Worth noting that in the UK, we don’t have the majoring and minoring system at all. You pick a subject, and that’s it, by and large. And we don’t have the general studies classes, at least, not as an additional required part of some specialized degree. You might choose to join a course the university or a professor runs that are basically just after-school lessons (mine for example offered several different non-degree language classes, which I expect would be pretty standard), but those would not count towards your degree.
We do have modules within those courses that you can select from, though, generally with your amount of choice increasing with time of study - again to use me as an example, I didn’t get any choice of modules for the first year, but then for the second and third years I had both required basic ones and then a required four out of six more specialised choices.
One addition to make, in a great many degree courses, you are required to take a module outside your own subject. For example, I did a degree in Computer Science, but one of the modules was introductory economics.
Look for me it was this. Did my A-Levels in 2003. Got my result and was accepted into the LLB (Hon) programme (basically the first step to be a lawyer). Three years of law with a total of twelve subjects graduated applied to and was accepted for the Bar Vocational Course and after a year of hell was called to the Bar by Lincoln’s Inn (you undertake two masters level courses during the Bar, the Bar Course itself and a Post Graduate Diploma in Law and are awarded a qualification for each).
Unlike most American students even considering your post; my entire education was predicated upon becoming a lawyer and thats what I did from the day I entered Uni.
Not in law, we had classes on sociology and culture and even forensics; but none except for the last was formally assessed and even then it came as a section in the Evidence paper.
AK84, is it really true that you couldn’t have studied Greek literature and philosophy at university if you had wanted to? Are you telling me that anyone in the U.K. who graduates from a university with a degree in something other than a law program can never in the future go back to university and go through the law program and become a lawyer? As I’ve indicated above, it’s not that an American college student who wants to become a lawyer gets to slack off for four years. To get into a top law school, they have to do very well in some subject, and then they have to spend just as much time as you did studying law.
Actually there is something called the Common Professional Examination. It is a one or two year programme for non law graduates, who can then go for the Bar (or the Legal Practice Course if the want to be Solicitors). And indeed we get many people that way. However the fees are bout 5-10,000 pounds; beside living exoenses.
My point was that you had little oppurtunity during your undergraduate degree to do something different; take a course in something which you might never be able to do so again
Thanks for the info on the UK system. Very informative.
I won’t argue the list in general, or that there are few students that fit that entire list. But I will argue that there are plenty of students who
(4.) Graduate high school the normal way.
(3.) Go to college immediately after high school.
(1.) Attend a four-year college as soon as they enter college.
(5.) Attend college full time (though some may have part time jobs on top of that).
(6.) Are single with no children.
(9.) Live on campus or in fraternity/sorority houses.
(11.) Go to lots* of drunken parties.
(12.) Have time to go to athletic events.
I was going to list 7 but realized that isn’t technically true about me. I did work-study, so alternated semesters at school and at work. It wasn’t precisely going straight through, but it was a college organized program with a definite schedule of swapping between the two (co-oping). It was not stopping and then picking up when I was able, it was coordinated to alternating semesters (including summer term) putting my college classwork on hold and working in the field of study. And my scholarship was on hold as well. (I did 10 semesters, trading 2 spring/fall terms for 1 summer term. I had 1 summer off in that time, the other took classes at my local community college mostly because I could, and my parents wanted me doing something.)
The percentage may be lower than one might expect (20% instead of 80%?) But the stereotype comes from somewhere. Even if the percentage is only 20%, there’s still plenty enough to fill the undergraduate ranks of state universities.
*Note that lots of drunken parties is an imprecise measure. How about bar-hopping on Friday and Saturday nights 3 weeks a month? How about some sort of drunken party once a month? What constitutes lots?
And yes, dropping out happens. A lot.
Most university Bachelor’s degrees include some level of non-major programs as requirements. As Chronos stated, even the most specialized of those major programs have a swath of “general studies” classes that must be met - say 2 humanities, a basic science, a basic arts, and a literature or foreign language - within each category having a list of acceptable alternates, such as Philosophy 101 or Sociology 101 or American History 101 or World Geography 101.
Many Americans only pick a Major and don’t worry about Minors. Minors are acceptable but not required. They typically involve some additional coursework to be slightly broader than the Major in question. A small percentage may also double Major - which as suggested does involve extensive extra work.
There are also some minors that come naturally with some majors. At Villanova, for instance, anyone who got an astronomy major also had all of the coursework for a physics minor, and was only three classes short of a math minor as well (which most of the astro students took).
Actually in the UK leaving school without A levels or even GCSEs isn’t an absolute bar to going to university. There are a number of routes. Firstly do the courses at a college that offers another chance to get the qualifications. Secondly there are a couple of non traditional routes for mature students. In the case of someone who has say some relevant qualifications and has relevant work experience they can get in on passing an interview – a friend of mine is just starting an IT course this way, having dropped out 3/4 of the way through A levels more than 30 years ago. Alternatively there are foundation courses for would be students that aim to catch them up in core subjects and teach study skills. On a full time basis it takes about a year to pass enough units to qualify.