The first day of College is like and Iceberge. There is so much underneath.

In My Humble Opinion
1

Well the first day of classes has come and gone. I abstained from my usual trickery and went with the subtle approach to tomfoolery.

New College students

A word of advice. Always right down what the Prof is wearing the first day of classes…it could end up being extra credit on a future exam. Plus, as I always do, I wear the same thing on the first and last day of the semester, that way when they remember what I was wearing the first day, then look at me on the last, they get a mental - good job for remembering, you are sure to get extra credit.

I do not have any freshmen this year, mostly upper classmen. My first class yesterday was Abnormal Psych 303. Great class, lot’s of students I know.

And for the first time in 7 seasons of teaching, I got an Apple on my desk. Wendy has been in my department for quite a while, she’s a senior and will be a doctor some day… Oh the students you will miss.

So Collegians - whats up with your respective first days? Need any helpful hints, I’m full of’em? Any profs that stick out in your mind as being especially quirkey?

Non-collegians - what were your thoughts on college? How were they different when you actually stepped foot into class?

Anyone think highschool didn’t prepare them?

2

Well, yesterday was my first day.

I’m a senior for the 3rd year in a row. I’ve struggled mightily with school, took some time off, tried going part time for a bit, and now have decided to finish once and for all.

I’ve got the busiest semester I’ve ever had (in my scramble to make sure I’ve got all the english courses I need to graduate), but I also have what seems like some very cool, interesting, and knowledgable profs.

Tuesday and Thursday are my engilsh class days, and the rest of the week I’ve got Latin and history.

My only observation is that being between five and six years older than the freshmen is very interesting. I definitely feel a lot older than many of the other students on campus. Perhaps working in the ‘real world’ did something funky to me.

3

Actually, Eonwe - as an academic advisor, I can say I have to council the older populace here much less than the younger. I think what you are doing is wonderful. Stay with it.

Lemme guess you are either at UVM or Champlain?

I thoroughly enjoy having older-returning to school students. They are often very insightful, much more apt to participate in lectures, and usually fun for the profs. I have a woman in my evening class - Interviewing and Counseling who is working towards her MSW. She’s in her thirties, as am I and she is very fun to have in the class. She’s a tad shy yet, but we’ll work on that :slight_smile:

4

There were two other posts in this thread. did the weasels get’em…:confused:

Looks like they got rid of grumpy…thanks mod’0’ love.

5

That’s some slick moding work!

Yep, UVM, which, despite some opinions to the contrary, is definitely a quality school.

6

My first day was last Monday, so this is my second week. (Today, actually, was the start of the second week of classes, thanks to a 2-day break for Labor Day)

I would absolutely love to know if I really can trust my health prof when he says that he’s open to different opinions. He says he is, but then sometimes I end up thinking that maybe he’s just open to super-alternative ideas and not necessarily all ideas. I can’t tell and since I can’t tell, I’m hesitant to open my mouth in class. I don’t really want a repeat of high school, especially when I purposely chose to move to a place that seems slightly more tolerant of everyone’s ideas instead of staying in my hometown.

But I do really like college thus far. I’m rather fond of the whole freedom thing as well as the “I can schedule my classes so I don’t have to have an 8 AM class if I don’t want!” thing. (That’s my favorite, really) My roommate and I even hit it off decently well. It’s great.

7

Jess - please participate as much as you possibly can in class. Especially with alternative ideas or takes on a certain subject. Most prof’s - including myself - love it when young minds are on maximum overdrive. It means they are thinking. It means they are absorbing, even if they don’t think they are. :wink:

So raise your hand, and ask any questions, or start any topics, profs love it. And to be quite honest:** those who participate the most and add their two cents to a lecture, are thought of in good ways when grading.

This is not to say they make or break the person, someone could be a constent participant but still land a c-.

Eonwe - I have never thought of UVM in a negative light. You will get the same education and the same job if you went to Middlebury or Bennington. It’s just the bill will be a little nicer on your wallet.

8

My first two classes were yesterday.

The thing is, I’ve had one professor twice before, so I know what he wants. Also, I’ve heard a similiar lecture twice before so I knew the answers to ihs questions…but I feel weird being the only one to answer…the silence gets to me, and he just sits there and lets it build. I guess I’m going to be the designated Answerer of Questions, because nobody else will speak up…

9

Yes, I know, Phlosphr. I have to participate in at least 50% of the class discussions anyway if I want to get an A. It’s on the syllabus. And it’s not that I have any particular objections to class discussions. I’m actually quite fond of them and I like talking to my professors. But when everyone else is just repeating catchphrases that sound nice (“America BAD. Non-western cultures GOOD.”) and the prof is encouraging that while still repeating that he wants everyone to feel free to speak their mind, I get mixed signals.

I’m still a bit angry over this morning’s class too, and not speaking up when I probably should’ve, so I’m sure this is reflected in the bitterness here too. Sorry about that. I honestly love the rest of my classes and try to take part in them as often as I can. Those are much more fun.

10

Classes started last week. I’m reasonably happy.

I have to take Engineering Statistics, which is a make work (make a lot of work) class that insults the intelligence of everyone in it (with the possible exception of the prof.) In five hours of lecture to a class of junior and senior level engineers we covered histograms, bell curves, and means. Today, God willing, we’ll get to medians.

Other than that I’m taking Into to World Music (fun and easy), Product Design (fun and not easy) Ethical Theory (delightful and challenging without being a death threat. Will get to start and/or participate in fights/discussions in class.) and Intro to the Renaissance (the class I picked all on my own that didn’t need to fulfill any requirements at all, just for the joy of learning. Fun and not easy.)

All of my profs are quirky. And so far, I like them all, either as people or as educators. (I’d invite the Stats prof to dinner, though I wish I could skip his class. ItRen prof I may or may not want to eviserate by the end of term, but man can he teach! I have to respect that.) Product Design prof is the chairman of the department, and I had an independant study with him last term, he’s a loon and a delight. The musicethnocologist is by definition one of those sweet, happy, hippie like people. The kid who is teaching the Ethical theory class may actually end up being more fun than the old profs where were supposed to teach it, he is high energy at any rate, which will be good into the long hours of the night on Thursdays.

Its my fifth year, unless you have any helpful hints about convincing the College of Arts and Sciences that their *@#%^ depth and bredth requirements are interfering with me getting a well rounded education, I’m pretty set.

11

When I was teaching freshman stats, I covered the territory faster than that. And I was working with freshman liberal-arts majors, not junior/senior engineering students. Sheez!

12

Second week, here.

I am totally in love with my freshman comp students this year. There are only nineteen of them, thanks to one of the quirks of university bureaucracy, and they have all been present, alert, and engaged for all three of our class meetings so far. Yay!

My other class, Intro to Drama, seems off to a bumpier start, but at least people are talking. This is the first time I’ve taught literature, aside from a few weeks as a substitute high school teacher last winter, and I’m still figuring out how to keep a class discussion focused without totally taking it over. (Also, I’m damned if I can figure out how to pronounce half of these Greek names, but luckily none of the students seem to know either :slight_smile: )

13

Oh, and one more thing – I love getting desk copies! This is the first year I’ve had interesting ones, and there are about six different publishers involved, so it’s like Christmas every time I walk into the English department.

14

If it’s on the syllabus that just means he wants to hear from you during every class. If you answer a Q, or participate at least once a class, you should be fine. And some profs like to hear things that go against the grain. It provides the class with something other than what they were thinking.

Of course you know the prof does that on purpose to see who’s paying attention/or to get a good look at what people are thinking by making them answer. If you are answering a lot keep on it. However, I know I occasionally have to tell constant-answerers to let someone else answer. But that does not reflect upon you negatively at all.

I find that if I have mastered the literature or subject matter I am teaching about I can stay away from the cardboard tasting lectures and teach via a story or example. For instance, I am teaching abnormal behavior right now and my lecture at the end of our first class yesterday was of when I was recently out of grad school working in a locked psych unit at our local hospital. Behaviors, mannerisms, testing, analyzing data, methodology can all be taught anecdotally to students who have never been exposed. This usually keeps them pretty attuned to what I’m saying.

If that doesn’t work try the Patch Adams approach:

When you see people are not generally paying attention or the majority aren’t you continue with your lecture and say something completely ludicrous. Like

Lecture-lecture-lecture- Just like when I was in Prison or someother ludicrous saying… it’s fun to watch the reactions…

15

Good Lord I miss class! I don’t even know why I bothered to graduate, I should have stayed and milked it for a while longer! SMU does cost a pretty penny though, and funding was becomming a problem!

Phlosphr, what do you think of MIT as a graduate philosophy program? I would like to go into medical ethics as a specialzation, so I’m considering Rice and Georgetown as well. Thoughts?

Eonwe, UVM is where my mother went from fundergraduate through her MA in English and I have heard nothing but good of the school. I also here that it is right up there with SMU as far as a strictly undergrad philosophy program. Good hockey team too, I catch the games whenever I’m in town.

–==Mike==–

16

And I have to say that it’s really difficult to get a “fundergraduate” degree in anything!

Dang small Mac keyboard…

17

Well I know to be formally accepted as a candidate for the Ph. D. degree you have to be accepted by the department of linguistics and philosophy at MIT. It’s a tough program, otherwise I don’t know why you would want the Platinum school, when you can get the same job after words from another school not so highly ranked.

And yes, UVM’s Hockey team is very good…

18

A long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away,
(Well, at least Ann Arbor in the early 90’s)

I was just thinking of my very first step into a college class ever. I was at the University of Michigan, in the honors college. I knew no one in the entire state, and had only showed up the day before with 150 pounds of duffle bags. I didn’t know the campus, and got off the bus at the student center, and had to walk a mile and a half to my hill area dorm in 95 degree weather, and 90% humidity with 150 pounds of crap. I was the most nervous and out of place I had ever felt in my life, and spent the whole night thinking, damn I made a huge mistake, I’m not ready for college, I want out of here now.

The next day was my first class, a class required by the honors college. It was supposedly under the english unbrella, but was more of a classic civ class. Not knowing the campus, I of course showed up 10 minutes late, and tried to teleport myself into a seat without actually being noticed by anybody. Things were just getting worse. Then I started listening to the professor. the man was amazing. They knew what they were doing putting him as the first prof the honors college people ever hear, cause his lecture was mesmerizing. (incidentally, his name was like G.H. or D.H. something, and was a huge expert in ancient Greece if there are any other Wolverines around, I wonder if he still teaches) .
Anyway, he was just so entertaining I forgot where I was and raised my hand and asked a question in the middle of his lecture in a lecture hall of 500 students (cue: silumtaneous gasp and underbreath murmuring "You don’t ask questions like that of a prof like this, the nerve of that loser)

He just answered my question, asked if that covered it and smiled, before continuing on with his lecture.

The follow up cool, but not so cool. He was a prof who made the rounds of all the discussion sections, and showed up at ours one day, He remembered me and we taked a bit before class started. Our discussion TA thought of him as a god and wanted to impress him so much. But I quibbled on a point in our reading. The TA was too scared to look wrong in front of the prof, and didn’t listen to my point. Finally the prof jumped in an clarified what he thought I was saying, and said it was a damn good point. The rest of the discussion section pretty much turned into a conversation between me and the prof(I think we were talking about Orestes) about characters thought and actions. It was really cool, but when the class ended I noticed the TA giving me a look of death for showing him up, and, suprise surprise I ended up with a C in discussion section.

19

I don’t really understand why going to a “Platinum school” is a bad thing. Why would I aim low on purpose? If it turns out that I am not good enough for the platinum level, I can take it…but why aim low?

20

Well, today I taught my first college class. We just went over the syllabus and did introductions but it was the first one! Beginning Latin, 8 AM, 20 or so mostly freshmen. They seem like a nice crew, lots of would-be archaeologists for some reason.

My own classes start tomorrow. I’m actually more nervous about the two gym electives I’m taking than my grad seminars. The seminars are old hat but I have no idea what to expect in the gym classes, plus the added “I’m not fit enough” nervousness.