Student experience with GenEd

Michael Szchzerban, class of 2007, has three pieces of advice for students on how to make the most of their General Education requirements:

1. Don't assume that substituting high school AP or summer courses from another, perhaps less rigorous, university for Gen Ed requirements is a good idea.
2. Don't rush to "get through" your Gen Ed.
3. Talk with your faculty starting early in your time at Carnegie Mellon; use their advice to inform and direct the choices you make about education and your profession.

Mike Szczerban

As an incoming freshmen, Mike was far from focused on Gen Ed. In fact, he opted to "AP out" or substitute courses taken at a college near his home in order to "get them out of the way." "I was in such a hurry to complete the gen eds that I rushed through them," Mike says. "But the real richness of my education came from the gen eds that I did take seriously. My first gen ed courses were confidence-building; I was learning new things, but there was enough support so that I did not feel lost." Mike's vision for what General Education SHOULD be is an intellectual "geodesic dome, multidimensional, broad, and balanced."

One of the things that Mike learned is that Computer Science, his originally planned second major, was not for him. "After class, students would flock around the instructors like baby birds, but I was not interested. When I started taking H&SS classes, I fell into a rapport with my teachers that was both more mature and ultimately more fruitful." Learning about the social and cultural contexts for technology led Mike into his majors in Information Systems and English. Mike "was interested in the Internet" when he came to Carnegie Mellon, but it was "understanding the historical and social contexts for technology--like the impact of the steam engine and its ultimate impact on publishing and print culture" that shaped his course of study and his choice of a career in publishing.

Michael Szczerban graduated with a B.S. in Information Systems and a B.A. in Creative Writing from the English Department. While at Carnegie Mellon, Mike stacked up a staggering number of awards and honors. He was an Andrew Carnegie Society Scholar, a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi, a recipient of Adamson Awards in writing, the Elizabeth Jones Award for work in the Humanities, and a Fifth Year Scholarship at Carnegie Mellon. Mike is currently living in New York City, working for Simon and Schuster.