ZOE ROGERS / OPINION EDITOR

The views expressed in the editorial and op-ed sections are not necessarily those of  The USD Vista staff, the University of San Diego, or its student body.

As students, we are given loads of unnecessary work that is irrelevant to us and different from what we want to pursue. I can remember countless occurrences where core curriculum classes have inconvenienced my time when I could be focusing on classes required for my major instead. General educational classes are a waste of time. Instead of forcing us to take such classes, USD should allow us to focus only on major-related subjects or courses that are more relevant to the field we want to pursue. 

As USD undergraduates, we must complete 60 units of core requirements to graduate. These classes include the Historical Inquiry, Philosophical Inquiry, Literary Inquiry, Ethical Inquiry and more. While this curriculum may interest some and can be applied to their intended major, it can be irrelevant to others. For example, suppose a student is majoring in international business, biomedical neuroscience or engineering. They may not find a relevance in taking Global Diversity classes. Many of these general educational courses are quite a time commitment, especially when we must take so many to graduate. 

American Public University, an online educational program, provides insight on how long students are projected to study per course. They explain  that students are expected to study eight to ten hours a week per three credit course. At USD, some professors say they want us to devote about ten hours a week to their class, which can be daunting if we don’t care about the course work.

These courses take up much of our time as students and delay any specialized classes that enrolling in for our major. The general educational requirement takes at least four semesters to complete if a  student has yet to receive pre-approved credits upon enrolling into USD. So, it takes about half of our college career to be able to take the courses required for our major without worrying about these additional classes. 

In my opinion, there is no point in prolonging our enrollment in major-specific classes. If students could start taking courses on the topics that they want to pursue, they would all be out of college much quicker. This idea would benefit the students, as it would decrease the amount of tuition they have to pay. For example, tuition is $76,375 a year, and so removing the core requirements could potentially save students up to $160,000.

However, if a student isn’t sure of their preferred major, taking general educational course; is of no consequence. Taking a variety of classes  can especially be helpful, if it assists the student in reaching a consensus on what major they would potentially declare. USD allows much room for experimentation, especially for students who come in undeclared, providing a variety of different potential majors for those unsure of what path to choose.

That being said, we shouldn’t be forced to enroll in classes that we are  not  interested in and that don’t apply to our majors or minors, especially if we’re paying to study what we’re interested in. Forcing students to take general education classes, that they lack any interest in, is a waste of the students’ time, especially when they hate the subject. Additionally, students are less likely to excel academically if they are uninterested in the course material, especially if the class is irrelevant to the student’s intended career. The National Library of Medicine explains the relationship between student interest and academic excellence. 

“Interest is a powerful motivational process that energizes learning, guides academic and career trajectories, and is essential to academic success.”

Consequently, if a student performs poorly in their core classes, their overall GPA will ultimately be damaged. That being said, core classes can burden our grades and bring us more harm than benefit.  

We’ve spent our whole academic careers taking core classes; our education was intended to be well-rounded in elementary, middle and high school. When I graduated high school, I thought I had finally managed to escape the annoying extra classes that I needed to take. However, when I arrived at college, I realized that I still needed to deal with the core curriculum style of education. USD’s required me to take language courses, even though I had already taken language courses throughout elementary and high school. 

I had taken Spanish through elementary and middle school and Mandarin in high school. However, I received no language credits upon enrolling in USD, so I took French. While I appreciate this opportunity to learn a new language and have enjoyed it so far, language courses take up a significant amount of time. The three semester language requirement is ineffective; if a student is forced to learn a language, they probably won’t practice it after fulfilling their requirement, and they inevitably lose their familiarity with the language.

Enrolling us in general education courses allows us to have a well-rounded education. I thoroughly enjoyed some of my core curriculum classes, for example, my Philosophical Inquiry class. 

We have the opportunity to learn as much as we can on all different topics, and it’s important to take advantage of the education that we have in front of us. We are lucky to be given an education that allows us to explore and expand intellectually. While a well-rounded education can be beneficial, it is only temporary. We’re not allocating our time correctly if we continue investing a significant amount of our time on courses we’re uninterested in. Instead, if we utilized our education by taking classes that are relevant to us, our devotions would experience more of a long-term benefit because we will continue to use the information we learn in our careers.

It’s time for schools to prioritize the importance of having a specialized education, one that’s tailored to our interests and eventual career path, not one that takes up time on subjects we don’t care to learn. If we prioritized a specialized education, we would save a lot of time and energy that we could be investing into subjects that concern us.  

Kushi Patel and Alissa Abramovich/The USD Vista