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There's a physical education requirement to get a degree? Me, straight out of the airborne infantry before entering college, would've just looked at them with

There's a physical education requirement to get a degree? Me, straight out of the airborne infantry before entering college, would've just looked at them with a disbelieving look and laughed...

majos 9y ago
UChicago had one as a graduation requirement as late as 2013 or so, including a swim test (get to the end of a pool and back without dying, so not exactly evidence of swimming ability, but still).
gumby 9y ago
Actually MIT not only has a phys ed requirement but you can't graduate without proving you can swim. And it has a pretty active club sports program. I don't remember folks laughing at one another at MIT since we were mostly misfits in our prior schools anyway. Here's a telling anecdote: I was at prize day (pretty much only people who actually get prizes go so it's in a small lecture hall), and one student got a major athletic award, apparently having set various NCAA records (presumably we were in some very minor subdivision of NCAA but anyway). He was huge, and he kinda stumbled on the stairs as an athlete will, and when he came up to the stage he merely mumbled inarticulately. I was astonished: a stereotype of the dumb jock! Then last they gave out the scholar-athlete award. No surprise, it was this same guy...but in addition to playing three sports he had a 4.8 average as a double major aero-astro and physics. No wonder he was so quiet: his brain was super busy! I felt really humbled.
- ghaff 9y ago
  You dont need to prove you can swim. But you do need to take one, maybe two, swimming courses even if you don’t end up learning to swim at the end of the day. I’ve never determined how rigorously this is enforced if push comes to shove but it is a requirement.
  - gumby 9y ago
    Back in '88, in my final semester, I was only registered for 5.11( or 5.41? Who can remember) as I had somehow never gotten around to satisfying the freshman chemistry requirement, though I had otherwise enough credits to graduate. I was checking my paperwork and the registrar's office told me I could not graduate unless I passed the swimming requirement. I didn't even live in massachusetts any more though I came back frequently to make sure I took all the chemistry quizzes. Turned out they were closing the pool early to renovate it (I don't know if it's still there but it was behind building 26 IIRC). Apparently I luckily came by a couple of days before they closed it, right under the wire for the pool and registrar. Back then there wasn't a swimming class requirement, you just had to take n semesters of PE. I remember doing ballet, badminton and pistol, but don't remember what else. Though I love to sail I didn't want to go anywhere near the charles or the harbor in those days.
    - ghaff 9y ago
      >Back then there wasn't a swimming class requirement What I meant was you had to either pass the swimming test or take it once or twice for PE whether or not you ever got to the point you could pass the test. I actually never did either but that was because I had a SCUBA certification at the time which did have a swimming test requirement. So I got a waiver. I regretted a bit that I didn't take better advantage of the PE options. At the time, I really liked playing ice hockey although I wasn't great at it so I mostly just took hockey as an option.
- UncleEntity 9y ago
  > Actually MIT not only has a phys ed requirement but you can't graduate without proving you can swim. Heh, my school (Humboldt State though I think it's a California wide requirement) wouldn't let me graduate without proving I was literate...quite offensive.

There's a physical education requirement to get a degree? Me, straight out of the airborne infantry before entering college, would've just looked at them with a disbelieving look and laughed...

majos 9y ago

UChicago had one as a graduation requirement as late as 2013 or so, including a swim test (get to the end of a pool and back without dying, so not exactly evidence of swimming ability, but still).

gumby 9y ago

Actually MIT not only has a phys ed requirement but you can't graduate without proving you can swim. And it has a pretty active club sports program. I don't remember folks laughing at one another at MIT since we were mostly misfits in our prior schools anyway. Here's a telling anecdote: I was at prize day (pretty much only people who actually get prizes go so it's in a small lecture hall), and one student got a major athletic award, apparently having set various NCAA records (presumably we were in some very minor subdivision of NCAA but anyway). He was huge, and he kinda stumbled on the stairs as an athlete will, and when he came up to the stage he merely mumbled inarticulately. I was astonished: a stereotype of the dumb jock! Then last they gave out the scholar-athlete award. No surprise, it was this same guy...but in addition to playing three sports he had a 4.8 average as a double major aero-astro and physics. No wonder he was so quiet: his brain was super busy! I felt really humbled.

ghaff 9y ago
You dont need to prove you can swim. But you do need to take one, maybe two, swimming courses even if you don’t end up learning to swim at the end of the day. I’ve never determined how rigorously this is enforced if push comes to shove but it is a requirement.
- gumby 9y ago
  Back in '88, in my final semester, I was only registered for 5.11( or 5.41? Who can remember) as I had somehow never gotten around to satisfying the freshman chemistry requirement, though I had otherwise enough credits to graduate. I was checking my paperwork and the registrar's office told me I could not graduate unless I passed the swimming requirement. I didn't even live in massachusetts any more though I came back frequently to make sure I took all the chemistry quizzes. Turned out they were closing the pool early to renovate it (I don't know if it's still there but it was behind building 26 IIRC). Apparently I luckily came by a couple of days before they closed it, right under the wire for the pool and registrar. Back then there wasn't a swimming class requirement, you just had to take n semesters of PE. I remember doing ballet, badminton and pistol, but don't remember what else. Though I love to sail I didn't want to go anywhere near the charles or the harbor in those days.
  - ghaff 9y ago
    >Back then there wasn't a swimming class requirement What I meant was you had to either pass the swimming test or take it once or twice for PE whether or not you ever got to the point you could pass the test. I actually never did either but that was because I had a SCUBA certification at the time which did have a swimming test requirement. So I got a waiver. I regretted a bit that I didn't take better advantage of the PE options. At the time, I really liked playing ice hockey although I wasn't great at it so I mostly just took hockey as an option.
UncleEntity 9y ago
> Actually MIT not only has a phys ed requirement but you can't graduate without proving you can swim. Heh, my school (Humboldt State though I think it's a California wide requirement) wouldn't let me graduate without proving I was literate...quite offensive.