I did my undergrad in Canada and had a couple postdocs in Europe. I am now in the math department at a state university in the US, and part of my job is advising undergraduates. I find the whole thing with gen ed requirements to be very confusing and frustrating. I presume this is because I didn't "grow up with it" and therefore find it very foreign. That said, I feel like I have met two types of students: the ones who really want to do math, and who therefore game the gen ed system to do as little non-math as possible, and the ones who are doing math because they have to major in *something* who then really pile on the gen ed classes while doing the minimum necessary to get the math degree.
I did my undergrad in Canada and had a couple postdocs in Europe. I am now in the math department at a state university in the US, and part of my job is advising undergraduates. I find the whole thing with gen ed requirements to be very confusing and frustrating. I presume this is because I didn't "grow up with it" and therefore find it very foreign. That said, I feel like I have met two types of students: the ones who really want to do math, and who therefore game the gen ed system to do as little non-math as possible, and the ones who are doing math because they have to major in *something* who then really pile on the gen ed classes while doing the minimum necessary to get the math degree.