Why I Hate Requirements
I've never been a fan of "required" classes in college. I think it is assinine to force students to take required classes, rather than allow those students to focus their studies on the topics that really interest them. Maybe that would give us a people who major in "Video Games" or "Shopping," but I'd like to see a program that does that.
In undergrad at Oakland, we had the dreaded "general ed" requirements that were completely not pertinent to most student's chosen path of study. (Art History for a CS major? P-shaw!)
At Richmond in law school, one had to learn the basics, so of course you got your torts, civil procedure, property, etc. out of the way in the first year. Then you had a couple of years to essentially decide what you wanted to take. Most people chose to focus on the classes that were going to be pertinent on the bar exam. I did as well, but I mixed in a lot of courses I was particularily interested in (Law and Religion, anyone?).
Now, in Georgetown's Master's program in CS, I'm faced with the same thing. Right now, the bane of my existence is my (required) Systems Fundamentals class. I have many problems with this class, not the least of which is it being required for the degree. Also, the actual premise of the class sounded like it might be sort of cool - build a microprocessor. However, on the first day of class that went out the window, and we are nice and far away from the stated course objective. And don't get me started on course load! I'd say more than half of my first year law school classes were less intense than this one. 5 homeworks, 5 projects, a midterm, a final exam and a 10-12 page (single spaced) final paper. The sheer amount of work in this class has been mind boggling to me. What really ticks me off is the fact that I would never have been taking it except for the sheet fact that it is a requirement. Why can't I focus on something that interests me?
In any case, I'm seriously considering dropping this class. I'm not sure if it is the level of work, my disdain for the subject matter, or the fact that I just can't seem to get this stuff (despite seeking out help from the Professor numerous times). The fact remains that this is quite possibly the worst class I have had in 9 years of college. And I had Vishnubhotla at Oakland, so that is saying something!