Why college is a scam but also crucial
My personal experience after my first semester of college
After immersing myself into the college life starting in August of this year, I now have acclimated to the environment and know what it is like to be a full time student. I entered college as a Biochemistry major with the intent to go into research after college. Obviously being a freshman and 18 years old I understood that this plan could always change in a blink of an eye. From what I have heard from those around me, its pretty typical to change your major around three times. Now, after one semester of college I am already looking at changing my major.
To give some perspective, my course load from this past semester consisted of Foundations of Chemistry, Chemistry lab and recitation, Calculus 1, Moral Conflicts and Ethics, and Women in Religion. I took a total of 16 credit hours. I would spend many hours during the week studying mainly for my Chemistry and Calculus classes. I would rush through my non-STEM classwork in order to get to my STEM classwork. I easily half-assed my non-STEM classes, yet I passed these classes with an A. Take a second and guess what I got in my STEM classes that I spent easily over 30 hours a week doing work for…ready…I got a B in Chemistry and a D in Calculus. A major hit to my GPA and bank account since I didn’t pass my Calculus class.
In high school I sat at the top of my class with As and Bs. Now, I am struggling to scrape by Calculus with a C. Knowing that I spent a great deal of time studying for this class, would do the homework with the intent of learning and comprehending, utilize study groups and ask questions in class I was confused on how I could barely pass a midterm exam, let alone the class. I had done everything I could to learn the material and would change my study methods after each exam in the hopes of improving my exam score. My fault was not being able to take an exam well enough to pass it. I also struggled with this in Chemistry, but not to the same extent as I did in Calculus.
It has become increasingly normalized to walk into college and start out by taking increasingly difficult classes without having any experience in the college environment. A big part in doing well in classes is not only the effort that is put in, but also understanding how the class works. It takes a while to understand how college classes are different than high school classes. It also takes a while to adjust to the idea that as a college student, you will have to teach yourself the content. It seemed that the professors were there to instruct and introduce the ideas, but as the student your job was to read up on the subject then work to break down the components of the subject on your own.
I believe this is a flaw in the college system. While classes are structured differently, there is no “intro to college” class that teaches educational independence and how to adequately teach oneself in college level classes, so why is it expected of student to teach themselves a large part of the curriculum they are paying the University to learn?
I had a friend whose computer science professor left so many gaps in their teaching that my friend stopped going to lectures all together because it was easier for them to teach themselves rather than spend time confused by what the professor was discussing or not discussing in class.
It seems that taking the time to teach oneself has become normalized in college, which may be reasonable, but I feel like it may also be a red flag in the college educational system.
My other question is why it is normalized to jump right into incredibly difficult and rigorous classes freshman year? While I may have chosen a more rigorous major to enter college under, I feel that immediately starting with Calculus and Chemistry for Biochem majors was not the best idea. This can fall back on me as a personal mistake that I have made, but it was also communicated to me by my academic advisor that these courses were common for incoming STEM major freshman. I feel that if I were directed to take a prerequisite for Calculus then I would not have found myself with a D.
I have always had a more creative and writing brain compared to a super analytical and mathematic brain. I also genuinely enjoy classes and concepts that are more conceptual and allow out of the box thinking. This meaning that I perform exceptionally better on written or verbal exams and through papers. Now that I have barely scraped by in Chemistry with a B and failed Calculus, I am reconsidering my major and what I may be interesting in pursuing as my future career. My question is, what would have happened if I passed Calculus with a C and then went on to take Organic Chemistry and Calculus 2 next semester? I think I would have found myself deep in the STEM hole and had a hard time rationalizing the idea of switching to a non-STEM major since I would have been decently far into my major’s required classes.
Luckily, failing Calculus was a blessing in disguise as I am now able to explore the idea of taking a variety of classes next semester to begin to understand what I may have a interest in.
Unfortunately, if I do switch to a non-STEM major, the classes that I have taken in STEM would not typically help me towards my non-STEM degree. My problem with this is college digging you into a hole where when you enter college you must be locked in on your career path. I know many people have different experiences with college and their major, but I think the normalization of throwing a student into high level classes their first semester creates chaos in the sense that it could lock that person into their major to the point where they feel like they cannot switch out of it because of all the money they have already contributed to their major specific classes. Not to mention the fact that someone could be years into college and decide that the path they were going down isn’t for them, then they are theoretically forced to start over, which most people cannot financially justify.
College is incredibly crucial in order to put oneself in an optimal spot to qualify for high paying jobs, but it does also present very scam-like aspects to its character.
Luckily, I have realized early on in my college experience that I need to explore alternate career fields, but my concern is what if I had already been a year or two into my Biochemistry major and then hit a point where I couldn’t pass any of my classes no matter how hard I tried and had to reconsider then. I believe the structure of college is not suited for the student and exploration process as well as it could be. I also feel that the normalization of self-teaching and rigorous classes in the STEM major specifically is a flaw in the college educational system.
College is a privilege I am incredibly grateful to have the opportunity for and am grateful to have the resources to switch my intended major if I wanted.
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