AWA GRE Issue Task: Please help and review!

[mbmedina]

TASK:

Universities should require students to take courses only within those fields they are interested in studying.

Write a response in which you discuss your views on the policy and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider the possible consequences of implementing the policy and explain how these consequences shape your position.

RESPONSE:

While it may be beneficial in some ways to have students focus on their studies of interests at a University, the overall effect on the students would not meet their needs to "live," let alone amply succeed in today's society due to ever-changing demands of of our world. By restricting one's studies in higher education to one focus, the student would not be a well-rounded individual, which could serve detrimental when a related situation arises, as well as forces the assumption that the student would not be interested in any other field but one. In these two cases, following such a claim would ultimatley result to be costly to both the students and the world.

In today's society, the needs of the people change daily, with no particular forewarning. In order for the needs to be better attended to, a variety of specialties need to be ready and accessible with experts in all types of fields. If higher education limited the field of study for a student to just one, the education for such individuals would also limit their opportunity in the world. For example, if a student were to only take courses in public health, he or she would not only need to take courses focused on public health theories, research and progress; to propoerly apply this field in the world, the student must simultaneously know the sociological trends in society as well as the various economic effects in the political and occupational world. Without such knowledge to tie basic public health studies, the conclutions and solutions to be made would not be well constructed and insuffient to tend to the public health issues, which would be financially costly for an unstable area of expertise. Individuals specializing in one field would not be able to adapt to other situations well due to their lack of being well-rounded, thus lacking their opportunity to succeed in their career.

In conclusion, it may help drive one's career to have a focus in a specialty, but as long as their education is well-rounded. The world's demand are growing and malleable, which proves the need to be versatile in many disciplines of study, for the sake of the future. Limiting one's education is limiting the world's opprtunity to thrive and to live.