Can someone explain college to me, please?

[B_henry miller]

Hilarious way to put it, lol. :biggrin1:

Seriously, though. I'm in college and I don't "get" it. Don't get me wrong. I'm on the honor roll. I have nearly a 4.00. I enjoy classes. But I'm lost on the overall structure of it all.

I mean, there are students who rattle on about all their knowledge about BAs and BSs and MAs, etc. I mean, some students are really in to it. "I need this and that class for this and this ... and then I'm going to take this and that..." I get overwhelmed by the whole apparatus of it.

Once I get in to class and actually get down to the studying of it all, I'm fine. But the rest of it, I'm lost. Can someone explain something to me? ANYTHING you know (and this is a serious question, by the way) will be helpful. It seems that guidance counselors get irritated by me because they assume someone with a high GPA should understand everything else. It seems like people get a bit uptight about it.

 

[Pecker]

Just play the game, hm, and never mind that it makes no sense. Some day that little piece of sheepskin will open locked doors.

 

[Notthe7]

What EXACTLY do you not understand? Your question is vague but I'd be more than willing to help or at least dissect the webpage of your college to help you find information. The counselors at my current school are inadequate and lazy.. so I can relate. You gotta do everything on your own.

So! What's the info you seek?

 

[invisibleman]

Hilarious way to put it, lol. :biggrin1:

Seriously, though. I'm in college and I don't "get" it. Don't get me wrong. I'm on the honor roll. I have nearly a 4.00. I enjoy classes. But I'm lost on the overall structure of it all.

I mean, there are students who rattle on about all their knowledge about BAs and BSs and MAs, etc. I mean, some students are really in to it. "I need this and that class for this and this ... and then I'm going to take this and that..." I get overwhelmed by the whole apparatus of it.

Once I get in to class and actually get down to the studying of it all, I'm fine. But the rest of it, I'm lost. Can someone explain something to me? ANYTHING you know (and this is a serious question, by the way) will be helpful. It seems that guidance counselors get irritated by me because they assume someone with a high GPA should understand everything else. It seems like people get a bit uptight about it.

Think of it as a bunch of "rites of passages". :wink:

 

[Captain Elephant]

My final class before the end of my senior year, my professor asks me "Do you feel smarter?"

I answered that I actually felt more dumb than ever before. He said that's good because now I've been educated. A dumb person knows everything; a smart person knows nothing but wants to know everything.

Of course, I was doing a lot of weed back then, so who knows what was really said.

 

[B_henry miller]

That's exactly what it is, actually. :redface:

Think of it as a bunch of "rites of passages". :wink:

 

[B_henry miller]

Wow. You get where I'm coming from. It's a game that makes no sense. It makes so little sense that I don't know how to start.

Just play the game, hm, and never mind that it makes no sense. Some day that little piece of sheepskin will open locked doors.

 

[lostmymind]

I had a professor in a freshman engineering class who insisted that college had nothing to do with knowing facts or equations or theories. He said our goal should be to "learn how to learn", by which he meant learn how to problem-solve and think through ideas critically. There are a lot of idiots out there with degrees that can do little more than look up an answer.

 

[B_henry miller]

First of all, you're hot. Second of all, I suppose people can just share ANY information they have, any perspectives, anything would be helpful.

I guess part of the mystery of it all is ... how can I do so well in the classes themselves, but be so dumb (even indifferent to) the degrees, etc.? Also, where do other students learn about this stuff? I suppose I just wasn't paying attention in high school, or something.

What EXACTLY do you not understand? Your question is vague but I'd be more than willing to help or at least dissect the webpage of your college to help you find information. The counselors at my current school are inadequate and lazy.. so I can relate. You gotta do everything on your own.

So! What's the info you seek?

 

[Guy-jin]

I'm not sure what you're confused about either, to be honest.

Sign up for a major that requires you to take courses you're interested in and that will help you be prepared for whatever career you want to enter.

Pass classes.

Get a degree in that major.

Enjoy your life because now you'll have a far easier time finding a job you actually want to do.

I actually double majored in two completely different things because I found two majors I liked so much at my university.

 

[B_henry miller]

I'm realizing that's what I'm going to have to do, double major. One of my majors is in a very obscure branch of Art that I don't think I'm going to be able to make much money in, if any.

It just seems like no one will ever get to the point of anything. Actually, come to think of it, it seems sometimes that college is as vague as my original post in this thread.

I'm not sure what you're confused about either, to be honest.

Sign up for a major that requires you to take courses you're interested in and that will help you be prepared for whatever career you want to enter.

Pass classes.

Get a degree in that major.

Enjoy your life because now you'll have a far easier time finding a job you actually want to do.

I actually double majored in two completely different things because I found two majors I liked so much at my university.

 

[Guy-jin]

That could be the nature of the classes and majors you've been exploring, especially if they're in an "obscure branch of art" as you put it.

 

[lostmymind]

I'm realizing that's what I'm going to have to do, double major. One of my majors is in a very obscure branch of Art that I don't think I'm going to be able to make much money in, if any.

It just seems like no one will ever get to the point of anything. Actually, come to think of it, it seems sometimes that college is as vague as my original post in this thread.

One thing college won't teach you is what your passion is in life. That's for you to discover on your own and then work it backwards from there. Get a degree that you think will open the best opportunities for whatever it is you want to do. Of course, chances are you'll end up doing something else anyway!

 

[B_henry miller]

NOW we're getting somewhere.... This is the irony of it all. Most people end up doing things completely unrelated to their degrees, which makes me wonder what the point of HAVING a degree is.

I suppose it goes back to what was mentioned above, that college is largely just a rite of passage. People think that if you have a degree, any degree, that means you're an upstanding member of society. Kind of phoney if you ask me.

Get a degree that you think will open the best opportunities for whatever it is you want to do. Of course, chances are you'll end up doing something else anyway!

 

[B_henry miller]

First of all, awesome cock on you. That first picture is awesome.

Second of all, I excell in the branch of art I'm majoring in, which is one of the reasons I'm on the Honor Roll with a near 4.00.

I don't know. I know I'm being very vague. I just hope people keep adding whatever thoughts they have here. Anything helps.

That could be the nature of the classes and majors you've been exploring, especially if they're in an "obscure branch of art" as you put it.

 

[B_Think_Kink]

The only thing I think college is about is getting out there and getting experience then going to uni and getting a MA.

 

[Guy-jin]

First of all, awesome cock on you. That first picture is awesome.

Second of all, I excell in the branch of art I'm majoring in, which is one of the reasons I'm on the Honor Roll with a near 4.00.

I don't know. I know I'm being very vague. I just hope people keep adding whatever thoughts they have here. Anything helps.

First, thanks. :redface:

Second, don't get me wrong, obscure branch of art or not, if it's what you love to do, you should be studying it. I'm just saying you may feel like the point of everything you're taking is vague because you aren't taking a pointed major like, say, biochemistry. Art is probably one of the most subjective and vague majors you can have because it's such a nebulous field to begin with.

 

[PWRSTRK]

You're doing great. You will succeed. Feel confident. Make friends. Study. And, as another guy on here put it, learn to learn.

What school do you go to?

 

[Principessa]

Dude, I have 3.5 degress and I have no idea what the fuck you are asking?

Guidance Counselors are useless at any level college or high school. They are usually people who didn't have the smarts to be teachers or the arrogance to be administrators.

So what if you like art. That doesn't make you or your degree worth less than a neurogeneticist or a computer programmer. You all paid the same tuition at the same college.

My Education
AA - Fashion Merchandising, Marketing; and Management
BA - Art History Minor - Elementary Education
MAT - Museum Education
I did 36 cr. (all but the thesis) for a MS eng. in Plastics Engineering

Second, don't get me wrong, obscure branch of art or not, if it's what you love to do, you should be studying it. I'm just saying you may feel like the point of everything you're taking is vague because you aren't taking a pointed major like, say, biochemistry. Bullshit! Art is probably one of the most subjective and vague majors you can have because it's such a nebulous field to begin with.

Hey, I resemble that remark!

 

[Guy-jin]

Bullshit!

One of my degrees is in the arts, and I felt the classes I took for it were generally much less about teaching me facts and much more about teaching me how to think, while the science courses were much more like a very long list of facts, and that I didn't learn how to really think about science until I started working in a lab.

Or did you interpret my use of the words "vague" and "subjective" as being a knock against the arts? Because they aren't. I wouldn't have bothered with getting a BA if I thought it wasn't worthwhile.