NYTimes Magazine: Americans Losing Faith in College

[MarathonRunner]

Most Engineering programs of study will have designated slots in specific semesters where the Gen Eds will fit in.

And many such programs have specified GenEds their majors take.  There are good and bad aspects to that narrow tracking.

Yes, in engineering I had different groups of electives to choose from. I had to take a certain number of restricted electives (5 courses in total I believe) from a prescribed list that were STEM or engineering electives, then one elective from each of two other lists in the humanities and social sciences, then one additional elective that could come from one of four lists, that encompassed humanities, social sciences, economics, project management, languages, and sustainability.

[MarathonRunner]

One difference is that, in Canada, "going to university" doesn't mean the same as "going to college" in the US. People apply to specific programs, and are accepted (or not) into those programs. So there's not the same vague idea of "The Experience(TM)" as an end in itself. Students go specifically to study what they have decided on.

A very big cultural difference.

Not sure that I would agree with that. I am from Canada and did my undergrad there. I did not apply to a specific program. I knew that I wanted to do STEM (I thought science was interesting) and 4 of the 5 uni's I applied to required me to declare a major but I picked because I had to and selected based on what I knew. I changed major at the end of my first year because I took a course in an area that wasn't available in high school. Many of my friends had the same experience. When I taught at a Canadian University as a professor I noticed that there were many students that were taking classes as a way to explore what it was they wanted to do.

Many students and departments were also starting to focus on "what skills get students good jobs." Since I moved to the US it feels more and more to me like we are on a path to becoming vocational schools.

So I still am curious if the same drivers exist but it has less to do with the rising costs of education and more to do with the fact that the costs of everything else that used to allow folks to build wealth has also been increasing. And that is the same no matter which country you live in.

Not the case for me and my friends in Canada, or the students I've mentored and taught. Most people in my experience stick with the program they chose upon entry to university in Canada. It's hard to change majors if you don't have the required grade 12 credits for the new program, and most students plan their grade 12 credits with a given program/major in mind.

I've seen some students switch between bio/env engineering, or between animal science and zoology, or from biomed to biology if they don't have the grades to stay in biomed, or other similar programs, but otherwise, I really haven't seen students switch programs/majors. I have seen people do second undergraduate degrees, especially when pursuing a career that requires a specific undergraduate degree to qualify to work in that field (nursing, engineering, dietetics, etc.)

[larix]

One difference is that, in Canada, "going to university" doesn't mean the same as "going to college" in the US. People apply to specific programs, and are accepted (or not) into those programs. So there's not the same vague idea of "The Experience(TM)" as an end in itself. Students go specifically to study what they have decided on.

A very big cultural difference.

Not sure that I would agree with that. I am from Canada and did my undergrad there. I did not apply to a specific program. I knew that I wanted to do STEM (I thought science was interesting) and 4 of the 5 uni's I applied to required me to declare a major but I picked because I had to and selected based on what I knew. I changed major at the end of my first year because I took a course in an area that wasn't available in high school. Many of my friends had the same experience. When I taught at a Canadian University as a professor I noticed that there were many students that were taking classes as a way to explore what it was they wanted to do.

Many students and departments were also starting to focus on "what skills get students good jobs." Since I moved to the US it feels more and more to me like we are on a path to becoming vocational schools.

So I still am curious if the same drivers exist but it has less to do with the rising costs of education and more to do with the fact that the costs of everything else that used to allow folks to build wealth has also been increasing. And that is the same no matter which country you live in.

Not the case for me and my friends in Canada, or the students I've mentored and taught. Most people in my experience stick with the program they chose upon entry to university in Canada. It's hard to change majors if you don't have the required grade 12 credits for the new program, and most students plan their grade 12 credits with a given program/major in mind.

I've seen some students switch between bio/env engineering, or between animal science and zoology, or from biomed to biology if they don't have the grades to stay in biomed, or other similar programs, but otherwise, I really haven't seen students switch programs/majors. I have seen people do second undergraduate degrees, especially when pursuing a career that requires a specific undergraduate degree to qualify to work in that field (nursing, engineering, dietetics, etc.)

Maybe your experience is province specific? Or possibly something that has developed more recently? I graduated high school more than 20 years ago but my high school definitely did not set up grade 12 to plan for specific programs or majors. I did go to a small rural high school and so it isn't like there was much choice in classes to take anyway. I think the only choices were which variety of Math you took and which two science classes you took of the three choices of Bio, Chem or Physics. So you did have to decide if you wanted to do STEM vs Humanities and which flavour of science interested you but that was the extent of choice. Perhaps we also had a poor guidance counselor because we never really had any discussions of programs/majors at university. I also majored in earth sciences and given that that wasn't offered as a class at my high school, I had no idea it even was an option as a major until after I took a class during my first year. Many of my friends in that program had a similar experience. Perhaps you were just in a program that very few students switch out of or into.