When I started at baruch college in Fall 2018, I was accepted into Zicklin and I was told I had to have up to 124 credits to graduate, I was a bit confused and I thought they made a mistake. I went to the advisor and I asked if everyone had to graduate with 124 credits or 120. The advisor explained and said everyone had to graduate with 124 credits, that’s part of the school requirement in other to graduate. I wasn’t really troubled about the whole policy until my junior year when I had on my plate, I was working full time, while going to school in person, it was quite a lot for me and I was overly stressed out.
The problem here is why aren’t students given the option to either graduate with 120 credits or 124 credits. So many college schools I have heard of or know about graduate with 120 credits, I started my freshman year in College of Staten Island before I transferred to Baruch and it was 120 credit required to total class credit graduate, Baruch college was the time I heard about 124 credit.
This is a problem for me and I believe for most other students because with that extra one class we have to take, it is equivalent to three or four credit of an elective course we do not need for either our minor or major. it is seen as a waste of time for people who have lots of work to do outside school, removing that extra course could reduce a lot of workload and relieve their stress. They can input that time into their other important classes that they actually need to graduate. That one less class can reduce and save people from spending a lot of money on tuition and fees. You won’t have to purchase a textbook, or get an access code to do an assignment that is not related to your degree, it saves people money especially international students, people borrow loans and end up going through a-lot of troubles because it is hard for them to pay it back.
Nowadays most jobs requirements are finishing with a bachelor’s degree of 120 credits except you are going for CPA, which is 150 for accounting majors, so it is not like you won’t end up with a good job after you graduate with 120 class credit. I believe this is important to solve this because people struggle with real life problems especially financially wise and this might not be seen as a major problem but it is. About 54% of university students drop out due to financial problems and I think giving students the option to graduate with either 120 or 124 credit will reduce people’s decision making on dropping out, reducing workloads for them, less tuitions and time wastage.