Liberal Arts courses: valuable learning or a waste of time?

Tea’ Claus
Staff Writer

Whether it’s chemical dependency or fine arts, are students taking unnecessary classes that will not benefit them in their future careers?

The majority of students at Hudson Valley need about 61 credits to graduate. Some of these classes are connected to their major, while others are liberal arts requirements and electives.

“I don’t think western civilization fits that much because I’m an art major,” said digital media student Aislinn Barker. “It is nice to learn about western civilizations [however],” said Barker.

Students in other majors find themselves taking classes that help them in their given major. “Believe it or not, I would say college forum [helped], but that really is just to get you used to college,” said criminal justice student Kore Dickerson.

Dickerson said that most of his other classes apply directly to his major.

“Maybe English, just English, because with police stuff you have to write a lot stuff, said criminal justice student Tierra Chestnut. Chestnut believes English is a crucial subject to study and she understands why it is required by so many different degree programs.

“I don’t see [the importance in taking] any other classes,” said Chestnut. As a criminal justice major, Chestnut is taking math, which she doesn’t see herself benefiting from in the future.

Although the classes are mandatory, students have their own ideas as to why they are required to take the classes they deem as unnecessary in order to graduate.

“[All classes are important] because I’ll have to know how to spell frappuccino if programing falls out and I need to work at Starbucks,” said computer and software systems student Sam Starks.

Theater student Marc Contento said that there are a few different ways to think about why classes are required.

“You want everyone at a certain standard, so you want everyone to know a little bit of everything,” said Contento.

“I do agree with them because you don’t want people too specialized. You also don’t want them to know nothing about math, science, or english,” said Contento.

Entry level classes also help students decide if they want to pursue a career in a given major.

“I’d like to be a digital artist someday, but I’m aiming to be an actress or a voice actress,” said Barker.

While attending Hudson Valley, some students have watched their career goals change while taking some of their classes.

“It’s definitely made me realize that it’s a lot harder than I thought. There are a lot more things that go into [choosing a career],” said Chestnut.

Contento said that there really hasn’t been much of a change. “To be honest, [my goals] really haven’t changed that much. I’m still on the same route that I set myself on.”

Required liberal arts courses and electives are helping students get ready for the world outside of college. “English is teaching me to speak better and such. Math, not so much.” said Starks.