I think most of us can acknowledge that a core curriculum is good in theory — everyone should receive a well-rounded college education. But it doesn’t make it any less annoying. Core classes are the bane of every NYU student’s existence. As if it isn’t hard enough to fulfill your major’s requirements, you also need to take a million other classes that don’t pertain to your major or interests in order to graduate. These classes are difficult to get into, take up valuable time in your schedule and often assign an overwhelming amount of work.
Core classes also vary from school to school, some having more requirements than others, but they are not created equal. As class registration week comes in at full force, here is a comprehensive list of core classes ranked from most heinous to most tolerable.
8. Foreign Language
Applies to: CAS, Rory Meyers College of Nursing
For the record, I think everyone should speak a second language — if they want to. Learning a language can be a very gratifying experience, but it’s also incredibly difficult and time consuming, especially when balancing other responsibilities. By making 16 credits of a foreign language a requirement, many students in the College of Arts and Science and the Rory Meyers College of Nursing see these classes as something they just have to get through, rather than an opportunity to pick up a new skill. CAS requires students to reach proficiency in a foreign language through the intermediate level, meaning that if you start at Elementary 1, you have to take a language course for four semesters. At a university where one credit costs around 2,000 dollars, taking a total of 16 credits for a subject you’re not even passionate about feels like a cruel and unusual punishment.
7. Life Science; Physical Science
Applies to: Liberal Studies, Steinhardt, Stern, CAS, SPS, Tisch
These two requirements, both of which are part of the Foundations of Scientific Inquiry component, exist to torture humanities students who thought they’d never have to touch a microscope after high school biology. Although students at schools like Stern and Liberal Studies are only required to take one science class, the lucky humanities students at CAS have to take two. Forcing a politics major to buy goggles and write a lab report on the density of rocks has to be some sort of cosmic joke. And, to make it even worse, although nobody wants to take these courses, they are still impossible to get into. If you aren’t scheduled for the first day of class registration, be prepared to join a waitlist.
6. Texts and Ideas
Applies to: Steinhardt, Stern, CAS, Rory Meyers
Professors teaching this course will literally look you dead in the eye and tell you to read the Bible in two days. Many of the classes offered for this requirement are interesting — Utopias and Dystopias, Exile and Belonging in Ancient and Modern Literature, Children and Childhood — but if your class selection time is less than ideal, you’ll most likely find yourself learning about a topic you couldn’t care less about, especially for people who don’t find themselves pondering the meaning of life. Not only that, but almost every Texts and Ideas recitation is inconveniently scheduled for a Friday morning, meaning you’ll have to part ways with your thirsty Thursdays.
5. Cultures and Contexts
Applies to: Steinhardt, Stern, CAS, Rory Meyers
Cultures and Contexts is a mixed bag. Unlike other core requirements, all the classes offered for the requirement are relatively interesting, covering different time periods such as the ancient world, as well as regions and countries. But you really don’t know what you’re signing up for until a syllabus is placed in your hands. No doubt, the class will be reading and writing-heavy, but that’s not always a bad thing. However, this course can quickly lose its appeal if your professor only gives out dense philosophical texts or stuffy academic papers.
4. Quantitative Reasoning
Applies to: Steinhardt, CAS, SPS
When I realized I had to take math in college, happy is not the word I would use to describe my emotional state. However, it was not nearly as bad as I imagined. I was expecting to do calculus or statistics, but on the first day of my Quantitative Reasoning class, we spent the majority of our time discussing what the number zero is. The worst part of Quantitative Reasoning? It’s boring as hell. Nobody wants to be taking this class, a reality made evident by the fact that most students spend lectures doing other schoolwork or sending emails — or just skip the class altogether.
3. Expressive Culture
Applies to: Steinhardt, CAS
The Expressive Culture requirement is incredibly chill. Whether you choose a course on images, sound, architecture or film, most of your class will consist of consuming and analyzing media. However, this class can be deceiving — you may think a course about watching a movie or listening to ambient music wouldn’t require readings, but the syllabus may prove you wrong. Besides that, this class is a great way to cosplay as a pretentious media critic and look at something you enjoy day-to-day, like movies or music, in an academic setting.
2. Societies and the Social Sciences
Applies to: Steinhardt, CAS, Rory Meyers, Tandon, Tisch
One of the most inoffensive requirements, Societies and the Social Sciences is automatically filled if you major in the humanities. This requirement is just a way to force STEM students to put down the calculator and pick up a political theory book. Luckily for our future scientists and investment bankers, there’s no specific or limited catalog of classes that meet the requirement. If you take any class relating to anthropology, social and cultural analysis, politics, history or any of the other disciplines the Trump administration has deemed useless, you’ll have this requirement done in no time.
1. Expository Writing
Applies to: Everyone! Except LS.
I admire the practicality of Expository Writing. Everyone pulls up to college thinking they’ve perfected their essay-writing skills, but college courses call for a completely different style of writing than your high school honors English class. Thankfully, Expository Writing provides students with a clear guide on how to write for higher education and encourages students to develop their artistic voice. Since almost everyone takes the course during their first year at NYU, it’s also a perfect opportunity to meet people within your NYU school.
Contact Annie Emans at [email protected].
