College Elective Credits: A Sanctuary from Your Major

If you are, or were, or will soon be in college, you probably know that a college major can be extremely stressful. Even if you choose to study a field you love, the pressure comes on as you immerse yourself in that field, devoting your time and energy to a single subject over the course of four-or-more years. Regardless of how much you love your major, let's face it: Everybody needs a break from that kind of pressure.

Thankfully, most majors leave a little room for that much-needed break. It's called college electives. While you may have electives within your major-i.e., in some majors you have to take a certain number of prescribed, or required, classes, with two or three electives within the major as long as it's a course within your field-many programs leave room for a certain number of free electives. These credits basically mean you can take pretty much anything you want. While your college may stipulate exactly what the boundaries on your electives are, many give you free reigns: in other words, the electives you take are up to you.

For example, let's say you major in physics, but outside of academics you're also interested in the arts. If you have twenty-one free elective credits, you could take up to seven three-credit classes in art, music, and theater. There are even more opportunities if some of those courses are for one or two credits!

The main purpose of free electives is to give college students an opportunity to explore. College students are curious people; they are constantly introduced to new ideas, concepts, theories, people, et cetera. Colleges and universities understand this curiosity, and in fact cater to it. Through free electives, you as a college student have the opportunity to explore new ideas with your fellow classmates. If you have a friend who always talks about how much they love their Philosophy classes, why not use an elective credit to take a class with him or her? Study something you never would have thought of studying before, just out of curiosity.