Rant. Physics majors (and so are other majors at A&M) are required to take two History classes and two Political classes (all specified, no doodling around here). The normal track is to take them one at a time each semester, so HIST 105 the first semester, HIST 106 the second, you get the idea. After 2nd year, you’re all done and well. Okay, I understand it’s not the most interesting class to some. You have options though:
1. take the AP test, score a 4 or above, and be done with it at the end of high school (this requires a little bit of studying during high school, unfortunately);
2. take summer class the summer before you go to college, pick your community college of choice, close to home, close to friends, cheaper, whatever, get them out of the way, and you’re history-free for the next 4 years in college. Woohoo! But wait, you don’t wanna spend time in summer school right after you just finished high school? Need more time to get that dizzy prom dance outta your head? Travel? Relax? “Dude, I just finished school!” kinda thing? Ok, fine, that’s why we listed those courses in your college degree plan.
3. Take the freaking classes as listed in your degree plan! They’re organized for you for a reason.
Some of the freshmen I came across don’t want to do any of the 3 options. They didn’t do the first two, saying they’d take in in college. Then here comes New Student Conference when freshmen need to sit down and work out their schedule for the first semester, and, oh, we don’t wanna take History or Poli sci!. Look, you don’t have a choice. Either you take it now, or you take it later, or you don’t graduate. If you didn’t like it before, and you don’t like it now, what makes you think you’d like it later, when the major classes get a lot harder? Some say they want to take it at their community college close to home in the summer (should’ve done #2, but ok…), not a bad idea, but really, your registration is in the summer. Current students have already signed up for juicy classes in the previous spring, how big of a chance do you think you’re gonna get that 1 seat in the “0 Available Seats” solitary section of American Renaissance Literature or Philosophy of Science? Just take History or Poli Sci!!!
Ranting stops.
Last thought before I go to bed: the students I’ve met who displayed an aversion from history and political science are all girls, my current undergrad advisor and myself included. Yes, I know there aren’t that many girls at A&M Physics department, so not really enough of a sample to make any hypothesis. But really, are girls in general less inclined to learn history? And why? Or do girls tend to complain more? I need to find a statistics of the percentage of female college students enrolling in History and Political Science majors, and how many graduate, in the recent years.
