My major regret about my lowcost but perfectly adequate education at a large midwestern university is that it did not include a senior year. Instead, after 3 chemistry- and biology-crammed years, I entered medical school.
So when I hear a baroque opera I do not recognize, a literary allusion I do not know, or a historical fact with which I do not connect, I blame it on my missing senior year. That year, I am sure, would have transformed me into a truly educated renaissance scholar. Of course, to overcome my ignorance about the Hindu religion, the novels of Thackeray, and the early string quartets of Beethoven, etc, would have required a 90-credit semester load or a six-semester senior year (not unlike many present-day seniors). Nevertheless, it would have given me a little information on most topics that your average Oxford Rhodes scholar probably knows a lot about.
