Learn As I Learn

5 major problems with public undergrad colleges/universities today

In my academic career I’ve been to three colleges for a year or more: Long Beach City College, San Francisco State University, and UC Santa Barbara. So if anyone knows about public universities in California, it’s me.

So far, I feel like my entire college career has been spent jumping through hoops for each new college. To be fair, my experience has been intensified by the fact that I’ve transferred so many times. However, there are a few major problems that I’ve seen in all universities that can and should be remedied and they are as follows:

1. General Education (GE) requirements are too restrictive. If there’s anything I’m a fan of, it’s getting an education that covers all kinds of topics, even ones that don’t relate to my major. The GE system, in its attempt to force students to take a variety of classes limits students to only a few options, even within a broad subject area. For example, my university requires 3 history/government classes. How have I met these requirements? Let’s see: I have units from AP US History and AP US Government from high school, I took a more specific US history class (from colonial times to Reconstruction), and I took a History of California class. Call me crazy but all those classes sound pretty darn similar to me. A lot of the material was repeated and a complete waste of my time. I would have preferred taking two of those four classes, then be left to my own devices when choosing my last class. So if I have my eye on something unique like a History of Witchcraft (what can I say, magic is interesting) course, I should be able to take it for credit to my GEs.

If colleges want students to explore a variety of subjects, they would be better served putting fewer restrictions on what classes count for GEs and which ones don’t. If a course is really that important, feel free to make it a requirement, but most aren’t, so they should be freely chosen. A new system of GEs should look like this: Students must take 9 units of lower division History classes, one of which must be US History. Students must also take 6 units of lower division Humanities classes, which includes Anthropology, Sociology, Women’s Studies, Black Studies, etc.

There is a reason for this madness. The more students enjoy their classes, the more likely they are to want to stay. I have not been able to take the classes that have interested me because I’ve been so busy meeting GEs and major requirements.

2. There are too many pre-tests and prerequisites. I get that universities don’t want their students to fail, but sometimes it can get in the way of bright students who just want to get through school without so many roadblocks. I’ve passed by a lot of classes because I hadn’t taken the prerequisites (even though I knew I could pass the class) and didn’t want to have to spend my time side-stepping the rules. Perhaps I should have, but if there’s anything I know, getting a university to make an exception can take a lot of time because even trying to find out who to talk to can take forever. I’m guessing that’s the reason pre-tests exist. When I see these listed under the category of prerequisites I involuntarily roll my eyes. Wouldn’t it be easier just to accept people into the class and if they fail, they fail? Put up a warning. I don’t care. While I get that prerequisites make sense and pre-tests are meant to help, I also understand how frustrating it can feel to a smart student who is sick of hoops. So no, I don’t want to take another standardized test or take a class that isn’t the least bit challenging to me just to fill the university’s needs.

Some classes really should have prerequisites. I don’t expect freshmen to be able to walk in and be taking senior-level classes, although it is entirely possible. However, I do think that there are way too many prerequisites hanging around for no reason. Perhaps, they should be recommended instead of required in most cases.

3. Transferable classes are limited to university equivalents. Let me explain. Freshman year, I took this lovely art history class called “Architecture and Environment.” Honestly, it has been the only class I’ve taken that I’ve felt was structured for adults, not meek little kids. I liked the class, for the most part, because it was an art class I was actually interested in, which is not common. Then I transferred. Apparently, since none of my other colleges had a course about architecture’s relationship to the environment, I’ve never gotten credit for this class, and I’ve had to take other art requirements for my GEs instead. It’s not like I’m trying to transfer this class from an unaccredited college in Nebraska. The colleges are all public universities in California and I’m not trying to get out of my GEs. I just think it’s illogical to limit transferable units only to classes that exist at both colleges.

Once again, if GEs weren’t so restrictive, I’m guessing that transferable classes would not be so limited.

4. The teachers are too sympathetic, causing massive grade inflation and acceptance of cheating. Ninety-nine percent of the courses I’ve taken weren’t the least bit challenging. I have turned in terrible papers and gotten A’s on them. Now, I’d love to think that my mastery of the English language has allowed me to slack off in effort, but I know that’s not true. I have had so many classes that don’t require much effort to get A’s in that I’m slacking off and I forget what it’s like to try hard. Don’t get me wrong. I like my GPA. But I know that there are tons of other students out there with the same GPA. And since I suck at standardized tests, that means if I apply to grad school, nothing will set me apart and my test scores may screw me over. I can earn A’s, but I haven’t had the opportunity to show that. Teachers are afraid to fail their students, but that’s a necessary part of school. If there’s no fear of failure, then the students won’t try. Students dropped like flies out of my Calculus course because they could tell the teacher was a no-nonsense type of guy and they weren’t used to someone their sympathies couldn’t bend. Then there’s the cheating. It’s everywhere (god knows why, since the classes are becoming less challenging). I’m not a fan of cheaters, especially in college because students choose to be there. In my experience, even if a university has a zero tolerance policy, not much happens to curb cheating because the teachers give out warnings, or at most a zero on the test or paper. So teachers want to stop cheating, but they won’t report it to the university for fear of being cold-hearted, or maybe the offense did not seem that terrible. Once again, therefore, there’s not much to fear for students caught cheating, so why stop?

Policies do nothing if the teachers are pushovers.

5. Students can’t trust their advisors. If there’s any advice I have for new college students it’s to never listen to your college counselors and advisors after your initial orientation day. They are guaranteed to give you bad advice intended for the most stupid of stupid students at your university. If you’re given a “don’t worry about it” or a “you’ll be fine,” be afraid. Sometimes it’s absolutely necessary to see an advisor. You’ve researched for endless hours on the internet and through your course catalogue but there’s no answer to your question. Go, but know that your advisor can’t actually help you and will probably point you in the wrong direction. When they tell you not to worry about it, you’ll be fine, force them to tell you how you can get this assurance signed and in writing. That is the only way. You want physical proof for everything. You are a lawyer and when you want to graduate, you should be able to present your case with physical evidence if they try to stop you. I know this sounds paranoid, but I’ve never come across an advisor that was actually helpful. One staff member yes, but that was after I was sent on a wild goose chase by two bad pieces of advice.

This problem is much harder to fix. I’m sure advisors study up on all the university policies, but there’s no real way for them to find out if their advise worked or not. They don’t seem to know a lot about how the different departments fix problems, so there’s little to no communication about what students should do if the advisors themselves can’t help, but the departments can. I don’t have a solution for this because I’ve never worked in an advising department and don’t know how they work. I do know, however, that every time I go in for advise they assume I know absolutely nothing, even if I make a point to show them how much I know and how much I’ve researched the issue.

Most major problems are linked to the fact tha,t for some reason, universities are under the impression that they have to hold their undergrads’ hands and set restrictions for their own safety instead of forcing college students to grow up and fight for their grades/degree.

During my high school career, I recall my teachers telling us how harsh college could be, but I’ve seen no proof. The teachers still go back a slide when the students groan that they didn’t finish copying it down. Students still cheat. Teachers still curve grades. In fact, I would argue that college has become a lot like high school.