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Author Topic: University/College  (Read 435677 times)

idontunderstand

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Re: University/College
« Reply #850 on: 09 Dec 2011, 12:15 »

Congrats!
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LTK

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Re: University/College
« Reply #851 on: 16 Dec 2011, 06:49 »

Today we got tested on Tuesday's lecture on two-photon imaging. There was a consensus between the students that we couldn't possibly have known the answer to question six, but the postdoc who made the test was being hard-headed about the right answer being the right answer, even though we couldn't have known the other answers were wrong.

He also made the answers follow the pattern of ABCDCBABCD. Apparently I was the only one to notice that. The only reason I got question six right was because I filled in the pattern, but tests really shouldn't do this. Still, I can't really complain about my 10/10.
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Jace

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Re: University/College
« Reply #852 on: 16 Dec 2011, 07:42 »

Turns out that I had a 95% on the 3rd test in Critical Thinking, and I went in on Monday which was the last day and the professor wanted me to take home the last test and mail it into him because other than doing subpar on the second test (I missed the first but he is not counting it) I did really well in the class.
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dr. nervioso

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Re: University/College
« Reply #853 on: 01 Feb 2012, 13:04 »

Reviving this topic to say that I have been accepted to the university I was hoping for. In fact, I have gotten accepted to all the universities I applied to.

Anyways, I am still waiting on acceptance from their honors college, but still YAY!
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Re: University/College
« Reply #854 on: 01 Feb 2012, 13:15 »

Congrats!
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schimmy

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Re: University/College
« Reply #855 on: 21 Feb 2012, 17:01 »

Up until now on my dissertation, I've been thinking "Hmm, I'm not sure how I'm going to fill this word limit." But I've just reached the point where I think I might have to cut out some of the stuff I planned putting in there - an entire section might have to go! This is a weird experience. It is stressful and I can't figure out why. How the heck can you get stressed about the fact that you don't have that much work left to do?!
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Jace

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Re: University/College
« Reply #856 on: 21 Feb 2012, 17:34 »

I missed 5 spanish classes in a row. It will be 2 full weeks since I've actually been in that class.
I don't really want to do all of my maths homework because it is pretty silly to have to draw a circle and then draw an angle on that circle like 16 times. waste of paper to draw that many circles.
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Carl-E

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Re: University/College
« Reply #857 on: 21 Feb 2012, 22:54 »

How the heck can you get stressed about the fact that you don't have that much work left to do?!


End of an era. 


Scarey stuff...
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Barmymoo

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Re: University/College
« Reply #858 on: 22 Feb 2012, 02:11 »

I hate my degree right now :(
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schimmy

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Re: University/College
« Reply #859 on: 22 Feb 2012, 09:25 »

Whenever I arrive early for a tutorial, there are first year students waiting for tutorials in adjacent rooms. The small talk they make is always the same, week to week, and is exactly the same as the small talk I remember making when I was a fresher. Every single conversation inevitably involves the question "Did you do the reading?" and the answer is always either "No" (followed by a solitary laugh) or "I did a bit of the first one."

I wish I was a fresher again. It was so easy. If I did half as much work then as I do now, I would have easily gotten firsts in everything.
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Carl-E

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Re: University/College
« Reply #860 on: 22 Feb 2012, 10:09 »

You do realize that most of them will never make it to the level you're at, right? 

First year is for learning how to learn...
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schimmy

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Re: University/College
« Reply #861 on: 22 Feb 2012, 10:18 »

Oh, they absolutely will. Like I said, I had exactly the same conversations when I was at their level. Pretty much everyone who is at my level now will attest to the same. Obviously, I can only speak for my degree at my university, but first year is extremely easy. So long as you have the slightest ability to philosophise, you can coast through doing pretty much no work. I pretty much skipped the second semester, and still came out with grades equivalent to a good 2.1.
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Barmymoo

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Re: University/College
« Reply #862 on: 22 Feb 2012, 10:20 »

Everyone passes here, but that's not because it's easy - just because it's very hard to fail. I think maybe we get one person failing a year out of several hundred? I agree that first year is for learning how to learn but it's still difficult, and I feel that it's rather unfair that my first year grades make up 1/3 of my final grade, whilst in other subjects only the third year counts, or only the second and third year. It seems pretty arbitrary.

Also, you need to remember that everyone is progressing. I expect A level would be a breeze now, but they were damn hard at the time.
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There's this really handy "other thing" I'm going to write as a footnote to my abstract that I can probably explore these issues in. I think I'll call it my "dissertation."

LTK

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Re: University/College
« Reply #863 on: 22 Feb 2012, 14:04 »

Hoo boy. I've been looking into my options for a Master's following up on my bachelor in Neuropsychology, and if I'll be staying at this university then my first choice is the Brain & Cognitive Science Master, which is limited to 25 admissions and requires a 7.5 GPA plus a statement of motivation in 300 words. They told me that you can still be considered for admission if you don't have a 7.5 but write a good statement. My average is currently at a 7.1, and I don't have a realistic hope of bringing it over 7.5, and 300 words is really very little if I want to convice someone to consider me for a position. I'm really uncertain about my chances here, and I haven't ever been in this kind of situation before. Kind of scary!
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Welu

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Re: University/College
« Reply #864 on: 22 Feb 2012, 14:06 »

Even though I don't want to go to university and haven't applied, I am feeling kind of left out with everyone getting, "YAY I GOT ACCEPTED!" and everyone else being, "YAY YOU GOT ACCEPTED!"  :|

schimmy

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Re: University/College
« Reply #865 on: 22 Feb 2012, 16:42 »

That's weird, May. I didn't know anywhere in England counted your first year at all. Is that just an Oxbridge thing?
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Re: University/College
« Reply #866 on: 23 Feb 2012, 00:30 »

In Oxbridge, even before modern types of assessment came along there were graded public honours examinations at the end of the first year, known (at Oxford) as "Moderations". I got a third in mods (equivalent at that time in Oxford to a 2.2), and a second (=2.1) in finals; as I changed my subject part-way through the first year, I wasn't too upset with my mods class, though the college was, and took away my exhibition (junior scholarship).

In Classics (Literae Humaniores or Lit. Hum.) at Oxford, finals are known as "Greats", and when people are said to have done "Mods and Greats", it generally means specifically in Classics.  If people are said to have got a "double first", that always means specifically in Classics Mods & Greats.  This is helpful to know when reading a certain kind of novel.  In all other subjects, when you have done finals, how you did in mods is superseded and forgotten about.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #867 on: 23 Feb 2012, 23:25 »

The state run university I teach at, while not open admission, is pretty close.  Overall it has about a 78% graduation rate. 

The branch campus I specifically teach at is a hail-mary campus for those least likely to make it.  We have a ridiculous amount of support for them, and only offer a "first year experience" to streamline them into classes at the main campus.  Even then, we only have about a 50% retention rate (only about 50% make it past the first year), and only about a 20% graduation rate for those who start at our campus. 



They're very good at making excuses, though.  It's amazing what happens when you ask one of them why they haven't been to class for three weeks...
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Jace

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Re: University/College
« Reply #868 on: 28 Feb 2012, 21:47 »

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.
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Barmymoo

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Re: University/College
« Reply #869 on: 29 Feb 2012, 00:58 »

I think different places do things differently, at my uni we have a two-stream learning system with lectures (which do not set work but do sometimes provide "suggested extra reading" which no one ever does) and supervisions (classes) where you are set a whole load of reading and some questions to think about, and essays ever so often. In some subjects here, the lecturers set the work and the classes are just a chance to make sure everyone understood it.
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There's this really handy "other thing" I'm going to write as a footnote to my abstract that I can probably explore these issues in. I think I'll call it my "dissertation."

dr. nervioso

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Re: University/College
« Reply #870 on: 29 Feb 2012, 03:30 »

So sent my deposit in a few days ago. I am looking towards room and bard, which is pretty confusing when you look at housing. At the very least, I do have a potential roommate, but he lives in Illinois and has technically not made a decision. So I am going to e frustrated I think. I hope not, but that is what happens when people are more behind than I am and I am depending on them
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Barmymoo

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Re: University/College
« Reply #871 on: 29 Feb 2012, 04:14 »

OK people I have a question.

In general, how do you structure your essays? And also what country are you studying in?

I just got an essay back from my international law supervisor. This is the first essay I've submitted to her, and I thought it was pretty good. She has ripped it to pieces. I made two definite errors of fact, and there are three or four points which I also recognise are valid (didn't back up my points properly) but she has also been pretty scathing about my structure. Apparently I should have outlined my argument in the first sentence, used section headings, avoided "abstract summaries of the law", split my answer into two parts to address the two elements of the question, and basically structured it completely differently.

This goes against every piece of advice I've ever had about an essay, and I have a suspicion that this may be one of them cultural difference thangs. She is an American PhD student, so I am wondering if the structure she suggests is an American convention? I just checked the faculty marking criteria and there is absolutely nothing at all about a required structure - and the fact that I've been consistently getting "good structure" "excellently structured" etc - suggests that I'm not wrong.

I'm just upset because I don't want to have to spend the rest of the year writing essays which I feel are totally stupid and wrong (I have not used section headings in an essay EVER, and I haven't used them at all since I was in primary school making leaflets) just to appease someone who I think is wrong. But equally I don't want to totally ignore what she's said, which would be sticking two fingers up to her as a teacher, or tell her that she's wrong without anything to back myself up except "no one else has said this".
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There's this really handy "other thing" I'm going to write as a footnote to my abstract that I can probably explore these issues in. I think I'll call it my "dissertation."

TRVA123

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Re: University/College
« Reply #872 on: 29 Feb 2012, 10:37 »

For US papers it is common practice for your introductory paragraph to be a summary of the rest of your paper. The sub heading and such is not common practice for general essays, although it might be different in Law.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #873 on: 29 Feb 2012, 10:54 »

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.

I was basing this off of my uni, but for the classes I've taken (that are not in huge lecture halls, just standard classrooms), the class is usually about 15-30 people. Profs tend to teach 2, maybe 3 classes, but usually no more than that. So that's where the numbers came from. Almost all of my classes have either been studios, where students work pretty closely with a prof and are usually no more than 15 people, or seminars, which are also usually about 15-20 people and we all talk to each other enough that everyone knows each other by name. But I remember several undergrad classes that were non-major and not only did I never bother to learn the names of my classmates, I sometimes forgot the name of my professor unless I really liked them.

Lecture profs though...I was always shocked if they knew who I was. I don't think I'd ever remember the names of students if I had about 300-500 of them a week. That's just too much!
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dr. nervioso

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Re: University/College
« Reply #874 on: 29 Feb 2012, 14:39 »

I decide organization specifically for each essay. I am against blanket formats and believe everything is more effecive when it is tailor-made for a specific purpose. As for your essay, I would guess it is a law thing. I recommend you go to your professor and ask about the specific structure and is it specific to law or international law. Different classes do have different standards maybe you overlooked something on your syllabus? Or maybe, depending on the level of your class, yur professor expects you to know the organization. It happened to me once in a biology class.
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Barmymoo

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Re: University/College
« Reply #875 on: 29 Feb 2012, 15:16 »

Nope, definitely not one of those situations - this supervisor has taken over half way through the year from our previous supervisor, who was a fellow. The new one is just a PhD student. Definitely not specific to law - I've been studying law for two and a half years, someone would have mentioned it by now. Not specific to international law either, not just because I have been studying it for nearly a year but because the years above also think it's rubbish. It's specific to this supervisor and we've concluded that it's wrong.


ETA: I think it's worth adding that these essays are totally irrelevant to our grades. They're just practice for the exam, which will be set by the professors rather than the PhD students.
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There's this really handy "other thing" I'm going to write as a footnote to my abstract that I can probably explore these issues in. I think I'll call it my "dissertation."

Carl-E

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Re: University/College
« Reply #876 on: 01 Mar 2012, 07:51 »

Two fingers it is, then!  And find some outside evaluation for the further essays. 


Oh, and you might want to tell someone higher up what she's doing...
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Barmymoo

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Re: University/College
« Reply #877 on: 01 Mar 2012, 08:27 »

I spoke to our director of studies about it, whose advice was "talk to the supervisor about it, and then she'll probably come to me for guidance". She also thought I was being a bit silly being bothered by it, but then again she generally thinks I'm being a bit silly about all of my worries, because she is an academic of many years and has forgotten what it feels like to be 21 and anxious about exams.
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Barmymoo

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Re: University/College
« Reply #878 on: 02 Mar 2012, 07:52 »

Looking at my work to-do list makes me want to cry :(

By Monday I have to read three more articles and write an essay. I have already read a textbook chapter and two articles. I have five hours of choir on Sunday.

By Tuesday I have to read two chapters, six articles, one statute, and a case. I have a supervision on Monday morning, tutoring on Monday night, and a concert I really want to go to but probably won't be able to.

By Wednesday I have to read two chapters, an article, a statute and nineteen cases. I have two lectures on Tuesday morning, a supervision in the afternoon and two hours of choir in the evening.

OK university, you have to choose. I can do my degree, live my life or remain sane. Pick any two.
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There's this really handy "other thing" I'm going to write as a footnote to my abstract that I can probably explore these issues in. I think I'll call it my "dissertation."

schimmy

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Re: University/College
« Reply #879 on: 02 Mar 2012, 10:40 »

I have a question for you, May. You seem to be super stressed about uni a lot.* Would you have chosen a more laid back university, or no university at all, if you had known what it was going to be like?

*Or at least are whenever you're posting about it here.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #880 on: 02 Mar 2012, 11:56 »

It's an interesting question, particularly since I do a lot of access and outreach for my college.

The answer is yes and no. I love it here, I love my college and I love Cambridge and although I get frustrated about the obsession with exams instead of the pursuit of ideas (which I imagine is even worse at other universities), I am glad to be here and constantly challenged and pushed.

But I get so angry about the fact that we are all so stressed and exhausted. Cambridge has a special system for taking a year out because you have worn yourself out and had a breakdown. It appalls me that the need for such a system exists; it appalls me that, on recognising that need, the university decided not to resolve the problem but instead to provide a mechanism for making sure you come back and finish.

There is absolutely no need for everyone to be this stressed. 8 week terms are completely stupid. No one needs 28 weeks of vacation. There are people developing eating disorders, fatigue illnesses, depression, myriad mental illnesses (the rate of students seeking treatment for mental health problems is something like five times the average) and it is completely unnecessary.

So yes, if I had known how it would be then I would have thought twice about coming here. I applied to two very good universities (I also applied to two fairly crap ones as fall-backs) and I think both would have been less pressure with almost equal academic rigour. But for all my moaning, I haven't left yet.
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There's this really handy "other thing" I'm going to write as a footnote to my abstract that I can probably explore these issues in. I think I'll call it my "dissertation."

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Re: University/College
« Reply #881 on: 04 Mar 2012, 04:56 »

In general, how do you structure your essays? And also what country are you studying in?

I'm studying computer science, which probably involves less essays than most other courses, but I'm correcting essays from some younger students (I've virtirolled pretty heavily about it), so I've read quite a few (130 this far in the semestre, going to be close to triple that at the end of the semester, each at 3ish pages). The course has no formal requirements for structure, so the students really just follows whatever they knew before they got here. This means that I see a lot of different kinds of structuring, the most common one being not structuring the damn thing, and you know what? As long as there's a structure there, it doesn't really matter! Someone gives an introduction to the whole thing right at the beginning, some gives an introduction for each paragraph. Some use section headings, some don't, someone ditches the final conclusion, and favors several, smaller conclusions to each section.

As long as you are consistent, and it's easy to see what you are trying to argue and what arguments that you have, you have good structure. Anything else is fluff and bullshit.

When I correct, I usually read the entire thing, then skim back through the essay when I'm writing the feedback to remind myself what points they came up with. I think that gives a good test for structure - if you cannot pick up the core arguments by skimming though the essay (if you are familiar with the subject matter), the structure isn't good enough.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #882 on: 04 Mar 2012, 05:24 »

That is a very good rule of thumb and one I think I need to follow more closely - if, when I read my essay back, I can't make a bullet point list of the points that resembles my initial plan very closely, then I need to edit again.

We got an email from the supervisor saying that we will be going over how to structure our essays in the next supervision. Could be interesting - none of us are happy being told we have to give up a perfectly good structure to replace it with one we have never used before, just a few weeks before exam term starts.
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There's this really handy "other thing" I'm going to write as a footnote to my abstract that I can probably explore these issues in. I think I'll call it my "dissertation."

dr. nervioso

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Re: University/College
« Reply #883 on: 04 Mar 2012, 07:17 »

So, I have to do a fifteen page essay about a International topic for my IR class. This will be my first actual long essay, so hopefully I will do well and not go insane. I am thinking of doing it on China and the western world's basic misconceptions about it. I have to the end of the semester.
Anyone have any advice for doing these long essays or where I can get some good materials on modern China?

Also, roommate stuff, found a roommate a month or so ago. Nice kid, smart. The issue is, A) he is not in my major (Me-Microbiology, Him-Law). Not such a big problem, but it would have been nice to have another biology person to share a room with. B) He actually has not made a decision on where to go. My college is at the top of his list, but I really do need to find a room ASAP. Though, until I get my room and board stuff in the mail, so not too worried right now.

So, I have been hearing all about these horrible roommates, on numerous cllege advice websites, can it really be that bad?
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Re: University/College
« Reply #884 on: 04 Mar 2012, 14:14 »

[shudders]

25 years later.  Yes, it can get that bad. 


The guy who dealt pot from our room was pretty cool, though, and never got caught. 



The guy who rebuilt his entire bicycle in the room  was another story... and it took three weeks.  WTF?






Oh, and there was the one who never slept, and kept me up talking to/about his hallucinations.  Fortunately, he only lasted about a month or so. 
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Re: University/College
« Reply #885 on: 04 Mar 2012, 21:24 »

My roommates are just a mid-20s pothead with aspergers and a 30y/o alcoholic who is unemployed.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #886 on: 05 Mar 2012, 04:31 »

@dr. nervioso - Wait, you actually have to find your own roommate?  You're not assigned one as a freshman?
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Barmymoo

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Re: University/College
« Reply #887 on: 05 Mar 2012, 04:58 »

I'd imagine that he's living in private accommodation?

I can't get my head around the idea of sharing a room with a stranger at university. Doesn't it get really annoying? What if you have totally different sleep patterns, or work habits? I get annoyed enough at the people next door being noisy, I'd probably end up smothering someone who lived in my room.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #888 on: 05 Mar 2012, 06:04 »

I've heard both good and bad things (never experienced it myself). One of my friends was actually bullied by her 3 roommates, so she switched rooms and was happier. Her new roommates were at least in her major and not mean, but they were still pretty annoying. She only lived in the dorms one year and moved into an apt with a friend after that.

I personally would have never wanted to live in dorms because I found out how annoying they were after visiting some of my friends in theirs. Especially freshmen floors.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #889 on: 05 Mar 2012, 07:39 »

You can get singles, they're just typically more expensive. The norm I think is 2 people to a room, but there are also suites that can have up to 4, maybe more depending on the uni. It really just depends on how much your parents feel like paying for your room. Which is dumb.
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Omega Entity

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Re: University/College
« Reply #890 on: 05 Mar 2012, 07:55 »

I don't think I'd ever be able to live with someone that I wasn't related to, or involved with romantically. I obsess over things that bother me, and I'd drive both of us up the wall, I think.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #891 on: 05 Mar 2012, 10:49 »

The randomly chosen, ahem, I mean the very carefully matched based on mutual interests and sleeping habits, roommate that I had freshmen year was pretty horrible. She was a complete slob (I am fairly messy, but I keep my mess confined to parts of the room that are mine exclusively.) She was not terribly nice to me, she once took my television out of the room without my permission. She also reported to the RA that I had moved out of the dorms, when I was simply avoiding her. That was a very awkward conversation with my RA.

The next year I could choose my own roommate, and I fared well. Its not so much about having habits that compliment each other as it is about talking with your roommate and seeing what works for the two of you and what doesn't.
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Carl-E

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Re: University/College
« Reply #892 on: 05 Mar 2012, 11:59 »

All the roomates I listed were random assignments in a 2-person dorm room.  I went through a lot of roomates in a short period of time. 

After my second year I moved out and into a house with some friends.  It didn't get less weird, but at least I know the weirdness ahead of time!


Oh, and I had my own bedroom. 
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dr. nervioso

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Re: University/College
« Reply #893 on: 05 Mar 2012, 13:22 »

At my university, you have the option to select the roommate if you have one in mind. If you do not, then there is the random roommate
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Barmymoo

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Re: University/College
« Reply #894 on: 05 Mar 2012, 14:48 »

It really just depends on how much your parents feel like paying for your room. Which is dumb.

This may be the difference - or rather, it is certainly a difference. Since we are a massive communist dirty socialist intelligent progressive welfare state, most people pay for their accommodation from the grants and loans they get, and therefore parents don't have to shoulder the burden. My parents don't contribute at all; they did enough financing me for the 18 years I was at home.
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LTK

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Re: University/College
« Reply #895 on: 05 Mar 2012, 15:32 »

Yeah, it's the same with me. My grants and subsidies are just enough to pay the rent for my single-room apartment with a private bathroom and a shared kitchen, and I live off the pay of the highly irregular hours I work at a high school. My parents are just as stingy as I am, and like May's, with good reason. They offered to pay €500 for furnishing my room when I first moved in, and after that I was on my own. Which is perfectly all right; it's more comfortable not to be financially dependent on others.

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.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #896 on: 05 Mar 2012, 16:07 »

Since we are a massive communist dirty socialist intelligent progressive welfare state, most people pay for their accommodation from the grants and loans they get, and therefore parents don't have to shoulder the burden.

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!).
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dr. nervioso

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Re: University/College
« Reply #897 on: 05 Mar 2012, 17:46 »

So talked to future(?) roommate, he wants to have a third roommate, which I have no specific qualms with, but I am still n my default wary setting. But since he hasn't  actually confirmed his enrollment, we won't talk about specifics.

My university's roommate matcher is technically open, but seems to be broken. Which really is not that bad since I know for a fact that it doesn't work completely (People lie on the internet)
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Re: University/College
« Reply #898 on: 05 Mar 2012, 20:29 »

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.

I don't follow your reasoning. It's not like the US the same number of (quality) colleges spread across a larger area. Each state has its own system of universities, plus all the private colleges. Sure, there are concentrations of more prestigious schools in certain areas of the country, but it's not as if most people (except I guess the ones in the 5-people-per-square-mile Midwest nowhere places) really have to go that far to reach a good school. It's just, the one three states over might be better - if you can swing the out-of-state tuition. And for some people, not being a day-trip away from home is a selling point.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #899 on: 05 Mar 2012, 21:54 »

I think LTK's point isn't that people have to go far, but rather that, having the option, many do  travel far from home for college, even thousands of miles, and stil stay in the same country, something that's nearly impossible in Europe.  I know I had the option of three premier schools - one within an hour of home, another about three hours away, and the third was over 500 miles away. 

I went aas far as i possibly could... my brothers were driving me crazy!
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