It has recently come to my attention that my college degree is something of a sham.
This explains a lot, actually. I spent phenomenal amounts of time during my four undergraduate years on wholly nonacademic pursuits—drinking beer, hanging out with my girlfriend, playing poker (thank God the Internet hadn't been invented yet or I'd be doing this still), watching the 11 p.m. ESPN SportsCenter, watching the 2 a.m. ESPN SportsCenter, killing time between the 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. SportsCenters, and so on.
I thought I had all this free time because I was an efficient student. It turns out that I wasn't really pursuing a four-year degree.
The trouble began years earlier, in 1985, when I was 14 and signed up to take AP European history in my sophomore year of high school. I lived in an upper-middle class suburb, one of those places where everyone's parents had college degrees and AP courses were taken as a matter of course. I crammed the weekend before the exam and got a 3 on the scale of 1 to 5, the equivalent of a C.
AP American history came the next year, then a full AP course load when I was a senior. Some courses, like biology, were pretty challenging. The AP language exam, by contrast, involved simply coming into school for three hours on a Saturday morning and writing some essays. I ended up getting a 3 or better on six AP tests. In return, when I matriculated at the State University of New York at Binghamton in the fall of 1988, I was awarded four credits per AP course, giving me 24 of the 126 credits I needed to graduate. I was nearly one-fifth finished before I even began.
Deciding how to pick up the 102 remaining credits wasn't easy—or it was too easy, depending on how you look at it. I was handed a catalog filled with gnomic course descriptions and shuttled into a gym along with thousands of other students at 15-minute intervals. I wanted to take art history because I had a vague sense that it was the kind of course freshmen took. But that course was full. I took history of architecture instead because it seemed similar, it was available, and the line was short.
Six of my credits could be earned in phys-ed courses. So I took lifeguarding for three credits, which was good for a summer job. A one-credit "Advanced Basketball" class involved little basketball instruction, but it was a great way to get access to scarce court space for five-on-five full-court games in the middle of the day. "Weight Training" did the same for the weight room, and "Intro to Karate" filled out the slate.
Binghamton had a science distribution requirement, but you were allowed to take some courses pass/fail. I signed up for planetary astronomy, in a classic big lecture hall where the professor, a man of considerable girth, would stand in the well of the room and play the role of the sun. By the end of the semester, I calculated that I had to answer 20 percent of the final-exam questions correctly to pass the course. Since the exam was multiple choice, with only four possible answers to each question, that wasn't much of a challenge. I also took Drawing I that semester because I was told there would be nude models. (There were, but not the kind I had hoped for.)
That left me with me with 88 actual college credits to earn. Except, not really. Late last year, I was reliably informed that Binghamton, unique among the scores of individual SUNY campuses, awards four credits for classes that require only three faculty-contact hours per week. The origins of that sweet, state-approved deal for faculty members are shrouded in the mists of time, dating back half a century. When asked about it, a university spokesperson told me that "Binghamton faculty well understand what student work is required to satisfy a four-credit designation." She didn't explain how the policy is enforced, or how it could be, given the autonomy that faculty members enjoy in defining course content.
I also talked to the provost, who insisted that Binghamton's four credits are more substantive than, say, the State University of New York at Stony Brook's three. But there are no external studies or standards to verify that. Speaking as someone whose housemate once entered slacker Valhalla by skipping the entire months of October and November while still earning 16 credits for a full four-course semester, I am, to say the least, unconvinced.
Discounting 88 by 25 percent leaves me with 66 legit credits to my name. It turns out that I have an associate degree. Who knew? Fortunately for me, not the graduate schools I applied to after leaving Binghamton or the employers who have subsequently given me jobs. I'm trusting everyone to be cool about this and judge me on my work experience. Otherwise I'll end up like the lawyer in the new NBC sitcom Community who had to enroll in the local community college after his degree from "Colombia University" was exposed.
At least I have some disciplinary training, however—a full slate of political-science courses, all taken in an actual university, for grades. Right? Well, sort of. I took some really good poli-sci classes at Binghamton, including one on game theory from a professor who deftly explained why China would surely become America's biggest international rival by the early 21st century. (That was not at all obvious in 1989.) I went on to grad school in public policy mostly because the man who taught my senior seminar in American politics took a few minutes after class one day to encourage me to do so. He was the only professor who had noticed me, so off I went.
But the poli-sci department didn't exactly enforce a rigorous, coherent curriculum. You had to take political philosophy, for example, but you could take it at any point during your undergraduate career. I waited until my final semester, when, despite a carefully planned strategy of non-course-taking, I still needed eight credits to finish. I signed up for "Gender, Policy, and Law" because I figured there would be a lot of women in the class. (There were, but not the kind I had hoped for.) It also met in the middle of the afternoon on Tuesdays, perfect for a lifestyle centered on four-day weekends and the 2 a.m. broadcast of ESPN SportsCenter.
And I took that pesky philosophy course, where I read The Republic, On Liberty, and a number of other great books that colleges have traditionally required students to read in their first semester, not the last, in that they pretty much lay the groundwork for everything else.
Who's to blame for this? First and foremost, I am. I was an adult at the time, technically, and I could have chosen to work much harder. Plenty of other students did, and do. As time goes by, my squandered undergraduate education stands as one of my bigger life regrets. The more the demands of career and family build, the more wistful I become when I look at the pile of unread volumes on my nightstand and linger in the philosophy and literature sections of my favorite bookstore—knowing with more certainty each year that you can read only so much in life, and that some of my chances to experience great artistic and intellectual beauty are simply gone and won't return.
At the same time, this kind of wisdom tends to accumulate with age and experience, things I had in short supply when I pulled up in front of my freshman dorm two months shy of my 18th birthday, stereo system and Pink Floyd posters in hand. That's why colleges are run by people who are more than technically adults.
An institution that routinely describes itself as "the best public university in the Northeast" shouldn't hand out four credits for a 10th-grade C. It should aspire to be more than just a knowledge vending machine of courses to be chosen at semi-random with little in the way of guidance or forethought. It should look for opportunities to teach undergraduates more than its peers, not less—indeed, that's what phrases like "best public university" ought to mean. It should have done so 18 years ago, and it should do that today. All the policies I encountered—four credits for a 3 on an AP test or three hours of instruction, credit for gym, credit for pass/fail—are still in place. And while I'm picking on my alma mater because I was there, I'm sure that a great many other colleges and universities are guilty of similar conduct.
I have little to complain about in the grand scheme of things. I had the opportunity to spend four years learning; most people never get that chance. And although I wasted most of it, things worked out well for me anyway, as they tend to in a society that replicates privilege in an ever-more-efficient way.
But I'm also sure that callowness and youth will continue to go hand in hand, and that multitudes of students in college today need their institutions to care enough about their education to ask more from them than they ask of themselves. Some of life's hard lessons are better left unlearned.
Comments
1. john_swann - February 01, 2010 at 10:40 am
Excellent, and true, observations.
2. dnewton137 - February 01, 2010 at 10:41 am
Fascinating! I have long admired Kevin Carey, based on his articles (which I try never to miss) and a little personal contact. This one is a real gem. Like Carey, I take pleasure in presenting myself as a generalist. This piece confirms and supports that common belief that being a generalist is good because it means one doesn't actually have to know anything about anything. It also makes me wonder whether a college education is actually necessary to prepare for a creative and productive career. Keep it up, Kevin!
Don Langenberg
3. washingtonwarrior - February 01, 2010 at 10:47 am
Tony Kornheiser would be ashamed...
On a serious note, it's no surprise this University has these types of loopholes; Look at the basketball team...
4. jazmsngr - February 01, 2010 at 11:27 am
Unfortunately, the column hits on much of what is wrong with post-secondary education-- students looking for the easiest way through, who can't be bothered with much of the educational support that university's offer. And faculty/staff/administration that don't want to upset anyone by making demands too rigorous because students might take their tuition dollars somewhere else. I am more than willing to bet that Kevin is spot on about other schools being the same way. Ever since for-profit education came along everything about higher education has diminished-- quality namely.
Mike
5. dhsmith61 - February 01, 2010 at 04:10 pm
I have to say this strongly reminds me of my own undergrad days even at an instituion as prestigious and rigorous as RIT. It comes down more to cleverness and planning on the part of supposed "slackers" rather than the intentions of campus curriculum committees.
As an afterthought, the skills I polished as an undergrad have come in quite handy at dealing with bureaucracies and actually getting useful things done.
-Dave
6. johnvknapp - February 02, 2010 at 02:20 am
Kevin --
Every university has a % of those who take advantage of the cracks in the curriculum to weasal out of academic work. I pity those who PAID for your "education" (parents, the state, loan agencies, etc.,?) since neither they nor you will ever know what other paths you might have taken had someone forced you to confront your immaturity then (as you well point out) and DO something.
I flunked out in my Sophomore year (chemistry and physics classes) and "worked" for a year --- at three jobs each week. By early spring, I was ready to(and did) BEG the Dean of my SUNY college (not far North of Binghamton) to let me try again, and he did -- provided I earned a B+ average in summer school (gulp). So, I WORKED at academic classes and found that I liked it so much -- contrasted to real nasty work back home -- that I went on to a couple of doctorates and a professorial job at a research university where I watch out for and push the Kevins in my classes. Pain does focus the mind wonderfully well.
JVK
7. rchill - February 02, 2010 at 09:32 am
It appears to me that you scammed the system rather than "I aced college" - how sad. I am comforted that you figured out how foolish you were. Your admission does highlight one difficulty in using student achievement to evaluate teachers. What do we do with students like you have described? I cannot educate students that would rather watch TV, chase the opposite (or same) sex, and party....should I be negatively impacted in my career for poor choices some of my students make? Most of your complaints are at the level of institutional policy, not actual educating. And often policy is negatively impacted by the assumption that admittance=graduation....and some sense of just showing up= at least a B.
8. rab1960 - February 03, 2010 at 08:28 am
This is disgusting. What a waste of opportunity that many never have.
9. globalme - February 03, 2010 at 09:28 am
My goodness--the "best public university in the Northeast?" I agree that the administration is at fault--certainly not the professors, and only to a small extent the 18-year-olds. I am an American who's spent much of his life overseas living in 10 different countries and I cringe when something like this gets known overseas. Then I have to listen to "Oh, I'm sending my son/daughter to Britain. American unviersities are too easy." Well, I went to Shippensburg State College (now Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania) in the late '70s and it was--and still is, I trust--nothing like the Binghampton Mr. Carey describes. I had to take a 128 bona-fide credits to graduate, and none of the courses were related to playing tennis or climbing rock walls, and none of the credits were earned in high school. I had a very weak math and science background and that showed in my D grade in what was supposed to be a gut course in physics. So bet it! (Before you scoff at my college and confuse it with Slippery Rock U., our famous alumni include Senator Jeanne Shaheen (also former first woman governor of NH); Dean Koontz, the best-selling author, and General Tommy Franks, who got his master's at Shippensburg. Now, Mr. Carey, you know where to send your kids!
10. honore - February 03, 2010 at 09:49 am
Kevin, i have to give you credit for owning up to a phenomenon that is more common than most of us are willing to acknowledge.
Among my appointments in the academy was director for academic counseling & pre-professional planning. And I would say that for the most part, students who travelled through our myriad of advising workshops, fireside chats, roundtables, group sessions, 1-to-1 meetings, really did get good advice from the staff. I would have to admit however that most often it is the room-mate, older-sibling, fraternity/sorority new "bestfriend", coach, associate coach, assistant to the associate coach, that hot chick i met last night at Hooters, that hottie with the billboard tattoos across his ass and the fantastic tan, or that dean who always "understands me" who actually "advise" many undergraduates. Sometimes the "advice" is actually useful and good, but most often it borders on a sloppy gameplan for undergraduate dysfunction. We as (and I'lll use this term VERY loosely) "educators" do need to own up more for this. YOU were the novice and presumably, we (professionals) possess the keys to the kingdom of academic/personal success, at least for a few years in their lives
Don't be too hard on yourself:
1. you were very young, naive and inexperienced in the ways of the academy
2. very likely, your institution (like most in that time and even today) didn't take academic/pre-professional counsel too seriously and their "programming" reflects this very patehtically even today.
3. in those days, it was a different world for undergraduates. you could float for a couple of years and still catch/keep-up and "graduate" with some degree in some esoterica. I am not endorsing your "lifestyle", but I see it even today, but just with more tattoos and body punctures.
4. if you didn't have any academic references in your immediate family, you were definitely at a disadvantage over those students who came from expensive elementary and secondary prep schools where students were given a bit more structure in their approach to post-secondary life.
As a culture we do an AWFUL job educating our young people. We funnel them through the old input/output factory model and still wonder why we produce the legions of tanned, toned, narcisstic drones who know more about pop-stars latest genital shaving disaster, but coudln't tell you the name of the leaders of state for Canada or Mexico --- our IMMEDIATE neighbors. Go ahead and ask a SENIOR this question and see what you get for answer...For Canada? Pierre Prdhomme? For Mexico? Cheech or Chong?
Not much has changed since you "aced" college. Sports dollars still trump academic/intellectual priorities, self-aggrandizing administrative pole climbing is now a science coomplete with the most vicious of politics and of course pop-culture still exerts the most impact on our young people. Texting, I-podding, FaceBooking, YouTubing, I-Messaging (while driving no less) are far more important than actually looking at her/his life and engaging in any introspection of engagement with others on futures that very few see as positive.
If you feel the need to do something about them (you already made your bed), then make sure you invite the students who do cross your professional path into conversation about "life" or whatever matters to them and asky why. I am not suggesting that faculty and staff now take on a Mr. Chips martyr role. We're already drowning in department/office politics that seem to get more toxic by the semester, but I am suggesting that we actually take the lives of these students as seriously as we would take that of the last surviving organism on the planet. If we don't, who will?
Again, thanks. I enjoyed your story. Personally I didn't "ace" my undergraduate years, I was too busy working several jobs, dealing with 2 feuding parents, siblings with chemical dependencies, dropping out of college to travel across the planet, learn a couple of languages and most of all learn about what the rest of the world thought about Americans. The experience was truly enlightening and I no longer ask "why" they hate us. Today, both professionally and personally, whenever I get the chance I engage younger people (family or not) in conversations that take us further than pedantic, pointless discussions about presidential politics, sports scores or the latest technological device. The best to you.
11. sartre1 - February 03, 2010 at 10:11 am
I would have been a Senior at Binghamton during Kevin's freshman year, and some of my experiences are similar to his. I entered Binghamton with 20 credits and graduated a semester early. (If I could have afforded it, I would have stuck around that final semester.) Information was readily available as to what faculty required final exams and which did not, and my roommate (also a Political Science major) took advantage of this to go back to Queens a week and a half early each semester. Another friend had absolutely no problem scheduling himself for a four day weekened each semester. Still, I think that for some majors, Binghamton during this time period could not be beat. The Biology program certainly rivaled an Ivy-League school, as did the work required for it. The Computer Science program also had a well-earned reputation for being extremely rigorous in its demands. Even my Rhetoric major (which was made up primarily of future lawyers) was incredibly demanding, and I know from first hand experience that in terms of the large number of readings and written assignments required, that the courses in this program certainly were worth four credits, if not more. I look back at my three and a half years at Binghamton with a great deal of fondness, knowing that it prepared me well for my current role as a professor, researcher, and administrator. I can't help feeling more than a little sorry for Kevin Carey.
12. skaking - February 03, 2010 at 10:22 am
I too went to SUNY-Binghamton around the same time and made good use the four credit system to avoid taking too many courses that might tax my brain. But I'm confused as to what you're whining about. You admit that you squandered your time and didn't take the classes you perhaps should have and also admit that the blame is yours. But at the same time you lay the blame at the administration. Do you think a three-credit system would make it any different? It would just be more classes you skated through, more "blow-off" classes to take to fill time between reruns of Sports Center and bad cable movies. As for getting full credit for a 3 on your AP test, you could have chosen to actually take the class again at Binghamton if you chose, and thus might have learned something in the process.
Don't blame Bingo for giving you the space to pick and choose what and how you learned. Your not learning was your choice. I much prefer Bingo's system (at least as it was then) of having very limited general requirements (2 courses in each of four academic divions, 2 writing intensive courses, plus those of the major) to my current university's structure where fully half of the credits that students take are in required classes. (Yeah, I, like you, was a total slacker at Bingo, but did graduate, go to grad [where I slacked some more] and got a tt job.) The question really hinges on whether you think college students are adult enough to make choices about their lives or not. If not, treat them like babies (like you seem to imply) and hold their hand all the way through. Or treat them like adults, like Bingamton did for you and me, and let them figure it out on their own. Personally, I prefer the latter.
13. consejera - February 03, 2010 at 11:39 am
I went to a prestigeous liberal arts college that billed itself as the "Harvard of the Midwest." Despite the fact that I was given no credit for my AP classes and enjoyed none of the loopholes Kevin Carey enumerates, I still managed to enjoy a sub-par college education due to my own immaturity. I had always sensed this was true, but the reality was made glaringly obvious when I recently applied to a Ph.D. program. I had to calculate the GPA of my last 60 hours of undergraduate work. I was appalled. Although I got my stuff together during the last two years of undergrad, it was sobering to see all my grades and remember all too well, even though it was 25 years ago, the bad decision-making that had led to them. When I successfully completed two masters programs in my mid-30's, I finished with a 3.98 GPA.
Mark Twain is right, youth is wasted on the young. The problem is that teenage hubris gets in the way of forward-thinking decisions. I am now a high school counselor. If I had a dollar for every time I've encouraged a student not to take the easy way out, I could have retired by now. Unfortunately, some lessons just have to be learned the hard way.
14. johntoradze - February 03, 2010 at 11:55 am
On the other hand, Kevin, you have done very well, which is more than one can say for many students who are near the top of their classes, nose to the grindstone. Now why is that?
Simply, you studied the system and the people in it and how it works. That equipped you well to deal with systems, as you have pointed out. You understand bureaucracy and how to move in it. I see such students every year, some of them nicely adjusted people, a few toxic sociopathic people I seriously wonder if they will kill their spouses someday to collect the insurance.
In the end, though, it all came down to you. There is nothing wrong with AP credits although they should be graded tougher than they are. They keep students from having to do things that aren't useful to them. There is nothing wrong with open-structure classes that give 4 credits for 3 hours of classroom instruction, after all, many students want to learn. For those that don't? Oh, well. Too bad for you.
Overall, I find this piece fatuous and lacking in serious understanding. "Oh, how bad I had it. I gamed the system, then got through grad school and landed good jobs! I know how to get things done! Woe is us! We must prevent this from happening again!" Stand up. Be an adult.
15. commserver - February 03, 2010 at 05:21 pm
I am not surprised at the "education" that John got. That is similar to the education a superior of mine got. All courses were pass/fail and it was hard to fail.
16. commserver - February 03, 2010 at 05:22 pm
Excuse me. I meant Kevin..
17. johntoradze - February 04, 2010 at 12:14 pm
Snort. :-)
Oh, for an "Edit" button on this interface, no? But there is a certain realism enforced by the enshrinement of misteaks.
18. kevincarey1 - February 04, 2010 at 12:29 pm
Thanks for all the comments, I've posted a response at the Chronicle's Brainstorm blog:
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Taking-Responsibility/21048/
19. maparfitt - February 04, 2010 at 01:10 pm
I loved this article. It's a powerful reminder to teachers and administrators that while our first responsibility is to the student, it is not to the person who the student is now, but to the person that student will become. I wish my institution would always bear that in mind! But isn't that the real meaning of the word "education"?
20. raymond_j_ritchie - February 04, 2010 at 11:24 pm
It is all depressingly familiar. At least he realises his limitations and the opportunities to learn that he simply wasted. The supermarket approach to higher education causes a lot of harm: it gives a taste of everything but no main course. All courses are reduced to introductory level. There is no depth and no progression. In Biology it causes a lot of sorrow. Students think they are being terribly smart in their undergraduate university education by taking the path of least resistance and avoiding "hard" subjects or demanding teachers. Then they try to do a higher degree and find they do not have the basic Physics, Maths or Chemistry to understand modern Biology let alone matters like numeracy and literacy. No comment necessary on those who are deluded enough to think that they are medical or vet school material.
21. archawk - February 05, 2010 at 10:23 am
Sad to say, I pulled this same stunt at not one, but four undergraduate institutes in three different states, eventually stumbling out with a dubious "Bachelor of Arts" in English. As a personal challenge, I took 18th Century British literature in my final semester and vowed to not only not read any of the literature, but not even purchase the books. Got a B- in the class.
Another stunning failure was "Introduction to American Politics", a required course taught by a fossil of a professor, who requires you to buy his coursebook (which his grad students write), and whose 600+ person lecture consisted entirely of him standing in front of an overhead projection of an outline of the book reading it to you. I didn't even stay for the first class period. The book outlined itself, with all the key terms in bold like it was a 4th grade social studies book. I showed up to this class exactly twice: once for the midterm, and once for the final. C+.
Composition I? No-showed the entire semester, arriving only to turn in papers. The graduate student (I never once actually met the professor) who taught the class told me that I got a C in the class on my work. I got an A on all the papers, but I lost all of the classroom participation points because I never showed up, and I got a 0 on my presentation since I didn't do it (I didn't even realize we had to do a presentation). That dropped by grade to a C+, but department policy required her to penalize my grade by 1% per absence beyond 15. Think about that. 15 absences in a class that meets three times a week? That's five weeks of class! The semester is only 16 weeks long, and you can miss a THIRD of it without penalty? Anyway, I lost 9%, which dropped me to a D+, but she bumped it up to C- just so I wouldn't have to re-take the class. She was later thrown out of the school for plagiarizing her students' essays in her own work.
Like you, I now have a growing bookshelf of literature I had the opportunity to read and analyze in college in an academic setting, and I much wish I had the time to do so. Work, children ... these things take priority as I only now, in my mid 30's, find myself buying a copy of Aristotle's _Politics_ at Borders and putting it on my shelf, hoping I get a chance to read it some day. Even college might not have given me this opportunity, actually, none of my political science classes or liberal arts coursework covered it. Western Civ? We started with the Bastille and ended with Reagan.
22. nighthawk3729 - February 05, 2010 at 01:39 pm
I'd been pushing this around for a bit and hope I've found some truth in this.
It's all about the work that you put into it, we all know that. I've been told before, "but my friend Jimmy has a bachelors, and he works at burger king! Therefore, degrees are useless!"
By that same token, I have a friend who dropped out after a semester because of personal issues, only to fight his way up the ladder at cablevison, he now works in a position with people who have earned their bachelors degree. In two short years he accomplished this. He now questions the wisdom of getting a bachelors. Although my response to him was that it allowed you to find a passion and learn, I also realised something, could he have done the same thing without his high school diploma? No.
A bachelors is nothing more then proof that you can do SOME sort of work, a better risk then the high school graduate and certainly better then one without either. Is this a guarentee? Absolutely not.
23. nighthawk3729 - February 05, 2010 at 01:41 pm
I'd also add that this is emphasize that this is the chance to find a some things that you are passionate about.
24. dutch_guy - February 05, 2010 at 07:06 pm
I have the same feelings about the first years of my university experience. The thing is, I'm 22 as of past november and still enrolled in university (the Delft university of technology to be precise). I realize that things are a little different here in the Netherlands compared to the USA but i recognize the feelings nonetheless.
I pretty much got through high school with the absolute minimum amount of effort possible. I ended up with a not-so-great diploma, but it's still a diploma (of the highest variant of high school in the Netherlands).
Looking back on high school I want to grab myself and shout "START STUDYING! YOU LAZY SCUMBAG". It's one of the biggest regrets I have: not having worked harder in high school. But the drama doesn't end there. The first two years in university I did close to nothing. Totally and utterly inexusable, but it happened anyway. From time to time I still have trouble getting to work but the past one and a half year or so it's getting much better each month. It's gotten to the point that I've seen a major turn in my eagerness to learn in general. The past year I've basically read and learned about *anything* that i could get my hands on (besides the regular courses I take).
On the one hand I'm grateful that I changed my attitude now that I can still swing things around, and I have, luckily. On the other hand 'lost' a lot of time. Hoping nobody else loses a lot of time like me, I share my experiences with the younger folk, telling them that the time to work hard is NOW.
25. dmaratto - February 05, 2010 at 08:05 pm
Maybe not to the rather extreme, George Costanza-esque level that Kevin did, but skipping class and work is a time-honored tradition at some schools and for some people.
I went to a very difficult, intense, private college prep high school, and I worked very hard to get my diploma.
I then went to a huge, prestigious (at least then it was), R1 state university in the Midwest, where I discovered that my 100-200 level classes were ridiculously easy compared to my high school.
I had the usual Poli Sci 100 class, from which I learned a great deal, but it was the discussion section and the required texts that taught me. I realized after about the fourth or fifth lecture that I was literally doing the same thing I could be doing in my room, in my pajamas: watching a power point. Two page papers? I could do those in my sleep. That kind of thing happened a lot at my school with the gigantic, undergrad lecture courses. Show up for the tests, sometimes only a midterm and a final, and read the book/slides on your own, or talk to the TA.
What would I do differently? I would take more classes that challenged me. However, as an 18-20 year old at a very good school, if it's easy, you just figure it's because you're smart/clever and don't think twice. Now I'm an academic adviser, and I tell my students to 'do as I say, not as I did.' lol