Over winter break, I spent hours and hours poring over the registrar's Web site to find that elusive double whammy: that course that fulfills multiple requirements and has an easy course rating and a high professor rating. I finally found the gem that is "Introduction to the Koran," which fills Cross Cultural Analysis and Sector IV, interdisciplinary humanities and social sciences - perfect.
Although I'd never considered the course before and am glad I'm taking it, I've spent far too many nights searching for my double-whammy courses. And so has everyone else - one of the main reasons that "Ideas in Mathematics" is so popular is because it brings everyone two requirements closer to graduating (without even having to retake calculus).
With foundational requirements and sectors to fulfill in the College, and similar curricula in the other three schools, it often seems like students are simply being forced to put aside their own interests and replace them with Penn's. Though we're supposed to graduate with a wholesome, working knowledge of several fields this way, the well-rounded Penn education clashes with students' inevitable scramble to find the easiest (read: least stimulating) course to fulfill a sector.
Eric Schneider, assistant dean and associate director for Academic Affairs, believes, "An intellectually curious person would find something interesting regardless of sector, major interests, etc."
College freshmen are encouraged to "shop around" and figure out where their interests lie. Schneider says this is a vital part of a Penn education. "Most 18-year-olds don't have a clue about what to do with their lives, and many of those that do change their minds," he points out. "A flexible curriculum that encourages exploration is also a good model for life."
But not all freshmen feel that need to explore. If anything, they already know what they don't like - a student who hated physics in high school is unlikely to major in it. Most students are very happy to revert to their comfort zones. The writer looks forward to his writing seminar just like the pre-med looks forward to the Living World sector. Joseph Yeakel, a junior who knew his English major as a pre-frosh, says that although students can usually find something they like within each requirement, he's been avoiding the Physical World requirement "like the plague."
That's what it comes down to: It's all fun and games until the reluctant writer has to submit himself to calc or chem. As a senior, Yeakel will have that one last requirement looming over his head. By a student's final year of study, it can no longer be considered exploration. To seniors that lone, unfulfilled requirement is an unnecessary burden. This interruption comes at a time when students should be focusing on their majors, ideally either through seminar work or independent study.
Therefore, students should be able to balance their interests while still having a liberal-arts education in mind. For instance, we could double up in three or four of the requirements or sectors we're more interested in while passing on an equivalent number we know we dislike. This would give students a chance to truly explore while not spreading themselves too thin. We can have a little less breadth for a little more depth.
While interdisciplinary programs like BBB and PPE (among many other acronyms) may draw students toward Penn, they only pull students farther from a cohesive and linear path of study. To compensate, students are looking to concentrate their studies more than ever. Honors theses and fellowships are offered within departments to tie together the loose ends of these scattered subjects. Kevin Rakszawski, a bioengineering senior, believes that without his senior project, he would be stuck at an impasse. It has allowed him "to really focus everything that [he has] learned from so many different areas: bioengineering, health care management, ethics and sociology."
It's obvious that many will graduate with less depth than they thought they would have. Even as a sophomore, there were some classes I know were wasted and pointless. I would gladly take two classes for Cross Cultural analysis - and even three for my writing requirement - but Living World will haunt me until my senioritis sets in.
Wiktoria Parysek is a College sophomore from Berlin. Wiki-Pedia appears on alternating Fridays. Her email address is parysek@dailypennsylvanian.com.
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