The majority of us in Journalism 420, I think it's safe to assume, are Juniors and Seniors. Our academic careers are at the very least half-over, and for many it is winding down to the very end. There is no doubt I'll be a little sentimental when I finally get my diploma in August (and if you're looking for extra tickets to the commencement, I'm not sure if I'm walking or not, so STOP SENDING MASS E-MAILS . . . . thanks ;-)
The College of Media has been pretty good to me. There have been a couple classes in the college that I've disliked, but the majority of them have been well taught and, even though I do not plan to go the newspaper reporter route, my skills were refined and increased enough where I feel comfortable going along the Marketing path I feel my career will take.
Nonetheless, and I preface by saying that I am NOT a pessimist - the requirements we need to graduate as a journalist are in major need of reevaluation.
To begin, I am taking six hours of Philosophy this semester. SIX. Alongside the fact that Philosophy is "the study of thinking" and is so mind-numbingly dull I want to tear what little hair I do have right out of my head, 40% of my workload this semester is in two courses that literally will have no bearing on my life once I'm done with them.
Likewise, there is a heavy emphasis, I've found, on 300-400 level classes as opposed to 200-level courses. What is the difference? It is an arbitrary number, because I know from experience some 200-level courses are in fact harder and have a heavier workload than a 300-400 level class. Nonetheless, as I started last semester to figure out how I was going to get out of her by August, I kept running into this whole conundrum where an arbitrary number would potentially dictate if I would have to take 8 or 11 hours this summer (I ended up on the short end of the stick - 11 hours this summer, ugh). Granted, that's my own fault for some weak schedules Freshman and Sophomore year.
I think I am just a little bummed at how mechanical these requirements are, and how arbitrary a lot of them are. I would love to ask someone in charge of delegating what constitutes a Quantitative Reasoning I as opposed to a II. Knowing how inept a lot of the upper-echelon administrators are at the U of I, I would expect I would get a roundabout answer, if any at all.
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I actually really like the two Philosophy courses I took at the University. I agree that they probably have bearing on my life after college, but they were really interesting while I took them.
ReplyDeleteWhile I understand that as journalists we need to be "well-rounded" and have a general understanding of how the world works and how people think, my biggest complaint is the lack of availability for most classes. When I joined the journalism department, my goal was to pursue magazine writing. And guess what? I tried three years in a row to sign up for magazine writing, and now I will be graduating in two weeks without ever taking it. What's up with that?
ReplyDeleteSince creative writing has always been my passion, I've decided to apply for grad school and pursue a career in writing and publishing. Hopefully I'll be able to take my long-awaited magazine writing class there ...