No Study Abroad for Me

Many rising juniors will spend next semester abroad in Spain, Argentina or Costa Rica. Others anticipate a year in Israel on an archaeological dig or in a classroom in the French Alps studying the intricacies of mountain flowers.

While my friends dream about Africa, I look forward to another year of the Core and Harvard Dining Services' bell-ringing beef. My year won't contain leisurely shopping trips through Paris; instead, endless work, sleepless nights and numbing classes await me.

Admittedly, I am a little bitter that unlike my fellow students I will not be able to study abroad for even a semester. Is it that concentration requirements don't plague other students?

I am an American history and literature concentrator and women's studies concentrator. In order to graduate with the rest of my class in June of 2000, I will have to stay here for the full four years. Although my adviser claims that history and literature has just 16 concentration requirements, I recently counted 17 plus eight Core requirements. My secondary concentration adds an additional four tutorials and three women's studies half-courses. Hmmm.... is that 32 required courses or did I miscount while filling out my plan of study last night?

But this is not meant to be a cry for sympathy. It was my decision to be a joint concentrator, against the advice of friends, parents and tutors. Yet are all of these classes truly necessary?

Do I really need 16 courses to be a history and literature concentrator? Six of the half-courses are actually three year-long tutorials. Much of what is covered in one year could be more succinctly covered in one semester. Rather than reading literary theory which contributes little to the tutorial, more primary sources could be read in less time.

My concentration also requires English 10b, a British literature course, two courses on the history and literature of a country other than America--three classes which seem totally unrelated to my field of study. While 19th century British history might be interesting, it need not be required for an American history and literature concentrator.

History and literature is not the only culprit. Other concentrations are just as guilty of loading on classes. Too many students at this College don't have time to pursue other academic interests.

I get the impression that administrators and students think the larger the number of requirements students are forced to endure, the more rigorous the concentration. Certain departments apparently subscribe to a motto of "pile 'em on," pushing tutorials and related field classes down unwilling concentrators' throats. Superficially these classes might seem to be for our own "edification," as we are told repeatedly by advisers. Instead, the plethora of requirements only leaves students frustrated with little time on their hands for classes that are more interesting and edifying.

If the point of college is to grow, experience and challenge oneself, how can anyone be expected to do that while struggling with so many requirements? Instead of actually experiencing London, I am forced to read about it in a cold Cambridge classroom.