10 ways to improve the college experience:

1. First year of college should be all relatively universal courses. There is no reason to pick a major at this time. This time is used to expose first year students to every industry, career, and capacity available to them.
2. Classes should not exceed 60 minute sessions. Maybe it is just me personally, but after an hour I lose focus completely. And the focus I retain is limited. Multiple one hour sessions a day with breaks would be superior. For example, class every other hour.
3. Majors should be job category specific. Meaning: So if you decide to go to school for finance, you will most likely be X Y or Z. So first semester you should be run through the duties of X Y and Z so you understand if that is truly something you are interested in or not.
4. Field tested teachers. More teachers should be required to have real field experience not just academic. This isn’t for all majors, for instance a history teacher is not limited by academics. But a marketing teacher, should have real marketing experience.
5. Assignment driven learning. Courses should be heavily project driven. Meaning applying what you learn to an actual “being”. For example, marketing course should involve marketing a fake product.
6. Textbooks…. so much junk. In most of the college courses I’ve taken I’ve utilized 30% of the books material. the rest is junk. Simplify them.
7. Lectures. Maybe it’s just me but lecturing is inferior. Powerpoints are incredibly powerful and such a waste to not utilize.
8. Open note tests. Tell me why tests are not all open book? In real life, everything is open book. When do you have to answer 30 multiple choice questions about marketing in 15 minutes in real life? Or more relevant to myself, why do I need to know the rule statements of intentional torts word for word if I can apply the rule just fine?
9. Less classes. Focus on 2-4 classes per semester. You cannot truly master a subject while juggling 5 others.
10. Increase frequency of classes and limit span. Why should it take 4 years to get a degree in marketing? The first two years is primarily junk, with a few good take aways. The next two seem to have 50% filler classes. Make it 2 years total. This would increase likelihood of dual majors and make for a better system with repeat customers aka dual majors.