College Experiences! (Morals welcome)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

I would second this.

I expected a university library to contain a number of books and other resource materials, but during my recent studies towards a law degree, I was surprised at the variety of resources available. The general arts and science library at the university had many scholarly tomes, but also many that I never expected to see in such a place: episode guides to well-known TV shows, books about favourite rock bands, works of humour, popular novels, and other kinds of light reading. Even the law library–which as expected, contained boring collections of codes, statutes, regulations, and caselaw from around the world–also stocked a collection of John Grisham novels, other novels involving law, books of lawyer jokes and cartoons, and for some odd reason, Batman graphic novels. The law library’s video collection included The Paper Chase and My Cousin Vinny. As a student, I spent many happy hours pottering around the stacks, selecting things I could enjoy in my free time, but didn’t have to study.

In short, I found that the university’s libraries became great places for cheap, non-scholarly entertainment I could borrow and enjoy during my off-hours. Have a look at your university’s library–I’m sure you’ll find plenty of things to keep you entertained too.

42

I’ll second this. I’m not a huge sports guy, but I made a regular habit of going to the gym and playing intramural and club sports.

To expand on what Heart of Dorkness said, your life doesn’t end at graduation. In many ways I found the years after college at least as fun and exciting as college.

Find something productive to do durring the summer vacations. Travel, internships, anything other than sitting on your ass with your high school friends playing XBox or whatever.

43

Ahhhhh, yes. Almost a full bottle of 100 proof Southern Comfort and a Music Theory test for me. Good times. :slight_smile:

This! Secretaries are the ones that get shit done.

One warning on skipping classes though. You’ll really take time and contemplate skipping your first class, and then not think twice about skipping the next ones. Before you know it you’ve skipped about a week’s worth of class and don’t recognize half the shit on the test. :eek: Now, everyone skips occasionally, but it’s really important to force yourself to go back.

Another tip. If sports are big at your school, go to the sporting events. Even if you don’t like them. On most campuses it’s such a central part of student life you shouldn’t miss it.

44

Say hi to Daniel Dennett for me.

45

Unless you plan to move to Riyadh upon graduation you will never have any trouble getting drunk or stoned anywhere you go. Even in Salt Lake City or in Clanton, Alabama you can get all the booze you want and any drug you want and probably find an old Waffle House waitress or retired schoolteacher who can outdo you at both in almost any city. For this reason please don’t consider it a uniquely “college” experience.

OTOH, you’ll never be more free to experiment with your appearance. Just remember nothing permanent and visible in a suit; quarter sized holes in the ears or daisies tattooed on the forehead will not seem like a good idea for long, but hair to your waist or a sequined toga, no problemo.

46

Don’t take classes because they sound interesting in the coursebook. Take classes from teachers who are reputed to be hard, but good. In enjoying a class, the quality of the teacher is vastly more important than the content of the class.

47

Really? That doesn’t sound strange or Draconian to me. I mean, that sounds pretty reasonable. If a roommate doesn’t care if the rule is broken, the school will never know, and if the roommate does care, he or she will have a leg to stand on. I’m sure this isn’t coming out of the blue; they must have had complaints. I knew of people who’d had this problem with their (freshman year, school assigned) roommates in undergrad.

48

One question for those of you in the US: Are students allowed to just take random subjects in whatever they feel like during their first year or two of an undergraduate degree?

Because here, there’s a list of Required Subjects for most degrees, and whilst there’s usually a pretty good list of Approved Elective Subjects (ie, subjects you can pick from to make up your study load for the semester) they’re still (generally) related to the main degree you’re doing.

For example, when I was studying Law, I couldn’t have 30CP of Law subjects and a 10CP class of something like Introduction to Egyptian Hieroglyphics without a dispensation from the Course Convenor, and that was highly unlikely at a first year undergraduate level.

Admittedly the “related to your degree” requirement was fairly broad, but there were still limits. From what I’m reading here, it seems that in the US you just take a random bunch of (possibly unrelated) subjects until you’ve got enough Credit Points for your undergraduate degree. Is that right, or am I misreading?

49

You have more leeway regarding which courses you can take during your undergraduate career in the US than in other countries, going by what I’ve read here and experiences with friends from outside.

Usually a degree has a series of required credits related to the major, which you must take. Depending on the type of major, they may or may not make up the bulk of the courses you’ll be taking during your four years.

Many also have classes called “general education requirements”. Things like these are math, English composition/writing courses, some sort of sociology/philosophy/economics, biology, chemistry, and in some schools, something with an international focus.

Now, since students come from many backgrounds and levels, and different career interests, bigger schools will have a wide choice of options for courses that satisfy those requirements. Writing courses may not necessarily HAVE to be in English. In general, decent writing skills transfer from language to language. There are many history courses, not just “World history 101”. Mathematics range all over the place, as well as biology, chemistry, and physics. Classes classified as “sociology/philosophy” are also numerous.

What MAY sound like an useless class to someone may actually be a gen ed class, which is part of the idea, I think (make general education courses less dry and chore-like).

And unless it has pre-requisites, students can register for whatever class they want. Special courses though, are reserved for seniors, but then again, sometimes those have pre-reqs that a freshman wouldn’t have taken yet.

I think in other countries, most of these “gen eds” have been satisfied before entering college. In the US, in some cases, they have, but for many other students, nope, they have not.

50

An example:

An engineering student taking a human sexuality class may sound as if he/she is taking something waaaay outside the major. But that class may satisfy the writing and sociology parts of the general education requirements the university has established. In fact, most classes are advertised as satisfying some sort of gen ed requirement. So, while outside the core requirements, without those gen ed courses the student cannot graduate.

51

That makes a little more sense- it’s generally taken as read here that if you’re eligible to go to University, you’ve done all that “general education” stuff in High School (or you’ve got sufficient Life Experience as a Mature Age Student). Interesting that it’s different in the US, but at least now I’ve got some context for people in the US saying they’re studying (say) Physics but have classes on seemingly unrelated subjects like Geography and Meso-American Culture.

Thanks for the information!

52

You’re welcome. I think the idea is to try to make a “more rounded” individual. And yes, geography and mesoamerican culture are exactly the type of courses that can qualify as gen eds instead of just plain “US geography 101” and “Ancient civilization 101”. Which they’d also offer, btw.

I can understand the pros and cons of the system. But, without it, I wouldn’t have taken Portuguese and made it a minor. And getting that accomplished has been one of the most useful things I got out of undergraduate college.

Hence the stuff advised above: Take a course that you find interesting!!! Explore!!! Try what YOU want to try, don’t be so scared to do it, don’t be scared of what others may think, don’t do what others think you have to do in order to have had the “college experience at university of X”!!!

53

And oh yea (sorry I keep talking): Martin, like I said, many if not most of those gen eds can be taken before college. I had classmates who CLEP’ed out (they took a test and passed it) or took AP or IB credits and entered university as sophomores, sometimes almost juniors. In my case, also, I scored high enough to test out of first semester English composition, my math was done before college, and being bilingual (at the time) meant I passed the “foreign language requirement”.

Another advice: Your academic advisors may help you, but remember that they may not know your potential as you do. When I went to academic advising, while trying to register for my first semester, my assigned academic advisor sucked. First, they didn’t want to put me in the first semester general chemistry course, they said I was not well prepared. Instead, they wanted to put me in the even more basic chemistry. Secondly, they gave me a “light” courseload, and with 13 credits still said it was probably too much for me.

Screw them! Good thing I didn’t listen to their first advice, and insisted on registering that chemistry class. Passed with a B, after taking it with a well known horrible professor. And after that semester, every week before registering started, I would go to my own department’s office and request the nice old lady at the desk (again, be nice to them!) to increase my maximum academic load to 21 credits. I never took that full load, but remember classes range in credits from 1-5, so I just set myself a limit and took all the classes that would more or less fit on those. I think the maximum I got was 20.

54

In my engineering program, we had a certain number of open electives (random shit) and electives relevant to your major (like if you wanted to specialize in steel and concrete structures instead of wastewater treatment).

55

Stuff I did do that I highly recommend:

Cultivate a wide variety of acquaintances. International students. Conservative business types. Science geeks. Artsy fartsy folks. Activists. Whomever! The social walls will never be this permeable again.

Take courses you enjoy when at all possible. I’m not a big science guy, but I really ended up getting into geology for my gen ed requirements. Ended up minoring in it, avoiding the classes that contained a lot of what I’d find tedious (chem, physics, biology–no offense) while acquiring the critical thinking skills that the sciences instill.

On the sex: I wouldn’t worry about it. Truth be told, the last four years have been, by far, my most sexually active time. I’m 39.

Count me in on the paying attention vs. notetaking. I’ve seen this as an instructor, too. You wouldn’t believe how many kids came to my office waving an entire book full of notes, fully expecting that this entitled them to a better exam grade. The single most important thing is understanding the material. I honestly got more out of conversing with professors than taking and reviewing notes. YMMV, but keep your eyes on the goal – understanding – not how much you study.

Stuff I didn’t do that I highly recommend:

Foreign study. Still kicking myself. Daily

Take major projects seriously. Go beyond getting the grade. Do things that will make you stand out with the instructor. When it counts, do way more than necessary. (When it doesn’t really count…well, that’s when you just do enough for the grade.)

Keep up with people.

If a girl’s a pain, dump her. There are better.

56

And most non-engineering programs are considerably more flexible – usually you can finish your major requirements in 2 years of intensive work – most Liberal Arts programs do not require a major to be declared until the Junior (3rd) year. And if you start out with one major (let’s say, Political Science) and after a year you change your mind (to say, Theater) there is usually plenty of time to do all the requirements for the new major and graduate in 4 years.

For the purpose of college credit, American Universities don’t usually inquire into your high school coursework unless you’ve taken an AP (Advanced Placement) test in that subject and scored high enough to receive credit. So, for example, I took Calculus in high school, but I didn’t take the AP test for various reasons, so I took Calculus again in college (university), because the fact that I took the class in high school, is not of interest to the University without the test score to prove mastery. Almost all American universities have some system for general requirements that is idiosyncratic to that school - there is no uniform system for it.

At least at my mid-sized public university - a professor could sign you into a upper level class without the prerequisites at their discretion; if you showed genuine interest and a willingness to work they would often do so. For example, I majored in Anthropology/Archaeology, and the Ceramics professor signed me in to Wheel-throwing without the Arts Dept prerequisite (Fundamentals of Design or somesuch), after I explained my interest.

57

Honestly, at my larger public university (Nebraska) one often didn’t even need permission to ignore prereqs. I took several classes I was not technically qualified for. Got A’s in all of them, IIRC.

58

That’s somewhat similar to what we have. College is normally four years, divided into upper and lower division (last two years and first two years respectively). Usually the first two years are mostly general education, sort of a more demanding continuation of a high school program where you study a bit of everything.

59

Here are a couple tips off the top of my head, but I’m sure I’ll think of more:

  • Take a wide variety of classes, even though you think it doesn’t sound immediately interesting; many people find their passions through this.
  • Give something new a try at least ONCE. Have two left feet? Attend a ballroom dance lesson/meeting. Unathletic? Join a club sport/go to the campus gym. You can find interests you’d never think you would have.
    -If you think you know what you want to study, don’t wait around; take as many required courses as son as possible. You never know what can happen in your final semesters.
    -SKETCH OUT CAREER CHOICES EARLY. This is probably my biggest mistake. You don’t have to settle on a specific plan, but you should know what kind of background and courses certain fields or professional schools require and work towards them.
    -Have sex. Lots of it.
    -Meet new people
    -Introduce yourself to the person sitting next to you in lecture; they may be your next best friend.
    -Enjoy yourself!
60

Do NOT - for the love of God - DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT get into a relationship!

Date! Date EVERYONE! Date people even if they’re completely not your type. Keep it casual. You will never again have access to THIS many potential dates. Get out there, sample the menu and by the time you’re ready to settle down permanently, you’ll have sowed your wild oats and you’ll know a LOT more about yourself and what you’re looking for.

I can’t stress that enough. I was engaged by the end of my freshman year of college. Yes, I married the guy and it’s worked out … but I do feel like I missed out on a lot of fun because of it.

Go easy on sex. Sex is great, but it can really complicate your life in a hurry. Use condoms EVERY time, no exceptions - and get on the Pill if you’re a girl.

Don’t go Greek your first year. I really don’t suggest going Greek at all - I did, and it was cool, but unnecessary. I was just as happy the day I turned in my sorority pin as I was the day I was initiated. (I quit because I couldn’t afford it.)

Don’t work full time. On the flip side – do everything in your power to keep from going into student loan debt! Borrow as little as you possibly can.

99% of your professors truly want to help their students, but they can’t help you unless you talk to them. The worse you’re doing in a class, the more you need to be in their office. Chances are your school has a Student Support Services program - use them if you need it.

Go to parties, but go easy on booze. You don’t need it to have a good time. Parties thrown by the international students tend to be the most fun - German parties at my school were legendary :slight_smile:

Imagine me getting on my knees here …

Don’t get a credit card. Just don’t. I know the credit card companies camping out on your doorstep, offering you free stuff. I know it’s easy to get one. What you do with credit cards the next 4 years can, and WILL - mark my words, WILL - determine your financial outlook for your 20’s, and maybe part of your 30’s. Don’t do it. If you listen to nothing else I’ve said, listen to this one. Bang every guy/girl/both on campus before you get a credit card. Seriously.

Now. Log off of these boards and go out there and enjoy life!! :slight_smile: