Question for Students

Blondie Bear said:
ETA: I don't think most of my students understand what's going to be expected of them in the really real world, when they have to get a really real job and acting like this will get them really fired.
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Ahhhhaahaha! That's EXACTLY it!

And getting really fired will mean they really won't eat out....or even eat at all, won't drive a car (if they have or want one) and won't have a really real apartment.

I mean, I understand where they're coming from....college is an eye-opener. They're expected to WORK all of a sudden and a lot of them balk at that....but hey, welcome to the real world (I'm fond of saying that to my own kids, LOL!), time to grow up, quit grumbling and get on with it. They spend their teenage years DYING to grow up and get out of the house, away from their parents and live their LIVES....then they get all that stuff and they find out it's not all fun and games.
 
Blondie Bear said:
Then why go? Why put yourself into extreme debt to not learn anything and do stuff you could do sitting at home anyway?
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Here, in Scotland at least, not sure about Ireland, education is free, to an extent.

There's not many debt worries for UK'ers when it comes to college/university. You get burseries and grants, and only have to pay them back if you get a job with a salary that pays over a certain amount.

As for me, myself, and I. I only went to college once. It was good, I learned quite a bit about psychology, and I would like to learn more. Although, the lecturers weren't too cool about me bringing goldfish into college, personally, I don't see what the big deal is.

Also, I'm planning on going back to college this year to do Mental Health Nursing. It's something I'm realy interested in, and think I can help.

Goo gah gah.
 
^ Okay, for those who get free education, why waste all that time? Cause treating college like that IS a waste of time. Just having the degree doesn't guarantee you anything. Your employers will expect you to demonstrate that you know things that you should have learned in your classes, and if you don't, you're fired. That happens enough times, you can't get a decent job. Get a high enough degree, and you can't get a CRAPPY job, cause you're "overqualified."
 
I'm just now finishing up my freshman year at college.

Why are you in college? Is it for the social interaction? The education?
There are a variety of reasons why I am in college. The promary reasons: it was expected of me, and I really don't want to work at Friendly's for the rest of my life. The social interaction is a huge part of the college dynamic, I will admit that, but it's not why I'm here. I'm here to get an education so that I can eventually get a job doing something I love to do.

Do you feel that because you got accepted into a college, the teachers owe you good grades?
Not at all. I work hard for all of my classes because I like to succeed. I understand that the grade I will receive is directly proportional to the amount of work I put into studying, homework, etc.

How do you feel about your General Education (some places call them Core) requirements? Do you think they're a waste of time?
I think Gen. Eds. are a waste of time, yes. At my University, there are seven fields of study (literature, fine arts, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, foreign languages, mathematics), and my year is the first year required to complete a predetermined amount of credits in all seven fields. I think it is just one of many poor decisions being made here currently, because some people just aren't math people, language people, science people, etc. Personally, I'm not a science person. I can do well enough at it, but I don't enjoy it. I'm forced to take two classes, one of which has to have a lab. I am absolutely dreading taking the lab science, not only because I will hate it, but becuase it will eat up much more of my time than I would like. I'm not taking it next semester because I will already have a 4 credit Italian class (insane work load) and two screenings (6 hours per week that I don't receive credit for), and two regular classes, plus a job.
Other than those seven distributions (a requirement specific to my college), everyone at the univeristy is required to take two diversity classes and two physical education credits. The diversity requirement is broken into World Diversity and US Diversity. The annoying part of it is the US diversity. Each class in this category is called Race Relations in the US, and though they are offered through many departments (sociology, literature, history, polisci, etc.) they are all essentially the same class. And I can guarantee you that it's material we've all learned over and over again in high school. The P.E stuff is annoying but not a problem.
In short I'm NOT a fan of gen. eds.


In response to your specific problems, I personally feel like I would love to take your English class. I'm taking a literature class currently and it's worthless. My professor is lazy, always unprepared, and a painfully slow grader. I have absolutely no respect for her, and I have learned nothing. My AP Lit class was 20 times harder easily, which I think is absurd.
But I also love fantasy (except not Tolkein). It's my favorite literary genre. If these kids don't like fantasy, then it might be a good idea to remove it from the course in the future, if the class is just about British Literature.

Otherwise, I can say that none of my classes here have been that disrespectful. I'll be the first to admit that I, and many others, do a fair bit of ranting about classes and professors, but not TO the professors.
 
B
Blondie Bear
If I wasn't leaving, I'd say COME TAKE MY CLASS!
In England, you get 'free' education in the sense that you don't have to pay is straight away, but the bursaries and grants and even the maintenance loan are all income-based, so it varies between people how much you get and with bursaries/grants, sometimes you just don't qualify.

And although I don't have to pay back my loan until I'm earning a certain amount, I'd still rather not be in excess of £20,000 in debt at 21 🙁 So I'm obviously gonna make the most of my degree because I need it to get a good enough job to pay it all back 😀
 
College really isn't anywhere near as tough as the real world though, so I guess I can't see where kids are coming from if they complain it's too much for them. Honestly, anyone can succeed in college if they just go about it with the right attitude and the right gameplan.

1) They need to pick a major that's something they are interested in, but have a realistic chance of succeeding in.
2) If there are certain subjects required for gen education that they aren't great at, spread them out. Math and science were always my weak points in high school, so I took a math class my first semester, took a science class my sophomore year, and took my science lab junior year. In addition, you can always take less complicated classes in these areas to get the required credit.
3) Choose courses and professors wisely. If you're someone who needs a lot of sleep, make sure that at least a couple days a week you don't take a class that requires you to get up early. I liked to sleep in, so I never took a class earlier than 9:30, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I'd usually make sure I didn't have any classes until 11:30. And you can find out a lot about professors just by asking around, or by visiting ratemyprofessors.com. That'll give you a good idea whether you want to take a course with a certain professor or not.
4) Just go to class. You usually get some control over when you have them, so once you've made a schedule that works for you, keep with it. Honestly, just going to class and taking notes makes all the difference.
5) Yes, a lot of times between your classes you'll be assigned a lot of work to do. But after a few weeks in a class, you should have an idea about what your professors expect of you, how they grade, etc. All you have to do is figure out which of the assignments are truly high priorities, and which aren't. If a professor just likes to discuss readings in class, read a few throughout the year so you can dominate discussion on those days. Other days, just get a vague idea what the reading was about and volunteer to speak early on in the discussion. Save most of your energy for classes that give you regular quizes, or require you to write papers.
6) If you've taken notes in class, it's pretty easy to study for a test even in a relatively short period of time. Just read through your notes, then condense them (pick out the stuff you think will be most important). This is how I studied for tons of my tests. It allows you to go through all the material carefully once, and then you've got yourself a smaller stack of notes that takes half the time to read through again later.

Okay, I'm just rambling at this point. Seriously though, not that hard.
 
Flannen
Flannen
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B
Blondie Bear
That's not a bad game plan, actually.
Blondie Bear agrees: If I wasn't leaving, I'd say COME TAKE MY CLASS!
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Are you leaving because of this experience, or were you planning on leaving beforehand?
 
Ah I see. Well good that you're getting out of there!! You'll be much happier next year!
 
About the debts and everything...my parents are financing my entire study, that's tuition fee, rent for my room and exra money for food, clothes and that sort of stuff. So when I'm done (or even if I just dropped out) I will not have any debt at all, my parents don't want anything back, so for me that's really not an issue. I do feel bad from time to time when I think how much money my parents are investing in me just like that and how much I actually do to be successful, but that's a different story.
 
On the money thing Ireland is free, and you don't have to pay it back when you finnish (For the moment anyway), so that wasn't an issue.

Sorry I should have said I wouldn't expect to pass, I would expect to fail and if my teacher didn't fail me I would blame them because I'd know I could get away with it (I know that makes me seem really lame, but it's true)

Like I used to lie so much was in college, I told them I was away over the summer so had to miss the first few days, and I used to take days off all the time and I faked a family death and had all my exams delayed for half a year (yes Im a bad person)

But my course was really annoying in that it was 9 -5 everyday, at least, and you had to be checked in at 9:05 and 12:05 everyday if you got their at 10 past you are marked as absent for that half the day, and it didn't matter what the reason for being late was.

I suppose the reason I went was because it's what you do after school. But I wasn't ready and hadn't thought about it that well before had. Dropping out and going to work full time was exactly what I needed to do.
 
Blondie, I would LOVE to have you as a teacher! You know this (and I'm still campaigning for you to come down to Okie town)

For me: SENIOR GRADUATING IN 3 WEEKS!!! That's where I stand in college. I can TASTE my BA at this point!

My probs: Too much to do. I would have SO much better grades if I didn't have all the distractions. I'm taking 18 hours, 9 of which are upper division, have a 2 year old, and work 24-32 hours a week. I don't always have time to do my homework. So, yeah, now that my prof has given us 5 books to read in 5 weeks (none of which are literature, which is SO much easier to read), I'm falling behind. Yeah, I knew about it beforehand...doesn't change things...And I could be doing my 2 papers that are due tomorrow right now, but....well, BB is in the way.

I'm rambling. Anywhoo, I think your students are poop heads. That's my official diagnosis. I'm not exactly sure where you work at, but maybe it's because of the quality of college you are at. Definately a reason why you should get your PhD.

Also: I think core curriculum is KEY. You have to be well rounded, and know about areas outside of your own. It's just necessary to me.
 
A
Aethra
Damn, kudos to you for being able to handle it all! And here I thought my life was stressful.
Ive graduated now but this seemed like an interesting one to get into.


Why were you in college?
Is it for the social interaction?
The education?

I went to uni primarily because i wanted the safety of a degree before I undertake the real world. I also have that to fall back on even if I mess around for the next 10 years. Uni is also incredibly fun and social so those were definately factors but not the deciding factor in actually going, more just a bi-product.

Do you feel that because you got accepted into a college, the teachers owe you good grades?


No, why would I. I expect to be graded according to my work and nothing else.

How do you feel about your General Education (some places call them Core) requirements? Do you think they're a waste of time?

COMPLETELY. I would even go so far as to say that GE was one the major reasons I left the US to study back in England instead.. because we recognize that higher education is about specialising and not continuing high school on. What place does English 101 have on an engineering degree?

I went to a community college in the US for a couple months as I graduated HS early and I wanted to get some credits out of the way... it was literally just like being in HS with homework assignments on a weekly basis and and continued weekly examinations. Uni should be forcing students to prioritize their own learning, meet deadlines for coursework and prepare for exams..not have their hand held with weekly homework and pop quizzes

My post is almost turning into an attack on the US education system, but considering how much the US higher education system is flawed that's hardly surprising. The costs alone are enough for me to question how they manage to attract students.
 
Silum, big difference between Community Colleges and other institutions in the U.S. though.
 
S
Silum
Of course. In fact my ex went to CS Fullerton when i was with her so I got plenty of insight into the 4 year school too. The fact that I have friends with litterally hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt disgusts me though
Blondie Bear said:
Almost every major and field requires some sort of writing, even if it's just memos. English 101 teaches you how to write like an adult, not in text-speak.
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Isn't that what high school is for?

One of the classes I took for G.E. credits was Art History...wheres the relevence there? Or half the other GE classes... I dont think I could disagree with you more.

General Education is about prolonging what should have already been learned in lower education, and all it does is sacrifice the learning in ones chosen field.
 
A
Aethra
FULLY agree, I HATE my art history class now and it won't have any sort of bearing on my life after college, so I feel that it is a waste of my time.
The point of a liberal arts education is to expand your horizons and produce a well-rounded student. If that's not what you want, by all means, go to a professional or technical school. But if you choose to go to a liberal arts college, I don't think you should bitch about the liberal arts requirements (and again, I mean "you" in a general, not specific, sense).
 
Its a different way of thinking, one I expect a teacher who is part of the system I disagree with not to understand...so it doesn't surprise me. There's this idea in the U.S. that general education can't come with specific focus. That 2 years must be dedicated to general liberal arts before you can undertake specificity.

I took courses on business and economics in Uni, with a group of other engineering students, learning how they apply to engineering. Its not a rejection of liberal arts, it's a common sense approach to higher education. Likewise, writing a paper on thermodynamics for example utilises and expands on the English skills you have, without the need to study something specifically that has only vague importance to your degree major.
 
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