I get the impression that the average American university student wastes at least a third of his time doing random-ass subjects with no real relevance to his ma

I get the impression that the average American university student wastes at least a third of his time doing random-ass subjects with no real relevance to his major, right? Not necessarily, if you are majoring in science or engineering. That sounds like my brother's physics degree at a big state university. As a math major at a liberal arts college, by 3rd and 4th year I was mostly taking math courses. I did have to take a number of liberal arts electives, but I've probably made more use out of Spanish and even History of Minneapolis and St. Paul than I have out of any of my higher math courses... There's a lot of variety in American higher education. The curricula for the same major could be very different based on where you go to college. A physics major at Oberlin would probably be required to take more electives in "random ass subjects" compared to a physics major at Caltech.