Habitual Class-Skippers, Unite

[onemancult]

i should be heading to my bullshit French Cinema and Literature class, but I don't really want to sit through Hiroshima, Mon Amour.

habitual class-skippers, tell me about that one class you show up two twice a semester and still get an A in.

[lil brown brother]

theology 101

[BOORADLEY]

i havent been to this mandatory computers class since the first day... 95% of the class dont speak english and have never used a keyboard in their life. my assignments include making 3 slide powerpoints, an excel spreadsheet pie graph, and making folders on the desktop.

and I pay for this? its like buying credits...

[onemancult]

and I pay for this? its like buying credits...

i quickly came to the conclusion that unless you're going to school for practical, hands-on training in something you can actually apply, that all you're doing is making an investment of time and money in a piece of paper that you hope will allow you to make back the money you've invested + living expenses. emphasis on the hope part.

[BOORADLEY]

i quickly came to the conclusion that unless you're going to school for practical, hands-on training in something you can actually apply, that all you're doing is making an investment of time and money in a piece of paper that you hope will allow you to make back the money you've invested + living expenses. emphasis on the hope part.

sadly i have come to this realization as well... its bullshit really. i guess its just a gradual sorting system.

im in commerce, you?

[onemancult]

NYU. if it weren't for a halfway decent scholarship, i'd have dropped out a long time ago, gone to a less costly school, and focused a lot of energy on networking and meeting the right people. not that NYU hasn't put me into contact with great folks, but it has also put a huge dent in my wallet.

[showbiz00ditc]

i usually only skip if its a morning class and i get drunk the night before. and if its like... well if i go to class i start at 10 it goes till 12 then i have an hour break... so instead i sleep for 3 extra hours.

i also go to community college though where it is actually hands-on practical stuff. and the connections are probably better than the education really.

[englandmj7]

I always skipped my cinema class........film/screenwriting classes are fucking jokes.

I also had an econ. class where the teacher was actually so old that I would come in to class five minutes before it ended (he took role at the end of class and you got docked points if you weren't there), walk past him, and he would think I was simply returning from the bathroom, when in actuality I was never there to start with..........he had no idea. I felt bad later on.

[BOORADLEY]

i usually only skip if its a morning class and i get drunk the night before. and if its like... well if i go to class i start at 10 it goes till 12 then i have an hour break... so instead i sleep for 3 extra hours.

i also go to community college though where it is actually hands-on practical stuff. and the connections are probably better than the education really.

agreed. sometimes you just gotta!

[sidneylo]

NYU.

It's at least a pair of Diors for every class we attend... oh if I got a refund for one lecture...

[diewhitegirls]

I hate NYU with a passion. Hell, Queens College is ranked higher academically than NYU. Although you don't get to network quite the same way, so I guess that's what you're paying for.

Off the tangent, I go to almost all of my classes out of fear that if I don't, I won't get an A. At the same time, I rarely do any reading or homework that isn't necessary and still pull off the A's, so go figure...

[ikidomari]

lol englandmj7. that is classic.

I've been to my art history class about twice this entire semester. Class is actually in session as I type this.

[nettiemoore]

used to skip in high school all the time, now that im paying for school dont really skip at all except if the class is going to be useless on that day..

[onemancult]

It's at least a pair of Diors for every class we attend... oh if I got a refund for one lecture...

i keep forgetting you go here. what dept. are you currently spending a pair of Diors per class on?

[down4nyhc]

although a different type of situation i once called out of work to go snowboarding only to dislocate my knee on a rail and not be able to walk for 2 months. i guess i gained a valuable lesson and lost a few ligaments.

[Shark]

Shark Edit

[sidneylo]

i keep forgetting you go here. what dept. are you currently spending a pair of Diors per class on?

Photography... in Tisch (the most expensive of all.)

[Darkadious]

i'm taking all of the stupid manditory classes right now while i'm in high school at a cc. that way i don't have to pay for something that makes me go to sleep.

[Thorns]

Quantitative Methods... my wall-eyed indian professor is unintelligible and the class is a massive waste of time. I wish I'd never finished my econ major. I wanna go back.

[corned beef]

I'm one of those people who love to set alarms at ridiculous times in hopes of getting an early start to the day. What happens instead is I jump out of my bunk bed, shut off the alarm, climb back up into my bed and doze off. If i wake up in time i'll go to my morning class, but most of the time i wake up like 30 minutes into my class and say "fuck it".

[1995chardx]

Asian philosophy...my professor is chinese and i cant understand him for shit...this class is a joke

[mike lowrey]

I'm occasionally ashamed how much lectures I skip and how lazy I am. at this very moment I should be at an international logistics course. in most cases I skip lectures that are boring or otherwise unbearable, but I try to attend enough to get through the courses decently. other main reason for skipping is early mornings, I've been terrible at waking up all my life, especially if I'm not in a good rhythm and its hard to be when your days vary a lot.

I've noticed that the less stuff you have, the lazier you get. if I have 30 hours of lectures a week, I attend 20-25. at the moment I have barely 10 and this week I've attended 2 hours. anyone else notice that?

another thing I'm a bit ashamed of is that I often say that I needed to work, truth is that I work when I have time so it doesn't really take away from time, but its always a good excuse if someone asks

[ghostdeini]

I was so tempted to sleep in today when I saw the alarm... it was one of those moments where I had gotten so little sleep where my mind couldn't even process the reason why it was beeping off at 7am.

[RAISED BY WOLVES]

i quickly came to the conclusion that unless you're going to school for practical, hands-on training in something you can actually apply, that all you're doing is making an investment of time and money in a piece of paper that you hope will allow you to make back the money you've invested + living expenses. emphasis on the hope part.

This attitude really bothers me. I'm not going to say its completely wrong, but its fucked that so many people who have the opportunity to go to school feel this way. I'm curious to know how old everyone who seems to share this attitude is (Except for Shark who I don't give a fuck about) because I tried College at 18 yrs old, and it was a complete mismatch. I din't want to be there, and I found that the student body at the school I attended seemed to have traded life experience for intellectual prowess. So I left. Since then, I've educated myself in various ways, including one year at a full-time photo program. I never skipped class, and enjoyed, if not EVERY minute, most of em.

At 23 years old, I think I'm finally ready to approach a liberal arts/photo degree in a way that suits me. After working numerous jobs (some shit, some amazing) I feel that going back to school is not just "something I have to do" but a real privledge, that I want to take advantage of to the fullest.

older people I talk to about this often seem to say that most college educations are wasted on the young. What you guys think about that?

[onemancult]

I think it all depends on what you're studying and where you're studying it. And, I think our attitudes probably have a lot to do with the fact that the American university is slowly but surely experiencing a major 'recession'- lots of professors leaving their posts, most classes being taught by poorly-prepared graduate students, funding for classes at an all-time low compared to how much money the institution is actually bringing in.

That's the case at NYU right now, and at a few other NYC schools- I don't know if it is super-widespread, but friends across the country have told me that entire departments are being grouped together or closed down at their schools, and that where they once had 10 classes to choose from where about half were interesting and engaging, now there are 2 and 3 to choose from, if that.

I think the value of a liberal arts education is diminishing, and the only logical conclusion I've come to make so far at school is what I asserted before about making an investment in my future. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and it does take time and effort, but there is still something very fishy about all this- it leaves a lot of students disillusioned when theyre paying 50,000 a year and classrooms are a mess, materials are shabby, and their teacher is an unprepared inexperienced kid who's barely a year or two older than they are. That's not how previous generations experienced college, and that's why they still value it so much and place so much importance on it.

I have to kind of laugh at older folks saying that a college education is wasted on the young, because those are the same people that made it societally 'wrong' to not go to college right after high school. Think about how natural it is for people to ask, "So what are you in school for?" to 18-22 year olds... those previous generations made it so that anyone who didn't go to college was someone to be pitied, because they weren't capitalizing on the opportunity. And now that the systems we're forced into are fucked and we're all disappointed with it, they say it's being wasted on us? Blah blah blahhhh.

[sidneylo]

OMC, that's completely how I feel about the system--at least ours. NYU has been touted for the past few years as the dream university for college-bound kids. All that cash flow and it's become a business. We're definitely not seeing the benefit of this onset of fresh new blood.

My Jewelry class from last semester just got axed. Shmeh.

[swisloc]

This attitude really bothers me. I'm not going to say its completely wrong, but its fucked that so many people who have the opportunity to go to school feel this way. I'm curious to know how old everyone who seems to share this attitude is (Except for Shark who I don't give a fuck about) because I tried College at 18 yrs old, and it was a complete mismatch. I din't want to be there, and I found that the student body at the school I attended seemed to have traded life experience for intellectual prowess. So I left. Since then, I've educated myself in various ways, including one year at a full-time photo program. I never skipped class, and enjoyed, if not EVERY minute, most of em.

At 23 years old, I think I'm finally ready to approach a liberal arts/photo degree in a way that suits me. After working numerous jobs (some shit, some amazing) I feel that going back to school is not just "something I have to do" but a real privledge, that I want to take advantage of to the fullest.

older people I talk to about this often seem to say that most college educations are wasted on the young. What you guys think about that?

i believe they can be [wasted on the young]. there is a lot of presure on kids coming out of high school to go "good colleges" which often translates to "the best private liberal arts school that will take me". for some reason unknown to me high school guidance counselors push students towards schools like this hoping they will "find something they like" when they get there. to me, this seems like what OMC is getting at in his post. this is possible, but like you said, it very rare and difficult to know your direction at 18.

add to that the fact that all "white collar" professions (with the exception of various business/managment degrees) require additional schooling than the standard four year Bachelor's degree. (i.e. medicine, law, architecture, etc...) these are the only jobs, besides finance, that pay comfortable living wages out of school, and how is an 18 year old student supposed to know to commit themselves at that point for something 6 years or more down the road, that's a third of your entire lifetime at that point!

to me, the solution is trying larger private and state schools that offer solid programs in MANY different fields. much less expensive, more options for useful degrees, and given the concentration of money in secondary education, likely a better chance at great professors.

[RAISED BY WOLVES]

OMC, Sid, Swis...

Those are all really good points. I may have come off preachy, but what I was getting at was that I have a genuine interest in Modern education in America on the College, and public Highschool levels. As I do all this financial aid bullshit, and prepare my app stuff...its just been on my mind alot. Thanks for the responses...

[doctorgnar]

Every step of the way through college I wanted to go back and redo what I had done. I did learn a lot - enough to realize how much I wasn't learning as I went. And what I did learn was not fed to me - I worked for it, building relationships with profs that seemed to be valuable, spending more time with assignments and readings that seemed enriching, and ignoring those that were just tedious. I didn't got to every class, certainly not, but I went to enough to graduate.

I went to a good school. I won some awards and got some good grades and all of that seemed really important at the time. But I can tell you in the two years since, no one has given a shit about my GPA or my honors and prizes. No one gives a shit about the school I went to or how many chicks I banged or how many beers I drank. But those aren't the things that got me into a great grad program after, or landed me the job I've got now (in an extremely competitive field).

I still look back and wish I could do it again - not because it was so fun, but because I missed a lot of opportunity to learn more. If I waited I may have lost momentum, but if I had another four years to spare as a 23 year old - I would love to go get another degree. Because in the end, it is what you make of it. Facilities blow, teachers are often lazier than students and TAs are a joke - but if you are at the right institution and you know how to work the system - you can leave broke, with a flimsy piece of paper, but satisfied - with something to build on.

EDIT: Not sure how any of this contributes to the current dialogue, just wanted to participate (something I learned in college.)

[swisloc]

OMC, Sid, Swis...

Those are all really good points. I may have come off preachy, but what I was getting at was that I have a genuine interest in Modern education in America on the College, and public Highschool levels. As I do all this financial aid bullshit, and prepare my app stuff...its just been on my mind alot. Thanks for the responses...

as a 26 year old who has gotten a lot out of a public high school education and Bachelor's of Architecture degree, i agree with you, RBW. Modern secondary education in America is NOT dead, but dealing with a balance of power transition away from the liberal arts schools toward the publicy funded state school. good professors will go where there is money and stability and right now that is not the NYUs of the world, and eventually, as sid and OMC have said, this translates to waywardness (and perhaps worthlessness) in the student body. having doctoral canidate friends that teach in both environments (NYU and Rutgers) i know my friend teaching at NYU says the feeling of disinterest among the students is palpable while at Rutgers, while present, it seems the students are more dedicated, like they are there because they want to be.

seems like we are all saying the same thing in different ways.