Good advice for college students

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Originally Posted by toxic

Requirement classes are also how your college racks up $$$... with the failed premise that your are recieving a "rounded" education.

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Yeah, I know. Like CS students really need two semesters of American Lit.

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Originally Posted by station82o

going to have to side with kinopio on this one, for some of us its just easier to get out as soon as possible, i dont have the time or money to afford to pursue something difficult and lengthy like engineering ,science or whatnot at this point in my life. I may be "starving", once i get out with my english degree, but eh, at least i made it out, a couple years ago I dropped out of college and didnt intend to go back so this is an improvement. Of sorts.

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There is a difference between wanting to be done with school, and picking an easy major becuase you can't be bothered to work hard becuase you are to busy drinking like they are going to put a ban on booze next year.

Yeah but i'm good at english, enjoy it and was pretty tired of computer related stuff anyway, thats why i changed. What am i going to do after college? who knows, live life i suppose. see what happens.

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Originally Posted by IronPlant

I don't know of any majors that require calc or physics as "requirements". Could you please list them?

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I'd imagine it depends on your school and other factors, but for the BS in journalism degree i'm going to obtain after next semester, I had/have to take 3 science courses(chem, physical, or bio) and 2 corresponding labs. I think thats entirely excessive. The most annoying part is that you can't take the 3 science courses at the same time, so since I put them off until senior year I'll be taking the final class this summer. atleast i'll have enough credits to walk at graduation.

Calculus wasn't required, per say, but taking an intermediate math class is required. The one I chose was Calculus, I think. That was like 3 years ago so I don't remember for sure and can't be bothered to check.

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Originally Posted by Mr_B

Only work hard enough to maintain a 3.0 gpa cumulative

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That's good advise. I had to pass up a chance for an internship at the boston globe because I didn't have a 3.0. I was also invited by a prof to take an invitation-only history class, but couldn't for the same reason. Damn emphasis on grades.

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Originally Posted by IronPlant

I don't know of any majors that require calc or physics as "requirements". Could you please list them?

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how about Math majors and Physics majors? I'm an EE and i had 4 semesters of calc and 2 of physics.

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Originally Posted by Lordmrw

This man speaks the truth. I'm lucky in that the majority of my classmates are in around their mid twenties, with some older. With that comes a level of maturity that the fresh out of high schoolers lack. Can't count how many times one of the high schoolers would bring in some obviously shitty work expecting an A or B, and then find out they failed because they didn't follow the guidelines of the assignment. Then they'll mention that their fucking high school teachers like their work. Newsflash: this ain't high school. Then you have the ones that don't pay attention in class, some even going as far as playing their GBAs while we're getting instructions on what to do for homework. When they don't know what to do, they blame it on the teacher and say they don't know how to teach.

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If you want to avoid the potheads and high school pussies, take class at night. It's an entirely different environment, as most of the students work during the day and WANT to be there to learn. They don't have time to fuck around and pretend college is high school advance.

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For my photography class, for both the midterm and final, my teacher had a half hour review session, where he went over almost all the questions right BEFORE we took the test. Before the fucking test, he gave us the damn answers! And yet people still failed! This shit blows my fucking mind! What the hell else can someone possibly do to get through to you? And its photography for fuck's sake.

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Check this out.

In my basic English course, I gave 18 grades. 18 FUCKING GRADES! The class totaled 588 points. The 3 tests only amounted to 230 of that. The rest were journals, online quizzes (1 a week for 10 weeks at 10 points each), lab, attendance and participation. I spent the class before each test putting all the material to be studied in an outline on the board with the fucking page numbers. I then answered questions and gave pointers.

The result? 13 out of 30 people failed the class and there wasn't a single A. The fuckers never went to lab (100 points), never turned in their journals (two sets of 10 entries, 1 topic a day done in class for 5 weeks each set for a total of 100 points), and never did the quizzes.

It disappoints but I don't lose sleep over it. I did my job. As I tell them: I finished college and don't need to study anymore. Do the work, come to class, and participate, and I'll do everything to help you. If you don't care about your grade, why should I?

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Originally Posted by Ironplant

Why not try something really hard, like rocket science, or become a brain surgeon? These days you can't swing a dead cat with out hitting a starving English major or artist.

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Where do you live? Usually English teachers are in high demand, as high school pays shit. Outside the U.S., you'll be amazed at the job opportunities in Europe and all over the place too.

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Originally Posted by Kinopio

I'd imagine it depends on your school and other factors, but for the BS in journalism degree i'm going to obtain after next semester, I had/have to take 3 science courses(chem, physical, or bio) and 2 corresponding labs. I think thats entirely excessive. The most annoying part is that you can't take the 3 science courses at the same time, so since I put them off until senior year I'll be taking the final class this summer. atleast i'll have enough credits to walk at graduation.

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You are/were going for a journalism degree and you don't see how knowing something about chem, physical, or bio would be helpful? What on earth did you plan on writing about?

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Originally Posted by Kinopio

Calculus wasn't required, per say, but taking an intermediate math class is required. The one I chose was Calculus, I think. That was like 3 years ago so I don't remember for sure and can't be bothered to check.

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=/ if you did it to yourself, you don't get to complain.

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Originally Posted by Melf

Where do you live? Usually English teachers are in high demand, as high school pays shit. Outside the U.S., you'll be amazed at the job opportunities in Europe and all over the place too.

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Indeed, my sister got snapped up as an English teacher straight away.

I'm not sure if you can compare wages considering they are reliant more than just exchange rates; but in Australia, first year out High School Teachers get payed $US40'000 annually. What's it like in USA?

National average for someone with a BA and no experience averages between $32-38k a year. Get an MA and it doubles.

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Originally Posted by Melf

Where do you live? Usually English teachers are in high demand, as high school pays shit. Outside the U.S., you'll be amazed at the job opportunities in Europe and all over the place too.

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There is a difference between an English major and an English teacher. A lot of people go for an English major because they want to write, not because they want to teach. For an English major to teach highschool and under, they have to go back to college and take teaching classes. If they want to teach at a good college they need to go back and get something past a masters in English. Four years of classes at a typical college is not enough to get the jobs you describe in the US. There are exceptions, but what I've described is how it typically works here.

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Originally Posted by Melf

National average for someone with a BA and no experience averages between $32-38k a year. Get an MA and it doubles.

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Ah... so it's about the same. Then why does IronPlant act like teachers get given two beans and a food coupon?