeed in something, you must put forth your full effort toward whatever it is your trying to accomplish. I struggle a lot with being able to stay focused. When I have to study for other classes that I find difficult, like heavy math based courses, I find myself spending all my time on those courses. This will often leave me with a decreased amount of focus toward studying for classes in my major. I feel like I often have to make a sacrifice of doing above average in my major courses, in order not fail my harder general eds, where I still end up getting an average grade.
Overall, while general education classes broaden your area of knowledge, they can also distract others from completing their desired area of study to the best of their ability. I believe those general education requirements should only be required for the first year or two of college. Even in the second half of my sophomore year with 14 credit hours. I feel incredibly overwhelmed, not to mention I'm trying to balance my social life, sleep schedule, as well as my involvement in other clubs. Then again, maybe at the end of the day, all I need to do is drink coffee and grind.
