bound non-spiral notebook for the lab, and the only extra notebook I have is a spiral one.
bound non-spiral notebook for the lab, and the only extra notebook I have is a spiral one.
Never understood this shit. It is a notebook. It has paper with lines on it that I can write on. Why does it matter what type of notebook it is? I have had so many teachers say they want a specific type but not give any damn reason on why they want that specific type and it is just stupid.
Never understood this shit. It is a notebook. It has paper with lines on it that I can write on. Why does it matter what type of notebook it is? I have had so many teachers say they want a specific type but not give any damn reason on why they want that specific type and it is just stupid.
So for most of North America, University is back in full swing(the rest of the world is following behind soon I think).
Also, I'll be doing full time uni and close enough to full time employment, all at once. Crazy? Probably.
Yeah seriously dude are you actually suggesting that it is unfair or ineffective to have lectures that go for less than an hour what the hell is wrong with you people.
An art school, also, 50 minutes? That is a class? My classes are all 4 and a half hours long what the hell
Also do not be afraid to get to know people in your classes on the very first day you have them because otherwise you will not talk to them all semester and it will be even more awkward if you have another class with them later and try to introduce yourself then.
An art school, also, 50 minutes? That is a class? My classes are all 4 and a half hours long what the hell
history, teaching
An art school, also, 50 minutes? That is a class? My classes are all 4 and a half hours long what the hell
Is your course actually run by the devil himself.
Oh you people who just started! The joy of pubcrawling on weekdays!
history, teaching
good teachers are something that have pretty much always been in demand and very likely always will be, although maybe in some places more than others. still, if you're okay with the possibility of moving, i say go for it.
Showing concern and dedication will get you everywhere.
Guys, I'm going into my final year, and I'm so fucking excited / so really intimidated by the fact that I have to face real world soon.
(and trust me, they really deserve more pity than you realize)
Also, I'll be doing full time uni and close enough to full time employment, all at once. Crazy? Probably.
(What I am saying is that I have an insane amount of work and the idea of doing anything except occasionally sleeping and working and school is really foreign already)
Yeah seriously dude are you actually suggesting that it is unfair or ineffective to have lectures that go for less than an hour what the hell is wrong with you people.
Is there a place for History majors in the world, if I am not working at a museum? Should I be a teacher?
Do not let anyone tell you that you need to drink or have a good time or basically do anything apart from study at college, you will know if you have spare time to do this stuff by about the end of the first week.
Also do not be afraid to get to know people in your classes on the very first day you have them because otherwise you will not talk to them all semester and it will be even more awkward if you have another class with them later and try to introduce yourself then.
To be fair note that art classes are often longer, because you're in the studio doing the work, rather than just listening to a lecture and doing all the work at home.
Jace, since NCLB you will find that any state you go to in the US is the exact same way. Right now there is no way to escape teaching towards standardized tests (unless you want to teach at alternative schools).
Don't be mean, Vergy. You know we don't have real pubs.
To be fair note that art classes are often longer, because you're in the studio doing the work, rather than just listening to a lecture and doing all the work at home.
So, it's like mandatory "homework" time? Damn. I mean, I had rehearsals, but individual practice was to be done on my own time (once, my teacher was really pissed off that I hadn't put in enough work that week and just left, saying that I could practice if I wanted to, but he saw no reason to remain around).
I guess I should have been less specific. You're right, private schools in general don't have to worry about that as much. Of course most privates schools actually manage to pay less than their public counterparts, so you should keep that in mind.
I HATE COLLEGE CAN I GO HOME NOW
I want to be a psychologist
I HATE COLLEGE CAN I GO HOME NOW
I think I was absolutely miserable for maybe even the entire first year of college.
Yeah seriously dude are you actually suggesting that it is unfair or ineffective to have lectures that go for less than an hour what the hell is wrong with you people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_span
Andy, if it's an art school I'm assuming you don't sit in a lecture hall and listen to some old guy talk for four and a half hours straight. You're probably doing something productive. If not, then I am truly sorry.
I am going into my final year next year, it was going to be my penultimate year but I underachieved so hard that I had to change courses.
=/
Exams suck
I don't go for another two weeks and then we don't start for half a week after that so Gemm, I know how you feel! I keep making half-hearted efforts to pack but it's hard since I have nothing to pack into and I need most of the stuff in the next two weeks. I just want to go already!
I am going into my final year next year, it was going to be my penultimate year but I underachieved so hard that I had to change courses.
=/
Exams suck
Wait, what? You failed, so you're getting out a year early?
It's sooooooo pants,
or a sieve
A lot of bakers sift flour (http://kitchensavvy.typepad.com/journal/2005/07/sifting_flour.html).
during my first year of uni in guelph we had a small stomach flu epidemic going around campus which was so bad classes were cancelled for weeks and certain sections of residence were quarantined. we made it onto the cbc news too. i was one of the 3 or 4 very first people to come down with this flu which was utterly terrifying as i had absolutely no idea what was going on when i suddenly woke up at 3 in the morning and proceeded to vomit the entire contents of my stomach over the side of my bed for the next several hours. the residence staff has to call a cab to rush me to hospital where a whole bunch of tubes and needles went into my arms because i couldn't walk and in between the vomiting i was collapsing and blacking out a lot. it's the one time in my life where i really thought i was going to die. then of course everyone else got it and i couldn't anymore because i was immune on account of having already had it, but at that point classes were essentially cancelled so i got to defer all my exams and enjoy a couple of weeks off anyway.
anyway it was eventually deduced that the most likely explanation for this was that someone forgot to wash their hands after taking a dump. that's my advice to you, freshmen. wash your hands after you shit. a little bit of soap and water goes a really long way, trust me on this.
So I am asking, people in upper years, is it normal to feel like everything you do is really really shit, and basically be super disorganized and suck at everything the first little while?Yes...
Here in Sweden, courses in med-school are pretty much all pass/fail, although you have to pass everything. It's a nice system. As has been demonstrated elsewhere, a pure pass/fail system doesn't have to have a noticeable negative impact on students' performane on exams and the like, and makes for far less stressed students.
blinded by science. Science is represented by acid.
Here in Sweden, courses in med-school are pretty much all pass/fail, although you have to pass everything. It's a nice system. As has been demonstrated elsewhere, a pure pass/fail system doesn't have to have a noticeable negative impact on students' performane on exams and the like, and makes for far less stressed students.
The term I spent at university in Sweden was an amazing, amazing time. Curse you and your wonderfully organised country!
anyway it was eventually deduced that the most likely explanation for this was that someone forgot to wash their hands after taking a dump. that's my advice to you, freshmen. wash your hands after you shit. a little bit of soap and water goes a really long way, trust me on this.
Ooh! Where did you go? What did you do? AND WHO???
"Discuss the 17th century German concept of Bildung and the student's role in defining it through the humboldtian university tradition."
Note: This information comes from a scene in Knocked Up. That is how I know it is definitely true.
I don't remember classes being cancelled.
Also, we have showers in our labs.
I'm in Life Sciences at the University of Toronto (living at home, yeah!), and all the science and calculus courses are suspiciously easy. All stuff I learned in high school...but I figure the shit will hit the fan sooner or later. Going for a Honours B.Sc in Materials Science somewhere down the line, don't want to be a doctor of medicines.
On a side note, I find it a little ridiculous that some Arts students have 13 hours of school per week. I have 22, and I know that engineering students have upwards of 30.
On a side note, I find it a little ridiculous that some Arts students have 13 hours of school per week. I have 22, and I know that engineering students have upwards of 30.
Res parties suck man.
On a side note, I find it a little ridiculous that some Arts students have 13 hours of school per week. I have 22, and I know that engineering students have upwards of 30.
Woo MA for free! Although I can't help feeling it devalues it a little.
I'm at U of T too, and I'm an artsy. Less class time doesn't mean I don't work as hard.
**This is an important thing to realize about any arts course(visual or otherwise), that analyzing and reading and creating and writing and being creative is very emotionally tiring and draining.
The first is "What is Philosophy?"* and the second is "What jobs can you get with that?"
Someone said they had 29 or something- is that the way the university measures it, or your calculation of actual hours spent doing work? That number just seems absurdly high to me!It's supposed to be 45min-lessons, but they're rebels.
Actually, studying Philosophy is really good for getting jobs. If you've graduated with a degree in philosophy employers know that you've been taught to think and analyze properly, and usually that you're up to the challenge.
Actually, studying Philosophy is really good for getting jobs. If you've graduated with a degree in philosophy employers know that you've been taught to think and analyze properly, and usually that you're up to the challenge.
I hate having arguments (debates?) with people who take philosophy, cause they're so damned good at it usually.
I just arrived at uni and although my room is huge and has the best view (I picked the prettiest college and my window looks right out over the nicest gardens), there is no sink. It isn't a major problem because the bathroom is a couple doors one way and the kitchen a couple the other way, but it's kind of annoying to have to find my keys and go out the room just to wash my hands.
all judgments aside though, philosophy really is pretty tough and good preparation for a lot of other areas of study. just don't make plans to get a dang phd in it with your parent's money before you have at least some idea of what you want to do with your life.
Someone said they had 29 or something- is that the way the university measures it, or your calculation of actual hours spent doing work? That number just seems absurdly high to me!It's supposed to be 45min-lessons, but they're rebels.
what i learned from my three years of philosophy:
a) you can basically never go to class and still get a 2.1
Did you learn this from experience? Tsk tsk.hell yeah
Just about all of my classes were 4 credit monstrositiesOnly 4? The average of mine is 5.5 (6.2 if you don't count the completely non-math stuff). The biggest is analysis with 10. Is this that much or is it a different system?
credit hours = hours/week in class usually.That's the same with mine, but some courses have one additional point for homework.
Took a tour of the law library this morning. So many books! So much space to read! So many hours to spend there! I'm mad excited about using the enormous library.This is the thing that disappointed me most about my uni. A few minutes by foot down the road is the main Adelaide university (called, unexpectedly, Adelaide Uni) and they have a separate law library. The law library at my uni is a small section of one of four floors and is not very impressive to look at, even though it has far more than I will ever need to use and it's all online anyway.
don't do it, just be a math major.
I'm transferring to Computer Science hell yeah!
So, want to work as a software developer/game programmer or something, that's fine I suppose, be a computer science major...
I moved to math from computer science because I learned a lot more computer science in math than I did in computer science. you'll learn a whole lot more about three dimensions in linear algebra/multivariable calculus/vector calculus than in any of your computer science classes. All you need to know about from those computer science classes is learning APIs. So, want to work as a software developer/game programmer or something, that's fine I suppose, be a computer science major. But all you need to learn is how to work with APIs and those design patterns and stuff. But if you want to be a real computer scientist then it's all in the math.
I'm transferring to Computer Science hell yeah!
I guess what I'm trying to say is, with Computer Science you're going to be learning a lot. Maths, how to write formally, how to deal with clients, team management, requirements analysis, effective algorithm solving, plus whatever else that you choose to study including the 3D animation. Of course, I guess this is all dependent on the way that your CS department decides to teach.
Man, that's not true at all. Maybe not where you studied, but here I've had pretty intensive courses on algorithms, all the maths you mentioned, and computer theory in general as opposed to 'just learning the API'. I'm pretty good friends with some of the maths students here, and they've been shocked by the amounts of maths we have to do.
if you just want to be a software developer then all you need to learn is how to use APIs.
(also, everything keeps going wrong technologically for me this week, :C!)
Video game development actually seems like the worst field to get into.
Video game development actually seems like the worst field to get into.
:cry:
The more of you I discourage, the less compete with me.
Don't do Comp Sci guys. It's a shit load of work, you won't learn anything useful at all, you'll become a giant stress ball, you won't ever get to socialize with anyone who's just a bit normal, you'll spend lectures on the QC forums having given up on understanding how to calculate canonical coordinates of each pixel in an image without using openGL, you'll hobble home at five in the morning after spending hours in the computing labs trying to implement a better algorithm than quicksort, all this along with the job you're doing to support all the fast food you've been eating because cooking takes up too much time which has as a result made you unbelievably fat, and eventually just turn to alcohol to solve all of your lives problems, give up on having a normal career because face it you're going to be a code monkey, get drunk while staring at a computer screen while trying to prove the balmer's peak, and eventually find yourself at the top of your eight story computing lab contemplating live's intricate moments.
Unless you get a kick out of all of that of course.
The more of you I discourage, the less compete with me.ಠ_ಠ
when you re-write half of your code over two days only to find a misplaced or missing semicolon.
I fucking hate it when programming tools don't tell you what line the error was on.
If you are saying what I think you are, Eclipse and Visual C++ do that too, I haven't used any others yet. Lots of fun for first semester me trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with a line that was nothing but an open brace, when the problem was really with the line above it.I fucking hate it when programming tools don't tell you what line the error was on.
I don't know if this sort of thing is common, but matlab tells you on what line it encountered an error (chronologically), not what line gave the error, so if you call a function from earlier in the program that is completely fucked up, the call to the function is where it says the error is, despite the fact that the function is creating the error. It's lots of fun when you're trying to numerically solve some crazy equations and you make a mistake in one of the equations.
So out of curiosity, what sorts of jobs is uni supposed to be preparing us for? I mean, what job out there requires 40 hours of extra stuff on your own time? I know English professors have to be published every few years to keep their tenure at some schools, but I can't think of anything else that requires this sort of personal dedication and sacrifice outside of the workplace. Office bitches don't usually take anything home with them, and neither do mechanics, or airline pilots, or computer analysts, or restaurant managers, or Bill Gates, or Steve Jobs, or any sales or retail or food-service job I can think of. So what, then?
University study is not about job training and more about things like developing your breadth of knowledge and enriching how good you are at thinking and reasoning.
This is a subject that has come up a lot lately because people always ask me what I plan on doing WITH my Art Degree. I really dislike the idea that most people only go to university for the following reasons: Job/career, they're expected to, party, or fear of not doing it. I would elaborate on what I mean, Joe has explained most of it but there's a few other things that I think are important to bring up.
But I am just too tired from ALL THE LEARNING
Dear Uni/College thread,
...rant...
Poop.
This is a subject that has come up a lot lately because people always ask me what I plan on doing WITH my Art Degree. I really dislike the idea that most people only go to university for the following reasons: Job/career, they're expected to, party, or fear of not doing it. I would elaborate on what I mean, Joe has explained most of it but there's a few other things that I think are important to bring up.
But I am just too tired from ALL THE LEARNING
College is such a huge financial burden on most people that they (rightly) expect it to pay off monetarily down the road. Some majors appear to certain people to be less likely to afford them that monetary security, so they wonder why people choose that major. If you realize that a lot of students spend 12 YEARS paying off the debt from their schooling, you can understand why that aspect of their education is more pressing than personal growth.
Go to Germany and be railroaded into your field of study in 6th grade, then.
(I have always been hot for teacher, I seem to keep getting at least one attractive teacher a year. Yeaah.)
I quite liked my old history teacher. She read Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman books, and had half naked photos of herself on Facebook. We also went out drinking with her when we finished the school year!Pretty sure she couldn't get a job in the states if she had photos like that on public domain.
Go to Germany and be railroaded into your field of study in 6th grade, then.
False dilemma.
Pretty sure she couldn't get a job in the states if she had photos like that on public domain.
That's because America is ridiculous. It's naked skin, which is less than ten seconds away on google whenever you're seated at a computer with an internet connection.
I really dislike the idea that most people only go to university for the following reasons: Job/career
1) A large percentage of people get a job completely unrelated to their degree.
2) Just having a degree makes someone more employable.
3) There are some degrees that people actually enjoy working their asses off to complete (I got a music degree despite the fact that there is really no conceivable tangible benefit for me to complete that degree).
My point was that people don't only go to college to further their career. That was the point you seemed to be unhappy with.
So is anyone doing it right? Is there anywhere we know of where people are going to uni for personal enrichment and it is actually beneficial to their lives, or maybe sometimes fun?
My original point is basically that I really dislike that university is more focused on the piece of paper/the job you get afterwards, rather than a place for academia and growth.
Most profs will admit to not being able to spend as much time as they would like with every student(at least the good ones).This is what I love about my community college. My computer science classes have ten or eleven people in them, the basic one last semester had more like 20, but that is probably what a lot of people that just need to fill an elective and think it will be interesting take, the teacher has plenty of time to help the students. My biggest class has had probably 25 people in it, honestly it is going to be a pain in the ass going from this to crowded lecture halls, hopefully I can transfer enough of my computer science classes over to the university I go to that I will be able to skip a lot of the more crowded classes.
Sorry, my post wasn't really meant to be a personal attack on Andy. I know it kind of came off that way, I just get a little frustrated when I start talking about uni and tend to rant. I really agree with you on all counts, but the point I'm trying to get at is that it's impossible to knock the leechers out of the system. It's their prerogative to leech if they so choose. As such, for those of us who are passionate about our studies, we have to work with what we have. I'm saying that we can cut ourselves apart from the losers with no real interest in learning and get the full value from our profs and the time we spend there. I don't think focusing on the problems and inept individuals is really useful when there's so much to be pleased with. (Again, this is not meant to be an attack on you, but this thread has spent forever talking about these issues.)
The way universities and colleges are set up in the US, I would never want to be a career student, even if it were free. I do not want to go for a grade and a piece of paper, either, but that is what they want. Those grades and pieces of paper are apparently necessary to get a job (even unrelated to my degree, but that is a different can of worms), so I am doing that to get a job so I can pursue studies in my own fields of interest without all the administrative and bureaucratic bullshit getting in the way.
the ones who fight to learn to survive in it
I am passionate about learning, but the university system, at least in the States, is more of a suffocation of education than the promotion of it
TL;DR: AHHHH C'MON, FUCK A GROUP PROJECT
Wait...you actually have to take a class on that? I've had to go to ethics seminars, but for everything else we just learn it in the lab as we go.Yeah, but my knowledge of scientific research is zit. After high school we needed to do research on a subject in our profile, and mine was FUBAR so it's really quite helpful. The author's of the book themselves say that it would have saved them a lot of time, money and trouble if they had a book like this back when they were starting college. It's not a large book, and it primarily deals with setting up a good experiment rather than statistically analysing your data, and there's only a page or two on ethics. I've got a test for it tomorrow, but the thing is, this is a book that was not written to make you do a test on it. It was written to give you a guideline to use on your scientific research to keep you from screwing up, a manual of sorts, not a studybook. It's actually pretty easy to understand, only there's a lot of jargon to deal with, as well as demanding a high amount of insight into experimental design. But then they start asking questions like "If you go to a supermarket and ask every third person who comes out to fill out a questionnaire, what kind of sampling are you using?" and it comes down to a test of your vocabulary. I hope I don't get screwed over too bad on those questions.
just do some community college over the summer dogg, you can get required credits out of the way, they're shorter, and most likely easier! that's what i'm doing to get writing comp etc. out of the way. they should also be less than 2k
For my part, my motivations to be here are as follows:
- Study the law (I am interested in it, but do not want to be a lawyer)
- Learn to be independent whilst still having the safety net of my college to help out if I trip up
- Get the chance to try new things (ice hockey, ballet, stage management) that simply wouldn't be available elsewhere
"which boy of the two who've asked me out should I accept?"
I assume this will fail me when I am presented with more than two options.
You have correctly described idiocy, which was not part of your exam question. 0%
back in college
Turns out my programming project was due in on Friday. I was adamant it was due tomorrow. My maximum mark is now capped at 40%. I had an honest chance of getting a First.
Fuck python.
I only see any Python because Plone is written in it. I have nothing against Python except that Plone is written in it. Plone should not exist; any CMS in the world is better to work with than Plone (when I have a choice, I install Magnolia).
My only real problem with the first two is that I have to boil down like crazyI wish I had that problem. When I had to write four page essays in high school, it was generally between 2.5 and three pages long. Now I have to write one of 8-10 pages for philosophy and I don't know how I'm supposed to fill those pages.
The more you read beforehand and the more you prepare yourself, the easier it gets. For my lit class last year I had serious problems writing five pages in three days about a book I barely read through and didn't give a shit about, but for my art history exams I usually write 12 - 15 pages in four hours (those exams are in handwriting, I'm not that good).
Also remember it's usually not about how much you write, but what you write.
every point I make / source I bring in / example I cite needs to be (1) introduced and connected to what I've said so far, (2) explained, (3) analyzed, (4) connected to my major point(s) in terms of the overall progression of the paper, and (5) related to the stuff that comes afterward.
Jeeeesus christ, my first day back from break and I get hit with a bunch of weighty (but long-term) stuff: a 25 page paper on democratization in west Africa, A project where I have to observe a native animal in its habitat over a period of 2 weeks for Zoology (I live in southern Wisconsin, so I'm kind of limited to stuff like squirrels, raccoons beavers..maybe a badger if I'm lucky), and writing a 3-page four-part voice choral piece for music theory. On top of that a professor nominated me to give a 30 minute student symposium on a paper I did last semester about ethnic conflict in the former USSR so I have to get maps, prepare a speech, blah blah.
Overwhelmed now!
I'm an even bigger moron, because it's midnight, I'm sorta drunk, aaaand I have to finish my essay which is due tomorrow morning. Yay.
What the hell guys, I seriously don't know anything.
How can I have spent seven months at one of the best universities in the world and not know anything?
The obvious answer is that I am a moron who does not go to lectures.
Yes actually! I am quite unhappy with America overall and I have heard some good things about Canada, also it is pretty close to America so I wouldn't have to deal with a huge change (except for the maple taffy based legal system allison has told me about). Also, albeit very unlikely, I'd like to hope that I could get a grant from Canada to go to school and then work there.
Well-rounded? There are only two universities in the country who make Roman law compulsory , which suggests it is not necessary in order to be well-rounded. I don't want to know what I need for a job, I want to study what I care about! Which is not the muddled, messy, obselete law of people who have been dead for centuries.Then it's for the "prestige". At least you don't have to learn Latin.
I don't want to know what I need for a job, I want to study what I care about!
Out of all the lecturers I have had, all bar one have actively discouraged us from using any Latin at all ever, something I find a bit annoying considering how important stuff like the equitable maxims are and how courts still drag out from time to time.
The other demanded that we know all the Latin phrases he taught us, and included them in questions in a closed-book test to make sure. I liked that guy.
clean up afterwards
clean up afterwards
Exactly what the hell kind of sex are you having anyway?
Exactly what the hell kind of sex are you having anyway?
clean up afterwards
Exactly what the hell kind of sex are you having anyway?
think about all the conversations about criminal justice policy reform we could have!!Technically I'd be a student of Public Administration with a Criminal Justice Policy focus. So I'd probably just tell you all about how your methods are unfeasible.
we could have so many conversations about that
I would imagine it's more likely that a stats class would be required for criminal justice, even though I think everyone who has a four-year degree should have at least one semester of calculus.
Note: The successful completion of undergraduate-level calculus and statistics (or validation of proficiency through testing) is required of all LBJ School students prior to enrollment in the quantitative sequence of the core curriculum. Students who have not completed formal undergraduate coursework in calculus and statistics are required to pass validation exams offered by the LBJ School prior to the beginning of the semester. Two separate exams are offered, one on calculus and the other on statistics. Students have to take only the one for which they have not taken an undergraduate course.No fucking way am I taking calculus. I burned myself out in College Algebra (even though I got an A, somehow). UT Austin seems particularly statistics-focused, so that might be why. John Jay has a stats requirement but not a calc one.
Technically I'd be a student of Public Administration with a Criminal Justice Policy focus. So I'd probably just tell you all about how your methods are unfeasible.
The more and more I think about it, the more I'm thinking that I'll want to go into some sort of english/cultural studies program, or into philosophy, probably philosophy of science. Not going to be right around the corner either way, since I'm definitely going to take at least a year off after I get my bachelors this May, but it's making me conscious that I'll need to keep in touch with a few of my professors, so I'll send off some emails this week, try and schedule a meeting or something to discuss this sort of transition. I have no idea how common or acceptable it is to make that sort of transfer, and I really would like to go into a masters program or something right away, rather than having to deal with getting a second bachelors degree.
English/Cultural Studies (which I assume means lots of critical theory) and Philosophy of Science are both mad interesting, but seemingly very distinct fields. What are you getting your bachelor's degree in?
English/Cultural Studies (which I assume means lots of critical theory) and Philosophy of Science are both mad interesting, but seemingly very distinct fields.
Nominations for the student board close in less than 24 hours. My manifesto is written, all questions asked have been answered, my publicity has been designed and printed, and all I need now is a thumb drive to save it all to, a couple of passport photos, and a tenner. Then I will officially be a candidate for the UPSU student elections this year and I am going to kick so much ass WOOOWOWOWOWOWOOOOO!I hated my LSS the first year I was involved but this year I am in charge of the sponsorship portfolio and it's pretty fantastic.
lucrative career.
Dear Colleagues,
I apologize for the length of this e-mail, which details devastating budget cuts to the Department of Sociology at Vancouver Island University (VIU).
The Sociology Department has been directed to cut $160,000 from our operating budget. We have yet to crunch the numbers, but this reflects in the range of 12 to 15 sections out of our "magic number" of 30 sections (the total number of sections we can offer). We have three part time and three full time faculty members in the department of Sociology.
If this cut goes through as presented, it will leave us with between 15 and 18 sections in total. We will immediately lose two faculty members, and the workload of a third member will likely be greatly reduced (this will depend on the number of sections cut). We will immediately lose our Major, and it is not clear that we will be able to offer a Minor. These cuts are particularly troubling given that we, like every other department in the Social Sciences, are operating at or near capacity. Given the very high demand for all Social Science courses, we find this targeted cut perplexing and deeply disturbing, particularly because we have not been presented with a rationale for why the Sociology department was cut so deeply.
We, like other departments, were expecting that the budget cuts would affect us, but we were not prepared to have our program essentially cancelled. We are trying to absorb the news, working together to strategize as to how to respond, and plan for the effects on our students. With the potential lay-off of three of our faculty members, and with one member on leave, this very difficult work falls in the hands of a few people. We are deeply concerned that a department of 15 to 18 sections is simply not viable, and that our remaining faculty will be vulnerable in the next round of budget cuts.
In addition to our Major and Minor, we play a key role in the Global Studies program, provide electives for the Criminology program and upper level courses for the Women's Studies program, provide courses for the new Political Studies Major, and support to a wide range of programs across campus. We feel that this proposed cut greatly devalues the hard work that we have been doing in the Faculty. We are greatly concerned that the discipline itself will disappear from the intellectual landscape in the Faculty of Social Sciences, and at VIU. In essence, it suggests to us that our department is not of value to the university as a whole, or to the Faculty of Social Sciences.
In this fiscal climate, we do not see that recovery from this kind of cut would be possible, and indeed we believe that the cuts will make it impossible for us to do anything other than service other departments at the first and second year levels. As you might expect, this dramatically alters the working lives of those few department members who have not lost their positions.
Given the discipline's often low public profile, we feel it is important that our colleagues at other institutions know what is happening to Sociology at VIU. In most universities Sociology departments are highly valued and play a key part in the intellectual life of the academy. We are more than saddened that this voice may be silenced at VIU, worried that it may happen at other institutions, and we would appreciate any insight, perspective, or help you might have to offer. Outrage works too.
If you're still reading -- thank you for your patience and support.
As far as I know most graduate programs let you do a pretty big change around in direction. My flatmate did his undergraduate degree in Philosophy and came here to do a Masters in Computer Science.
Unrelated university thing. My state legislature is voting if we(students) should be allowed to have guns on our campuses today. :psyduck:
When I went to U. of Arizona, there was a firing range in the basement of the old gym, right across the hall from the Student ID office. (this is the same gym that served as the ad-hoc nerd barracks in the original Revenge of the Nerds, which was filmed there :-D)
Radical, I would imagine that each school would have different views on admitting someone into their CS grad program with little to no experience. I imagine most schools that would accept a non-CS grad would want a couple intro programming courses, and a data structures/algorithms course. This would allow you to have some experience with the method and logic of programming. A good start would be to sit down with someone in the CS department at your school.
A lot of colleges that have been around for a while have/had a firing range. It was pretty common to have a competitive rifle team
So how are your experiences with group projects? Good, or bad?
I don't understand why a university degree would include group work in its assessment, since it is so easy for someone else's work to influence your grade.
I think we might have gained some marks for showing we knew enough about the topic to cover for this idiot, but still.
You may have already seen this information in our Facebook group for prospective students (http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/UM-SI-Prospective-MSI-Students-2011/177899965577604), but in a effort to ensure that everyone is working with the same information, I am sending this email with further information on SI Scholarship process. This information can be found in a blog entry at:http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/sitrenches1/archives/2011/03/si_scholarships.html.
Our SI Scholarships are merit-based, and typically cover half of tuition (regardless of your residency status).
We go through 3-4 rounds of SI Scholarship offers (which typically cover 1/2 of tuition) throughout the term. We just completed the first round (late February/early March). Our next round will be in mid to late April, with the next round in mid to late May.
The first round of SI Scholarships are entirely merit-based. Subsequent rounds will always have merit as the primary factor for consideration, but we will also look at your motivation to attend SI and if there is anything in particular about the nature of your financial need.
These additional factors can be demonstrated by professional, consistent communication with us. You are welcome to submit an additional letter/email for the admissions committee's consideration. I've seen previous admissions committees look at your excitement about SI, your efforts in applying for external fellowships, anything particular about the nature of your need, the connections you make at Visiting Days, the professionalism of your interactions, and other things for the subsequent rounds of SI Scholarship.
Merit is still the primary factor, and by merit we mean the stregnth of your statement of purpose and personal statement, your letters of recommendation, your internship/research/work experience, your academic record including your GRE, demonstration of leadership, service, comfort with ambiguity, etc. It is NOT just your GRE/GPA.
If you have questions or would like to send a communication to the admissions committee, please feel free to email [email protected] or you can email me directly at [email protected] For more resources regarding finances and aid, please visit http://si.umich.edu/applying/fin-aid.htm.
this just in: ha ha ha ha but seriously ARE YOU FUCKING JOKING (http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110316/bc_student_debt_110316/20110316?hub=BritishColumbiaHome)WTF? Yeah, like people on a tight budget buy coffee from coffee-shops in the first place! It's like "Oh you can easily afford to pay your increased tuition if you just buy one fewer diamond bracelets a year."
I don't know if it would help, but I could send you mine, too.The more the merrier!
I think I miss that peer pressure, guys, and I dunno what to do about that. Public school sucks.When I was an undergrad, I majored in Classics. The problem is that other than my advanced Latin classes (and I only took a couple of those), most or all of my other classes (humanities and basic Latin/Greek) were people taking them as a general requirement. Because of this, there was almost no participation, since they were there not out of interest, but simply for the credit. It got frustrating after a while.
I think I miss that peer pressure, guys, and I dunno what to do about that. Public school sucks.
On the other side of the coin are people who are annoyed that you judge their choices without considering the reasons that they might not be SUPER SUPER EXCITED about learning, like you are!
Oh hey you guys guess what happened. So I applied to go back to uni for post-grad studies. Apparently due to system errors they didn't send me my offer to let me know I got in but I called them yesterday just to make absolutely triple fucking sure that I didn't get in and I fucking did. Classes start on Monday and I have to quit my job immediately and have no money ever again all while we are applying for new places to live. This is simultaneously the best and worst thing that could happen right now. I can't even get into the uni website to choose my classes because I won't get my offer until AFTER semester starts so I just have to show up to shit next week and explain repeatedly why I'm not on the student lists and shit.
i really fucking hope there's no foodIf there's food, more people will show up, but if the food is good, they'll associate your presentation with the pleasant feeling of a full belly, and you'll get massive applause even if you tank.
Possessives only lack apostrophes when they are pronouns (and pronouns never have them). There may be exceptions to this, but I can't think of any.
I'm supposed to be submitting the paper that contains the results of my research from this semester on Friday, but I haven't done any of the analyses or even a halfway decent literature review. I've requested an extension due to Circumstances, and though my supervisor and the research course coordinator were both cool with it, they need to talk to each other to make it happen and though I've even drafted a note for my supervisor to send making the extension request I haven't heard anything back and it's really worrying because I need need need an extra two weeks to do this. And this is assuming that I can actually manage to focus enough to be halfway productive with those couple weeks, because I've basically survived the last two only by ignoring my schoolwork almost entirely (well, this is an exaggeration; I've spent tons of time trying to do schoolwork, but I just end up staring at things for hours on end without much in the way of comprehension happening) and spending far too much money on books and food and far too much time hanging out with friends instead.
Whatever though, I achieved my one real remaining goal as a student. I have all the books out of the school library right now that they let you have out at once: 80!
You must be the most studenty student ever, Tania. I know I'm nowhere near as dedicated to anything.
I think it's telling that one of the more popular threads in SA's education forum is "Everyone else feels like an impostor too: The Grad School Bitching Thread"You must be the most studenty student ever, Tania. I know I'm nowhere near as dedicated to anything.
i thought those were my qualities too when i first enrolled in this program but the more i examine the recurring themes in my most recent posts, the more i'm pretty sure i'm really just an incredible fucking moron who made a terrible, terrible life decision
I'm fairly certain you meant... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNiR5ZTb_MA)Possessives only lack apostrophes when they are pronouns (and pronouns never have them). There may be exceptions to this, but I can't think of any.
You must be thinking of the elusive "me's".
and I haven't got my bachelor's yet at 22
Hello, Tania:
I thought you might like to know that you received excellent evaluations from your students (I had a chance to look at them very briefly).
Thank you very much for your dedication and hard work!
All the best,
Simon
however, that does remind me of an evaluation my friend received last year in which the student rated him excellent and then wrote "SEXY" in the comments section and drew not one but two giant cocks on the page. this is the stuff that makes it all worthwhile in the end, it really does
I've discovered the best way to put off working on my thesis: Get all my other assignments done.
Productive procrastination: Get on it.
Shit guys I have 5 days to decide where to go to do a PhD and I have no fucking clue and it is stressing me the fuck out.
- developmentalist
Tania: I kind of get what you mean, only I have to write all my papers in Dutch, so every so often I find Dutchified versions of English words in there that would make sense to me and other Native English speakers, but Dutch speakers just WTF at. I'd give some examples, but you don't actually speak Dutch so it'd be kind of useless anyway and I can't think of any.
Is tantamental like tangential or tantamount to? Spellcheck is inhibiting the evolution of English, impo.
(How did you decide in the end?)
Alexander Crummell in his address before the Freedman’s Aid Society in 1883 spoke directly to a program for racial uplift that would focus on black women, particularly on education. He announced in his address that: “The lot of the black man on the plantation has been sad and desolate enough; but the fate of the black woman has been awful! Her entire existence from the day she first landed, a naked victim of the slave-trade, has been degradation in its extremest forms.” Frederick Douglass spoke regularly on behalf of gender equality. In his 1888 talk “I Am a Radical Woman Suffrage Man” he made his position clear:QuoteThe fundamental proposition of the woman suffrage movement is scarcely less simple than that of the anti-slavery movement. It assumes that woman is herself. That she belongs to herself, just as fully as man belongs to himself—that she is a person and has all the attributes of personality that can be claimed by man, and that her rights of person are equal in all respects to those of man. She has the same number of senses that distinguish man, and is like man a subject of human government, capable of understanding, obeying and being affected by law. That she is capable of forming an intelligent judgment as to the character of public men and public measures, and she may exercise her right of choice in respect both to the law and the lawmakers…nothing could be more simple or more reasonable.
To begin with, I need to make it clear to those who don't know that the throwing-shade, dissin', "reading" style that carried Miss Camille to fame was a persona she assembled after years of ethnographically studying the mannerisms of vernacular back culture, especially black gay subculture, and most especially the culture of the black queen. And girlfriend ain't even ashamed about this background, not at all embarrassed to say shit like:QuoteMy mentors have alwasy been Jews, Harold Bloom and so on, and they're the only ones who can tolerate my personality! But at any rate, when I got to Yale . . . whoa! Culture shock! Because I saw the way the WASP establishment had the Ivy League in a death grip. In order to rise in academe, you have to adopt this WASP Style. It's very laid-back. Now, I really can't do it, but I call it "walking on eggs at a funeral home." Now I'm loud. Did you notice? I'm very loud. I've had a hell of a time in academe. This is why I usually get along with African Americans. I mean when we're together, "Whooo!" It's like I feel totally myself – we just let everything go!
Naturally, all black Americans were more than pleased to have Miss Camille give us this vote of confidence, since we live to make it possible for white girls like herself to have a place where they can be "totally" themselves.
(How did you decide in the end?)
Why the fuck did I decide to major in physics? Why? And why the hell am I on here when I should be doing my quantum take home? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Also I have a question for the people - Anyone ever taken a two weekend, full-day course before? I'm tempted to sign up for one and just punch out my degree as quickly as possible, but I've got another, easier class I could take in a month's time and another harder class (that I'll probably need down the road) over two months' time. Anyone have experience with krash kourse klasses?Never done a two weekend, full day course, but I've done a two week ASE class that went from 7:15 or so until 12:15. It really starts to drag sometimes, especially if the professor isn't good at keeping you engaged the whole time. Also, I assume the class is during this summer? What building is it in, and how is the AC? If you are struggling to not fall asleep all day because it's 90 degrees outside and the building was built in 1910 and hasn't been touched since, you are going to have a hell of a time learning enough to pass.
Wednesday 15/06/2011 08:45 11:00 PHSL2101:Physiology 1A
Saturday 18/06/2011 13:45 16:00 BIOC2101:Principles of Biochem (Adv)
Monday 20/06/2011 Afternoon ANAT2241:Histology:Basic and Systematic
Tuesday 21/06/2011 13:45 16:00 MICR2011:Microbiology 1
Friday 24/06/2011 08:45 11:00 ANAT2241:Histology:Basic and Systematic
Saturday 25/06/2011 13:45 15:00 BIOC2101:Principles of Biochem (Adv)
I only have to take one final this semester (too high of a grade in my other classes) and even then I only need a 38.5% on this final to get an A in the class.
Too bad this isn't something I can get used to since I have a feeling college is going to be a bit harder after the intro courses...
How's yr Winter break, mines barely a month but my Summer is roughly 4 months. I've noticed that a number of the Uni's that do that have a summer semester.Yeah, my school has a summer semester, but generally you just take 1 or 2 classes at a time for a few weeks each, and it's considered optional (and usually it's if you're a few credits behind)
Got my first out of three exams this Friday - discrete maths. It's probably gonna be supah easy (compared to maths from last year where I got a D :c, gotta take that one again before I finish my BA), but I'm still a bit nervous. It's pretty fun to work with, and I've set aside the entire day for tomorrow and Thursday to crank out some exams, so it'll probably be great.
I'm considering changing my BA, though, from Informatics to, well, Informatics, dropping some low level programming (a course about assembly and shell scripts and OSs) in favor of more maths. Probably gonna have 80% of the same courses when I'm finished, but is this a good idea? What do I need most as a prospective programmer, low level operating system knowledge, or more relevant Maths?
The standard for the rest of Europe (and for the UK except Scotland) is 3 years. I'm from Norway, and the summer break usually started in early June and ended in mid-August. 4 months is pretty insane I think, can't believe the year is over already.
Why is my school so lazy? This was my last week of this academic year, I don't start again until late September. That's 4 months of no school! 1/3 of the entire year! No wonder a BA takes 4 years here, my last one was 3 years and even then I felt like I had a lot of spare time.
I've never had to take ethics. Does it try to instill a proper system of treatment regarding others, or is there a lot of relative thought? I'm pretty sure they do that for business ethics at least. </rimshot>
I do not intend to go into medicine. I intend to teach genetics or some other field of biology...
... while doing research in my extra time
I do not intend to go into medicine. I intend to teach genetics or some other field of biology while doing research in my extra time
There are applications that actually ask you about your weaknesses? I'm surprised. But why would whoever is reading those things be more impressed by thinly veiled inversions of postitive traits than by someone who is honestly introspective of their flawed character?
Or maybe I'm expecting too much from master's application assessors and they just don't care that much.
There are applications that actually ask you about your weaknesses? I'm surprised. But why would whoever is reading those things be more impressed by thinly veiled inversions of postitive traits than by someone who is honestly introspective of their flawed character?The "What is your greatest weakness?" question is a pretty standard one in job interviews too, especially in the "first-interview" phase when you are probably talking to an "HR Professional" who knows nothing about the field you're going to be working in. They usually work off some version of "Targeted Recruitment" methodology, running through what amounts to a check-list of standard questions. Everyone knows that you'll respond with some bullshit inversion of a positive trait, but it enables a box to be ticked, and that's the important thing.
That answer probably won't do you any favors if you're applying to be, say, a lawyer.my biggest weakness is that sometimes I don't feel enough contempt for my fellow man
Remember, being proclaimed innocent does not mean actually innocent.More importantly, being proclaimed guilty does not mean actually guilty.
Remember, being accused of murder doesn't mean you committed any crime.unless you belong to a minority
Or you're quite attractive so it'd make a good story if you did it.Well I'm set then
Sometimes it feels like a minority of one...I'm at least one other... Large men chasing small balls left me entirely cold when I was at uni, and still do now.
Sometimes it feels like a minority of one...I'm at least one other... Large men chasing small balls left me entirely cold when I was at uni, and still do now.
Maybe I should move to Australia and study law.You're from the states?
Sure you can!
Everything will look familiar when you re-take it... and if you get the same instructor, so will all the exams... :angel:
How the heck can you get stressed about the fact that you don't have that much work left to do?!
But for college where maybe your max number of students is 40-60 (except for lectures, but lets face it, who the hell expects a lecturer to remember the names of all their students).
But for college where maybe your max number of students is 40-60 (except for lectures, but lets face it, who the hell expects a lecturer to remember the names of all their students).
This was said in the vitriol thread, and maybe it is because I'm at community college, but I've never had specific lectures and other classes of the same subject? Like, all of my classes are generally the professor giving a lecture but also sometimes giving assignments or having the class do exercises.
In general, how do you structure your essays? And also what country are you studying in?
It really just depends on how much your parents feel like paying for your room. Which is dumb.
Since we are amassive communistdirty socialistintelligent progressivewelfare state, most people pay for their accommodation from the grants and loans they get, and therefore parents don't have to shoulder the burden.
I figured the difference was also one of scale. In the US, the 'range' of a prospective college student is far greater than that of a European student. A Dutch prospective student may want to move to the university at the southern-most point of the country while living in the northern-most point of the country, and they'd 'only' have to move about 275 km. In the US, that distance is fifteen-fold larger, and they'd still find themselves among people speaking (roughly) the same language. So it's probably much harder to find a halfway decent university without moving across the continent. Then you can't as easily have dinner at your parents' every weekend like I do.
This is a change, of course, since the introduction of student loans. In my time, there were grants to cover everything, but they were means-tested and made up with the officially assessed "parental contribution"; and in my case my parents paid the whole amount of the grant (not a penny more, I should say!).
That's in Belgium? Damn. My yearly tuition fee is almost three times that. Although subsidies for students who aren't living with their parents receive about the same (~€3000). On the other hand, renting an apartment in a not-shitty part of the city will cost you at least €300 in the Netherlands.
If I were going to move abroad for my Master's degree, I'd probably go to a Scandinavian country. They don't charge tuition fees. At all. That's partially offset by the increased living expenses (drinking regularly is going to bankrupt you), so it's a tough choice to make. I need to ask my study advisor what she thinks about my chances on a foreign university.
Oh hey, here that's taken seriously.
If less than 40% of students are failing, your course needs to be made harder.
This contention, in their Lordships' opinion, founders on the same rock of factual incredibility as sunk the contention based on the alleged six assets agreement.
the digital turn in does nothing but grade the multiple choice assignment
Redball- To teach kindergarten in her 60s, your wife must have been an amazing woman. After every kindergarten class I taught, I was ready for a nap myself! Education is such a fascinating field of study and it amuses me to think that I truly hated school when I was younger. Now I realize that I was just bored.
I hope I can hold onto it too! Sometimes I think that no matter what field they are in, one is destined to feel either naïvely optimistic or completely jaded towards their career. A happy medium must exist somewhere, right?
I don't know of any happy mediums - they know too much... :-DWas he right? And are you still jaded, or is there a post-jaded career?
I asked the department head why I didn't have a mentor. He replied, "You're already jaded".
I can put on a good front, but if this is the rest of my life, I really want out. I also just turned 50, and I always get depressed around my birthday (spring sucks).Didn't need to pretend; I'd just come from there. The pessimism's understandable. Any options? What subject?
So no, I dunno if there's anything post jaded. Still looking.
Oh, wait - wrong thread, sorry... Just pretend this is Pessimism.
Redball- To teach kindergarten in her 60s, your wife must have been an amazing woman. After every kindergarten class I taught, I was ready for a nap myself! Education is such a fascinating field of study and it amuses me to think that I truly hated school when I was younger. Now I realize that I was just bored.I started to respond that what kept her going were the hugs. But it was much more than that. She functioned often as a special ed teacher and while working for sub pay (plus her pension, of course) she took every workshop she could and a few applicable courses. She enjoyed learning and putting what she learned to use. She had been challenged in college by instructors or counsellors who'd seen her test scores and thought difficult stuff would be too hard for her.
I hope I can hold onto it too! Sometimes I think that no matter what field they are in, one is destined to feel either naïvely optimistic or completely jaded towards their career. A happy medium must exist somewhere, right?
Any options? What subject?
I don't know of any happy mediums - they know too much... :-D
I started to respond that what kept her going were the hugs. But it was much more than that. She functioned often as a special ed teacher and while working for sub pay (plus her pension, of course) she took every workshop she could and a few applicable courses. She enjoyed learning and putting what she learned to use. She had been challenged in college by instructors or counsellors who'd seen her test scores and thought difficult stuff would be too hard for her.
I got my doctorate in Mathematics (Knot Theory) in '95. I thought I'd be able to continue doing research, but it never happened. I got one publication from my thesis (in the Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, no less!) and a few conference papers on a smattering of topics, none of which ever really panned out.
But I did it to teach anyway. The year I got my masters I got a one-year sabbatical leave appointment and was encouraged to go back for my doctorate by the department chair so I could keep on teaching, so that's what I did. And I'm good at it, too.
But being a good math teacher is like a relativistic snowball, it doesn't hit the student right away - sometimes not for years. And sometime in the last 20 years, university administrators decided that theycouldshould run a school like a business. They started making all their decisions based on customer satisfaction, including student evaluations of faculty.
I could write a paper about how fucked up that is, but no one would publish it, because it's gospel now. I've lost three jobs to student evaluations, because I keep my standards up and don't put up with bullshit. And each time I've lowered my standards some more, hoping to keep the job, and my peer evaluations all admire how well I do at keeping my standards high, and the students slam me for it. But it feels like I'm teaching half the material half as well as I used to. I love to teach, but I can't do much with those who won't learn. Those of you who are students, please, don't take offense, but giving you the power of who keeps their job and who doesn't is basically putting the asylum in the hands of the inmates. You are not in a position to judge yet, you are students, by definition you don't yet know what we're even teaching you. My stats classes all build up to a point, about two weeks from the end of the course, where everything is tied together. Evaluations are done two weeks before that, before I can show you the power of my science. What the fuck am I supposed to do?
As for prospects, it doesn't matter. I'm tied to the job, I have a very sick daughter for whom I need to keep my excellent insurance. I can't strike out and change career paths, or start my own business or any such thing if I want to keep her... I was going to say healthy, but that's never going to happen again, as long as she continues to live. And to keep that insurance, I took the one position that was guaranteed, the position at the outpost where the uneducable are educated. And just to get some of the better ones through the course, I've had to cut back more.
Oh, god, I'm making myself nauseous. Or maybe it was the chicken wings...
Really, this should go elsewhere. I shouldn't even be reading this thread, much less posting in it. Sorry, everyone.
Ratemyprofessor.com is a joke. They have no protocol, no accuracy, and no godamned honesty.I had never heard of this site, but it really is hilarious to read college-level students bitching in misspelled, illiterate gibberish that their professor unfairly marked them down for bad grammar and spelling... Hello boys and girls, you are supposed to have mastered basic English before you leave high-school. If ESL people can do it, why not you?
btw, if someone could explain how to verify cos^2(x)-sin^2(x)=2cos^2(x)-1 it'd really help since the book doesn't give very good examples for that one. I have a feeling that I am supposed to use the pythagorean identities but it is just not clicking.
btw, if someone could explain how to verify cos^2(x)-sin^2(x)=2cos^2(x)-1 it'd really help since the book doesn't give very good examples for that one. I have a feeling that I am supposed to use the pythagorean identities but it is just not clicking.
A simpler way of achieving the same result is to replace sin^2(x) with 1-cos^2(x) on the left hand side (justified by Pythagoras). After you get rid of the parenthesis, you combine like terms and are done. I wasn't sure how comfortable you are with the rule: -(A-B)=-A+B. If you are happy with that, then it would go like
cos^2(x)-sin^2(x)=cos^2(x)-(1-cos^2(x))=cos^2(x)-1+cos^2(x)=2cos^2(x)-1.
Ratemyprofessor.com is a joke. They have no protocol, no accuracy, and no godamned honesty.I had never heard of this site, but it really is hilarious to read college-level students bitching in misspelled, illiterate gibberish that their professor unfairly marked them down for bad grammar and spelling... Hello boys and girls, you are supposed to have mastered basic English before you leave high-school. If ESL people can do it, why not you?
I am appalled though that colleges actually dismiss lecturers on the basis of this crap. :x
Someone I'm friends with posted something along the lines of "Why me? Boohoo, my ex-girlfriend is ruining my life but I still love her". Someone responded with "Your better then them and your gonna get threw this. There just a piece of shit."I had to read that about five or six times before I understood what it meant.
A girl in the year above me at uni (so a final year law student at one of the best unis in the world), who is at least bilingual and possibly trilingual as she's Swiss-American, writes lyk this on fb and it makes u want 2 cry.
And it's actually no more trouble to write the correct words rather than the wrong ones.Yes, especially if you touch-type. I don't actually think about the separate letters in a word any more unless it is distinctly unfamiliar, I just let my fingers take care of that.
...and it mentioned that they helped students focus on community leadership, career development and "collage preparation".
On the rare occasion that I type in that shorthand, it's as a joke, but it takes significantly longer to type for this reason, I have to actively think of how to spell it wrong.And it's actually no more trouble to write the correct words rather than the wrong ones.Yes, especially if you touch-type. I don't actually think about the separate letters in a word any more unless it is distinctly unfamiliar, I just let my fingers take care of that.
I suppose Twitter kind of re-introducted having to do stuff like year = yr or using you know, actual numbers instead of words (one/1)I can't get myself to do that, and thus sometimes I need two or more tweets. Am I doing it wrong?
One of the speakers at the conference I was at today said that a friend had told her to stay in school until they threw her out.What was her topic? Did she know it?
Next thing she knew, she had a Ph.D.
My dissertation is due in 8 days.
:psyduck:
Yeah, can't really do that nowadays. The shame factor thing pisses people off. You wind up being called out for it.My dissertation is due in 8 days.
:psyduck:
Get off the fucking boards - we'll still be here next week.
I have a fairly good revision strategy sorted out. The problem is that I can't get motivated to actually do anything about it.That kind of motivation became a life-changing experience for me. Flunked out of the University of Michigan when I stopped going to too many classes and skipped exams. Enlisted in the Army, later went back to a tiny college, did well, and became a journalist instead of a physicist. But maybe I'm reading too much into this.
do another degree to become a midwife,
Probably?
I've never had to go to the library on campus. I have the internet, that has pretty much everything I could ever find in a library but faster.
You gotta remember that, like the advisors in the Job Centre, academic advisors are generally working in that role because they couldn't get a better job. Why are you talking to them? I understand if it's a requirement, in which case take what they say with a pinch of salt, but if you're looking for advice on a particular career path I find Mr. Google is generally much more helpful.
Dear publisher of the book I am reading for Criminology,
If you are going to put the book onto googlebooks, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO NOT MISS OUT TWO PAGES IN THE MIDDLE! Seriously. If I had known you would just not include pages 195 and 196, I might have tried to find a hard copy. Now I just have to try and guess what those pages might say. Argh.
BTW, it is not a "preview" if there are only two pages missing. It is a book with two pages missing.
Which is why I couldn't even meet with my adviser last semester because she left the school by the time I was arriving to it.
North American people, please explain to me the point of a class ring.I had some extra money from my stupid campus job so I bought one a few years ago, back when I didn't realize that saving money was a good thing. It's sat in my closet for about 3 years, I'll never wear that stupid thing.
wait wait wait - what does exposing things to radiation have to do with Moby Dick? :psyduck:It might be a synonym for 'illuminate' but otherwise Google is useless here.
North American people, please explain to me the point of a class ring.
"getting really sick of this lecturer making up words about moby dick now, if anyone knows what irradiate, expatiate or the settalogical chapters are please enlighten me :("How old is this person, and has she actually read Moby Dick? Irradiate, expatiate, and metaphysical are all in the dictionary, and how can anyone read the book and not know that cetological means "pertaining to the study of whales"? And that word is in the dictionary too.
"metaphysical is another... thanks for the help but i think im screwed haha!!! xxx"
North American people, please explain to me the point of a class ring.To provide employment for jewellers whose designs are so hideous (http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&safe=off&biw=1121&bih=1041&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=class+rings&oq=class+rings&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_l=img.12...0.0.0.4813.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0...0.0.0kT7v9wymy0) that even the local pimps won't buy them?
Going to university this autumn - doing English Lit. Anyone got any vital pearls of wisdom they can share?
and how can anyone read the book and not know that cetological means "pertaining to the study of whales"? And that word is in the dictionary too.I thought settalogical sounded familiar!
North American people, please explain to me the point of a class ring.To provide employment for jewellers whose designs are so hideous (http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&safe=off&biw=1121&bih=1041&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=class+rings&oq=class+rings&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_l=img.12...0.0.0.4813.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0...0.0.0kT7v9wymy0) that even the local pimps won't buy them?
North American people, please explain to me the point of a class ring.To provide employment for jewellers whose designs are so hideous (http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&safe=off&biw=1121&bih=1041&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=class+rings&oq=class+rings&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_l=img.12...0.0.0.4813.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0...0.0.0kT7v9wymy0) that even the local pimps won't buy them?
well...that's true. i didn't think about it because my school ring (at least the styles for ladies) isn't the traditional style. barmymoo, if you think the ring is ugly, you probably aren't going to want to wear it anyway.
A refusal to read seems a completely backwards attitude to take towards University.
I do understand the idea of having something that shows where you went to uni, but those things are hideous! Why can't they make pretty ones? They look enormous in photos. I guess I would prefer a little badge or something.
First, poor handwriting is not calculated to endear you to an examiner. It is irritating to discover after many pages that the exciting new case of Lanyo v Nevada is actually Congo v Rwanda. Secondly, text message spelling is utterly unacceptable, whatever the newspapers may say about other universities. It is also, for this mobile phoneless examiner, unintelligible.
And turning in my keys. I wish I had a real job. You know, something that paid over the summer.Do any universities have the option of spreading salary out over the year? My memory of my wife's salary as a Detroit school teacher is that she didn't have that option, although many districts do.
Back where I come from, we have universities, seats of great learning, where men go to become great thinkers. And when they come out, they think deep thoughts - and with no more brains than you have!
But they have one thing you haven't got...
...a diploma.
Oh yeah, and since I expect to be re-emplyed in the fall, I'm not allowed to collect unemployment over the summer. It's in the contract.Is that legal? There are plenty of jobs where there's a shutdown period (two weeks around New Years and/or two weeks in July) where people who know they will be working again in two weeks collect unemployment. I'd be curious if there were any law forbidding such a contract clause. (Of course, they'd just can you if you rock the boat. I'm just curious about the legality of it in the abstract.)
(http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/purity.png)A philosophy professor of mine used that on the first day of class. Not surprisingly, he said that philosophy was quite a bit to the right* of the comic.
Someone wrote over the top of the mathematician, "In memory of Dr. Carl"Awww, that's so sweet. I totally would have too.
Guys, I wept.
my undergraduate degree is officially finished!
Why didn't you go when you graduated?
Cambridge doesn't have a style guide for essays
ConfessionCollege thread, I have never included a bibliography in any of my degree work.
I am required to use Times New Roman because it is required by APA style. Even though half the time I forget because Word's default is Calibri. Stupid fonts.Honestly, I've always changed my default to Times New Roman, 12 pt. (when I wasn't being a lazy undergrad and using Courier New). Was there any reason why Times New Roman size 12 was replaced not just by Calibri, but by 11 pt as the default font/size?
getting all the commas and periods right took too much time.
Honestly, I've always changed my default to Times New Roman, 12 pt. (when I wasn't being a lazy undergrad and using Courier New). Was there any reason why Times New Roman size 12 was replaced not just by Calibri, but by 11 pt as the default font/size?
I'm pretty sure Times New Roman has been the norm for about forever, and there are plenty of people out there who see it as a formal and now frankly dated font. Calibri seems more rounded and a bit easier on the eyes, but I've just rediscovered Veranda, so you know, exciting things happening in my world right now.I don't think there's anything much wrong with TNR for any kind of even semi-formal writing. I don't think any lecturer at my uni ever cared about anything other than legibility in the font.
(I like the idea of a forum finishing my sentences :mrgreen:)
OK, that actually sounds pretty weird. At least over here you can get at least a 6-month suspension for not citing the entire source (to the level where it can be considered plagiarism). Full name of author, full title, edition, place and year of publication...
Out of interest, what are your examinations like? Not assuming anything, just wondering.
Redball, I think he's proud. Don't spoil it for him!
Although it reminds me of my freshman English class and the best paper I ever wrote. We were assigned to do a two page analysis of a Robert Frost poem of our choice. I wrote five pages on the futility of analyzing poetry. It was a thing of beauty, Lucid, clear, well though out, and I even illustrated my points with poems by Frost, Dickinson, and (IIRC) Ogden Nash.
The professor was a poet.
Best D minus I ever got.
EWait, was an F even lower back then, they gave you guys an extra 10 points before you failed? :?
I'm not sure our percentage grades match up to yours, either. For instance, I was pretty thrilled when I got 132 on my mock exam, which was 66% - a high 2.ii, which is a good grade that most people are aiming for (only about 10% of people get a 1st, and that percentage is lower for some subjects). 50% is the cut-off for a 2.ii at degree level. I'm aiming for about 60% this year, which will be a good grade for me. It's almost unheard of for anyone to get 80% or higher; it's called a starred first and they're very rare.
They used to do something like that here in the soft sciences, but the students got kinda frustrated when nobody studying language or law or such got perfect scores, but maths students got it all the time, because you can actually get everything as good as it can get on a maths exam, and it would be kinda stupid not to score that perfect just because the language students didn't get perfects.
I'm intrigued, why would a perfect world be one where everyone gets 100%?I don't understand the question. Do our definitions of 'perfect' differ?
I'm opposed to the idea of formalised education, but I do recognise that there is a merit in having a way to discern candidates for jobs based on roughly equal criteria, and that standardised testing can be a good tool for this. But if your aim is to get everyone achieving 100%, then you will have to do one of these things:
Reject everyone who isn't almost certain to manage a perfect grade
Throw people out mid-course if they are struggling
Make the test really easy
My view is that education is meant to inspire and nurture curiosity about whatever subject you're studying, so none of those options is ideal from this viewpoint. Also, if you're taking the American approach where people have to take several different courses and some are required even if you don't like them or aren't good at them, it would be very unfair.Well, in this case I was only referring to teaching knowledge and skills. 'Whatever they require to know' then includes the knowledge and skills they need (on their level) to do original research. Since it's very hard to grade an answer to a question to which nobody knows the correct answer, you cannot expect someone to perform perfectly on a task that is not guaranteed to give you the opportunity to perform perfectly.
It's also an interesting point that you say "whatever they require to know". I don't have a very deep understanding of maths, but as far as I know, it is a field where people are still discovering things and working things out for themselves. Here, graduate students have to do original research - if anyone else is doing the same thing, then the one who started first gets priority and the other has to change. Undergraduates don't have quite the same pressure, we're still at the "learn these things" stage, but the top grades are still reserved for people who go beyond what they're taught and think critically, developing their own ideas and theories. So even if you know everything perfectly and have a photographic memory, you should only get 100% if you have also produced a publication-standard argument which is totally flawless and references all the relevant academic debate. I have read published articles by my lecturers which would not achieve this.
One of the few times we, as students, were able to discuss the test answers directly with the lecturer, there was one question he asked about why you might fail to get readings from an implanted electrode. The correct answer was because it might be clogged. The material was about in-vivo electrophysiological measurements, something none of us had experience with, and so we had no idea that a clogged electrode was even a possibility, something we made extremely clear to the lecturer, yet he insisted that it was an 'insight question'.If you knew the physical structure of an implantable electrode, might it be possible to see how organic matter could lodge in it, blocking conduction between tissue and the conductor in the electrode? In near-complete ignorance, I think of an electrode as a metallic object lodged in tissue, with nothing in between. That this could "clog" suggests that there's some structure that allows organic matter to accumulate and block conduction. Would the leap of insight have been possible with knowledge of the structure?
maths...is a field where people are still discovering things and working things out for themselves. Here, graduate students have to do original research - if anyone else is doing the same thing, then the one who started first gets priority and the other has to change. Undergraduates don't have quite the same pressure, we're still at the "learn these things" stage, but the top grades are still reserved for people who go beyond what they're taught and think critically, developing their own ideas and theories.
They used to do something like that here in the soft sciences, but the students got kinda frustrated when nobody studying language or law or such got perfect scores, but maths students got it all the time, because you can actually get everything as good as it can get on a maths exam, and it would be kinda stupid not to score that perfect just because the language students didn't get perfects.
Really? I mean, really?? When I went to Purdue (back in the 80's), the math and engineering and science programs were ridiculously hard. Exam questions were long and complex, much more so than was reasonable for the amount of time given. It took genuine talent to get an A.
But yeah, a math PhD knows so little math that s/he shouldn't attempt to pontificate.And I only have a Bachelor's so I'm keeping very quiet.
There's also the question of why you're doing the degree. I'm not doing a degree as a path to employment,
I majored in Fine Arts and then Art Education. Obviously I did not pick the first for a job, even though I have had jobs sort of related to it, I picked it because I love it. Art Ed is partially so I can have a job, partially because I love education. But I also love biological sciences and I was able to pull that kind of research in for my thesis. Math, back when I did it, was also fun, but because I haven't done advanced math since high school, I've lost my touch with it. Yes, I could relearn calculus, but it's not really necessary for my passions and line of work. Honestly if I do any sort of math, it's algebra or geometry, but it's not on paper.
But I think you're overlooking the fact that just having a degree can be an asset, whatever it is in. I don't know how true this is in the States but certainly here, all you need to get a general gradate job (as opposed to something specialised like computer programming or medical work) is a 2.i in something.Yes, for better or worse, a Bachelor's in something is more and more just the price of entry into "good jobs", even though Australia, where unemployment is around 5% (http://www.tradingeconomics.com/australia/unemployment-rate) and skilled labour shortages are generally the rule, is less credentialist than some places, I think.
Incidentally, you might be surprised what a mixed bag ends up in computer-programming...
Why are you studying law when you want to be a midwife? Just curious, I've heard you mention the desire to be a midwife and the two fields don't really connect.
Jace - that's just part of a liberal arts education. I had to take so many credits of math, science, social sciences, ethics, english (which I mostly tested out of), and free electives in order to graduate. Sometimes I could bend the rules and take a class that was relavent to my interests (like ethics - instead of taking an actual ethics class, I took one that discussed ethics through literature), but sometimes I just had to suck it up and take a class I didn't really want to. Like one of the psychology classes I took that was boring as crap, but I needed the credit. I think I finished most of those by the time I was a junior and my last two years were mostly classes for my major.
Ah, that oddly reassuring moment when you discover that the scary lecturer who you have to meet on Tuesday to convince them to let you into their course is, in her spare time, a novelist.I mentioned this to my aspiring novelist daughter, who wondered if she'd ever heard of the lecturer/novelist.
a third (the lowest honours grade
We were talking about how everyone should go make sure that they're on the organ donor register, right now. Off you go.I forget if we already talked about this in Discuss, but I hate that being an organ donor is not mandatory, or at the very least, opt-out instead of opt-in. If you are dead and therefore not using your organs, you have no business denying them from someone who needs them.
Depends. Is he in Math, or CS?Neither. He's in computational neuroscience. What do you make of that?
The difference is between amused and annoyed.
Does it help to look at the course as simply hoop-jumping to get a certificate that evidences what you already know?
What's your english class' focus? Or do you get to write about anything?
I'm applying to law school, hoping to get into Northeastern in Boston.So when I took the LSATs I didn't do that well (not bad, but not great) because I didn't study. I'm studying now to retake in June, which means I won't start law school until fall 2014. Anyone here a lawyer/law student? I thought I remember Barmy mentioning that, but I could be wrong.
Holy crap, one of the schools that accepted me just sent me another offer...this time for a full ride.Yay! Congratulations!
Holy crap, one of the schools that accepted me just sent me another offer...this time for a full ride. Free tuition for all three years, with no stipulation other than good academic standing. Looks like I'm going back to school this fall after all!
I say check the school out and do what YOU want, not what THEY want you to want.I think this is the most important part. I've never transferred, but I know plenty of people who did, and how well it works really depends on how cooperative the school is. So if you can talk to people who have transferred there, their advice is more valuable than anyone else's, probably.
...as long as they have your program and don't fuck you on credits, it's probably not as big a deal as it could be.
I am now officially registered at Miramar College! Woo!
Just got my loan information today, part of it is missing.
Really hope it's a stupid mistake and I don't have to spend forever on the phone with the annoying people from financial aid.
I swear the person who invented this system was a sadist
A 62% is a good grade? I'll never understand English percent grades, on my side of the pond a 62% is, depending on the school, either failing or barely passing.
So I graduated my law degree with a 2.i yesterday and tomorrow I register for my midwifery course. Also hi, I'm not dead.