College

[DMrayZ]

So I came across an interesting article today, and I thought it would make a good conversation piece.

Some questions to start us off, for those of you in college, how is it the same, or different, than what you imagined it would be?

What have you learned, if anything, from your time there?

And for those of you that have just graduated from high school, what are you looking forward to, going into college?

 

[Chris]

fuck bitches, get money

awesome posts like this are why I come here

 

[nelly <3]

awesome posts like this are why I come here

#word .

I can't remember what I learned from college, it's been a while. I have a degree sitting there and haven't gotten a clue on what do with it. (well, it helped me get my current job)
but I should like, major in 'something' Idk, I'll go back to college sometime within a year.

 

[JustSnilloc]

for those of you in college, how is it the same, or different, than what you imagined it would be?

When I graduated high school, I didn't want to go to college so I went straight into the american work force... I worked a factory job and learned what kind of crappy jobs are out there for people who don't go to college. So in my head I was imagining college being not too different from high school with the added opportunities of being able to do jobs I enjoy more

When I got to college it was a bit different than what I expected, what I found was that college was far more laid back, an actual challenge [size](I was never challenged throughout the history of 1st-12th grade)[/size], and I also fond that what I thought I wanted to do going into college wasn't what I really wanted to do

What have you learned, if anything, from your time there?

What I've learned from my time at college thus far is to follow your heart or you'll never be happy. I started into college as a Computer Tech major and now I'm a Music Major (planning on being a Church Music Minister). And wow! I've learned so much about music, I love it, I love learning all this technical and practical stuff. My GPA has never been this high and it's because I'm doing what I love

As for the article, I agree, I'd also like to point out that college is different for everyone and given the vast amount of colleges out their, it only serves to futher the differential experiences

 

[Youniquee]

And for those of you that have just graduated from high school, what are you looking forward to, going into college?

College makes me kind of cringe. Erm...Maybe extra curriculum activities lol...meeting new people.
Yep.
That's about it.

 

[Trag]

Advice, and I'm not saying that online classes aren't for some people, but don't ever take (entirely) online classes. There is so much that you miss out on. So much :c

 

[Dogenzaka]

It's exactly what I expected, but not at all what I expected.

I expected it to be difficult and strange and hard to get used to. It was, and even though I expected it, I wasn't prepared to experience it, so it still felt like a bucket of water over my head.

I expected my college experience to be more like the shit you see in pop music videos with road trips, freedom to enjoy your youth, time to explore romance, time to take up new passions and hobbies, etc. Just feel like a freaking teenager/twenty-something while you can.

But no, since I'm an engineer, and I do constant summer school/minimesters, I'm stuck doing homework/studying all the damn time, with the occasional one or two days a week I get to meet up with friends to go to the movies, have dinner, or play a board game. I've yet to go on a college road trip, go hiking, go camping, or go on a summer beach house vacation or whatever's the stereotypical norm. I've yet to do something young, wild and spontaneous with my friends. I'm not in a Katy Perry music video, I just live the boring, grueling engineer life like most other people. It's kind of sad, but I know that the boredom and pressure now will net me financial security and satisfying life work in the years to come. I just don't get to party every day like some of the easier majors :/

I didn't expect to make as many friends as I did and I didn't expect to have such mature, strongly-founded relationships. The people I met in college have caused me to grow more than any of the dipshits I knew from high school who never did anything with their lives and just stayed home. It's great to have a new pool of friends to grow from.

As for practical learning, yeah, I can use math and science and shit to make stuff. Awww yeah.

 

[Nostalgia]

Pretty much everything Dogen said applies to me as well, but for the sake of adding to it, some things are a tremendous improvement over high school and some other things suck horribly in a way that I never considered in high school because it wasn't an issue.

I go to NJIT, which is almost entirely focused on engineering. There are few majors outside the Engineering and Computer Science departments (and they're pretty much just business/management stuff and architecture). As such, maybe 15-20% of the student body consists of girls, which is a bit depressing, and that's something I wasn't expecting to miss from high school. But at the same time, the people I do know at this sausage fest of a school are much better people than the ones I went to high school with. They're easy to get along with, they don't cause or get involved with bullshit drama (I don't think I've ever argued with anyone at this school over anything in the 2 years I've been there) and they're just very pleasant and friendly nerds, which made me feel like I finally belonged somewhere. My high school was just filled with bonehead jocks (no offense to sports enthusiasts, but the ones I knew were the worst of your kind) and really bitchy girls.

In that sense, I have a better social crowd to be around because these people are more civilized and they share my interests, but at the same time, I miss being around girls. The few that go to my school either have boyfriends or they're just not very easy to talk to in general.

Academically, although I'm being challenged a lot more so, I honestly felt like my teachers in high school were better. A lot of it has to do with the fact that they're younger. The actual field of education is taken more seriously these days (especially considering older teachers have been under such harsh scrutiny.) It's not just about mastering the subject material anymore, and the younger teachers have gone through the modern methods of learning how to educate others through engaging them and clarifying the material rather than regurgitating from a text book. Most of my high school teachers were in their mid-twenties, so they learned these methods and they also remembered easily what it was like being confused in a class because of ambiguous and shitty intructors.

My college (and I'm assuming most colleges) have old farts as professors who aren't very equipped for teaching others. They're more of the can do/can't teach types. I've done most of my learning through google. So, I like the engineering subject material, but academically, I had a much easier time learning from my high school teachers.

All in all, college to me is nothing more than job certification. Other people can remember it fondly, but I won't ever have those memories. I drive to and from there every day, so I don't even bother with extra curriculars because when class ends, I just wanna GTFO. The only time I ever hang out with people is when we get lunch in between classes. But as long as I get my Engineering degree and I can put that towards a well paying career, it's worth it.

 

[The Conquerer]

I remember one of my high school teachers stated that college would crush most of us because we had poor studying habits and what not. She was saying that for every hour of class, you have to put three hours into studying or some shit. On average, I think average students in high school tend to do better in college because they have no other choice but to. State of mind, really. For most, high school is free, not the same for college. Even if you have financial aid, it's rare for most to not have to repay loans at some point. You'd be surprised how well your GPA increases when you feel you've got your neck out on the line. So, I guess, I work harder in college compared to high school, but I wouldn't say it is necessarily more difficult (I half-assed my way through high school, mostly).

Though, I expected to be pushed to my financial limits, but never expected it to the breaking point. You become a tight-wad quickly while jumping for joy when you score a quarter on the street (even if you pass it by in a car). Gotta wash clothes (costs money), wanna party (costs money; sometimes), tired of cafe food (costs money to eat something else), wanna drink (costs money)? You are always budgeting with the money you've earned, given, or worked for-for me, hardest part of college life.

Drugs, all kinds, thrown at you depending on where you go. You're basically free to be your own person and see how you pan out. I've come out of my shell a bit, actually gone to a few parties, had fun, something that I would have loved to do more in high school, but lacked the will to do so until I was surrounded by various different people with arrays of personalities. Poon, though readily available, requires effort (unless you're at some crazy house party or small get together boozed up to the gills), being apprehensive won't get you anywhere.

 

[Shinjuku]

@ The Conquerer

You've pretty much said what I wanted to say.

One extra thing I have learned is that people are always watching you might not believe, but they are.

Another thing I've learned about college that's different from high school the Friends you make here are the friends of a lifetime. In 1st-12th grades I've had friends, but once I left they began to just do different shit, and some are already either 1. Too grown for everyone else (having kids as example), or they've still got growing up too do (Always clubbing not doing their work yada yada blah).

Plus some never bothered to check up on me so it's almost like well I guess we really aren't friends then.

 

[Dogenzaka]

I see where Nostalgia's coming from and I agree with a lot of it. Some of the profs here I'm just like...what in the kupo....get back to your research and stop teaching young minds because you suck at it.

I've been fortunate to net a lot of the good profs, but ironically the good profs are the harder profs and the harder classes to make good grades in. If you have a crappy prof, you can get help from a variety of sources and there will be a big curve to aid you.

Anyway, yeah, I wouldn't mind if some of my professors learned how to actually teach. I put in the work and effort, believe me, but sometimes there's no use to learning a concept when your professor gets frustrated with you asking questions, answers them vaguely, or skips important content assuming you can learn it easily on your own (when sometimes, you just can't. that's why you pay for a professor).

 

[Nov]

The college system in Finland is slightly different. Basically you go either to a university or a university of applied sciences after school (there are other possibilities though). The difference between the two basically is that university is generally more respected, theoretic and about research whereas UAS is more practical. I'm in a UAS at the moment and I should be a bachelor of business administration when I get out of there.

Some questions to start us off, for those of you in college, how is it the same, or different, than what you imagined it would be?

It is very different for me. Generally I'm more a theoretic person than practical so I'm definitely stepping out of my comfort zone as my school is even more practical than universities of applied sciences are in general.

The thing in our school is that we learn by doing projects. Our projects are actually something concrete: we work with real companies and institutions, we have a budget, we have to get partners/sponsors etc. Basically it reminded me of the TV show 'The Apprentice' in a sense when I first came to this school. We do have real subjects such as Maths and Economics as well though to balance it.

In general the school has been A LOT easier than I thought. It has actually felt easier than high school. Granted, I've had longer school days and perhaps a bit more homework to do as I have to keep a learning journal and work on my vocabulary as I study my program in English. But in general, I don't feel nearly as much stress as I felt in high school. Or then I've just learned to control it, haha.

What have you learned, if anything, from your time there?

The thing that is a bit bad in our program is that you don't really realize what you have learned. It takes time for you to realize what you actually know and can do because it's so much inquiry learning. We learn by doing, teachers won't tell us any answers. In that sense the learning journal helps a lot but now after my first semester, it's still difficult to recall what I have learned. Social skills are definitely something that I've improved as you work in a group basically all the time. But yeah, in addition to that, business maths, Spanish, event management, communication skills, ICT stuff...


I'm pretty happy with the school and the program but another problem is that the program is so new that no one has actually graduated yet. You graduate in 3½ years and the oldest in the program start their third year in January I think. So basically we do not know anything about how easily we will get hired etc. There is also the problem that the curriculum changes basically every other year for some reason.

 

[HayIsCheaper]

What I learned from college is that I hated it.
I LOVE learning. I love it. But I haven't got the time to indulge myself into my studies for something I'm not even passionate about. Some may view it as laziness, (even though I did do the work) but for me, I view it as not wanting to waste my money or time on something that I know isn't worth investing that much in for since I won't have a passion for it outside of school. If I was passionate about entering the medical field, I'd put everything I've got into it. But I'm not. I can't help it. I love expression and creativity (that isn't drama or stage production lol.) They don't offer many classes for that.

So I stopped going. but I'm still successful outside of school. I'm glad I went because I still LEARNED. I may not have a degree to PROVE that I did, but I know for myself that I dibble dabble here and there. but I'm happy I "dropped out" because I can focus more on what I really love to do while I'm still at a young-ish age that college can't offer me. And I can always return to school later on when/if I find something that appropriately suits what I find as a good investment for myself.

I'm just happy with anyone that learns to decide for themselves what they want to do. It's fantastic that people study and graduate, it shows hard work and dedication. But so do those that would rather stay home and take care of their family, they show hard work and dedication to their families.... I mean everyone has their purpose to do something. Someone has to study hard and become a doctor, which is great. And someone has to know about the farms and skip out on school so we have food n stuffs. See what I'm sayin?

 

[Memory Master]

What I learned from college....why am I taking some classes that have nothing to do with my major? Seriously i'm paying to take a class that once I get out of said class I will never use the skills from said class ever again, so...why am I taking it?

 

[Moonlight Aqua]

quick question how many credits should i be doing during my first freshman semester. My mom said that 16 credits was to much and that i should bring it back down to 12

Yes, 16 is too much. 12 is exactly what is needed to be a full-time student. And it's equivalent to 4 classes, that's enough for someone just starting. Don't do too much or you'll regret it. The classes are harder and you need all the time to study, so 4 classes or more that equal to 12 credits, is fine.

 

[Moonlight Aqua]

What I learned from college....why am I taking some classes that have nothing to do with my major? Seriously i'm paying to take a class that once I get out of said class I will never use the skills from said class ever again, so...why am I taking it?

What I learned from college is that I hated it.
I LOVE learning. I love it. But I haven't got the time to indulge myself into my studies for something I'm not even passionate about. Some may view it as laziness, (even though I did do the work) but for me, I view it as not wanting to waste my money or time on something that I know isn't worth investing that much in for since I won't have a passion for it outside of school. If I was passionate about entering the medical field, I'd put everything I've got into it. But I'm not. I can't help it. I love expression and creativity (that isn't drama or stage production lol.) They don't offer many classes for that.

So I stopped going. but I'm still successful outside of school. I'm glad I went because I still LEARNED. I may not have a degree to PROVE that I did, but I know for myself that I dibble dabble here and there. but I'm happy I "dropped out" because I can focus more on what I really love to do while I'm still at a young-ish age that college can't offer me. And I can always return to school later on when/if I find something that appropriately suits what I find as a good investment for myself.

I'm just happy with anyone that learns to decide for themselves what they want to do. It's fantastic that people study and graduate, it shows hard work and dedication. But so do those that would rather stay home and take care of their family, they show hard work and dedication to their families.... I mean everyone has their purpose to do something. Someone has to study hard and become a doctor, which is great. And someone has to know about the farms and skip out on school so we have food n stuffs. See what I'm sayin?

While it's your life and you do what you want, you should think about your future instead of what you feel and want now. I'm going to college for the medical field, which is a lot of work. The reason why I'm putting my entire free time on studying, is because I don't want to end up like my older brother. He thought the same thing, "Why should I keep studying? I'm too smart. I won't need this in the future." He dropped out and went to work, had kids with a woman whom he divorced, got married again with more kids and now he's 30, no real job. He does his own "business" but really it's not reliable to help maintain his family, so my parents help him. He still thinks he doesn't need an education, but if he wants to open a business or actually get a good job that will able to maintain his family and make him sucessful, he need a degree.

My parents has told me over and over that I need an education, because they don't want me to end up like them and my brother. My mom finished high school but because where we are from, high schools are almost like college, each one for a single profession, so she became a teacher, but here in US she's not qualified to be a teacher. So she sometimes wishes that she continued to study before getting married. And my father never went to high school but went to a technical school and became a machinist and is doing well, but he wishes he went to school too.

Like I said, it's your life, but think about what's could happen in the future, before you decide. Don't do anything you'll regret later in life.

But anyways, Good luck! I wish you all a good life and hopefully you guys keep doing your thangs. ;3

 

[Dogenzaka]

After two years of getting tossed around in the bureaucracy of my university's departments, being misled into going different routes, trying to raise my GPA to a certain level and then them raising the requirements even further, it seems like I might finally get into the major that I want to stick with for the rest of my career (chemical engineering or mechanical engineering). Both departments are really interested in me, they're just waiting for the students that are gonna fail out of probation at the end of the summer so I can take a spot.

Excited to work with "the system" and finally have it come through for me. The bullshit of having a higher GPA than all my other friends but not being able to study what I want blew my mind. All my hard work seems to be coming to fruition.

Having said that, FUCK ENGINEERING, AND FUCK BIGASS PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES

 

[Nayru's Love]

Going into my sophomore year, I think I've found my ideal major as well, that being nursing. Too bad it's going to be rather...competitive. All the while, I'll be waiting for Fall semester to start; I'll be busy running some positions in the azn orgs around here.

 

[WaveK89]

I found college to be a laid-back, yet challenging place. There's a lot of freedom, but also a lot of responsibility. My only recommendation is that there is more to college than just classes. You got to do some learning/practice on your own, too.

I also agree with Trag in saying that online classes aren't for everyone, and not recommended to be the only type of classes one takes. Honestly, I feel I learned so much more in most classes on campus than I had on some classes online.

 

[XIII Heartless]

You're in chemical engineering too Dogenzaka? Same here. And you're right, shit is rough, especially here at Rice -_______-

But I've learned that all it takes is a bit of an adjustment to studying more if you're like me and bullshitted your way through high school because it was so easy. Discipline is key.