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Jessica Soler | Contributing Writer
opinion@fiusm.com
The first two years of college should be reevaluated in order to really help students better decide what kind of future they want to have.
For those students who enter college unsure of their future occupational goals, the pressure of deciding on a specific path is more than daunting. From elementary through high school, students are taught the same curriculum: reading, math, science, etc. However, college is a whole other game and it’s not so clean cut.
As it is, the first two years of college are a waste of time. Entering university, students are required to take a certain number of credits from specific classes. These classes are an extension, if not an exact replica, of classes they took in high school. Students choose a science class, a math class, a literature class and an elective class for fun. By this time in a students’ education it is a pretty established fact which subject they enjoy taking and which one they hate. It is then from these broad subjects that students are expected to nail down their future.
Many college graduates speak of all the times they changed their major before they finally settled on one they were really interested in. While this is a good option to have, there is not enough time to take advantage of it. Even if a student knows what they want to study before entering college they still need those first two rudimentary years.
Students usually start taking classes geared toward their major in their third year. These introductory courses should be offered to second year students. If the basic classes need to be kept they should act as transitions with the option of taking a couple of major specific courses. The introductory classes for a major are important because, after taking them, students often know if that major is the right choice for them. Right now college is very limiting if students plan on graduating after four years.
If a student reaches senior year with a major they are unhappy with they face two options. The first option would be to change the major and take an additional two years studying a new major, which is expensive. The second option would be to stick with the major and finish out the final semester.
Colleges, it seems, are very interested in keeping students in school for as long as possible to make money off tuition. By taking away those first two years, students only have another two years to figure themselves out. Even if a student has picked a major, the class selection for some of them are so limited students have no choice but to push their graduation date farther and farther back.
Ideally, college should be a learning experience. For most students, college is too expensive for them to really explore all their options. The first two years of college should be dedicated to providing students with the opportunity to explore different areas of learning to see what subjects really interest them.
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