Gen-Ed Requirement Bowling! Or why to hold off on taking all those pesky distribution requirements and take them all at once instead.
The UVM Honor’s College is kind of a sham.
I like it! I like the First-year seminar courses (Hello, ethical conundrums!) and the Sophomore seminars (Hello, sitting out in the woods writing a personal journal and collecting probably-poisonous mushrooms!), but the other bullshit is… bullshit!
First off, what am I getting!? A little note on my degree that says I graduated “With Honors?”
Well, I guess when I think about it, I valued the experience a lot. And while my retention of all that philosophy in the Ethics seminars was probably no more than 5% (Peter Singer and John Locke stand out) at least I got that much more mental exercise during those two semesters (the “I ran for every day for 6 months a year ago, so I can eat doughnuts whenever I want” mentality).
And I’ll probably find my thesis to be pretty satisfying too, whatever the heck it is I end up doing with that. Just like Dante was transformed after his voyage through Hell, I’m sure I will be transformed after mine.
But what gets me is the distribution requirements:
UVM has seven neat little categories of general education requirements (they used to have eight, but dropped the Phys-Ed) and generally mandate that students take one class that applies to at least five of the seven. That means that a science major can’t get away without taking some humanities classes, or a arts student can’t just paint their way to a degree.
The real kicker is that Honor’s College students need to fulfill all seven of the seven requirements! Oh-la-la, what a sexy challenge, yes?
Well, I’ve walked all over at least three of them (I don’t know what they are, but I imagine they probably have something to do with history, English, languages, or just being cool) but the remaining four are problematic: I need a Fine Arts course, a Math course, one run-of-the-mill Science course, and one fancy-shmancy Science course with a Lab included! course.
Thanks to Ms. Stacy Anthony of Essex High, I got the Math requirement taken care of four years ago with that A.P. Stats exam (It cost only $70! It is amazing to think I thought that was expensive!). So thank you, Stacy. I owe you and Dave and that guy who called me a jerk in my American Politics class one, or three… Or $70. So thanks again.
Anyway, now, after five semesters of lackadaisically bouncing around in my ivory tower, I need to wrap things up and knock off these other requirements (just so I can graduate “With Honors,” after all). So I am ready to take them on all at once…
Welcome to Patrick LaClair’s Semester of Gen-Ed Requirement Bowling!
(I really wish that the Phys-Ed requirement was still here so I could actually go bowling for credit, but I’ll make due without.)
Regardless, bowling or no bowling, I’m pretty excited about the Frankenstein-style schedule I’ve got here this next semester:
The History of Jazz! (Best benefit of the Honor’s College? Priority Registration, so I can be the first to get into this hot, hot class)
Exploring the Cosmos! (Fancy way of saying Astronomy 001)
Geology 001!!! (Exciting way of saying Geology 001)
Latin Epics! (Hey, what can I say, I have to indulge myself, right?!)
Etymology! (Oh, ok, maybe too indulgent, and this won’t actually count for ANY requirements, but it makes for good bed-time stories)
So that’s all something to look forward to!
In the meantime, I still have two and a half weeks to finish up this semester.
Oh my my my.
