Mandatory electives suck, right? You’re working towards a science degree so why should you have to take so many credit units in the humanities? Whatever your specialization, most degrees require a variety of elective units, with arts and science degrees likely being the worst for this — but is this really such a bad thing?

In order to see the value in taking mandatory elective courses, one really needs to approach the whole experience with an open mind. Think about why you came to university. You came to learn, you came to work towards a career and you came to get a degree in something — you might have also come to party. With these reasons in mind, consider what there may be to gain from taking some good old forced electives.

Perhaps the number one benefit of having to take a few mandatory elective courses is the exposure you’ll gain to a wide variety of differing subject matter. If you think you really hate anthropology — you never know — you might just like it if you didn’t previously know much about it.

This exposure to a breadth of different subject matters is especially positive if you’re an arts and science student who doesn’t really know what they’d like to major in. Absolute worst case, if you’re like me, a final-year student majoring in something you won’t necessarily pursue a career in, your electives might open your eyes to a subject you’d like to study beyond the undergraduate level.

However, maybe you’re not an arts and science student, and your degree is more technical and you came to university to get a job upon graduating — yes, that’s right, some people actually get jobs when they finish their degrees. If this is the case and you still have to take those dreaded electives, try looking at it from another perspective.

It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there. You face a great competition for labour in today’s society and you’ll need to be at your absolute best to get that job before the person next to you does. So taking that elective will likely further enhance your research, writing and critical thinking skills, to name just a few.

These are called soft skills and they’re highly valued — in combination with technical skills — by employers in all industries. You’re paying a lot of money for your degree, so rather than having the freedom to take an easy and possibly useless elective, the requirement to diversify might be worth more than you think.

If you’re still not convinced, consider this: you need a certain number of credit units to obtain your degree. Even if you have to take an elective that you absolutely loathe — developing the feeling that you will simply perish in a tangible puddle of boredom — it’s still one class closer to sweet freedom — well, graduating at least.

If you do survive that elective — maybe it’s the worst elective in the known universe — you’re still one step closer! You might be strongly convinced that you’ll never follow up on the subject matter ever again and bring all your class notes to a friend’s bonfire party at semester’s end, but you’ve still opened your mind to something new. Having a more open mind never hurt anyone in a university learning environment. 

If all else is lost, you might end up baffling the folks at that bonfire party about the wonderfully fascinating field of “insert mandatory elective name here.” Still useful.   

So what’s to take away from all this? Let’s face it. Most of us will have to take an elective we might not like at some point. If you have a slight choice of mandatory electives, then take what you think you’d find most interesting. If not, just keep an open mind.

Consider what you’re gaining. You’ve really got nothing to lose if you at least try. Even though it might seem a bit dictatorial, learning a bit more than you’d like to will only benefit you further down the road.

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Bodan Worobetz

Graphic: Lesia Karalash / Graphics Editor