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[Lupercal]

While the words themselves are difficult, "metaphysical" is definitely not a word that you just stumble across at the end of your second year of an English Lit degree. If she didn't understand them when she was sitting in the lecture hall, she could have spoken to the lecturer in person and asked them questions - lecturers are usually friendly and more than happy to talk about their interests. If she's just listening to recordings of them online (which could be a few years old) then she has no right to complain.

But my main point was that this is what happens when you sign yourself up for the mentor programme and ignore your mentor. While I'd be happy to help, she calls out for Facebook instead of emailing her me (should probably mention I'm a Course Representative too, I know my course!)

[Omega Entity]

What's the point in complaining about what a word means when it's so easy to get a definition? I mean, she has access to Facebook, right? It's not that hard to type 'dictionary.com' into a web browser.

[snalin]

"define x" in google search will give you a ton of definitions for whatever you entered for x. If it's a word a lot of people wonder about, you don't even have to write "define".

wait wait wait - what does exposing things to radiation have to do with Moby Dick?

[Papersatan]

The point of the post was not about getting help as much as sharing her bloo bloo predicament when friends who will hopefully give her"you go girl" reassurance that these words are outrageously hard and it is not all her fault that she is failing.   I think those sorts of posts are a full third of my stream once you remove sponsored content.  They are counter productive to solving real problems, but she is far from being alone in doing it. 

The real judgement I have is why are you on a list that could see that post?  Girl needs to learn to manage her social network. 

[Method of Madness]

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.

[LTK]

wait wait wait - what does exposing things to radiation have to do with Moby Dick?

It might be a synonym for 'illuminate' but otherwise Google is useless here.

[Redball]

Did anyone wonder about "settalogical" or do I have to read Moby Dick to find out? Define in Google doesn't come up with anything useful.

[Method of Madness]

I haven't read Moby Dick, but maybe the whale was particularly big because he'd been exposed to radiation.

[bainidhe_dub]

If she's listening to recorded lectures, maybe she's mishearing the lecturer because she doesn't know the words he's actually using? A quick visit to the Google-machine says there is quite a lot of scatological humor in Moby Dick.

[Cie]

Going to university this autumn - doing English Lit. Anyone got any vital pearls of wisdom they can share?

[ummmkay]

North American people, please explain to me the point of a class ring.

like someone else up there said, i think it's meant to commemorate the experience (note that i am talking about college/university, not high school. i never got a high school ring). i LOVE my school ring because i love the school i graduated from, and the years i spent there. our ring design is also very distinctive, so i frequently (in the 2 years since i graduated and moved a couple hours away) have had people notice it and say, "oh, you went to ____? me too/i know someone who did/isn't it awesome?"

tl;dr if you don't care about the school you went to, it probably won't matter to you and would be a waste of money.

[Lines]

I have a high school class ring and honestly I don't really know why, my high school sucks. (Like to the point I'm beginning to think it'll be closed in a few years due to how NCLB works.) I won't be getting one for my university. Even though I love my program, but...meh. I'll have a hood, that's all I care about.

[Barmymoo]

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.

[Akima]

"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 "
"metaphysical is another... thanks for the help but i think im screwed haha!!! xxx"

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.
Wait... Did someone say she was at university? 

North American people, please explain to me the point of a class ring.

To provide employment for jewellers whose designs are so hideous that even the local pimps won't buy them?

[Lupercal]

She is only the year below me. She's between 19-21 I think. Old enough to know that the dictionary holds certain words. And no, she probably hasn't read Moby Dick, even though it is a set text and it was on the course between September and December 2011.

English Literature is quite funny in the fact that a lot of people rely on SparkNotes and Wikipedia plot summaries, even though we're graded on papers, exams and our participation in seminars based upon our knowledge of these texts. Some people think that you can just bullshit your way through Literature cos its just books, man.

When I did that course (Early American Literature), the teacher was even pretty cool and offered a "cheaters guide" to the novel that cuts out a lot of unnecessary chapters.

This might be the answer:

"ive refused to read it haha, just picking chapters and random and watched the film. Even the lecturer said that reading certain parts made him suicidal so i think its a major no go!!!"

Sorry to clog this thread up with inane Facebook shit, but this is exactly why we have a mentoring system, to try our best to encourage students to you know, enjoy reading and respond to the text. Rather than just watch the film. A refusal to read seems a completely backwards attitude to take towards English Lit. Just read all the set texts, you only have do talk about 3 in the exam! (AND they can be texts you've already written on for your coursework assignments, its not exactly difficult)

Going to university this autumn - doing English Lit. Anyone got any vital pearls of wisdom they can share?

please for the love of God, do none of the above

[Redball]

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!

[ummmkay]

North American people, please explain to me the point of a class ring.

To provide employment for jewellers whose designs are so hideous 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.

[lepetitfromage]

North American people, please explain to me the point of a class ring.

To provide employment for jewellers whose designs are so hideous 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.

I'm curious....what does your ring look like? I loved the schools I went to, but the rings just seemed like such a waste of money. (Also noteworthy is the fact that the first 2 schools I went to used Jostens and when I graduated, they had a hideous selection.) By the time I finally got my degree last year, I just didn't care enough about a ring. I had my fancy piece of paper and my tassel and that was enough for me. I will say that there are definitely better looking ones out there now than there used to be!

A refusal to read seems a completely backwards attitude to take towards University.

fyp.

[Barmymoo]

Ugh. The supervisor who was on sabbatical last term and had turned us over to another supervisor, who had a totally different supervision time and a different group in a different place, has come back and rearranged our last substantive supervision of the year for tomorrow afternoon. Problem: I had already got a supervision tomorrow afternoon. I had one today too. And one yesterday. We're meant to do at least 20 hours of reading for each one. I tend to feel that I need to do at least five to feel I have even the barest idea what I'm talking about. She has also set us a timed exam question and another exam answer to prepare before the supervision. I have evensong tonight. I have to give blood tomorrow morning. I JUST DO NOT HAVE TIME WHY THE HELL DID IT HAVE TO BE TOMORROW?! Exams aren't for another month, we could have put the supervision off for two days and no one would have died but nooooo we have to do all the work at the same time and then have four weeks with no structure at all supposedly for revision but in fact for catching up on the sleep I can't get this week argh.

[Lines]

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.

The typical ones, especially for men, are huge and ugly. Mine is smaller and not a traditional shape, but I still don't wear it because, well, there is really no point and I hate wearing rings. Whatever. I have a baton and a pin that I earned for being in orchestra and choir respectively for all 4 years of high school and I have more of an attachment to those than I ever did to that ring.

Anywho, in college news, I have asked a 4th (and hopefully) final professor to be on my thesis committee and this time I think she'll actually stick around. We have to have 2 committee members to sign off on our thesis and considering this is the 6th week of school and I need to finish this project in 4 weeks, I was starting to really freak out. But at least I have class with this person, so she can't hide. (Also you know, she's pretty honest about things, so I know she would have said no if she'd been too busy...unlike the other two who were apparently too afraid to answer an email with a negative.)

[Barmymoo]

On a more positive note than my stress over the amount of work I have to do (and yes I realise I should be doing it... I need to take regular five-minute breaks or my brain explodes over international law), I have started planning for my dissertation which I'll write next year, and I've decided to tie my trip to the US this summer into research for that. All I have to do at this stage is get the paperwork signed off for applying to funding, which just involves convincing my director of studies and my personal tutor that the trip is worthy of funding. The DoS has already expressed her enthusiasm towards the academic aspect of the trip, and she'll be signing it tomorrow, and I'll see my tutor next week to get the choir-tour part signed off as worthwhile to be funded. I've asked for £1000 which I will no way get, but hopefully the fact that I'll need to spend at least that much will encourage them to give me something. I did get about that much as a scholarship earlier this year due to being homeless for the vacation, so even if they decide not to give me anything I technically have it covered - although that money will be very handy for actually affording life next year without having to give up visiting my family and eating.

[Jace]

Failing 2 classes. Passing 2 classes. Gonna try and take 3 math courses next semester but might have to settle for 2.

[dr. nervioso]

Hey just wondering for future reference, but what are the specific steps for getting your phd/masters/doctorate? I am sorry if I am confusing terms. There is just s much I need to learn about higher learning!

[Method of Madness]

You don't have one already? Are you saying your username is a lie? (Sorry, had to)

[ummmkay]

@ lepetitfromage: not a great picture, but here:

[dr. nervioso]

I do have a phd. It is in kicking ass.
Actually it's being a neurotic ball of crazy, but don't tell the ladies back at the bar abut that.

All kidding aside, I chose that name because I seriosly want to become a ridiculous supervillain

[Lines]

Find out what you want the degree in. Apply to a university with said degree. Get accepted. Pick a research topic*. RESEARCH. Turn research in. Graduate. Repeat if you want a PhD.

*Actually, this should probably be the first step...but for me it was my third. OH WELL.

[Method of Madness]

Get a Ph.D in Horribleness.

[Papersatan]

Do you have an undergrad degree yet?  For me, the work I did as an undergrad helped me choose what I wanted to do for grad school.  That is, my graduate degree is in a different field. 

I was a lit major in undergrad but, I didn't think a graduate degree in English was the best for me.  A combination of the years of study involved and the competitiveness of the programs/job market relative to my age and lack of financial resources. But, through the classes I took, I found I was really interested in the ways that shifts in technology changed how we stored and shared information.  I focused on that interest when looking at graduate programs and I am now at the University of Michigan's School of Information getting a master's degree, and I love it.

As far as the actual process? Get good grades, but also join a club or something.  Talk to professors you like about your interests (I am reeeeaaally bad at this) because you are going to need some of them to write you letters of recommendation, and to do that they need to know who you are.  Look at a lot of programs to figure out what appeals to you.  Start you applications early.  And, here is some learn from the mistakes of others, for the love of god re-read your application essay and make sure that you have named the correct institution in your conclusion.   The only school I didn't get into, I reread the essay I wrote 3 months later and it concluded with a statement about how much I wanted to attend.... a different university :/   Welp, at least I know why I didn't get in, yeah?

[dr. nervioso]

 I have not gotten my undergrad yet, so I am just doing this as forseeing years in the future. Though right now I am on the path to something in microbiology, maybe the metabolisms of of Archea.

I don't think I'll change my major. I could only see myself do that for something in international relations.

[Barmymoo]

My exams start three weeks yesterday. I'm feeling fairly confident for one of them. For the other four, I feel like I know almost nothing properly and nothing at all for some.

[schimmy]

My posts in this thread recently are all me panicking that I'm almost done. My last ever essays are due in on Monday, and then there is literally nothing left for me to do, except wait for graduation. Yelp!

[Carl-E]

Done giving finals. 


Now for the grading. 




And turning in my keys.  I wish I had a real job.  You know, something that paid over the summer. 

[Barmymoo]

I'm approaching the end of hour six of revision today (just downloading an examiner's report from the past paper I'm doing to see how much I've missed in this answer). It's going pretty well actually, although the panic at how much there is to do is never far from surfacing. Thankfully I've got through more than I expected, and two more hours of work are scheduled for later.


Huh. Great. The examiner's report includes precisely four sentences on this question, all of which are no help. I miss the days of A level reports which outlined exactly what the correct answer would have included.

Hehe but it does, later in the report, include the stellar advice that:

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.

[Lines]

I think if I ever read any college level writing and it included text messaging lingo, I would autofail it. Or at least refuse to grade it until it had proper spelling.

[Redball]

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.

[Carl-E]

Not this one, if you're a "temporary" (i.e., non tenure track) employee.  Even if you're full time and are expected to return in the fall. 

Now, I could deposit my pays and squirrel away 12% of each check, meting it out over the summer, but the problem is that I don't get paid enough to keep up with expenses as it is. 

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. 

It's times like this that I know I'm a massive failure.  Whoops, wrong thread again! 

[Redball]

The university/college thread doesn't seem to be immune to depressing observations.

[schimmy]

I find it peculiar that you don't work over the summer, Carl. I was under the impression that it was normal for university teaching staff to work over the summer, actually working in their field, rather than teaching it?

[Barmymoo]

But not necessarily getting paid...

[Carl-E]

If I had a regular (tenured or tenure track) posistion, I would get paid through the summer, and would have the luxury of either teaching summer class or doing some research, rather than scrabbling for money by trying to find part time work over the summer. 

It reminds me of when I was in high school in Buffalo, and met one of my teachers manning a toll booth on the Peace Bridge during a beer run trip to Canada.  He didn't get summer pay, either (I went to a non-union private high school). 

[Lupercal]

I weep for my peers. The Facebook group revision pages for my upcoming exams are dire. Its as if people haven't done exams before. "What time do we need to be there? How long do we spend on each [of the two] questions? How many quotes do we use?"

People cannot actually get in contact with their teachers about this, or God forbid, part of the university website that is specifically there for exams, or the hand-outs our teachers gave us last term, or the many emails we've had in the last month - perhaps the dominance of Google has actually omitted any kind of resourcefulness that tens of soon-to-be-graduates should exemplify.

Its not as if we did similar exams last year...oh wait.

[Carl-E]

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. 

Students are universal. 


On a lighter note; I went back and visited the university that let me go two years ago when my daughter got ill.  She has friends who attend there, and I wanted to see some of my old colleagues.  It was one of the best jobs I ever had - tenure track, good pay, and everyone - including the students - appreciated what I did. 

On my old office door, which is now shared by two temps, were all my old cartoons and such, including my Wizard of Oz quote;

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.

(it's actually meant to be inspirational.  People get offended by it, though)

Also, on one of the XKCD cartoons I had posted (this one)



Someone wrote over the top of the mathematician, "In memory of Dr. Carl"


Guys, I wept. 

[jmucchiello]

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.)

[Method of Madness]

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.

*That's literal direction, not political.


Oh, and I forget if I mentioned last year that I dropped out of grad school during student teaching, but I decided to go back and student teach again if they'll let me just to get the Masters (I still don't intend to teach, but if I finish it'll feel like less of a waste of money and I can use the degree for other things).

[Carl-E]

Having those letters after your ame can make a difference! 


And I'm sorry, but Philosophy, as pure conjecture that's unprovable, is considerably further to the left... ever since mathematics left philosophy during the renaissance, it pretty much got reduced to navel-gazing. 

[Redball]

Question: Is it possible to have too many letters after your name?

In a Peace Corps family planning project in Bombay, we called occasionally on bureaucrats. On a few occasions, the name on their desk would read something like:

Rajiv Patel
B.A. (failed)

Answer: Maybe not.

[Method of Madness]

I'll get three new letters! (My masters is an MAT, assuming I actually go for it)

[Carl-E]

I got seven...

Bull Shit,
More Shit,
Piled High and Deep. 

I may leave a few off when I apply at Wal-Mart. 

[Lupercal]

Damn Carl. I want to laugh and cry at that!

My Dad now has ICE after his name, always makes me want to say "Ice to see you" and all those other terrible Mr Freeze puns from Batman and Robin.