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[Carl-E]

You guys have brought back so many warm, fuzzy memories of my college days... *sniffle*

Barmy, my first "modern physics" lab consisted of the lab assistant handing us all an electrical schematic, a circuit board and a box of parts.  I was the only person in the lab with no electronics training - I knew the symbol for a resistor, that was it.  There was no indication anywhere that electronics knowledge was a prerequisite.  I became a math major the next semester...

94ssd - my first college roommate was a pot dealer.  Most of his customers were from the football team.  Our room was stupidly popular.  My condolences. 

Jace - three years of lab sciences, and I still tremble at the thought of writing up a lab report.  "What the fuck are they asking us for?"



Will all the graduates join me in a chorus of "Those were the days"?     

[Barmymoo]

It is weird how different this degree is to my last one. It's more like my A levels were. But in other ways it's like a real job; I just got back from compulsory fire training at the hospital and in a few weeks I'll be attending antenatal clinics and doing shifts on the delivery suite.

[94ssd]

94ssd - my first college roommate was a pot dealer.  Most of his customers were from the football team.  Our room was stupidly popular.  My condolences.

My roommate last year was a major pothead, like daily usage. I don't think any of my roommates this year are, and if they are they have their own rooms to keep their stuff in (which made me really nervous because if he got caught I would have gotten in trouble too) and drag their smell behind them.

Will all the graduates join me in a chorus of "Those were the days"?     

Maybe this song would be more apropos - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut6YtMXjaZY

[cesium133]

You guys have brought back so many warm, fuzzy memories of my college days... *sniffle*

Barmy, my first "modern physics" lab consisted of the lab assistant handing us all an electrical schematic, a circuit board and a box of parts.  I was the only person in the lab with no electronics training - I knew the symbol for a resistor, that was it.  There was no indication anywhere that electronics knowledge was a prerequisite.  I became a math major the next semester...

94ssd - my first college roommate was a pot dealer.  Most of his customers were from the football team.  Our room was stupidly popular.  My condolences. 

Jace - three years of lab sciences, and I still tremble at the thought of writing up a lab report.  "What the fuck are they asking us for?"



Will all the graduates join me in a chorus of "Those were the days"?     

I was going to write a parody version of the theme song from All in the Family, but one of the other guys in the lab gave me a weird look when I started humming it to myself...

My favorite experiment from my Modern Physics Lab course was the one where we measured the average background radiation by carrying a Geiger counter around campus. We got a suspiciously high reading in one of the dorm buildings. Dang Bonaventure Hall nuclear weapons program... 

My current roommates like to invite about 40 of their friends over every Thursday and Friday night to get sloshed and yell a lot while I'm trying to sleep. I hate my roommates. Although I did get a bit of amusement from what happened to one of them last Friday... he got drunk and wandered into traffic. He ended up with a broken arm.

[Barmymoo]

Can you not complain about anti-social roommates? I wouldn't be able to bear having to share a room with someone I didn't particularly like (I'd not be keen on having to share at all, actually).

I have discerned that I urgently need a little academic diary with a page per day where I can record the work I have to do, particularly for self-directed study days. My regular diary is almost full for today and tomorrow and we've only had work set for one module out of six. Stationery shopping tomorrow, yay! I love stationery. But I have already chosen exactly what I need, so it is simply a matter of finding a branch of the store that stocks it. There are four in the centre of town so fingers crossed...

[Pilchard123]

My favorite experiment from my Modern Physics Lab course was the one where we measured the average background radiation by carrying a Geiger counter around campus. We got a suspiciously high reading in one of the dorm buildings. Dang Bonaventure Hall nuclear weapons program... 

Was it a granite building?

[cesium133]

It's a brick building. And we also tested the neighboring dorm building that was built at the same time to the same specifications, and it tested at normal background level.

[LTK]

"Give an alternate explanation of the results of article A based on the theories presented in article B and C."

Well, I'm giving it my best, but article C explains that there are a million factors that can influence the results in A and article B presents a theory that predicts the complete opposite of what article A found! AAARGH

[jwhouk]

Simple. "All three theories are unsound."

[Jace]

Today I killed my first spanish test like it was an equal rights amendment to a state constitution in the deep south.

Also one of my big errors in my lab report was that I entered a 7 instead of a 1 for the first digit of a number and couldn't figure out why the density for iron was so far off. It was correct in my notes but it still took me like 30 minutes to find that I'd just put in the wrong number.

The next one is gonna be pretty easy since I have an idea of how to do them.

[LTK]

Simple. "All three theories are unsound."

Well, okay. "The result is that we cannot reliably judge the effect that analytic and nonanalytic processing has on the results of Rubino et al."

I did just spend three paragraphs doing just that but I'm not about to let that work go to waste.

Jace, what are you studying?

[94ssd]

Today I killed my first spanish test like it was an equal rights amendment to a state constitution in the deep south.

I surprisingly didn't bomb my first Arabic test too badly. I got a 78%, which is a C. But I was expecting that I would get like 20% and the professor would write a note saying "just drop the class now" on it.

[Akima]

Barmy, my first "modern physics" lab consisted of the lab assistant handing us all an electrical schematic, a circuit board and a box of parts.  I was the only person in the lab with no electronics training - I knew the symbol for a resistor, that was it.  There was no indication anywhere that electronics knowledge was a prerequisite.

It is bad that they didn't give you the correct prerequisites, but I find this sort of thing very puzzling. There seems, in the USA, to be a serious disconnection between what you study at high-school and what you read at university. I "did" physics at high-school, and basic electronics, circuit design, assembling components etc. was covered, as well as electrical theory. How do people get on degree-level courses in the first place, without having studied the subject to a reasonable level at school? For example, I don't think they'd even let you into a maths degree at UNSW or Sydney Uni if you hadn't scored well in "four-unit" maths at high-school, or equivalent.

[Jace]

Jace, what are you studying?

Like overall? Maths

Currently?
Maths (calculus I again)
Technical Physics
Spanish

[pwhodges]

There seems, in the USA, to be a serious disconnection between what you study at high-school and what you read at university.

This is nothing new, I think.  At A-level (last school exams), I did "Maths for Science" (as opposed to "Double Maths": "Pure" and "Applied" as two full subjects); my A-level included no reference whatever to vector analysis - I didn't even know the term "vector" - but the lecturers in my university Physics course (I changed course, if you remember that I did Engineering) all assumed familiarity with vectors and matrices.  Fortunately the maths lecturer was prepared to give us a crash course.

[Barmymoo]

In my case, I had to have a "science" qualification which was fulfilled by my Sociology A level. The midwifery degree ostensibly starts from scratch teaching anatomy and physiology because even if you did study human biology at A level, you wouldn't have focused on physiology of pregnancy and the female reproductive system in the detail we need to know it. However, "start from scratch" does seem to mean "do it yourself if you don't already know this stuff". That's fine though! I'm off to the city library today to do some self-directed study (I spent the last two hours doing some extra self-directed sleeping and it was glorious).

[Loki]

Exam at 4pm arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I hate tests in the afternoon. Gives me the whole first part of the day and then some to worry about them.

If I don't pass it, I will have to work off my ass in the next semester even more than I have to already, or I will lose my funding. Calm. I learned basically everything I could, except recursive sequences and matrix similarity, because they suck.

[ankhtahr]

Alright, update on my current situation. I got myself a room in Karlsruhe. It's basically the basement of the house of a nice middle aged couple's house, which I'll share with a guy who's going to do his Master's in electronics. That's going to be interesting. I'll move on 5.10.

Everything about my enrolment I needed to do has been done, now I'll have to wait.

And on the 14th the orientation week will start.

[Masterpiece]

Wooo University!

[Metope]

Had my first tutorial of the year today, it went really well! My tutor gave me some useful painting tips, and she told me I have a really good eye for colour, so I'm happy.

[Welu]

First day today. A while back in this thread I gave out about all the audio modules in my course and the tutors managed to get the modules changed! There was going to be another four this year but they've been changed for new more interesting ones, including portfolio design! Also one of my friends has become a part-time tutor for the lower classes. I'm really excited for this course now. 

[Barmymoo]

How did the test go Loki?

Good job ankhtahr, sounds like a good place. Are you actually sharing a room or is it a flat with two bedrooms?

I tried to go to the city library today to do some self-directed study. I spent an hour tramping round the city looking for a specific diary and concertina folder which I didn't manage to do in the end. I got a different diary and it's not great - I needed a ring-bound one really.

Anyway, I finally got to the library. I trekked round it looking for a free computer, which I couldn't find (the only ones not in use were apparently "booked", even though that's not meant to be something you can do). Finally I got one that I could use for 20 minutes total, so I printed off a bunch of uni worksheets at the extortionate rate of 10p a side until I ran out of money. Then I tried to have lunch in the cafe but they didn't even have any vegetarian food, never mind vegan. So I headed off to a nearby Wetherspoons where a lovely girl went to great lengths to find me something that I could eat. That helped a lot.

Back to the library, another failed attempt to find a computer and finally despaired of getting anything done thanks to the inexplicable and incredibly loud fashion parade (I'm serious) taking place in the rotunda in the middle of the building. I asked someone and they said it was being repeated every two hours. So I gathered up my stuff and went off to the uni library (got lost on the way - I've only cycled there, not got the train before). Finally arrived at half four and worked solidly for three hours.

Seriously hoping that next week, my self-directed study will be a bit more directed and also involve a bit more studying!

[LTK]

Anyway, I finally got to the library. I trekked round it looking for a free computer, which I couldn't find (the only ones not in use were apparently "booked", even though that's not meant to be something you can do). Finally I got one that I could use for 20 minutes total, so I printed off a bunch of uni worksheets at the extortionate rate of 10p a side until I ran out of money.

Ah, the workplaces at my university do the same thing. There are 15-minute computers in a separate room but the ones in the main study room do not have a time-limit, except if they detect no activity, in which case they will lock and only the person who was logged in can unlock them. So you're allowed to lock the computer and take a 20-minute break, and when you're not back after that, someone else is supposed to be able to use the computer. But the last time I was at the library there were at least 4 computers that passed the 20-minute break limit, so I asked the person at the desk if they could unlock one for me, but they couldn't, since "someone was using it and they might lose their work". Thus defeating the entire purpose of the 20-minute break limit. Urgh. Fortunately I almost never work alone at the university.

Like overall? Maths

Currently?
Maths (calculus I again)
Technical Physics
Spanish

Ah, I thought you were doing chemistry of a sort, but then I guess you needed the density of iron for Technical Physics, correct?

[Loki]

Alright, update on my current situation. I got myself a room in Karlsruhe.

Congrats!!!

How did the test go Loki?

Meh. We'll see. Thanks for asking. I am getting results (and possibility of appeal) on Friday.

[ankhtahr]

It's not exactly a flat. It's just their basement. We have two separate rooms, we share bathroom and kitchen. The bathroom is our own, we don't share it with the couple, and the kitchen seems a bit improvised. We have two stove tops, a microwave and a fridge, sadly no oven. But I guess it'll suffice.
Actually we're the first tenants they have in their basement, before these rooms were their guest room and home office. They read about students having a hard time finding places to stay, so they decided to repaint the walls, buy new furniture and rent out these two rooms to students. The price is average, and the rooms looked great. I also don't mind living in the basement, we have high windows, so we'll have a bit of daylight, and at least we won't have too much trouble with the heat. Karlsruhe is the hottest city in Germany, and I had lots of trouble with the heat in Kiel already, because I was living under the roof. I didn't want to end up under the roof again.

The house is about 5km from the university, has great access to the local tram (even at night and on weekends) and is in a good neighbourhood.

Meh. We'll see. Thanks for asking. I am getting results (and possibility of appeal) on Friday.

Fingers crossed and Daumen gedrückt.

[Loki]

great access to the local tram (even at night and on weekends)

You have proper public transportation So jealous.

Fingers crossed and Daumen gedrückt.

Danke x)

[ankhtahr]

Having a tram is something I had to get used to during my two stays there. These things are awesomely reliable. Buses here come and leave when they want to, but these trams are really punctual. They are slightly more comfortable as well. Only problem: they smell like urine. I don't really know why though.

[LTK]

Sounds pretty good, actually, Ankh. (Regarding the room. Trams that smell like urine are not very good.) I imagine having a regular couple as landlord-and-lady is a lot easier than having one who has 2099 other tenants to deal with, like in my neighbourhood. Got a lot of floorspace? I hope I get a place as good as that when I move to Sweden.

And oh my god my supervisor wants me to make even MORE changes to my research report WILL IT EVER END

[Barmymoo]

It sounds perfect! Having the landlord on the spot but not having to share facilities is pretty good too. I am still waiting for my landlord to come and fix the damn downstairs hallway light. It is definitely illegal not to have a light in the main entrance (which is the main fire escape) and since it gets dark so early at the moment it's pretty dangerous.

[Akima]

Only problem: they smell like urine. I don't really know why though.

Because drunks piss in them? Trams are awesome; riding them is one of the few good things about visiting Melbourne.

[Jace]

Like overall? Maths

Currently?
Maths (calculus I again)
Technical Physics
Spanish

Ah, I thought you were doing chemistry of a sort, but then I guess you needed the density of iron for Technical Physics, correct?

Yup, not for any real application just because the first two labs are about measurement and error.

[94ssd]

You have proper public transportation So jealous.

I get free public transportation. It's proper enough, just not very punctual. I don't blame them much though. They're driving around a town of 17,000 people plus students where the road infrastructure hasn't really expanded much since there was still 10,000 people and far less students. That translates into big-city traffic problems.

Then I tried to have lunch in the cafe but they didn't even have any vegetarian food, never mind vegan.

There's always vegetarian options here, often they're quite good even to an omnivore like myself. There's a group on campus trying to lobby the school for "Meatless Mondays."

[Carl-E]

the first two labs are about measurement and error.

And you miscopied a value. 


I think that's a pass, with flying colors!! 

It is bad that they didn't give you the correct prerequisites

I had taken all the required prerequisites, at that school.  The vast majority of students were electrical engineers, though.  I think there were a few assumptions being made...

There seems, in the USA, to be a serious disconnection between what you study at high-school and what you read at university. I "did" physics at high-school, and basic electronics, circuit design, assembling components etc. was covered, as well as electrical theory.

OK, physics was theoretical.  Electomagnetism, mechanics, optics... what you're describing seems to be an electronics course.  I knew (know?) how these things work, but that doesn't mean I could read a schematic or design a telescope.  Not without a fair bit more research/training. 

How do people get on degree-level courses in the first place, without having studied the subject to a reasonable level at school? For example, I don't think they'd even let you into a maths degree at UNSW or Sydney Uni if you hadn't scored well in "four-unit" maths at high-school, or equivalent.

OK, I read that syllabus.  I am shamed, but not surprised.  In the US, that's university level work, not high school - you're lucky to get some elementary calculus in high school, let alone enough to understand conics, and no one really works with complex numbers beyond "These things exist as solutions to the quadratic formula, but you'll never need them, so forget about them after the test, OK?"

Our education system sucks at incredibly basic levels, and in college we try desperately to make up for it.  And we often fail.  Then the rest of the world wonders why we have science deniers and illiterate politicians... 

oops, sorry, veered off into a rant there for a moment.    

[cesium133]

Like overall? Maths

Currently?
Maths (calculus I again)
Technical Physics
Spanish

Ah, I thought you were doing chemistry of a sort, but then I guess you needed the density of iron for Technical Physics, correct?

Yup, not for any real application just because the first two labs are about measurement and error.

I remember from when I taught the general physics lab here, and the first lab was about measurement and error. Some of the mathematical exercises in it were about finding the mean and standard deviation for sets of numbers. Most of them assumed they'd be allowed to use a calculator for that, but if you use a calculator to do it, you'll never learn what exactly it is you're doing...

... Did you know that college students these days don't know how to find the mean of a set of three numbers? 

[Jace]

Yes I was losing my mind because my classmates fuck up the maths and I am just like "it is arithmetic, this isn't hard"

[LTK]

I remember from when I taught the general physics lab here, and the first lab was about measurement and error. Some of the mathematical exercises in it were about finding the mean and standard deviation for sets of numbers. Most of them assumed they'd be allowed to use a calculator for that, but if you use a calculator to do it, you'll never learn what exactly it is you're doing...

... Did you know that college students these days don't know how to find the mean of a set of three numbers? 

What kind of calculators are you using? My TI-89 doesn't have the option of providing the mean and standard deviation for a list of numbers unless I get a function for that.

And I'll be honest, even though I know what a standard deviation is in relation to a normal distribution, I have completely forgotten how to calculate it by hand. 

[cesium133]

I'm pretty sure the TI-89 does have a function for that. Most of my students were using whatever the more recent model is ("TI Inspire" or whatever it's called, whichever model they were selling circa 2007). If I remember correctly, the syntax on the TI-89 is stddev({1,2,3}).

[Carl-E]

It's the N-spire (clever, no?  No.)  And has a TI-84 insert.  I think the N is because they can be networked in an equipped classroom.  There's another insert which allows it to be a full-blown computer algebra system (CAS). 

The 89 is not user friendly for stats, but it's all there. 

I like to attend TI symposiums and laugh. 

[LTK]

Hmm, now that I think about it, you're probably right. During high school the only statistical functions I recall using on my calculator were for binominal probabilities, but calculating the mean was much easier by hand.

[Barmymoo]

I have heard that college in the US is somewhere between A level and degree standard in the UK, which by the sound of it seems true at least for maths. Of course I have no way to genuinely compare, because neither of my undergraduate degrees even exist in the USA!

Then I tried to have lunch in the cafe but they didn't even have any vegetarian food, never mind vegan.

There's always vegetarian options here, often they're quite good even to an omnivore like myself. There's a group on campus trying to lobby the school for "Meatless Mondays."

There are usually vegetarian options here, I've never been anywhere that didn't have at lesat something, but I think the issue was that the vegetarian options were BETTER than the meat options, so they were all eaten! All that was left was tuna, chicken or beef.

I've been trying to persuade the places I visit regularly to stock vegan baked goods. There are some extremely delicious vegan cookies and cakes, and honestly I don't believe that people would refuse to eat a vegan chocolate cake, for example (before anyone starts objecting to the idea that a chocolate cake can exist without dairy, bear in mind that most dark chocolate is vegan by default), and vegans and lactose intolerant people would be able to eat them too - sales would increase, not decrease!

[snalin]

And I'll be honest, even though I know what a standard deviation is in relation to a normal distribution, I have completely forgotten how to calculate it by hand. 

The mean of the sum of the squares of the deviations? I think?

(Σ_{i=1 to n} (mean-x_i)²)/(n-1)  ???

Or have I completely lost it?

EDIT: no, that's the variance, right? SD is the root of that?

I aced statistics two years ago, but my head has apparently gone "NOPE, fuck that knowledge!"

[LTK]

That formula rings a bell, yeah.

Oh, goddamn it.

I just received an e-mail about the Annual Master Thesis Award for Cognitive Neuroscience. Their thesis submission deadline is tomorrow, and I can submit my thesis for a chance at winning on the following conditions: it has been graded an 8.0 or higher, no later than a year ago.

Earlier I thought I didn't have a chance to submit it, but now, I could easily do this had my thesis actually been graded. But my supervisor returned it to me yesterday, saying that it just needed a few more minor adjustments before she could grade it. Given that I turned in what I considered my final revision two versions ago, I would have just submitted the one I already made, but the requirement for an 8.0 minimum prevented me from doing that since it hasn't actually been graded. I'm confident that I will get a grade around that ballpark, but now my submission is just not happening because of the need for those final adjustments.

I don't know I'm being lackadaisical to those minor niggles in my report or if my supervisor is just being pernickety. Nor do I really expect to actually win that award, but not having a chance in the first place really bothers me.

Oh well, I guess I could try next year.

[94ssd]

So tomorrow's football game is "Family Day."

I've already found a place to hide.

[94ssd]

If I was in charge, I'd institute a strict "no parents in the dorms between move-in day and move-out day, except in case of emergency."

I guess I can kind of understand why you want your folks to visit, but why the hell do you have to give the grand dorm tour.

[cesium133]

"So, uh, here's my room, and there's the shitter. There are some more rooms down that hallway."

[Barmymoo]

Why would it not be normal to want to show people you care about the place where you live? How does it affect you in any way?

[ankhtahr]

oh my fucking god, on Monday the introduction week will start. I'm so fucking nervous. Social anxieties starting to flare up and everything. I mean, sure everybody there is in exactly the same situation, but still, so many fucking people I don't know. Also I still haven't received my student id, or my "Immatrikulationsnummer", which is why I can't print myself (fuck, I don't even have a printer) a confirmation that I'm studying, which I need to get myself a student ticket for the tram. I can download it from the university's website with the login data they sent me, but when I log in for the first time I need my "Immatrikulationsnummer" to confirm it's really me. Fuck. From what I've heard (I spoke with one of the tutors at the local hackerspace) you need a ticket for the tram during the introduction week.

And I also need a passport picture of myself, so they can print a "Fachschafts"-ID. I'm too tired and stressed to try and explain what a Fachschaft is. If you want to know it, just google it. A dictionary tells me that it's something like a "student association" or "student council".

[Metope]

I know it's probably pointless to tell you to relax, but at least I can tell you that shit like that happens all the time, and it always gets solved one way or another. When I moved to Glasgow to study, they wouldn't let me enrol because I hadn't paid my fees yet, but I couldn't pay my fees because the loan company in Norway required my enrolment papers in order to process my application. When my brother (Jeans on this forum) got in to his uni in Krakow, they needed proof of his high school grades with stamps of authenticity from everyone and their grandmother in the police and government, but everyone were on vacation since it was the middle of summer, so he couldn't get anything. Both of us managed to sort it out in the end, I don't know how my brother did it, but I managed because someone in the administration at my school were very helpful and knew exactly what to do, and there's someone like that at every school since they deal with new students with problems every year. Good luck, I'm sure it'll all be sorted out!

[ankhtahr]

I would have gone to the help desk tomorrow, but they're closed on Fridays. And as the introduction week starts on Monday… Well.

[Masterpiece]

Ankhtahr, the fact that you haven't received your Immatrikulationsnummer might just be a mistake on the university's part. What is the postal address you provided them? There could be a typo involved.

In any case, it is recommendable that you visit the Studentenkanzlei (or any office that provides the same service) where you registered in the university. I didn't receive my student papers for this semester either (which included the semester ticket) and a simple inquiry at the Studentenkanzlei revealed that I had mistyped my address and that the papers were returned. They gave them to me without any fuss.

Do it tomorrow.


edit: Are you at KIT or at TH?
2nd edit: didn't notice the pagebreak and the fact that the student office is closed. Sorry.