All students at Baruch College are required to take 1000-level science classes to satisfy the Pathways General Education and Pathways Flexible Core Requirements, unless they transferred science credits from high school or another college.

Students taking these science classes at Baruch are burdened with the task of having to register for lecture, recitation and lab sections separately to complete the requirement and the section codes of these classes must match in order for students to successfully be enrolled in the course.

This makes the whole registration process more complicated for students. Science classes should be easier to register for, especially considering that they are mandatory requirements for graduation.

Another problematic aspect of these science classes is that students have to take both the lecture and the lab class during the same semester. Even though this makes sense in terms of course structure, some students end up having to rearrange their entire schedule to fulfill six science credits.

It is challenging enough to match two sections of science lecture and lab classes, but students also have to make sure that they can still take other classes that they need to graduate.

Due to the high demand for mandatory science courses, it is also hard for students to pick a science class that will work with their schedule, since most of the science classes are filled almost immediately.

This forces students who really need to fulfill the Pathways Requirements to graduate, especially juniors and seniors, to form their schedule around the mandatory science classes they are taking, which are usually unrelated to their majors.

In order to prevent these mandatory science classes from being an issue, Baruch should combine lab and lecture classes during registration to eliminate confusion.

Baruch could also consider combining lecture and lab classes into one generalized science class that will be shorter and worth only three credits. This way, both registering for and taking mandatory science classes can be easier for students who are already more concerned about their major classes.