How to become a top physicist in college?

[Kuhan]

The humanities are killing me!
It usually takes 12 quarters to graduate.
I'll have to spend 3 quarters on humanities and 2 relearning stuff I already know
Lol I only need 7 quarters to graduate but look at your educational system: it's forcing me to waste about 2 years of my life.
(3 quarters/year, summer quarter is optional holiday)

 

[WannabeNewton]

The humanities are killing me!
It usually takes 12 quarters to graduate.
I'll have to spend 3 quarters on humanities and 2 relearning stuff I already know
Lol I only need 7 quarters to graduate but look at your educational system: it's forcing me to waste about 2 years of my life.
(3 quarters/year, summer quarter is optional holiday)

Almost all the people I know used high school AP credit to skip all or at least most of the humanities \ social sciences classes. After I used my AP credit I was only required to take one ged - ed class and I'm finishing that off this semester so I'll basically be free of them next semester. I don't think there is anything you can do if you don't have AP \ Dual - Enrollment credits so just get the classes done even if you don't like them. Also, a literary analysis class will help you little to nowhere in writing better research papers so I don't know why people keep repeating that. Those classes are usually called writing seminar or rhetoric which focus entirely on how to write research papers for various fields or write papers in general. A literary analysis class is very different and much less useful.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Kuhan, you seem not to be accepting the advice that doesn't match your original position. There's a term for this: selection bias. It is not the hallmark of a successful scientist.

Furthermore, the curriculum at universities has been set up by people who have gone through the process themselves. Placing your judgment above theirs is also not the hallmark of a successful scientist.

Learning what you can from whomever you can is the hallmark of a successful scientist. Deciding in advance that there is nothing you can learn from a person or an experience is not the hallmark of a successful scientist.

 

[Kuhan]

Kuhan, you seem not to be accepting the advice that doesn't match your original position. There's a term for this: selection bias. It is not the hallmark of a successful scientist.

Furthermore, the curriculum at universities has been set up by people who have gone through the process themselves. Placing your judgment above theirs is also not the hallmark of a successful scientist.

Learning what you can from whomever you can is the hallmark of a successful scientist. Deciding in advance that there is nothing you can learn from a person or an experience is not the hallmark of a successful scientist.

Yes, I am biased towards my opinions and persistent (to what I perceive as a beneficial extent) in disregarding conflicting views.
I'm not open-minded by definition (in specific circumstances).Mandatory means no choice.
I have to do what I'm forced to do.
If college is easy, I'll just have to take heavier courseloads.
College rewards conformity, not independence. (Stephens, 2011)I definitely place my judgment above people who made the curriculum at universities, in the sense that I think the curriculum is seriously flawed and many people know that but can't change it. For example, I can't skip single variable calculus and introductory physics courses (totalling like 6 months of college) just because I know them by heart. REFERENCE:
Stephens, Dale. "College is a waste of time - CNN." Featured Articles from CNN. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2012. <http://articles.cnn.com/2011-06-03/opinion/stephens.college_1_student-loan-debt-college-graduates-richard-arum?_s=PM:OPINION>.

So far, the 'solution' to my problem is:
-skip Physics/Mathematics lectures since I've already learned the material
-take heavier courseloads
-don't try to be a top physicist

For those having my same problem I'll explain in more detail below:

If you take light course loads and self study a lot, you're cleverer than others but waste time spending more months in college. You might win a couple of Putnams though.

If you take heavy course loads to fill up your time and stop trying to be a top physicist, you win the game! That's right, you're going to spend lots of time learning about things that aren't beneficial.

And don't do long posts, I wasted 20 minutes on this post!
Please ignore the fact that I'll have to waste about 350632 minutes on humanities and easy homework.

 

[Choppy]

I don't get what you mean by "manditory."

Unless I misunderstand, you chose a particular program at a particular university. If you don't like the program or the curriculum you can go to another school or drop out altogether.

There's nothing manditory about that.

If you're concerned about the fact that you need to jump through some hoops to reach your academic goals... your undergraduate years are only the beginning of what's going to be a long life of disappointment.

 

[radium]

There's something to be said for being well rounded. Taking classes in subjects other than physics helps you grow intellectually as a person in ways you might not immediately realize. I absolutely love my physics classes and am the kind of person who will read physics textbooks in my spare time. However, I also enjoy taking history and literature classes as they help me to think in different ways. The quality of the course does depend lot on the professor, but I have been very fortunate to have several great professors.
I absolutely do not believe that pursuing other academic subjects interferes with your productivity in physics, I think it enhances it. Many of the great physicists out there have secondary interests other than physics. One of the professors I had last year is one of the top people in his field of physics and has had an incredibly productive and successful career. However you could tell that he is very cultured and well read. I sense this with many of my other physics professors as well, it seems that several are also very interested in music.