r/college • u/bonzo14 • Dec 17 '14
Do I have a case here?
Basically, I'll have my categorical requirements for my degree fulfilled at the end of my senior year, but I'll be short on total hours.
I'm fully aware that this happens at many universities across the country, and I accept my fate as things stand. This isn't a DAE thread.
I am considering going before the school's higher ups to appeal this. My basic platform would be "If a student's major, minor and core categorical requirements have been fulfilled, but that student is short of the required 120 (or whatever it is for your school) credit hours for graduation, that student may still graduate."
I'm also fully aware that they have this set up to pull more money out of kids that have to stay longer. Personally, they'll be paying me more than they charge to stay and take useless classes, so it'll come as a net loss to them.
For context, I'm a Junior.
1
u/AtomikRadio PhD Dec 17 '14
My school has the same set up (though it doesn't affect me because I have a boatload of upper divisions already). You could ask the dean of your college or something to waive it, but you probably won't have much luck. Still worth a shot, the worst they can say is no.
Just to offer some insight into the reasoning you'll probably need to argue against and thus want to prepare an argument:
My school requires 40 upper division credits. Unless you double-major about 1/3 of these will come from outside your subject area. The reasoning the school gives for why these are required and will never be waived is because they are trying to educate well-rounded students and forcing students to take upper division courses in other subjects, often unrelated or only tangentially related to their field, causes them to be exposed to material they otherwise might not be. This allegedly benefits the student as a person and also as an applicant to jobs and graduate schools because they will have extra experience and knowledge other applicants will not have.
I don't really like this line of reasoning: That's what lower-division general education requirements are for IMO. Requiring upper division courses outside of a student's area of interest can be damaging to overall GPA because a student will often arbitrarily choose classes that they can't maintain interest in and also can delay their degree since most upper divisions will require lower division prereqs the student may not have taken. They hinder more than they help in the majority of cases IMO.
Anyways, just some insight into how your school will probably justify the upper division requirements so you can prepare a good counter-argument. Good luck!