I live in Australia where if you study a particular degree, all (or the vast majority) of your subjects are directly related to that field.
I may be wrong but movies tend to give me the impression that at American universities/colleges, all students study a wide array of subjects, attend random lectures, and students room with people studying different things.
It also appears to be a lot about the lifestyle and not just get in, do your study, get your degree.
Are American studies specialised or more general?
Thank you! 🫶
In: 84
American undergraduate programs are designed to produce generalists.
It varies, but a more or less standard bachelors degree might require 120 credits or around 40 courses. Of those, normally only about 10 will be in your major department — if you’re getting a political science degree, around 10 polisci courses; if you’re getting a chem degree around 10 chem courses. So about 3/4 of your courses will be outside your major department.
That doesn’t mean they’ll all be outside your major. Many majors require additional courses outside their own department, like chem majors taking math and physics and (less commonly) polisci majors taking econ or history.
Some of the other 30 courses get taken up with general ed requirements. An American university is usually going to insist that you take a foreign language (or demonstrate ability with one), that you take some science courses even if you’re not in a science major, that you take some humanities courses even if you’re a physics major, etc.
Some of the others are electives. Between courses that satisfy multiple requirements, having room for electives, and just taking a heavy load sometimes, a fair-sized minority of undergrads get two majors, usually in related areas like polisci and econ.
This is absolutely on purpose and is just a different vision of what undergrad education is about. In more employment terms, American schools are trying to produce generalized information processors that can be slotted into many entry-level white-collar jobs. We have lots of jobs that require a degree but where there aren’t really reputable schools offering majors. I’m sure there’s somewhere offering a BA in human resources or government compliance, but these aren’t really things at places like flagship state universities.
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