LSU received a D ranking on their general education program in the 2020-2021 “What Will They Learn?” report by the American Council of Trustees, and some students seem to agree the poor ranking is well deserved.  

Approximately 39 hours of a four-year, 120-hour degree are general education courses, which amounts to over a year of 15-hour semesters. All students are required to take the following subjects: English composition, analytical reasoning, arts, humanities, natural sciences and social sciences. 

English senior Virgil Magruder voiced a litany of complaints with the LSU general education program. At the top of his list was paying for classes that seemingly have no benefit to his career or life. 

“It’s filler knowledge,” Magruder said. “And the fact that we’re paying thousands of dollars to take these classes doesn’t make any sense; it doesn’t balance out.” 

Magruder said that when students are forced to take classes that are unnecessary for their major, they underperform, fall behind and end up cheating because they can’t see any benefit to the class. Students who do study rarely retain the knowledge long term, he said, so the classes are essentially pointless. 

“It’s a breakdown of the whole process, and it starts with LSU’s idea that we’re making more of a well-rounded person out of them after sampling all of these colleges, and I think that’s a flawed way to go about it,” Magruder said.  

It’s unlikely that after three to six hours of required general education classes a student would be qualified to fill a position that is not related to their major,” Magruder said. “In what world does my three-hour art history class translate to any kind of job, from just that course?” 

Gen-ed classes are often thought to require minimal attention. But for STEM gen-eds such as biology and chemistry, that’s often not the case.  

“Those classes feel remedial, they feel pointless, they feel unnecessarily difficult,” Magruder said. “I’ve already learned about mitochondria; I don’t need a refresher course if I’m not focusing on that for the next 35 years of my life.” 

Magruder agreed with the ACTA ranking and said he would give LSU’s gen-ed program a D. 

Sociology sophomore Erin LeBlanc expressed similar frustrations. She said the argument LSU often puts forward of creating “well-rounded” students through gen-ed courses is flimsy at best. With over 500 student organizations and clubs at the University, she said students have more than enough outlets to broaden their horizons. 

LeBlanc also said the sheer size of most gen-ed classes takes away from the quality of the course. As a freshman, she was in an art class with nearly one thousand students, and it was impossible to receive personalized help.  

“I was having trouble because I had to memorize over 500 paintings for each test, so I emailed my TA, and she said, ‘well that’s unfortunate, I’m busy.’ I sent that email to the professor, and he never responded. . .” LeBlanc said. 

Leblanc said she would rank LSU’s general education system an overall C-. 

Magruder and Leblanc both agreed that instead of gen eds, a set of “life skills” classes would be more beneficial to students. The classes could cover topics such as picking insurance plans, paying taxes, creating a budget, time management and resume writing, among other topics.

Additionally, if general education courses were replaced with electives, students could opt to study areas that interest them but are not directly related to their major. They could also add additional minors to their degree plan, contributing to the student’s resume and job qualifications in a substantial way.  

“The fact that our ‘higher education’ sidesteps these things is worrying,” Magruder said.