THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => CHATTER => Topic started by: Coreh on 01 Mar 2008, 00:29
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hallo! it's been quite a while since i've posted on the forums and/or visited gabbly for more than 2 minutes, so i'm just gonna catch you guys up on what's been happening, if'n yer interested. which, if you aren't, that's cool too!
I quit uni, first of all! and my family's been really cool about it, i have no idea what i'm going to do with my life right now. i've moved back home with me parents, and i'm hating it, but i'm supposed to move in with a friend of mine, but he's spiraling into stonerhood and i don't know if i can handle that. i had a bit of emotional trauma a few nights ago, but since then i've been super happy and positive about things! life has been good considering my extended family thinks i'm a failure! soooooooooo i'm probably gonna disappear for a few more months after this, but i was just feeling the need to post a thread!
tl;dr LOL i quit uni, and am aimless and happy. :)
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I was wondering where you'd got to! I was gonna send you a message on myspace but I forgot.
Good luck with lifes!
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nice to hear from you again, cory. how did you decide to quit uni?
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or why?
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Cory, come move in with me. At the worst you can replace my roommate's retarded cat; at least you are cute and entertaining and can give hugs and snuggles without clawing upp people's faces!
Yeah!
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Coryyyyyyy save up your money and come to Tronno with all of us!
Is good to have you back, dogg.
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Hola! Now that you've dropped uni, you should totally start taking some community/junior college courses... It's a great way to avoid entering the "real world" and it also (theoretically) teaches you stuff.
In other words, nice to have you back!
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Man, we had a gabbly full of queers a couple of nights back and I was wondering where you were.
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i am actually kind of against the idea of pursuing further education purely for the sake of getting a higher paying job mainly because i have seen way too many people in my extended family end up either becoming these incredibly superficial rich assholes who secretly hate their lives, or having existential crisises and quiting their jobs altogether at 30 or so.
you are young! you have lots of options! i know it is really hard to not care about what other people think but you seem to be happy and doing good anyway so my advice is here is maybe a bit redundant. still, you are going to be fine.
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I dropped out of uni and it was the best decision I ever made.
"But you'll never get a degree HAUGFHBLBLBGBL!!"
Fuck that noise. A degree does not equate happiness. I've got a great job, a good place to live and I'm happy with that.
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i am actually kind of against the idea of pursuing further education purely for the sake of getting a higher paying job mainly because i have seen way too many people in my extended family end up either becoming these incredibly superficial rich assholes who secretly hate their lives, or having existential crisises and quiting their jobs altogether at 30 or so.
I'm circumventing this by aiming for a degree in fields where nobody will actually want to hire me.
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The only reason I'm getting a degree is because it looks good on your resume. I'm taking the cheapest route possible, too. And I'm only learning things I want to learn. If I wasn't told that having a B.S. in something was pretty much mandatory in the career field I'm going for, I'd have maybe gone for some math and programming courses at a community college (which is what I'm doing anyway), but I wouldn't sink dozens of thousands of dollars into a piece of paper that says I spent that much money.
Higher education is a job in which you pay the company you work for. The higher the rates, the more the work, and the less the guarantee that you'll make a return at a new job when you 'quit' this one is not as high. The less the rates, roughly the same amount of work, and the better chance you have at making a profit on your initial investment in the four years following.
I went to Virginia Tech for a year, hated it, came back home. In community college right now in a transfer program, I'm learning more, spending less, and in general having a good time.
Basically what I am saying is I applaud your decision Corey.
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i am actually kind of against the idea of pursuing further education purely for the sake of getting a higher paying job mainly because i have seen way too many people in my extended family end up either becoming these incredibly superficial rich assholes who secretly hate their lives, or having existential crisises and quiting their jobs altogether at 30 or so.
I'm circumventing this by aiming for a degree in fields where nobody will actually want to hire me.
You're a business admin major, too?
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Christ, no. It'll probably be Anthropology, Sociology or English.
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The only reason I'm getting a degree is because it looks good on your resume. I'm taking the cheapest route possible, too. And I'm only learning things I want to learn. If I wasn't told that having a B.S. in something was pretty much mandatory in the career field I'm going for, I'd have maybe gone for some math and programming courses at a community college (which is what I'm doing anyway), but I wouldn't sink dozens of thousands of dollars into a piece of paper that says I spent that much money.
These things are my exact problems in higher education. Experience, skill, and knowledge of a field don't mean much anymore. It only seems to count if you have your baccalaureate, masters, etc. Hell, it doesn't even matter what field you have a bachelor's in. It's all résumé padding.
Now I'm not saying I'm against higher education in and of itself. I'm against the idea that the degrees mean more than the actual knowledge. I'm also against students who don't deserve degrees (EG Lazy bastards who can't write a coherent paper to save their lives and just plain do not apply themselves into any educational task) getting them.
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I wouldn't be able to deal with being labeled a failure by my family. :| I'm going to community college for a couple years, then transferring to a state college to get a degree in Graphic Design or Communications or whatever the fuck the field is where I use computers to make any sort of media or design stuff. I really want to get a job doing something that isn't boring as shit, but also have flexible hours. So, I'm hoping that this is the right field for me.
What's cool is, I've already got a job doing the stuff, and it's exactly what I want. However, I want to move away from here and delve deeper into the field and find some really interesting stuff. What terrifies me is all this outsourcing and crowdsourcing stuff. I really hope it doesn't leave me jobless in the future.
Nice to hear from you again, Coreh.
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Heh, I'm doing my degree because there's no other way that will make me learn all this awesome stuff I'd love to know. I really believe that that's the best reason for higher education.
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Man, we had a gabbly full of queers a couple of nights back and I was wondering where you were.
Yeah, we came up with this whole gay pirate movie concept.
Welcome back!
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Forte, I totally agree. Because honestly, during the zombie apocalypse, how much good is a Masters in Business Administration going to do you?
I was told that the B.S. is unofficially required because it proves you can put it in the hard work (in case you're wondering, I'm trying to get into the game industry). If your portfolio is good enough, they'll sometimes overlook this, but yeah, it's essentially resume padding.
And I HATE lazy students. I had a kid (I say kid, when I believe he's actually 7 years older than me) in one of my classes last year (he had Asperger's, but the kind where you don't shut up or shower), who prided himself on not having a job and living off of disability pay. He was also notorious for turning in utter crap for his assignments, and a few cases of blatant plagiarism. He had to take that class three times to pass (you have to have special permission to take it more than twice), and scraped by with a 61. He's had to take most of his classes twice or more because of his sheer lack of effort. He had take Studies in Mythology twice. It's easier than Leisure in Society. A class in which we played kickball several times.
I've been told he's really good at math and physics if he applies himself, which has been apparently twice. I don't know how he thinks he's ever going to get a job in the industry with the kind of work ethic he has, nay, flaunts. His smell creates a visible radius in the classroom...people try to keep at least 8 feet away at all times.
Sorry about the rant.
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Welcome back Coreh! Now its cool to say gae again!
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Welcome back! It's good to hear from you again!
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Yeah, welcome back! I hope quitting uni works out for you. For me it was the best thing I've ever done!
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Now I'm not saying I'm against higher education in and of itself. I'm against the idea that the degrees mean more than the actual knowledge.
i agree with you on this so hard. the worst thing is that it's not only students who have this mentality, but it's ingrained within the institution itself. at least at my university the administration and faculty seem to make it very clear that the important thing isn't that the students learn anything useful, but that they pass their classes. it really makes me sick, and i feel like i am really wasting my time when i go to classes where my teachers don't even lecture and write 10 page papers on bullshit. unfortunately i need and want my diploma because the field in which i want to work is really competitive. i just wish i was actually learning something in the meantime.
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what bums me out too is the mentality that people who go to university or pursue a post-secondary education are smarter than people who don't. it's just a very specific kind of work and a specific kind of mindset. i am pretty fucking stupid but have always somehow known how to get good grades in school, which is why i figure i might as well go for the degree. however, some of the smartest people i know just can't write papers or take exams because they find it horribly useless and impractical. that and anybody who thinks you won't find stupid people in university is deluding themselves.
judging from family experiences again, i find the people who are likely to pressure you to go to university or college and will deem you a failure if you don't are usually the same people who are those assholes that only want to talk about their jobs and make other people feel bad and nobody actually likes them that much and it's like, man why did i even invite you here you're sort of a dick.
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I really wanted to go to university and got accepted into them ivy leagues and mcgills and whatnot but then i didn't have enough money to go. For this reason it always infuriates me that some people go to uni just to pad out a resume or party or whatever.
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Welcome back man
(http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/5963/mydegreejk6.gif)
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Hey Peanut, good to see you are doing well.
My thoughts on higher education are that for certain fields it's pretty necessary (Psychology for instance) so that you actually know how to do the stuff you need to do. Sometimes it's just so you have a B.something to pad out a resume. Hell I've just finished my Bachelors and I'm looking at another 4 years of postgrad but that (and the exhorbitant pricetag) is the price you pay I suppose. You don't need to go to uni to get a good job and be happy but sometimes you do, if that is what you want.
Follow your dreams, kids (not the ones about riding ice cream donkeys with Dean Martin, the other ones)!
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thanks for the words of encouragement, peeps!
i quit uni because my uni's math department shat the bed daily, and i failed the class, i dropped down below the required hours necessary to maintain my federal financial aid, and couldn't pay anymore. i was starting to hate uni life anyway. so i'm back home for a little while, until i can get a job lined up, and i'm gonna start a community college. i was pretty lightened up by chuck's comment, i know a few people who've been really successful after not going to college, so it makes the prospect of not being in uni seem better.
thanks people!
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I dropped out of college after one semester (of which I earned a C, a D, and three Fs) and did absolutely nothing that would raise my standard of living above the poverty line until I was 28. I'm doing well enough now that there ain't going to be no tax rebate check if you catch my drift. My wife dropped out of tenth grade and is doing just as well as I am.
People tell me I should go back to school all the time and all I can say is "Why?" and "What good would a degree do for me now?". That's not to say I advocate being a slack-ass when it comes to your education, but you're not doomed to a life of destitute poverty just because you don't have a degree. Provided that you're putting a little effort into your life.
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I will never have a doctorate in anything, but I am pretty confident I could do it, snap snap.
I just don't fucking care about anything you can get a PhD in.
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Next time anyone says this, think about the fact that I have a degree.
What's your degree in again?
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I'm determined to go through grad school at some point. The kind of work that I want to do with my life requires letters after my name.
I sure as hell don't want to get started on THAT project for at least 4 or 5 years after slogging through the last of undergrad. I graduate in 2 1/2 months and I am STILL not prepared to focus my life on school nearly enough to get what I want out of it. I need to do other shit for a good while before I start on my life's work.
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I really wanted to go to university and got accepted into them ivy leagues and mcgills and whatnot but then i didn't have enough money to go.
one of my best friends during first year of uni got a scholarship worth something liike $5000 when she was accepted to guelph. however, she also had parents that were stupid rich and they decided the best reward for her hard work would be to give her the $5000 they were originally going to spend on her tuition in spending money instead. she pretty much spent it all on drugs.
guelph offers a ridiculously small number of scholarships to students. something like 6 awarded annually for about 1500 first year social science undergraduates alone. i don't know about other schools but i'm guessing it's similar. apparently rich kids who don't even need the money can end up getting them. i think there needs to be a better system here.
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Scholarships are generally divided into two types, academic excellence ones and financial need ones. Academic ones are usually a "free for all best grades gets them", while financial ones do require that the applicant have an actual need. Scholarships for foreigners are way more limited though, and usually only compete for the academic ones. I did actually recieve scholarships for varying amounts from a few places, including a 5000 one from Guelph. However that wasn't quite enough so boo, i alro ran into the amusing situation that my parents, while not being filthy rich, could have paid the things but decided not to, but since i am not from a poor family, i couldn't get one of the financial help things. It was quit shitty.
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heh, I teach in higher education now, and my own screwy educational background says a lot about my views on the value and point of education. Like, most of the skills I now teach I learned on my own, not in a class. After all, my undergraduate studies were in a completely different field, and grad school was about deepening my existing artistic practice, not learning fundamental skills.
These things are my exact problems in higher education. Experience, skill, and knowledge of a field don't mean much anymore. It only seems to count if you have your baccalaureate, masters, etc.
Although I agree with your point overall, I do want to play devil's advocate here. I mean, while the whole view of education as simply job training is pretty sickening (starting from elementary school incidentally, this isn't just about higher education,) there are a number of important points of practicality to consider. Not the least of which being that employers need filters when screening candidates. After all, while it would be peachy keen if employers really got to know every candidate, spending the time to get a full understanding of each person's experiences and knowledge, that simply isn't reasonable when there are hundreds of applicants. The employer isn't going to spend the time and money to run a hundred intensive counseling sessions, they need to quickly and efficiently find someone who can do the job. Credentials are a fast way for HR to narrow the field to people more likely to be able to do the job.
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Incidentally, one of the schools I teach at, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, takes an approach that, while entirely too idealistic to work for most students/institutions, I like a great deal. SAIC doesn't bother with grades (The only other school without grades that I can think of off the top of my head is Brown). All classes are pass/fail, and so everything is based around students actually being motivated to learn. Besides, it's art school; people don't go to art school expecting the degree to land them a job.
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You're a fool!
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what bums me out too is the mentality that people who go to university or pursue a post-secondary education are smarter than people who don't.
Next time anyone says this, think about the fact that I have a degree.
Give that some serious thought.
My life has no meaning anymore. THANKS A LOT TOMMY.
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I am at uni to learn useful things about science! On the way I am going to get some degrees in foreign language, mostly because through a uni I could feasibly be paid to go study abroad for a year, or maybe do two or three different trips. There is the unfortunate fact that in America at least, you almost have to have a degree to get a job that pays above the poverty line, and I hate it, but I also need my money.
Ebbeh.
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In Norway, the average uni student has 22 hours of study per week on average.
Twenty two per week! That is ridiculously low!
I have eight or nine... You must hate me.
I think that if you are not in college to do something you like, that is maybe not the best course of action? I am doing what I do because I like it (well half, the other half I would if the teaching was better) not because it is going to get me a job. I mean. Arts degree. This qualifies me to stay in university for longer to try get a job I am interested in, basically.
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I do anywhere between 30-50 hours of study a week as well as working 25 hours a week :S
Also this is mostly for first year courses in an arts degree.
I am still barely coasting along on a 4 for most subjects.
What I am saying is that you are all cunts.
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Yeah, only about 12 hours a week is actual classes, the rest is at home study, reading and shit.
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The real world sucks, postpone it for as long as possible.
Tommy, having spent 5 years in the 'real world' I have to tell you Why do you think I am going to university
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Tommy most of us are sane enough to not live 45 miles away from our jobs.
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i have been in school non stop since i have had a short term memory. i have never had any money, ever. i am pretty sure the two are directly correlated.
maybe i am silly and overly optimistic, but if the real world means i get to have money for the first time ever then there is probably nothing you can say that will make me unexcited for that.
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Being poor and learning marginally useful things is fun though! Well I mean it isn't really that fun, but I think it is pretty useful. I love my university and I am glad that I am here. But then again I want to be a teacher someday so I am sort of pro-education system and pro- higher education.
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Welcome back Coreh as I welcome myself back too.
I laugh at 12, even 22, hours a week in class. I'm in lecture and lab roughly 40 hours each week with two final exams every month. Don't even ask about study time.
Failing is anything less than 70%; 94% is only a B.
I learned a foreign language. It's called C++.
I get a total of 4 weeks off from class this year.
I'm paying thousands of dollars* to work the equivalent of a full-time job and I'm loving it!
Why?
Because I'm actually learning new and interesting things every month as I build a foundation for my future career in the industry I dreamed about entering ever since I first held a gamepad and moved that paddle, picked up that sword, collected that mushroom, leaped across that road, chased after that frog, collected the crystals and saved the world from countless invasions. I'm going to entertain people. I'm going to make games.
*student loans
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How do you buy food and pay rent if you're spending that much time at university? That is insane, even my 65 hour week leaves me no spare time to do anything except occasionally mouth off on the internet, and I make just enough to get by on my 25 hours a week.
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This year I only have about 5 hours of class time a week which allows me to work about 24 hours in a week. I'm meant to do 20 hours of outside class study which I try to get through. Life is good.
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Um... unless I am writing a paper or a report or something, I do not spend any time on school stuff outside of class. Oh, and "studying"*.
*Studying for me is actually learning it for the first time.
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How do you buy food and pay rent if you're spending that much time at university?
VA dependent education benefits cover most of my living expenses so I only had to borrow an extra couple thousand in student loans to pick up the slack. Also my program is only 21 months, effectively halving said expenses.
As for studying, most classes come with a set of power points and a book of roughly 500-1000 pages of technical reading as well as individual and, sometimes, group projects to be completed outside of class.
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man, i don't do shit for school. i even have four day school weeks!
i love going to an american school with an italian mentality.
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Tommy most of us are sane enough to not live 45 miles away from our jobs.
Hell, I live over 30 miles away from where I work and where I go to school.
But back on that, Heloo again Coreh, didn't notice you were gone. But then again, when you're doing full time school, part time job about 25 hours a week, and 20+ hours of out of class editing for projects a week things tend to slip past oneself.
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Failing is anything less than 70%; 94% is only a B.
Jesus. Anything over a 70% in my course is the epitome of achievement - over 80 would probably be good enough to get you into international journals.
I must say I do like Irish college more than American college. No fees, light workloads (at least in my end - they're much heavier in sciencey-stuff) and my first-year mediaeval history lecturer was the world-authority on the papacy between 1000 and 1200.
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Tommy most of us are sane enough to not live 45 miles away from our jobs.
What are you trying to say about my dad.
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I did a practice exam question a couple of weeks ago for my english teacher. I spent a good half of the time sneezing, my handwriting was illegible and I knew before I'd even finished that it was without a doubt the worst essay I'd ever written. But when I got it back, I'd got an A... with 17/25. What's the point in even having a standardised grade system if the grade boundaries aren't standardised? My Law exam required 96/120 to get an A. I'm not great at maths but my computer tells me that's a 12 percentage point difference in grades. Hmm.