AXLE
When I first enrolled at Vanderbilt, I thought: “Finally! I can take classes I want to and avoid some subjects like the plague.” While this is more true in college than it is in high school, there is still a requirement in the College of Arts and Science to take courses outside of your major. This program, called AXLE, has caused plenty of students to moan and groan. While I originally was not a huge fan of the requirement, I believe it has helped shape my undergraduate experience and determine my future career plans.
For those of you not familiar with AXLE, I will give a brief explanation. There are three subsets of AXLE: a writing requirement, a liberal arts requirement, and a breadth of knowledge requirement. Each component requires a certain number of classes. For example, each student is required to take two courses in Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS), three courses in the Humanities and Creative Arts (HCA), etc… At face value, it may seem overwhelming and pointless. However, you will find that certain classes satisfy more than one AXLE requirement. For example, one of the classes I took my first year was Spanish 201W, a Spanish writing course. This course was in the Spanish department, so it was credit in that department (you need to take classes in at least seven different departments). So I was 1/7th finished with the breadth of knowledge requirement. Next, the class was classified under the International category. This gave me credit in the liberal arts requirement, leaving me with only two more courses to take in the International concentration. Finally, since this was a writing class I received credit in the writing component of AXLE. Boom! I knocked out all three parts of AXLE with one class. I found that this applied to many of the courses I have taken the past two years, leaving me completely finished with AXLE requirements by the end of my sophomore year.
So in reality, AXLE is not that difficult to complete. You may ask, “but what’s the point?” A lot of students view the requirement as unnecessary and burdensome; there is a mindset that “I know what I want to do, so just let me do that!” While AXLE does seem to restrain students from investing all their time in their major, I have found that this component of the Vanderbilt education has helped shaped me into a person that I did not expect to be once I arrived to college. Before Vanderbilt, I had my college career already planned out; I was going to major in Biological Sciences and be on the pre-medicine track. I was completely science focused. Now, I am a Chemistry major (still science), but I am also majoring in Spanish. If there had not been an international requirement, I might have never taken Spanish at Vanderbilt and realized that I wanted to continue studying this subject. In addition, I have found other classes have helped me improve certain skills. I was dreading taking courses in the Humanities subset, and reluctantly signed up for English, Theater, and Art History. I ended up loving all of these courses. They all provided a nice break from my science courses, and they encouraged the use of my creative “right” brain skills. Even the three writing courses I took have improved my writing skills immensely. I might be done with AXLE, but I plan to take a few more courses in the liberal arts just for fun!
My experience with AXLE has been a positive one, and I believe it can be for any Vanderbilt student. If you’re an incoming student, don’t worry too much about the requirements. Your adviser will be there to help you every step of the way, and they really aren’t too hard to complete. Also, have fun with it! College is the time to take some chances and explore new things. When are you going to be able to take classes on such interesting topics again? So take the AXLE requirement, embrace it, and run with it. You never know what you might find.