Wandering in from the other side of the tracks (opera major) to reflect on this comment:
It is my opinion, you can disagree, that up until the beginning of their third year an undergraduate should be able to change their major and still, with some hard work, graduate in four years.
I absolutely agree, but that's certainly not the boat I'm in, despite the fact that I'm a essentially a humanities person. I had to declare my major at the end of my first year, prepare a full recital for second year for the review board (to accept or reject me as a music performance major), and it's mandatory that I get through four years of tiered private lessons. I couldn't step into Music Theory IV as a 'foreigner' and pass the class, nor could I hope into Voice V and have any hope of meeting the requirements. The prerequisites for theory are absolutely vital, and there's a certain amount of physical and intellectual development that has to happen before one can excel at high-level voice study - the average person who hasn't been conditioned simply doesn't possess these things. And don't get me started on Counterpoint and Composition. It's literally a different language, not entirely unlike the language of mathematics.
I get the gist of your gripes, even though you use big words and my attention span just isn't up for it right now, and I think you're right. The next time an English major complains about how they have to read a really big book, I'm going to throw something at them. Poor babies. Go to hell. Raaar. But maybe I'm just grouchy, sitting on 140 semester credits and only fifteen of them are general ed. Still two years from graduating, at least. Yes, this system is entirely balanced.
no subject
It is my opinion, you can disagree, that up until the beginning of their third year an undergraduate should be able to change their major and still, with some hard work, graduate in four years.
I absolutely agree, but that's certainly not the boat I'm in, despite the fact that I'm a essentially a humanities person. I had to declare my major at the end of my first year, prepare a full recital for second year for the review board (to accept or reject me as a music performance major), and it's mandatory that I get through four years of tiered private lessons. I couldn't step into Music Theory IV as a 'foreigner' and pass the class, nor could I hope into Voice V and have any hope of meeting the requirements. The prerequisites for theory are absolutely vital, and there's a certain amount of physical and intellectual development that has to happen before one can excel at high-level voice study - the average person who hasn't been conditioned simply doesn't possess these things. And don't get me started on Counterpoint and Composition. It's literally a different language, not entirely unlike the language of mathematics.
I get the gist of your gripes, even though you use big words and my attention span just isn't up for it right now, and I think you're right. The next time an English major complains about how they have to read a really big book, I'm going to throw something at them. Poor babies. Go to hell. Raaar. But maybe I'm just grouchy, sitting on 140 semester credits and only fifteen of them are general ed. Still two years from graduating, at least. Yes, this system is entirely balanced.
(Mind if I friend you, btw?)
- Vivienne