Why College Students Go Through General Breadth Requirements

The complaint towards breadth requirement is common nowadays among many students and parents, who do not frankly understand why they have to spend their money on classes with little to no relationship to their majors of study. They question why someone who studies political science and aspires to be a lawyer one day had to take a course in astronomy to fulfill the science with lab requirement. Similarly, a mechanical engineer major taking a course on history of modern China may seem like he/she is wasting the time that could be better spent on co-op opportunity.

In fact, one frequently raised criticism is the job placement rate. Some students argue that they should be taking more courses in their major/program and less on general education requirements and often use the placement rate into jobs or graduate school as a measure to corroborate their argument. The problem with using such rate or percentage is that it is too subjective. For example, suppose a small liberal arts college's pre-law committee wrote letter of recommendation to five students for law school and four people were accepted. Then, this translates into 80 percent acceptance rate. However, a medium-sized university can recommend ten students for law school with seven acceptances, and the result will be 70 percent acceptance rate. But, the reality is that the medium-sized university actually placed three more students into the law school than the small liberal arts college, almost doubling the number of students who receive acceptance from small liberal arts college.

Another type of argument is on the number of credit hours spent on general education requirement. Certain students admit that they do appreciate some classes outside their major based on interest and GPA boost, but they still want to take a less number of classes unrelated to the major. The question to that suggestion, however, is to whether adding one or two courses in the major will improve student's prospect in applying to jobs or graduate schools. For the most part, the answer to that is "no" because employers pay attention to not just the course titles but the skills that the applicant demonstrates, including writing, speaking, typing, and so forth.

The last complaint focuses on the concept of breadth requirement itself. Numerous parents and students question how courses unrelated to major/program can prepare the future. The answer is that such courses assist in helping students learn how to learn. In fact, it is not uncommon for students in one major end up doing something completely different years down the road. By the same reasoning, universities and colleges emphasize foreign language requirement since the job market is becoming more and more global. Breadth requirement serves as a way to be certain that the graduates have enough information to approach issues in this global world that we live today.

For those who are interested in pursuing this further may find following readings interesting:

What's a Liberal Arts Education Good For?

Ask Annie: Is a Liberal Arts Degree a Waste?

On the Purpose of a Liberal Arts Education