OT question about American College education.

[Penny & Bryce Linsenmayer]

No: HPFGUIDX 5169

Hi --

Just back from a short weekend jaunt to celebrate my birthday & back to
200 emails!  Anyway ... this may have been discussed in more detail
later but I had to chime in here --

lrcjestes wrote:

> As Dee explained usually the first 2 years of college are kind of a
> survey of the realm of education.  Most schools require lots of
> liberal arts courses(english, history, philosophy, music, art, etc.),
> a little science and a little math. You get very few courses in your
> major those two years. The final 2 years of a Bachelors degree are
> made up mostly of your major courses and related courses.

I am ROFL at the difference in perspectives on this.  Ahem . . .  for
those of us who HATED math & science, we would say completely the
opposite -- most universities require *alot* of math & science and a
little "liberal arts" during the first 2 years of university.
Fortunately, the "college of arts & sciences" within my university
permitted me to take courses such as "Food & Nutrition" and "Physical
Geography" to satisfy my science component.  And, I took 2 semesters of
basically "fundamentals of math" (i.e., math for the mathematically
challenged) to meet that stupid math requirement.

I think the basic reasoning for this system is to make up for
deficiencies that might be lurking in your educational background from
American high schools.  The other justification has something to do with
serving as a "review" and providing a "foundation" for your major course
studies in the last 2 years.  To me -- it was a waste of time.  I didn't
care *at all* about math & science by that point.  I already knew the
situation was hopeless, had come to terms with it & would have been far
happier not being bothered with those classes at all (all it did was
mean that I had to forego other interesting classes in my major because
there wasn't time to cram them all into my last 2 years).

Penny


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