Topic: University/College (Read 450093 times)

Sorflakne · « **Reply #2050 on:** 13 Dec 2013, 09:02 »

I wonder if I could just rent my books and then pay the difference at the end of the semester if I decided I want to keep it...

As far as countering overpriced books, I know of half.com, but I've never used it.

Barmymoo · « **Reply #2051 on:** 13 Dec 2013, 13:21 »

Ankhtahr, there is no way that a party should be compulsory. So go home and sleep if you want to!

ankhtahr · « **Reply #2052 on:** 13 Dec 2013, 13:58 »

Well, it's the party where I'm responsible for a large part of the organisation. Also it isn't too bad, I slept until 16:00, so staying up till the morning shouldn't be a big problem. Also it is kinda fun to be organising this instead of participating. It'd be far too loud and everything, but sitting here is fun.

Loki · « **Reply #2053 on:** 13 Dec 2013, 14:21 »

Ankh, remember to write down everything you do for the Fachschaft somewhere. It'll help should you ever need a list for your resumee or whatever.

Sorry, realized this sounded a bit patronising. Have fun!

94ssd · « **Reply #2054 on:** 13 Dec 2013, 14:31 »

I have a B- in Arabic, so I guess taking the final paid off after all. The only class I don't have a grade in yet is Lighting and Sound. That grade will be an A- if I get a B on the Final Project, which I'm pretty sure I can manage. Considering the sheer size of the project (I had to upload 11 files for mine, one of which was actually a .zip file of moving lights data), and the fact that we had until noon today to make revisions based on comments he made during our presentation yesterday, I probably won't get a grade until Monday (which is the last day for professors to submit them).

Quote from: Sorflakne on 13 Dec 2013, 09:02

I wonder if I could just rent my books and then pay the difference at the end of the semester if I decided I want to keep it...

As far as countering overpriced books, I know of half.com, but I've never used it.

I'm considering "losing" my Stage Management textbook because it has a lot of useful advice and appendixes for when I stage manage next year. However I could probably buy it for cheaper than the lost book fee somewhere else.

Barmymoo · « **Reply #2055 on:** 13 Dec 2013, 14:43 »

Today was sort of the last day of term (I say sort of because yesterday was the last day of lectures but next week is a reading week when I should be working). I was on the delivery suite and had a really great day, feeling genuinely useful and competent even when I had to pull the emergency buzzer (everything was fine, it turned out, but still scary). I gave breastfeeding advice - I had never even SEEN someone breastfeed before, not properly close up, but those videos I watched the other week paid off! - and helped move people between wards, and chatted to the women and spent quite a lot of time on my own while my mentor was off doing other things. This isn't really meant to happen; we're supposed to be totally supernumary as students and aren't meant to be left unsupervised, but I wasn't doing anything complicated and we were very short staffed as usual.

One thing I did not do: see any births. I had a feeling I wouldn't be breaking my streak of not managing to see any (some of my year have seen three in one day, never mind none all term) and I am not bothered because I've learnt so much anyway, but it's quite funny really.

snalin · « **Reply #2056 on:** 13 Dec 2013, 15:17 »

I aced my oral exam! It was on (programming) language design and implementation, and I felt like I was doing great throughout the entire thing. I'll probably get a B on my other exam - I missed a stupidly easy question - and the guy who's grading my term project is going to be using that project to teach next semester, so he'd better give me a damn A.

It's been a good autumn for university! Now for some much deserved rest before the spirng semester.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #2057 on:** 13 Dec 2013, 23:24 »

Quote from: Sorflakne on 13 Dec 2013, 09:02

I wonder if I could just rent my books and then pay the difference at the end of the semester if I decided I want to keep it...

That's usually how the rental sites work, actually. You pay the fee, and then it tells you how much you get charged at the end if you don't return them (usually a little more than the remaining amount, I think).

ChaoSera · « **Reply #2058 on:** 15 Dec 2013, 07:26 »

I have a presentation due on Tuesday. Now, while that itself is not a problem, the fact that my main resource is a research paper written by a Chinese scientist, is. Not because I have anything against Chinese people, but because the scientist could benefit from a few more English lessons. It's not exactly bad, but just bad enough to make it exhausting to read and difficult to understand. The fact that the subject itself is relatively complex too doesn't help either, but that's not the scientist's fault.
Still, I'm kind of exhausted already and I've just about finished a third of the paper.

94ssd · « **Reply #2059 on:** 15 Dec 2013, 18:13 »

I made the motherfucking Dean's List! I think the last time I was recognized for good grades was Elementary School.

jwhouk · « **Reply #2060 on:** 15 Dec 2013, 18:17 »

Three things in life that are certain:

1. Death.
2. Taxes.
3. Mount Union College and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater play for the Division III National Championship in Men's (American) Football in the Stagg Bowl.

(whistles the "Warhawk Fight Song" innocently)

94ssd · « **Reply #2061 on:** 15 Dec 2013, 19:41 »

Quote from: jwhouk on 15 Dec 2013, 18:17

Three things in life that are certain:

1. Death.
2. Taxes.
3. Mount Union College and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater play for the Division III National Championship in Men's (American) Football in the Stagg Bowl.

(whistles the "Warhawk Fight Song" innocently)

At a certain point the NCAA should just be like "okay you're both in Division II now."

cesium133 · « **Reply #2062 on:** 15 Dec 2013, 19:45 »

I haven't really paid much attention to the football team of the college I went to... I got bored with it after they won a game against a team that wasn't deaf.

Loki · « **Reply #2063 on:** 16 Dec 2013, 00:31 »

Math is still an asshole and I haven't had enough sleep. Homework turn-in in two hours.

ChaoSera · « **Reply #2064 on:** 16 Dec 2013, 15:37 »

So, I'm a bit drunk but I think I'm conscious enough to finish my presentation. Otherwise I'll have to get up early tomorrow, and if there's one thing I hate, it's getting up early. So yeah, DRUNK SCIENCE!

jwhouk · « **Reply #2065 on:** 16 Dec 2013, 16:37 »

Quote from: 94ssd on 15 Dec 2013, 19:41

Quote from: jwhouk on 15 Dec 2013, 18:17
Three things in life that are certain:

1. Death.
2. Taxes.
3. Mount Union College and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater play for the Division III National Championship in Men's (American) Football in the Stagg Bowl.

(whistles the "Warhawk Fight Song" innocently)

At a certain point the NCAA should just be like "okay you're both in Division II now."

Problem is, we can't move up because of our conference affiliation.

We both benefit from being in the middle of population centers that have at least three DI-BCS schools within a 100-mile radius. If you can't get into them, we're the fallback - and we actually give you an education to boot.

jwhouk · « **Reply #2066 on:** 20 Dec 2013, 19:19 »

52-14.

That's #5 for us.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #2067 on:** 20 Dec 2013, 20:38 »

We need more book learnin' posts with all this sports talk here.

ChaoSera · « **Reply #2068 on:** 21 Dec 2013, 03:22 »

Quote from: ChaoSera on 16 Dec 2013, 15:37

So, I'm a bit drunk but I think I'm conscious enough to finish my presentation. Otherwise I'll have to get up early tomorrow, and if there's one thing I hate, it's getting up early. So yeah, DRUNK SCIENCE!

If anyone's interested, I got a 1.3 on that presentation (that's somewhat around 95% or so). I spoke for about 10 minutes more than I was supposed to, but lucky for me the professor didn't mind that much.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #2069 on:** 21 Dec 2013, 14:11 »

1.3? Out of what? How does that work?

ankhtahr · « **Reply #2070 on:** 21 Dec 2013, 15:58 »

Quote from: ankhtahr on 10 Dec 2013, 11:57

Traditionally grades in Germany go from 1 to 6, with 1.0 being the best and 6.0 being the worst. There are some places where 0.5 is considered the best though (as every grade needs to be exactly one grade wide, so you have a 1 with 0,5 to 1,49, a 2 with 1,5 to 2,49 and so on. At university afaik there is only 1.0 to 4.0 and 5. 5 meaning you failed (so they don't differentiate by how much you failed), everything else meaning that you passed.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #2071 on:** 21 Dec 2013, 16:11 »

Oh, ok, so basically letter grades, and a 1.3 is an equivalent to an A- in the states. Gotcha.

ChaoSera · « **Reply #2072 on:** 22 Dec 2013, 03:35 »

Pretty much, yeah. Although there's no A+. Anyway, Drunk Science works!

94ssd · « **Reply #2073 on:** 22 Dec 2013, 06:12 »

My university doesn't have an A+ or a D-.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #2074 on:** 22 Dec 2013, 07:18 »

Right, a 1.0 is an A. My school didn't have A+s either. I don't know about D-s.

snalin · « **Reply #2075 on:** 03 Jan 2014, 05:45 »

You don't know about D-s

Method of Madness · « **Reply #2076 on:** 03 Jan 2014, 08:34 »

Did I accidentally reference BITCHES DON'T KNOW ABOUT MY D MINUS?

94ssd · « **Reply #2077 on:** 06 Jan 2014, 07:14 »

So my school made FIRE's "Worst Colleges for Free Speech" list. After a year of censoring professors (and the Chancellor saying "lolno" to the Faculty Senate and UNC System Policy telling him to not punish the professor) and protecting rapist athletes, it's not exactly undeserved.

Yet my opinion that we should be glad the current chancellor is resigning and not giving him goodbye parties and shit is the unpopular one.

ChaoSera · « **Reply #2078 on:** 07 Jan 2014, 09:36 »

I have about a month left until my first exam this semester, but I really don't want to start studying for it. I hate studying.

Barmymoo · « **Reply #2079 on:** 07 Jan 2014, 10:58 »

I had my end-of-module exam for my least favourite subject today, hurrah! It went ok, all I needed to do was pass and I'm sure I've managed that. Three weeks til the deadline for another end-of-module assignment, and then I'll have done half of my academic work for this year. It seems pretty ridiculous to me how fast it's gone!

Also, I tried to click Reply and accidentally clicked Go Up. I didn't even know that button existed when did that appear

pwhodges · « **Reply #2080 on:** 07 Jan 2014, 11:17 »

Forever. It's one of those useless things that web pages have. It's kind-of invisible through uselessness, like the "previous" and "next" buttons that I always expect to take me to the previous or next page but actually work by thread.

Barmymoo · « **Reply #2081 on:** 07 Jan 2014, 11:18 »

I use the previous and next buttons for browsing without replying, and I shall use the Go Up one now!

Carl-E · « **Reply #2082 on:** 07 Jan 2014, 12:22 »

There's a matching one at the top that says "go down".

Now I'm thinking of "Love in an elevator"...

Barmymoo · « **Reply #2083 on:** 07 Jan 2014, 15:12 »

OH MY GOODNESS SO THERE IS. This changes everything. Seriously, I spend a lot of time scrolling up and down the pages.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #2084 on:** 07 Jan 2014, 15:45 »

It took me a while to realize what you meant by clicking reply because I forgot that "quick reply" has to be enabled and wasn't there by default.

pwhodges · « **Reply #2085 on:** 07 Jan 2014, 16:19 »

Quote from: Barmymoo on 07 Jan 2014, 15:12

OH MY GOODNESS SO THERE IS. This changes everything. Seriously, I spend a lot of time scrolling up and down the pages.

Don't you click the "new" icon to go straight to the first unread post when you select a thread? No scrolling needed at all much of the time.

Barmymoo · « **Reply #2086 on:** 07 Jan 2014, 16:28 »

I do, but when I reach the bottom of the page sometimes I want to go back to the top of the page to check something, and maybe for some reason go back to the bottom.

Method of Madness · « **Reply #2087 on:** 07 Jan 2014, 17:07 »

Do your home/end keys not work?

Sorflakne · « **Reply #2088 on:** 07 Jan 2014, 17:40 »

Had my first day of classes today; yesterday was cancelled because MN's governor cancelled school across the state due to a massive cold snap that never materialized. But hey, a snow day is a snow day, so who am I to argue?

I got to school well ahead of time, since they take attendance VERY seriously there (though I later found out that a lot of the instructors are kind of relaxed about it as long as you have a legit excuse). I then found that I had several schedule changes: classes don't start until 900 on Mondays, so I get to sleep in that day, one of my classes only meets for a couple months apparently, and doesn't start until March (which means Tues and Thurs I have like three hours between classes), and finally, I learned that my last class of the day ends a half hour sooner than listed, so I'm done for the day at 1400 (1200 on Fridays). Best of all, one of my classes will basically be a repeat of some self-learning I did last summer, so I'm hoping to breeze right through that course after I shake the rust off (as soon as the instructor posts the assignments list so I can get cracking).

I'm actually really glad we had a snow day yesterday now...I'd have been a little irked had I shown up at 730 and then found out class didn't start for another 1.5 hours.

And on the downside, I discovered that my Python shell doesn't work when my school computer is connected to my home internet (but works just fine at the school), so I'll have to figure out how to fix that...

snalin · « **Reply #2089 on:** 09 Jan 2014, 11:55 »

... Wait what? Is the shell running on another computer you ssh into, or is your internet connection having an effect on a offline application?

94ssd · « **Reply #2090 on:** 09 Jan 2014, 13:35 »

So I move back to my anti-free speech for professors, pro-rapist athletes, pro-spending tens of millions to move up to a higher football division while cutting academic programs University tomorrow.

But hey, look at the purty campus!

Carl-E · « **Reply #2091 on:** 10 Jan 2014, 03:07 »

They have transfers, don't they?

Find someplace cheaper with a better program and less of a reputation...

94ssd · « **Reply #2092 on:** 10 Jan 2014, 04:50 »

Quote from: Carl-E on 10 Jan 2014, 03:07

They have transfers, don't they?

Find someplace cheaper with a better program and less of a reputation...

I was expecting someone would say this. I did heavily consider it and even paid a visit to another college. That said, here's my response.

1. I like my program, a lot. I like the professors and the friends I've made and I'm being afford with unique opportunities. I have a job, a professional conference to go to this spring, and an internship lined up this summer. My anger is with top-level administration.

2. I like the community the school is in more than anywhere else. I looked at other public colleges that have my program and don't cost much more (all were either the same cost or a bit more) They were all either in big cities or in the godforsaken sun-blasted plains of Eastern North Carolina.

3. Much of my anger is at top-level UNC-system administration. I can't really afford to get away from that by going to a private or out-of-state college.

4. I don't have the money to compromise my ability to graduate on time by transferring. Transferring could cause me to lose a lot of credits or have them only count at electives. This is especially problematic within the UNC-system because of the "tuition surcharge," which penalizes you for taking more than 110% of the hours needed to get your degree(s)

5. If I ran away from problems instead of trying to fight them, I would have had to run away from homophobia and cisgenderism in my high school, housing discrimination and voting rights violations in my city, and additional voting rights violations (as well as problems at the university) here, not to mention the entire fucking state of North Carolina after the passage of Amendment One. But I don't like jumping ship when there's still a possibility to make a difference. A lot of these problems don't have the reputation that they should (although the censorship issue did make national news). I would actually love for this school to be under a microscope so that they have to change.

Carl-E · « **Reply #2093 on:** 10 Jan 2014, 05:28 »

Point taken, and more power to you. This, too, shall end...

94ssd · « **Reply #2094 on:** 10 Jan 2014, 14:23 »

All moved in. Despite my complaints at campus administration, my room still feels more like home than home does. A lot is going to be happening this semester. Some of it will be awesome, though. Let's see what happens.

Masterpiece · « **Reply #2095 on:** 10 Jan 2014, 15:03 »

I got a letter yesterday, from the vice president of the university, encouraging me to apply for what he calls an elite major programme after I've finished my bachelor. He tells me I posses all the qualities to excel in the "software engineering" masters program and invited me to an introductory evening meant to tell us more.

I am out of my mind for the honors, but I have honestly no fucking clue how this happened.

Pilchard123 · « **Reply #2096 on:** 10 Jan 2014, 15:38 »

See, what happened was that someone typed a letter, put it in an envelope, addressed it to you...

Oh, you didn't mean like that. Carry on.

(Congrats!

)

Carl-E · « **Reply #2097 on:** 11 Jan 2014, 15:42 »

Probably thanks to some program that skimmed the top n% of students in your program from the admissions database. IIRC, you're a new student there, so they're looking at your transcript info.

Or you know, a blanket form letter. You might want to ask around to see who else got one...

Either way, if it sounds like an interesting program, go for it!

Masterpiece · « **Reply #2098 on:** 11 Jan 2014, 17:34 »

Seems like some of my friends got it too. I don't care! He still calls me an elite!

To be honest, I am sorta interested, because the Software engineering module I took in my bachelors was one of the most fulfilling and fun works I did in my studies. But the theoretical stuff would probably cover things like Scrum and V-Modell and UML Diagrams, and I've got enough of those already. I also love my current major, Human-Computer Interaction. But the letter mentions close industry ties, like Microsoft (so fucking tempting).

94ssd · « **Reply #2099 on:** 11 Jan 2014, 18:00 »

So my Arabic textbook for this semester looks much more complicated than the one I had last semester. The first semester textbook was colorful, had pictures, and had all the Arabic words in large print. This year it's mostly in Arabic (with smaller font) as is lacking the pictures and elementary school-esque exercises. It seems like a huge leap.

THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)

Author Topic: University/College (Read 450093 times)