Is it fair to put unnecessary core classes into a student’s workload?

As a student of the College of Business here at Loyola University, like other colleges, within the school there are a set of core classes you have to take in order to graduate. Within these cores, a business student has to take two accounting classes no matter what their major is. Accounting, being one of the hardest business majors because of the amount of precision needed to do the work correctly, is a difficult course. It takes a lot of time learning the material and practicing in order to fully understand every step in the accounting process. As a business analytics major I know that the use of accounting is useful, however I do not understand why there are two separate accounting classes; principles of financial accounting and managerial accounting. A question that comes to mind when taking these classes is: why do I, a business analytics student, have to take two intermediate accounting classes? An intro class that introduces the concepts of accounting to me would make much more sense as a class to choose from. Many majors within the college have intro classes including management and marketing. In these intro classes there are many units and these units are based on practices in these fields.

Taking these accounting classes takes hours of a students time. Especially to students that are new to the practices like me. Homework can take many grueling hours. It is a heavy workload for a single class considering you have homework due before every class period. I believe that this workload is unbearable with my classes, extracurricular activities, and everyday life.

When I took accounting my first time it was extremely challenging. Keeping up with the homework and work for other classes was a huge struggle and I fell behind which made it difficult to learn the material taught later in the class since I was not entirely caught up on what was common knowledge of later chapters. A single business subject that does not relate to your concentration should not hold a person back from excelling and doing their best here at Loyola.

I am writing this opinion not bashing the College of Business, but to share my voice and my feelings. I absolutely love my business classes. The teachers go above and beyond and want the best for their students. As a student that has struggled with accounting and does not find much interest in the subject, I feel that this holds me back from getting the best possible GPA due to the difficulty and time taking these accounting classes. Rather than having financial and managerial accounting, I would prefer a single intro class to non-accounting majors that introduces basic accounting then have subsections of financial and managerial accounting. This would not only eliminate the need for two classes but help students like myself that struggle with the concepts of accounting get the best possible GPA in college. I know for myself it would be a huge weight off my shoulders to not struggle when I take these two accounting classes.