Diploma Mills

[dfrecore]

Why?  What makes you any better at determining what makes a good degree plan for EVERYONE than a body of people setting the standards?  Why would your way be the better one?

I think that having different standards for different degrees makes total sense.  Why does a communications major need Calculus?  Why would an English degree need it?  Or a degree in HR?

Basically, you're saying that if you're not good at math, then you shouldn't be able to get a decent job, even if that job doesn't require the level of math that YOU think someone should have.  It makes no sense.

I am just saying I believe a UNIVERSITY education should not be about acquiring work skills, but rather a liberal education, and it should be rigorous. Trade skills should be picked up at other institutions. I completely agree that different specialties should have different requirements. If you want to crunch numbers for a living, or at least want to have credentials that show the world you can do that particular thing well, then it does not make sense for you to have to take 2 rounds of history, 2 rounds of biology, a couple of PE classes, and all that other mess they make you go through. What a waste  

I studied a range of subjects at a B&M. I loved it. BUT, it really was cheap then, and I wasn't committed to any particular career path. I just wanted to see what was out there. It's too costly to do that the traditional way these days.

This may be a dumb question, but when has calculus been the standard for rigor?  I understand it's required for some majors, but at what point in our history was it required for ALL majors?  And at what schools?  Like, was it at one time required at Harvard, or Yale, or Stanford?

I just think it's a bit arbitrary for you to say "I personally think that calculus should be required for everyone who wants to be considered well-rounded" but not be able to say when other prestigious universities known for rigorous standards had this as a requirement.

And I'm reading on the history of Harvard curriculum, and they didn't even OFFER calculus until the late 1800's.  So if they weren't offering it, then they certainly weren't requiring it at that point.