Just in my particular case I hate the fact that engineers must take a humanities / social science course each semester or equivalent. All the good courses are occupied by the actual students in the relevant departments weeks beforehand. It's absolute bullshit.
Why? I thought you finally fully got to choose what to study at the University.
'Cause CEAB says so.
It’s been said that the purpose of a liberal education is to liberate the individual from the parochialism of direct personal experience. And it is with that spirit that the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering and the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board requires you to enrol in Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) courses. In particular, you should choose courses that explore the central issues, thought processes and scholarly methods found in these disciplines.
[...]
Here is a list of types of courses which you are not permitted to take to fulfill your HSS elective requirements:
* Languages
* Grammar
* Mathematics (including symbolic logic, probability and inductive logic)
* Economics
* Technique (e.g. art, music, video production)
* Physical and life sciences (e.g. physics, chemistry, biology, zoology, computer science and psychology)
Where's my motivation? In that list if any of those were actually permitted whatsoever. Scholarly thought processes my ass.
Did I mention all requisites apply if I wanted to even consider upper year courses?
If you rule out language, art/music/video, and psychology, doesn't that rule out virtually the entire area of humanities anyway? :S I guess you have history, and arguably law if that counts, but I can't think of much else. Philosophy, maybe. Seems very weird to me.
Then again, American universities in general seem very weird to me. Here in the UK, you study for your degree, and that's it. So, as a Business & Japanese undergrad, I study Japanese, Japanese culture, and various business topics (operations management, human resources, etc) - and nothing else. Physics undergrads study physics. Computer Scientists study computer science. It's a much more logical system.
