On classes towards major

I'd like to talk about required classes that one has to take towards their major and whether they are necessary or not. I currently feel that the required classes are a good idea to maintain “roundness” but they shouldn't be enforced very strictly.

This is actually a topic near and dear to my heart. I feel that the current curriculum is restraining and enforced excessively strict. Electrical engineering is closely tied with computer engineering and they are both housed in the same department (ECE). This means that a lot of classes overlap between the two majors. This is convenient when someone actually has interests that cross over but for the others it is actually very difficult. As an electrical engineer, I am well aware that I may never again work with topics covered in the required classes.

It is really frustrating to be forced into a class in which you happen to have no interest. After all, I chose to be a EE not a CompE. I realized that my interests did not lie programming or otherwise and therefore chose a different major. Instead of forcing me into a class, I would at least prefer to chose one amongst many. It's not like I hate all the CompE classes; there was one that I thought was fun. However, that was only one class and I will be taking one more class in the future which I am dreading.

Now moving on to classes outside of our major that are still required. I value classes in the Physics and Chemistry department but we do not need to take so many. Thermal Physics has be the most useless class that I have ever taken. I have never used anything from that class nor do I expect to in the future. This is the same with the chemistry classes, apart from learning the basic knowledge there is no need for the extra classes. If a class happens require advanced knowledge the chemistry class could just be listed as a pre-requisite. At this point the student has the option to choose whether to take the class or not.

Next, I feel that the math classes required for engineers is actually very apt. Calc III is a required basic knowledge that everyone should know. DiffEq is also very important but we so not need three different first-level DiffEq classes in the math department. The ECE department requires us to DiffEQ plus which basically covers one more chapter as compared to the other DiffEq classes. This is very personal for me since I actually took a DiffEq class in a different university while still in high school. However, U of I is unwilling to give me credit for the plus class. There is only a minor difference between the two classes and I don't want to take the entire class again just for the sake of one chapter. Additionally, since I am a junior now I have already covered the difference in material in my other classes. I am confident in my knowledge of differential equations and I feel that I should get the credit that I deserve and not miss out on graduation thanks to a single chapter in a math book. I would be extremely happy if they just gave me a bye. After all, I did take the class (albeit in a different university) and I got an A. I know DiffEq enough to do well in all my current and future classes.

Finally, regarding free electives it's a good idea to have more available as a part of graduation. In addition, we really don't need all the categories like social sciences or humanities. Personally, I have little or no interest in social sciences and a lot in humanities. If I could replace all of my free electives with social sciences with humanities that would be great. Also, I noticed recently that there are classes that do not fit anywhere,notably CHP classes. Even if these classes do not fit in either social sciences or humanities, they should at the very least fulfill free electives. There are other classes that do not fit any category and become black holes in my schedule that suck up my time without giving me anything in return.

To summarize, I don't have any major problems with the current systems, but I would like a lot small changes to occur.