College is Ridiculous

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I need to rant about college for a minute. These are some issues I have.

  1. Cost. It is so. Freaking. Expensive. I’m really lucky because my parents can afford to pay for it and I don’t need to take out loans or anything but still!! My parents still have 5 more kids to put through college, we’re gonna be bankrupt! And they ALWAYS come up with awful new ways to make you give them MORE money. Like for example our takeout places, which normally take meal swipes for everything, just made up a rule that you can’t get meal combos for a meal swipe anymore, you have to pay for everything separately, meaning that I basically have to pay money now if I want a meal and can only use meal swipes at the dining hall! WHY?! You already take so much of our cash and now this too?! And don’t even get me started on housing. 1300 bucks a month for a stupid university apartment on a sketchy road. Are you kidding me? Where do you think your students, who you’re already way overcharging for tuition, considering the professors don’t even teach us anything they just read notes they made from the textbook, are getting this dough?? Heck they even charge us for this stupid stuff like the school newspaper and printing when I don’t use either!!
  1. Work load. I realize college is supposed to be a lot of work. But the sheer amount they assign is absolutely ridiculous. Take chemistry for example. They gave 30 problems the week of the exam. Each problem was about 3 parts, so really it was 90 questions. The best part? Since we had an exam, we didn’t cover 90 PERCENT of the material on the homework. So I spent a total of 7 hours teaching myself the material as I did the homework so I could get in in by the due date. Our professor is behind on lectures and that’s what’s happening with EVERY homework now.

There is no value for destressing time at all. None. I have classes until 6 pm every day, some nights until 7 and 9 pm, and then when you get back from that long day they expect you to do homework for the rest of the night. Sleep? Yeah right. It’s unhealthy!! Do you know how many college students suffer from severe anxiety or depression?? I have this stupid psychosis to deal with and let me tell you it hasn’t helped at all. The professors need to chill out with homework. Instead there should be plenty of practice problems (RELATED to what’s going to be on the exam, not extra hard “challenge” problems you’re never going to see again, which is 95 percent of our hw now) that aren’t due but are to be used for the student’s learning.

Those are the things I really hate, not counting my college’s over crowding issues, or the constant technology issues since they keep changing their systems around, and other things. I love my friends here and I like my dorm. I like the freedom of college. I like science. I do NOT like the teaching styles or OUTRAGEOUS homework loads.

I end up teaching myself for 99 percent of the courses anyhow. Honestly, if you want a college education (and don’t mind missing out on the experience or the degree) just rent the same frigging textbooks they use in the courses. Will cost you no money because you return them, and you can read everything the profs teach without worrying over exams or hw.

I don’t understand why degrees are so important…you could easily attain all of this information on your own…

Anyways that’s my rant. Ergh!!

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I was not in a good mood tonight to get a call from my alma mater asking for money while my wife is very ill from pneumonia and our finances may be in jeopardy. I was very polite to the solicitor, but I emailed the alumni association to take me off all contact and mailing lists. I barely finished two bachelor degrees in computer science and physics but it was a miserable experience. If I had it all to do over again I would have gone to a associates degree tech program. Fortunately I didn’t have any student loans since my undergrad tuition was mostly covered by scholarships. Still I was trying to work part time and take heavy course loads and my gpa and nerves tanked. The mental health counselors at the university at the time were useless if not harmful. Very lonely and lousy time in my life.

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I am sorry that you are so stressed about school. I can’t imagine the pressure.

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It sounds like you have a good social network there which is really great. It’s important in a lot of ways making good contacts and friends at this time. The deluge of info is important too but most of it you will probably forget ten years from now. The people you meet there that stick around in your life will be much more valuable in the long run.

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rant away…it feels better to talk about it…that is what this place is for.
take care

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It sounds like you don’t enjoy what you are studying. If you enjoy what you are studying, it is no longer work but a privilege to study. I study psychology but have to take classes which have nothing to do with it as well. Perhaps you should change majors and do what you are passionate about.

The reason college is so hard is to make people earn what they get. A higher salary is not just handed out, there must be hard work, dedication and sacrifices for such a thing. If everyone had a degree, no one would have a degree.

I am studying psychology and hate leisure time. There are no clones of me to drink with/eat with/act stupid with/engage in sexual intercourse with. Like that is why I am on here, I have a little time to kill before going to bed and I like other people who have schizophrenia. I do have friends but they are not on my level in some ways. I am an outlier at my school, I go here for free and I chose here because I simply do not have any money for private school, my parents have zero money for me to go to school with, in fact they were like 100k in debt when I started college. For me it is free due to my test scores and high school performance, I went to an international school, which did me a lot of good.

I think college is worth it, just study something you are passionate about. My uncle who is an investment banker and well an outlier in terms of wealth told me that you can make a living walking dogs if you are truly passionate about it. I fortunately hate walking dogs and love psychology and make A’s without feeling like it was any big deal. Other classes cause me anxiety and stress, I am sick of literature, I was sick of foreign languages last semester, I don’t really care about philosophy, I am just pretty good at deductive reasoning and logic so I make A’s in those classes, yaddy yaddah school school school schools of fish.

I am joining a research lab and am planning on writing a senior thesis on gambling behavior. I am eager to learn and curious about it. I like what I do and don’t know what to do with myself otherwise. I mean I am on here and reddit for Thor’s sake, not drinking with friends or whatever other 21 year olds do.

But yeah, if you hate school, you must have the wrong major. That sounds like advanced chemistry, not first year stuff. Correct me if I am wrong- if that is first year chemistry, you might want to not take a second year of it because that sounds like crap.

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You’re very true with me not studying what I’m passionate in. I am deeply interested in neuroscience, and psychology as well! The thing is…I’m in all gen ed classes right now…and even though my school does offer a neuroscience major, there are VERY FEW neuroscience electives. Like 2. It’s very disappointing. I want to be learning about neurotransmitters and neuroanatomy, not all this random unrelated stuff.

I’m dreading physics this summer. I hate physics. It has absolutely nothing to do with my major, but it’s still a requirement for some reason. I’m in chemistry now. Part of chemistry is really interesting, I enjoy learning about elements and the fundamental building blocks of the universe. What I HATE is the math. My god do I hate math. With a passion. And chemistry is about 80 percent math. And physics is probably 95 percent math. It’s just really gross. It’s frustrating because aside from statistics, my future job is not going to require the majority of the complex math problems I’m slogging through now. I’ve always hated it and it’s currently taking up my whole life and will continue to do so until Junior year when I’m done with all these dang numbers.

I will finally be able to take neurobio next semester and I’m very excited. If I can get into the class before it closes down…sigh…I really wish they had more electives related to neuroscience…it’s my dream to run my own research lab…

Oh also it’s not advanced chemistry or anything. It’s plain chemistry. My school has very high academics, and basically uses the same curriculum as ivy leagues. (It’s rejected applications to be an Ivy League multiple times) It can be really stressful.

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Like they told me in AA; success comes with a whole new set of problems.
The higher you go in your education; you will find a higher level of problems.
It’s like making money. The more money you make, the higher the tax bracket and the more complicated and stressful your life will be. I don’t mean to discourage you, but this seems to be true.

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