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[Bastardous Bassist]

One of my professors in undergrad gave me a pretty low chance of getting into any of the schools to which I had applied, and I ended up getting into all of them.  I was all scrambling looking for a less selective program (I had applied to the top schools in the field) and then the acceptance letters started coming in.  So, chin up.

I HATE COLLEGE CAN I GO HOME NOW

I think I was absolutely miserable for maybe even the entire first year of college.  Eventually, I found cool people, who ended up being almost entirely different people from those I hung out with in my first year and I started to relax a little bit more.  Being a guy who didn't drink (yes, I didn't drink my entire first year), it was a little weird going to a huge party school, but I found my place and the rest of the experience was awesome.

[nichidani]

man, i am just ready for REAL CLASSES and not this core-class bullshit. it is annoying

[Dimmukane]

On the other hand, core classes are easy.  I am on the Dean's List because I only had one class last year in my major.

[Reed]

I want to be a psychologist

What has been bothering you lately?

[chowburger]

I HATE COLLEGE CAN I GO HOME NOW

I think I was absolutely miserable for maybe even the entire first year of college. 

Same here. Maybe not the whole year, but a good part of it. I didn't 'get' the whole drinking culture, and spent most of the time going WTF WHY IS THIS PLACE SOLELY COMPRISED OF LOSERS? But I eventually found some similarly-minded people and now it is significantly less lame.

I just started the last year of my course, and my classes are pretty awesome this term. Writing my 13,000-word project... not so much. I think I've spent more time in the library in the past two weeks than I have in all my previous years combined.

[nobo]

I met my soon-to-be-wife in college. Freshman year too.

[Jimor]

Key point: College is not high school. The people who still act like it is aren't worth hanging out with. Cliques and "in" and "out" crowds are bullshit, and if the people you're around can't respect how you roll, fuck them, whether you want to socialize/party more or less. Take advantage of the core/general classes to get to know people outside of your program, because the fairly limited amount of people you'll see most within your program for the next 4 years may or may not be the kinds of people you want to see outside of class.

But I repeat, college is not high school. It is the chance to have a clean slate and be who you want to be rather than be how others perceive you. Take full advantage of that.

[Allybee]

I go to a very... uh, well, my school is hardish to get into. it really bothers me that I feel like I'm either working or drinking 24/7 (mostly working). it's really tough for me to handle all of this. I think I blacked out for the first time last night.

[Drill King]

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 know this is a little late. But I have two classes that are mostly work, one class that is half lecture, and one four and a half hour lecture of art culture/philosphy. And Holy shit, When my proffs said that I should expect 10 hours of homework minimum a week, they weren't kidding.

Besides that, so uh. University makes me feel really smart, especially my visual culture class because I grasp all the concepts and talk to my teacher and she loves me but everyone else hates me in that class because I am hermione granger in it oh jesus.

(I have never felt smart before in my life. People are constantly looking at me like I just spoke french, it is the best. I don't care if I don't have a social life, feeling smart is bomb)

[Johnny C]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXo3NFqkaRM <<<< basically my uni experience

[look out! Ninjas!]

I start my third trimester of law tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it; I guess the fact that I'm out of synch with pretty much all of my friends who aren't in my course means that my holidays are pretty solitary affairs that consist mostly of me sleeping and watching movies and recovering, and it means that I'll see all the cool people I study with. I usually meet some cool people each semester too because people pretty much pick their subjects at random each trimester.
I am not looking forward to the ton of work I have to do, though. I am doing two of the heaviest subjects this time around, evidence and administrative law, and one subject that I hope will not be that much work. But I am doing one less subject than last semester because I just can't deal with another full load at the end of the year, I crashed majorly at the end of last year, both with my health and my grades, and I'm not going to repeat it.

[Yayniall]

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

[Barmymoo]

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!

[Bastardous Bassist]

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?

[Gemmwah]

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!

It's sooooooo pants, especially because my gf is moving in to her halls today and I've been in Portsmouth on and off since July and I'm just soooooooooooooo frigginnnnnnnnnn boreddddddddddddd.

I don't even have any pre-assignments or reading to do.

[Rudi Voller]

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?

I don't know what course it is that Yayniall is studying, but in my course (engineering) you have a 5 year Masters course and a 4 year Bachelors course. There is then a threshhold mark that you need to clear to go to the masters and otherwise go to the year shorter bachelors. I'd guess that this is what happened in this case, but could be horrendously wrong.

I'm going into my third year starting on Tuesday, and I can't wait to actually get going again, though I'll no doubt change my mind about that once the actual work starts again. Especially as it actually counts towards my final degree now.

[StaedlerMars]

It's sooooooo pants,

You know what's kinda funny and weird. A few years ago my brother and I were driving through Colorado, and I mispoke and said 'that's so pants'. We joked about how that should be a legitimate phrase, and now, four years later, I hear you use this. I had no idea it was something people actually sad.

However, in our minds it was a positive thing, not a negative thing.

On the University thing... I'm back in Edinburgh, and I've moved into my flat and have most of my stuff, and in about two hours (after I nap because I just had a red-eye flight) I'm going to the student Union to go drink with friends.

oh yeah. 

My lego x-wing broke in my luggage though, and I don't have the manual to put it back together.

[Yayniall]

Yeah, busted down to Bsc for not slavishly learning proofs.
That's my excuse for poor revision anyway.
Saved myself 3 grand.

[Allybee]

man I hate being in a dorm full of people who are getting sick or already are sick. most of these people are really selfish, too. seriously, I was making ramen for a friend who was really ill, and someone swiped a piece of it to eat before it was cooked. it was for a sick girl. jeez.

[Drill King]

My school had a really bad flu/cold going around last week and mine won't go away. My throat is full of razorblades. Since my school is so small and we're constantly around each other for like 12 hours of the day(even out of dorms), not to mention very huggy/affectionate, basically so far if one person gets sick it takes less than two days for the rest of the school to get it.

[tania]

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.

[calenlass]

hahahaha e.coli flu

[Barmymoo]

I've begun packing in a serious way (all the clothes I don't wear very often are either in suitcases or are going to the charity shop) and the spare bed in my room is covered in boxes of things like pans and toasters and so forth. Although I've still got quite a bit to do it's not going to take very long, so if I tackle it in small spurts I'm confident it'll get done in time.

I hadn't realised, until I saw it all together, just how much I've bought specially to take with me. Other than the clothes I'd say about 80% of my stuff has been purchased in the last two months with uni in mind. I guess I've never needed my own cutlery before, or a toaster or a sieve or any of the things I've been buying. The only things that were already mine are my stereo and my laptop and even that was bought so that I didn't have to take my desktop.

Guys, I go to uni in less than two weeks! I'm so excited

[smack that isaiah]

or a sieve

...why would you need a sieve in college?  Maybe "sieve" means something different in Europe?  I've asked my roommates, and the best answer we've come up with is that maybe you're an ecological survey major?  Needing to sift through sand?
Anyway, please help me and explain this, I'm going crazy, and I should be writing up a Chem Lab due Thursday.

Other than that, good luck at college!

[Elizzybeth]

A lot of bakers sift flour.

[Barmymoo]

Sieves are so useful!  Obviously if I am baking I will need to sift flour, sugar and so forth, but also they are a cheap and simple alternative to a colander when draining vegetables, and if I make an apple pie or something else involving stewed fruit I will be able to separate the juice from the pulp with no wastage.

Man, ever so often I forget that the US and the UK really don't speak the same language.

[smack that isaiah]

Hrmm, we totally didn't consider cooking (we're all dudes in my room, so maybe that's a reason?  Although, one of my roommates is gay and he didn't think of cooking...)

All my experience with sieves had come from time at the beach when I was younger, trying to separate sand from shells, and occasionally finding worn down glass. 
I've never had to sift flour or sugar when I cooked anything when I was younger (either my mother didn't care about clumps, or there weren't any?).  And, in my college, the dorms don't have individual kitchens (the apartments do, but not the dorms), but rather one communal one that hardly anyone uses cause it's so old.  None of us cook our own food past merely heating something up in a microwave.  It'd be nice if someone made a pie, but I doubt it's gonna happen.

[Bastardous Bassist]

My roommates and I cooked all the time in college, even when they were mostly male.  In fact, I've only really had one roommate who didn't cook (by which I mean he subsisted Easy Mac and take-out food).

A lot of bakers sift flour.

When I worked in a kitchen, we actually used a whip instead.  Probably because we were baking large amounts of stuff, and it didn't make sense to put all of it through a sifter.  Now, I use a sieve for sifting flour (along with other dry ingredients, because it mixes them a bit), dusting deserts with stuff like powdered sugar or cocoa and squeezing fruit (especially lemons) into sauces.  I broke down and bought a colander because I usually washed a lot of vegetables.

[Aimless]

Guys, this my sixth semester at uni is the most relaxing ever!

The first half of this semester is for a research project, which I started working on in the beginning of this summer as a summer-job, and the second half is an introduction to internal medicine, surgery, and various clinical skills. This is the semester between a murderous pathology course and a murderous internal medicine/surgery course, and it feels like heaven feels like a very very long summer break.

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.

When it comes to exams, we tend to have one or two every semester. Once upon a time, they had more exams and other evaluations, thinking that more and smaller would be better than few and larger... but that began to change a while back. This current design, with few but large exams has a number of advantages, not least for students that end up falling behind for various reasons (this is in addition to benefits like being able to write really good comprehensive exams for every course ).

I've had many strong opinions about the way education is handled in Sweden, on various levels... but in the past few years I've developed a greater understanding for why it is the way it is. I've also got several personal reasons for really appreciating the way eg. my programme is set up, and for the way those in charge work with us students. I had a really rough time of things for a few years, from the last year of highschool on. If I'd been living or studying in another country, I think I'd still have been an unhappy wreck. I don't think I'd have found my way to this path, to the point where I am now... a path and a point I am very very happy with

the system here seems designed to adjust for... well, for "life". On every level there seems to be a great deal of awareness... of the goals (eg. train a lot of good doctors and make sure they're happy while they're here), of everyone's roles and identities (eg. students are adults that have their own lives, lives which affect and are affected by uni studies and which must be taken into consideration)...

okay, I'm a little drunk and very very tired so I'll just stop this post right now. thank you for your charitable reading of my post

[michaelicious]

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.

I remember that! I didn't get sick. I don't remember classes being cancelled. I remember they were handing out those surgical masks at the entrances of South (I still have one that I kept, actually) and that the walk-in clinic was basically jam packed with people all day every day for a couple weeks.

[MrBlu]

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...

[Bastardous Bassist]

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.

In med school in the US, the system is pass/fail the same way, as far as I've been aware (my undergrad institution was basically a feeder school for a local med school, and as such I will never trust doctors ever again).

[jhocking]

blinded by science. Science is represented by acid.

I want this on a t-shirt.  As in:

front - They Blinded Me With Science

back - (Science is represented by acid)
pictured - the goofy eyewash station logo

[chowburger]

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!

[Aimless]

The term I spent at university in Sweden was an amazing, amazing time. Curse you and your wonderfully organised country!

Ooh! Where did you go? What did you do? AND WHO???

[jhocking]

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.

Today I learned that pinkeye is caused by fecal matter.

Note: This information comes from a scene in Knocked Up. That is how I know it is definitely true.

[chowburger]

Ooh! Where did you go? What did you do? AND WHO???

I was in Goteborgs Universitet, doing a bunch of English lit. classes and a Swedish language class. Sadly, the only piece of Swedish I've really retained is "DU! VAR FINNS BLODPUDDING?"

Who did I do? I was with my bf, so my options were rather severely limited

[Reed]

Yes, I am going to be that guy again.

Joe, pink eye is just a description of the symptoms, and can be a result of a lot of different bacterial infections of the surface of the eye. That can include fecal contamination, but can also be normal commensal organisms.

[Marauder_Pilot]

I'm in my final year of Business Administration and Computer Science. I have 6 courses a semester, and realized I hate the majority of my options for careers after graduation.

Fuck this shit, I'm joining the military.

[phooey]

"Discuss the 17th century German concept of Bildung and the student's role in defining it through the humboldtian university tradition."

Humboldt is so awesome, I really hope you know how lucky you are.

[jhocking]

sorry reed

Note: This information comes from a scene in Knocked Up. That is how I know it is definitely true.

[Reed]

No, I know you didn't think it was actually true. The problem with devoting your life to microbiology is that you wind up having this strange desire to make sure everybody knows the correct information about stuff like that.

It's why we don't have many non-microbiologist friends.

[tania]

I don't remember classes being cancelled.

ah yeah i use "cancelled" in it's loosest sense, more like "all of my classes were at least 50% empty and professors encouraged students not to come if they were sick in any way" so i just stopped going to any of them. before my midterms and when i'd already recovered a long time ago i called up each of my professors with an extremely half-assed "uh i am sick, do i have to write the midterm tomorrow?" to which they just responded "yeah yeah just write it in 3 weeks like everyone else" so instead i spent a couple of weeks sleeping in and watching tv every day while everyone else on my floor who was actually violently ill hated me. it was pretty great.

[WestEnder67]

I started again at a different university this year because last year was just an enormous waste of my time.

So far 'tis rather awesome - although the mythical Freshers flu was and is very much real.

[Spluff]

Hey guys, what sounds like a better idea - Aerospace Engineering/Law or Commerce/Science?

[nobo]

Aerospace engineering is a very narrow field. You end up working on airplanes, shuttles, jet engines, satellites, etc. Not very many companies deal with that.

HOWEVER, before the recession hit there was lots of talk about commercial space tourism taking off.  There were talks about allowing private and public companies to launch into space. So, if things pick back up again you can be at the forefront of a field that could really expand and be very profitable.

I was faced with a decision between mechanical engineer and aeronautical engineering and chose mechanical because the field was broader.

[Bastardous Bassist]

Also, with aerospace engineering, you will be moving all over the place.  My friend's dad was an aerospace engineer, and they moved every few years because of his job.  There just usually isn't a place to find stable, long-term employment.

[calenlass]

(unless you're good enough for NASA)

[Allybee]

reassessment of college, now that I'm happier:

still don't really have friends, but I have people that I like and I'm mostly satisfied. there is so much work and so many things to do but I feel like this is a very good community for me. there's actually a football game outside (I didn't realize that these happened) and there are a lot of people screaming, but it's juxtaposed with the soft sweet melodies of the boys upstairs makin' music. I'm pretty pleased that the past two nights have been good, so if I don't drink too much and fuck up tonight, it'll be the hat trick (oh I think we just scored everyone sounds excited). first exam next week so I need to shower and then hit the libraaary. I feel at peace. it's fun to figure new things out.

I do, however, miss dogs and children.

[Bastardous Bassist]

See?  College can be pretty awesome if you try to do what you want to do, and not what other people want you to do.  You'll find people who enjoy the same things as you and subsequently make friends with them, especially when you get more into your degree classes.  It'll be awesome.