College students?

[Irenicus]

I'm taking it easy so far, with results ranging from "someone up there really likes me" to predictably catastrophic...but the semester ahead is going to be busy. Hm. At least I can't say I dislike any of my classes this semester, so it's good. I kind of regret not getting more involved with campus life though, I'm just too lazy that way.

Originally Posted by Reckoner

Freshmen at University of California Santa Barbara .

This is probably pretty late but, congrats.

[Timdog]

Going into my second year. Probably major in Psychology (we can't choose till 2nd semester sophomore year).

I had a terrible freshman roommate but i'm rooming with a chill friend this year so that will be better. Still living in dorms. Will have my car this time which will help out since there is nothing near campus (we have a mall 5 mins away by car but you have to cross a highway to get there if you walk so we never went). My class schedule isn't that much harder than my last semester, finishing up some requirements and sort of starting my major. I hate living in dorms, you get no privacy. Even if you really like your roommate, it still gets to you and the room is so small. I'm used to this size room for just myself. Oh well, nothing I can do about that.

[Timdog]

Originally Posted by Kafriel

Yup,yup, 4th year in college starting October! But I'm actually a year behinddue to political turmoil when I joined college (resulting in 4 months of nothingness, thus losing a semester, and a rushed 2 months counting as a semester by themselves, thus making it a lost year). After all I've been through, I've found:
The first semester to be VERY exhausting and of average difficulty
The second semester to be just exhausting but of high difficulty (staying up till 5 am to finish drawings)
The third semester to be easy and laid-back. (going to college 3 times a week tops)
The fourth semester to be easy but picking up the pace.
The fifth semester to be actually interesting but hard.
The sixth semester to be average, but interesting enough to quit my MMOs for a while. (had to, otherwise I'd be up till 5 doing my lab courses and then taking the 5:30 train to get to college at 8:00 for automated control systems).
By the way I'm in the elecrtical engineering sector,but we got political/technical economics, electronics and programming, the philosophy of science and stuff like that too. Got a place as a secretary for one of my teachers, so this semester I'll really be living in college...commuting takes a hell of a lot time, it's 19 stops by train, 3 by subway and 5 by bus plus 20 mins of walking to and between stations, so I try to cram all of my classes in three days and get the other two off to study.
As far as partying goes....party? what's that? never been to a college party, hearing from my friends who went there that the food sucks and the place is a sausagefest, so it would be no different from college during any other time of the day

EDIT: Another reason for not catching up to my semester is the fact that some of my teachers were so totally insane that even when I got a good score they'd fail me with an ace unless I retook the exam and got another passable grade...good news, they finally retired!!!Incidentally, all of my teachers save two are 60+

What country are you going to college in? Parties are most definitely NOT sausagefests. And food, wtf? There's only one thing to drink at parties and that is alcohol. No water or anything else.

Sounds like your friends went to the wrong parties.

[radioIzzy]

First year in UBC, University of British Columbia...

So much to do now... Getting ready that is...

I'm a little worried about this ENGL course I have to take in first year. I have to have at least six credits, but I would only get three because the other courses were full...

Does anyone know what happens if I can't get the six credits by first year?

[Kylaran]

Originally Posted by Reckoner

Freshmen at University of California Santa Barbara .

I'm a math major in the College of Creative Studies. A very awkward experience seeing as it is very different from going to letters and science.

Planning to go into financial mathematics, help orchestrate another financial collapse in the system (ala housing marking in this decade), and jump the train with big bags of money saying "I did my best."

I remember they have a great math program too. Congrats.

Originally Posted by Cipher

I envy you....its hard for me to focus on my studies...Its just hard to actually believe its importance---considering its a painful experience.

The funny thing here is I never lost faith in academia and the study of anything and everything; I took all AP classes for two years straight in high school and never did the homework for any of them because I thought it was dumb. But I liked being in classes with people that werent... *cough* incapable of understanding the material at a very fast pace.

Basically, you have to try and make the best of it. People will say wait until college, but high school has its benefits too. See what your school can do for you and be active about it. Don't just let the mundane, boring lectures drive you into apathy towards your own education.

I've found that most of my college courses are incredibly boring. The material is very interesting, but listening to a guy drone on and on in a 200 person lecture is just... bleh. After my first year, the only classes that I never skipped were my Japanese courses, and that was only because attendance was part of the grade. When my grade was safe enough, I even skipped my Japanese class. :P Four out of the 23 classes I've taken in college so far (including this summer quarter), I only went on exam days because they posted lecture notes online. Didn't have to listen to a boring teacher ramble on and on. There hasn't been a single class where I didn't skip.

The main thing about high school is that, since you're forced to sit there, you can try and find a way to make it worthwhile, in my opinion. Granted, my high school paid its teachers well and we were lucky to have very capable teachers, but I do think there are a fair share of students that simply didn't take the time to really be proactive in changing their own environments - and that's something that's completely within our grasp.

[oompa loompa]

Originally Posted by Kylaran

The main thing about high school is that, since you're forced to sit there, you can try and find a way to make it worthwhile, in my opinion. Granted, my high school paid its teachers well and we were lucky to have very capable teachers, but I do think there are a fair share of students that simply didn't take the time to really be proactive in changing their own environments - and that's something that's completely within our grasp.

I can't agree with you, but then again I probably went to a different school system. It was like this, the whole year you were studying just towards getting good grades in one exam. How did you study for math? You memorized the patterns of the difficult problems. How did you study for any of the liberal arts? You drilled the ideal patterns the examiners wanted into your heads to do good. It was just that competitive - so the system turned ugly. Sure, you do get the odd person who can do it without the memorizing, but boy did they work hard. Well, its not all bad. There were positives as well, in college I study half the amount that most people do and do just as well. Is it because I'm smarter? No, I know its not that. Its because all my high school I practiced adapting and working with a system, so now its easy to see the shortcuts one can take in a class.

As far as studies were concerned, if you wanted to do well in the most efficient manner, you quietly studied and did as you were told. That's not to say you couldn't do things outside of school - you could. There were plenty of brilliant debators, athletes, musicians, etc. But in school, we were all together in the same grind.

College isn't like that - you gotta do your own research, figure things out for your own, and apply them. Luckily the biggest class I've had in college only had 30 students, so I can't really comment on the 200 students a course situation.

[Irenicus]

Originally Posted by Kylaran

I've found that most of my college courses are incredibly boring. The material is very interesting, but listening to a guy drone on and on in a 200 person lecture is just... bleh. After my first year, the only classes that I never skipped were my Japanese courses, and that was only because attendance was part of the grade. When my grade was safe enough, I even skipped my Japanese class. :P Four out of the 23 classes I've taken in college so far (including this summer quarter), I only went on exam days because they posted lecture notes online. Didn't have to listen to a boring teacher ramble on and on. There hasn't been a single class where I didn't skip.

Out of curiosity, what is your institution? It might be that you would have found the small class sizes and informal seminar atmosphere of smaller liberal arts colleges to be perfect for you while the boring lecture classes are simply not your thing. Of course, not every major has that atmosphere, math and sciences in particular, especially at the lower levels that one needs to slog through.

And, well, if there's a course anyone is supposed to enjoy in college, it's the foreign language ones, since the students need to interact with the instructor and each other, so it must have been pretty bad in your case...

I'm lucky though, the Japanese program here is really rigorous, and all taught by native speakers. It means a lot of homework () but also quality of instruction and a lot of fun. Interestingly, my instructor is actually a real life really cute Japanese woman. She looks like she could have been mistaken a student. o_O

[Neku]

Originally Posted by Kylaran

I've found that most of my college courses are incredibly boring. The material is very interesting, but listening to a guy drone on and on in a 200 person lecture is just... bleh. After my first year, the only classes that I never skipped were my Japanese courses, and that was only because attendance was part of the grade. When my grade was safe enough, I even skipped my Japanese class. :P Four out of the 23 classes I've taken in college so far (including this summer quarter), I only went on exam days because they posted lecture notes online. Didn't have to listen to a boring teacher ramble on and on. There hasn't been a single class where I didn't skip.

While I agree that if the lecturer would only make you sleep and it would be more productive if you could study by yourself, I can't not attend classes. Of course.. I love skipping them since it makes me feel rebellious but somehow I just don't feel good about it.

Perhaps I pity the lecturer.
But whoa.. if you could skip technically all of your classes.. does that mean your lecturer doesn't require attendance in the syllabus? My evil ones always state it clearly in the course outline.. Attendance and Participation 5-10%, and something along the lines of, if you don't achieve at least half of this, you're not allowed to sit for the finals

Then again, there are much cruel ones, who give surprise quizes that accumulate even more percentage. It's like if you don't come, you wouldn't know there's a quiz and well, you can lose the marks. An immediate text message wouldn't work either.. because the quiz technically only lasts 2-3 minutes. Bleh.

[Kafriel]

Originally Posted by Timdog

What country are you going to college in? Parties are most definitely NOT sausagefests. And food, wtf? There's only one thing to drink at parties and that is alcohol. No water or anything else.

Sounds like your friends went to the wrong parties.

I'm going to the School of Technological Applications of Piraeus in Greece, while there are many girls in the business & management, chemistry, etc., the entire section of electrical engineering includes around 8 girls and around 1000 guys, and of these 8 that were here when I came, 3 decided to quit and 4 started studying at home :P
The only drink these so-called parties got is cheap beer (which I hate, oddly enough) because they're organized by political parties in the college, trying to gain supporters...so partying isn't an option, at least not college partying.

I've found that most of my college courses are incredibly boring. The material is very interesting, but listening to a guy drone on and on in a 200 person lecture is just... bleh.

I had to attend the SAME three courses for two years straight, every day was like a freakin deja-vu, as if these teachers got a playback button somewhere in there! Saying exactly the same things in the exactly same manner, I didn't even bother doing my HW again, I submitted last year's...but I did keep notes, four notebooks with the same material for maths, physics and electronics.
On the other hand, some courses were very enjoyable, I found out that my english course had a summary of all my other courses as its subject, so it helped me understand basic engineering and machines to a higher degree, and my programming courses just flew, I didn't even have to study for the exams.

[mit7059]

Entering my Junior year studying Mechanical Engineering. I'm currently trying to decide whether or not I want to continue my summer job in Modular Robotics as an independent study next semester. I love my school and while the engineering department is not as large as many others and as a result I can't specialize as much as most engineering students can I'm actually glad I'm not as specialized because being more general give me more options for jobs. I actually feel like I will be graduating at the perfect time for job hunting because the economy should be rebounding at that point and companies will have been starving themselves of new hires for so long that there should be a lot of hiring going on. Throw in the general shortage of engineers in this country and I should be fine. I'm much more worried that I'm going to hate being an engineer, so we'll just have to wait and see.

[Sa-sei]

Originally Posted by Neku

Perhaps I pity the lecturer.
But whoa.. if you could skip technically all of your classes.. does that mean your lecturer doesn't require attendance in the syllabus? My evil ones always state it clearly in the course outline.. Attendance and Participation 5-10%, and something along the lines of, if you don't achieve at least half of this, you're not allowed to sit for the finals

Attendance %10, or the other way around? It is %70 in my case. It's like high school. And if you skip one lab lesson without an excuse and don't make up for it, that means you'll fail. You can't take the final exams.

[Neku]

Originally Posted by Sa-sei

Attendance %10, or the other way around? It is %70 in my case. It's like high school. And if you skip one lab lesson without an excuse and don't make up for it, that means you'll fail. You can't take the final exams.

It depends on the subject actually.
But I don't think I've taken a subject that needs 70% attendance yet.

[Mithfalath]

In our case, we have a maximum number of allowable cuts per class. Be it excused or non-excused.

[mit7059]

No records of attendance at my school, except for labs I guess.

[Kafriel]

Originally Posted by mit7059

No records of attendance at my school, except for labs I guess.

Almost the same here, but SOME professors enjoy taking attendance during their theory courses that are suppooooosed to help your grades go up in case you slip somewhere...but it's pretty much the opposite, if you have them you still fail with 4.0~4.9(!!!) and if you don't, your 9 becomes a nice 7.

[Sa-sei]

Originally Posted by Kafriel

Almost the same here, but SOME professors enjoy taking but it's pretty much the opposite, if you have them you still fail with 4.0~4.9(!!!) and if you don't, your 9 becomes a nice 7.

Are your grades over 10? I don't know anything about colleges in other countries.

[Kafriel]

Grades go from 0 to 10, so base is 5. However, there's a plethora of 4's and SOME teachers find it hilarious to give you a "second chance" by explaining what you did here and there and why you did it that way, and accept to mark your test again...one would expect a 5, but those 4.X just keep coming:P

[wao]

Just started a couple of months ago myself (Japanese Studies and maybe Environmental Science or some sort of biology, because I get to skip too much of JS and have to make up for the credits)

And honestly I still wish I didn't have to go to university but since I'm lucky enough to have the opportunity and probably can't support a flexible lifestyle easily without a degree, here I am doing one super late. And not any smarter/wiser to make up for it, but there's a lot of mature-aged students here who are much older than me so I feel quite okay.

At what I think most people might consider a less-than-ideal university because I don't ever think about choices with regard to my future Well, almost. It's most convenient and cheap for me here (relatives!) so that's why I'm here rather than say, Monash with its more challenging and tailored Japanese programme...

Being long burned out on academia and having never been a social type in the least bit, I'm fairly indifferent for now. I ought to be afraid of turning into a drone, really!

Middle and high school were much more intellectually stimulating and exciting, but I had the incredible luck of going to good schools with relatively mature students. And a good attitude.

2011, I get to do a year in Japan, and if I'm lucky perhaps I might get the challenge of actually studying in Japanese with Japanese students. I dunno. I'm fine either way at this point.

Personally I'd rather be working and doing some interesting classes part-time or just watching free lectures online (or most importantly, having enlightened conversations with people who aren't out to prove themselves), nowadays structured learning kills my motivation more often than it doesn't.

[Kafriel]

^ Don't worry about your age, my college mates are older than my father...some are older than our teachers too, it all depends on deciding to do it at some point in your life! Plus, some of my old classmates from highschool are still struggling with entry exams, so I'd say it's all good as long as you seriously want to do it (i.e. not bail on 5th semester and start at a 2-year private college or something).

[Proto]

I just finished my masters degree last semester with flying colors. I entered a research internship at U. of Wisconsin for a semester.. I guess I'll be starting my PhD during the next term. I plan to stay in the academia as a research professor back in Mexico, the real world is too scary for me.