Foo - To my fellow college students (and those interested)

I would say the vast majority of these are fairly accurate in my own life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o

Go K-State!!

;)

WOW, Great post! It's sad though!

:( You get out of it, what you put in. I rather wish I had several years of my life to do over and treat time when I was a full-time student (yeah - part time night student with full time job and marriage and house to pay for, etc sucks - never had kids - but I listen to students every day lament about how they will not be able to do the project required by my department, Service-Learning, - which can be from 10 hours to 135 hours because of their life responsiblities, etc etc. Then why did you take the course if the time required is a) unreasonable to your lifestyle and b) you can't make arrangements to fit it into your life at that time and run the risk of failing or not completing the requirements. :(

I personally would not have chosen the first school I did when I graduated - wish I pursued a fine cooking degree and traveled abroad to Europe for more training (all paid by me too). Ahh well.

You need to choose well where you attend. Check the class ratio to professor. Check to see if what the school has meets what you need to accomplish what you want to do. And check out the other activities the school has to offer as well - you need to be happy. It will be busy, and there are classes that are total monsters that are obnoxiously needy on your time and what you have to do (had an Art History course that was great, professor was one of the National Geographic photographers - and his stuff was fantastic buy holy poo he wanted sooo much! And then there were other classes - especially some of the 101 classes that were totally textbook driven - highlight the boldfaced words, memorize them and their meanings and VOILA - you had the class down).

Also check if you have adjunct teachers - many of these are professionals in their field and teach at night, etc. Sometimes they are fantastic, other times, eh - check out who is teaching your class.

I only work in a 2 yr school, but the goal for the school is that people go on for their 4 year degree. You get a great education at a good price and with the aspect that most of the 4 yr schools nearby and in some other states take the full credits you've earned.

I see students who are on a path that is goal oriented, are interested in class and life and all what they can do - bright people and they're on their way; while on the other hand I see a lot of people who qualified for grants/loans who are taking the first semester of their college career by taking minimal courses, many times receive incompletes or fail and put up a fuss because they supposedly were never told, didn't know and blah blah blah.

(sorry can you tell it's the beginning of the BUSY semester for me - only had a few weeks off to recover from end of semester activities and prep for the next semester where I find out that my student population that I have to do with increased from probably 600-800 students to a potential of 1200 - PHEW!

And I have deadlines that I have to meet - and uphold and the excuses are pouring in ... <sigh>

You get what you make out of your experience. But no one likes to be bored (ha me - I cannot be bored!) - and to look forward to a boring semester is not fun. Do what you can, and think about if you can change things - degree choices or even schools if you can to find something more stimulating.

Success to you and all you guys and gals in school! Keep on it!

Thats a great video. I'm glad I'm at a still relatively small school, 4/6 professors this semester already know my name.

Thats a great video. I'm glad I'm at a still relatively small school, 4/6 professors this semester already know my name.

Very true, I am lucky enough to have a small class size and teachers who care. The downside is that I don't have any of the normal college experinces. This school is antisocial and not fun at all!

Very true, I am lucky enough to have a small class size and teachers who care. The downside is that I don't have any of the normal college experinces. This school is antisocial and not fun at all!

We are having the exact opposite problem right now. With the success of our football team, we are flooded with pathetic immature freshman who are only choosing Appalachian for the current popularity, not for the usual aspects of the school.
BTW, why are all you 1a schools afraid to play us:roflmao::roflmao: We are having a hard time filling our schedule for next year... for some reason no-one is up to the challenge. We are losing alot of seniors this year, it might be a fair fight for awhile...

Thats a great video. I'm glad I'm at a still relatively small school, 4/6 professors this semester already know my name.

:) I handle the projects associated the the Service-Learning portion of the classes associated with us, mainly future teachers, police, Human Services, etc and we try very hard to keep interesting community sites (all students are placed/associated with a learning experience in their field out in the community) and with the start of the semester I have had up to 20 students at a time facing me signing up for projects and asking questions - and between my boss and I - we've got a good handle on our students - at least the ones who've come in to see me. :) We're the go betweens and problem solvers so needless to say my desk is busy as well as our phones. And problems are solved - and I'd say 90% of the time it's a positive experience - and on a first name basis.

But yeah, I've experienced those classes too. :( Not rewarding, basically a time served situation - but when you hit the classes that are great - you remember them.

Oh yeah and our school is focusing on student retention - why are they leaving, what can we do to make this better and how can we help.

:) I handle the projects associated the the Service-Learning portion of the classes associated with us, mainly future teachers, police, Human Services, etc and we try very hard to keep interesting community sites (all students are placed/associated with a learning experience in their field out in the community) and with the start of the semester I have had up to 20 students at a time facing me signing up for projects and asking questions - and between my boss and I - we've got a good handle on our students - at least the ones who've come in to see me. :) We're the go betweens and problem solvers so needless to say my desk is busy as well as our phones. And problems are solved - and I'd say 90% of the time it's a positive experience - and on a first name basis.

But yeah, I've experienced those classes too. :( Not rewarding, basically a time served situation - but when you hit the classes that are great - you remember them.

Your program sounds like the pioneer of a direction hopefully alot of colleges are headed. We are currently changing our College of Education to require much more involvement of the students in a real classroom. The downside is we need dedicated people like you, and more classrooms. Many students are having to drive well over an hour just to get to their assigned school.

Crazy and yes its true. I am very lucky that where I attend my classes are very small. My last class had 7 students in it (night class). I too am a firm believer you get what you put into it. I am a full-time working adult (average 45-50hrs a week) 10 hours a week in homework, 4 hours in actual class, and I still make time to enjoy LIFE!!! Snowboarding, biking riding (training for racing) and still manage to get 8 hours of sleep a day. Its rough but, its manageable!! :)

We are having the exact opposite problem right now. With the success of our football team, we are flooded with pathetic immature freshman who are only choosing Appalachian for the current popularity, not for the usual aspects of the school.
BTW, why are all you 1a schools afraid to play us:roflmao::roflmao: We are having a hard time filling our schedule for next year... for some reason no-one is up to the challenge. We are losing alot of seniors this year, it might be a fair fight for awhile...


Care to explain the logic of this one to me...

Your school beat Michigan this year, how would loads of freshman have the chance to come to your school prior to this happening if it was based on this happening.

Crazy and yes its true. I am very lucky that where I attend my classes are very small. My last class had 7 students in it (night class). I too am a firm believer you get what you put into it. I am a full-time working adult (average 45-50hrs a week) 10 hours a week in homework, 4 hours in actual class, and I still make time to enjoy LIFE!!! Snowboarding, biking riding (training for racing) and still manage to get 8 hours of sleep a day. Its rough but, its manageable!! :)

I go to a school with 25,000+ students. I have classes with 150 people, classes with 75 people, and classes with 15 people. It depends on the class...

I go to a school with 25,000+ students. I have classes with 150 people, classes with 75 people, and classes with 15 people. It depends on the class...


I go to a private Jesuit school. Smaller, no football team, way more MONEY yes, but and I do think that going at night cuts down the amount of students. But for me no other choice.

Care to explain the logic of this one to me...

Your school beat Michigan this year, how would loads of freshman have the chance to come to your school prior to this happening if it was based on this happening.

2x 1aa Champs made us the hottest thing in NC and surrounding states.

Your program sounds like the pioneer of a direction hopefully alot of colleges are headed. We are currently changing our College of Education to require much more involvement of the students in a real classroom. The downside is we need dedicated people like you, and more classrooms. Many students are having to drive well over an hour just to get to their assigned school.

Actually our Service-Learning department has become one of the places where other schools are requesting our information, manuals, etc. :) We have several schools requesting our information, coming here to sit with my boss and I or want her to come there to do a presentation on what we do. S-L was, a few years ago, mainly associated with the 2 yr community colleges but now it's becoming more involved with the 4 yr schools as well. It's a great way for students to test out/get their feet wet in the field they want to pursue.

But dam, we need to expand :D department wise.

Anyone who is going for a teaching degree will most likely pass through my area and I must say some of the community sites involved in either tutoring or creating literacy kits look like fun (oh and educational too - even better). Filled up one community site today with about 15 students creating literacy kits for 1-3 yrs olds and 4-5 yr olds focusing on the 4 seasons, tadpoles to frogs, Math (the kits get really creative - how to inspire grade school children and keep it interesting and fun) and other subjects as well as one community site suggesting ... Dr. Suess for their 1-3 yr olds. Needless to say - the Dr. Suess project filled up fast.

2x 1aa Champs made us the hottest thing in NC and surrounding states.

Fair enough

Actually our Service-Learning department has become one of the places where other schools are requesting our information, manuals, etc. :) We have several schools requesting our information, coming here to sit with my boss and I or want her to come there to do a presentation on what we do. S-L was, a few years ago, mainly associated with the 2 yr community colleges but now it's becoming more involved with the 4 yr schools as well. It's a great way for students to test out/get their feet wet in the field they want to pursue.

But dam, we need to expand :D department wise.

Anyone who is going for a teaching degree will most likely pass through my area and I must say some of the community sites involved in either tutoring or creating literacy kits look like fun (oh and educational too - even better). Filled up one community site today with about 15 students creating literacy kits for 1-3 yrs olds and 4-5 yr olds focusing on the 4 seasons, tadpoles to frogs, Math (the kits get really creative - how to inspire grade school children and keep it interesting and fun) and other subjects as well as one community site suggesting ... Dr. Suess for their 1-3 yr olds. Needless to say - the Dr. Suess project filled up fast.

We have integrated tutoring/after school programs into our intro-education class, but the literacy kits are a great idea that don't require immediate usage of kids. My girlfriends class is having a rough time getting enough kids into the program.

I hope ya'll can help expand the department into other schools, and ya'll get the help and funding you need.

I'm teaching logic at a major U this semester. There are 200+ students in my two sections. If I took time to learn their names, the semester would be over. If a student wants to discuss his or her grade, by law I have to ask for two forms of picture ID because I have no idea who is who.

Major universities are credit-hour factories and we professors are customer service reps. What else do you expect when regents insist on filling the major administrative offices with business people and bureaucrats?

I hate it but it is the thing I have to do in order to build my career. Life is good when I am assigned the upper-level courses where the enrollment is capped at 50.

I too am glad that I won a scholarship to attend a small, private, liberal arts school.

We have integrated tutoring/after school programs into our intro-education class, but the literacy kits are a great idea that don't require immediate usage of kids. My girlfriends class is having a rough time getting enough kids into the program.

I hope ya'll can help expand the department into other schools, and ya'll get the help and funding you need.

We're good. Boss started the department - I joined 6 months later - on a precarious 18 month grant and 2 yrs ago we were instatutionalized (:D) yay! Need to expand now though as this semester we have blown up to having 57 courses involved with us and the projects - OY! Pretty cool though. Portion of my job is to manage our website - and to secure and process surveys from all students (I can expect at least 1200 this semester) and all faculty and community sites involved - and then of course compare them to previous and point out good things ... and bad things. We've had some community sites fail, and so we move on as there are many others who want our students to help them. And it's interesting to read (oh yeah and type into my database) the comments and suggestions from all. I mostly see good experiences - reinforced their (student) objective to pursue their teaching degree focusing on such and such age, etc and it has also brought out the fact in some students that while they liked what they did, it made them realize that they were pursuing the wrong goal in their education. I do so enjoy seeing someone who has enjoyed the class, the professor and their project. Kinda gives you a boost that yeah you are doing a good thing.

And then you hit the ones who totally hated everything about it.



Oh and sorry Timmy, my hyjack is done :p Brought some work home and was thinking about work (school) so I had to jump in.

Now I think I need to jump off here and go kill some stuff on a game, while my big cat is laying here on the desk staring at my fishies - and smashing his long plume of a tail onto my hands/keyboard.

:D

I got to Arizona State University and we have 65,000 students class sizes depend on the class last semester my largest class was 395 kids. This semester my largest class is 50 and I am lucky all of my professors know my name, I find it smaller classes better because they seem more open to help you. Although I do browse facebook during class :p

I'm at a huge university (the baby bear school, LOL), and although I think going here was the right choice, it wasn't the best choice for me. I keep thinking about how much better my experience was at the community college I was in before I transferred--there are smaller class sizes, more teacher involvement because they don't spend half their time on research, and more services for students. Last fall semester was my first over here, and going from classes that never exceeded 45 to 100 or more in a class sucks ass. Only one professor knows my name from last sem, and it's only because it was a 15-person seminar class. This time, it's better because I have 3 small classes, but I still have 2 large classes and my profs from those won't even know I exist outside of their grading sheets.

I went undergrad to Occidental College. I never had a professor who did no know my name, never. The only class I had there where it would even have been possible was non-majors Organic Chemistry. Smallest classes I had were in summer session at 2 and 4 (or was it 6) students. Knew many profs socially.

Made a big difference in Grad School, I thought of Profs as being approachable, many others did not. I'd get what I wanted when others never would ask.

Oh and to the guy from the 1aa school. The 1a schools I follow are far from afraid. U.S.C. and U.C.L.A. have not played any div 1aa for at least 30 years. No other conference has any schools that can say that. (Though there are 2 other schools that can, I remember one always forget the other).

EDIT:
When I was looking at schools to go to long ago 3 different people strongly advised me to avoid U.S.C. , U.C.L.A. and other large schools. Those being my Father a U.S.C. grad, my mother who graduated with Honors from U.C.L.A. and the teacher of my A.P. European History class who was working on his doctorate at U.S.C. The all felt, and were correct, that I would not enjoy being lost in the masses. Their advice was only about undergrad, grad school was a different matter.

If you want to have small classes where all the teachers know you as individuals, don't go to the University of Kansas or the University of Minnesota or UCLA or someplace like that. Go to Carleton, Cornell of Iowa, Davidson, Ripon, Monmouth, Wabash, or some school like that.

Wesch has produced a few videos in the last year or two, and they are all awesome. I've never had a class with him, as I'm an engineering major, not anthropology, but I LOVE his videos. I think they're incredibly insightful.

Go cats!

I'm teaching logic at a major U this semester. There are 200+ students in my two sections. If I took time to learn their names, the semester would be over. If a student wants to discuss his or her grade, by law I have to ask for two forms of picture ID because I have no idea who is who.

Major universities are credit-hour factories and we professors are customer service reps. What else do you expect when regents insist on filling the major administrative offices with business people and bureaucrats?

I hate it but it is the thing I have to do in order to build my career. Life is good when I am assigned the upper-level courses where the enrollment is capped at 50.

I too am glad that I won a scholarship to attend a small, private, liberal arts school.

It depends on what you wanna study doesn't it? For Engg, you want to be in a top 10 school and that means, by and large, bigger schools. I have been finding out that the name of your school matters quite a bit.

I went undergrad to Occidental College. I never had a professor who did no know my name, never. The only class I had there where it would even have been possible was non-majors Organic Chemistry. Smallest classes I had were in summer session at 2 and 4 (or was it 6) students. Knew many profs socially.

Made a big difference in Grad School, I thought of Profs as being approachable, many others did not. I'd get what I wanted when others never would ask.

Oh and to the guy from the 1aa school. The 1a schools I follow are far from afraid. U.S.C. and U.C.L.A. have not played any div 1aa for at least 30 years. No other conference has any schools that can say that. (Though there are 2 other schools that can, I remember one always forget the other).

EDIT:
When I was looking at schools to go to long ago 3 different people strongly advised me to avoid U.S.C. , U.C.L.A. and other large schools. Those being my Father a U.S.C. grad, my mother who graduated with Honors from U.C.L.A. and the teacher of my A.P. European History class who was working on his doctorate at U.S.C. The all felt, and were correct, that I would not enjoy being lost in the masses. Their advice was only about undergrad, grad school was a different matter.

Sometimes I wish I went to the Claremont Colleges instead of UCLA...or any other small, private college, for that matter. I'm not exactly lost in the masses, but I don't feel a sense of connection and community either.

Timmyquest, I just saw the video and I can totally agree with it. From my freshman year to my maybe my junior year my average class size was about 100. I hated how impersonal it was. The only way my professors learned my name was for me to step up and introduce myself. I'm going to forward this to my one of my psychology lectures who focuses on cognition and learning.

Great post Timmy.

It depends on what you wanna study doesn't it? For Engg, you want to be in a top 10 school and that means, by and large, bigger schools. I have been finding out that the name of your school matters quite a bit.

What about schools like RIT or Rose-Hulman?

The gamble when you enter a big engineering school like TX A&M or U of Illinois, is can you can survive long enough to get that degree?

A lot of students at Penn State, for example, declare engineering majors and then end up dropping the major because they can't maintain their GPA. In other words, these schools aren't concerned with developing the talents that students have, but just seeing who can hang, weeding out those who cannot teach themselves. Certainly the professors/graduate students teaching those courses aren't motivated to help you.

Students at lesser known schools might not be as talented, they might not get as good of a job right off the bat, but they will graduate with the degree because people have time to work with them.

I enjoy my college life, I pick classes I find interesting that fit the criteria I need for graduating, all my computer science classes have been extremely useful to me, I've been lucky, even in the large lecture labs like seen in that video that we have at my school (they're a little bit smaller) my class size has still been like 15 people.


I'm going to end up taking a nice handful of classes just because I enjoy the subjects and they'll help boost my GPA from a screwed up first semester (the transition was a little rough coming from "High school was a waste of time" attitude, I still think that, but college is worth every minute I'm there), not to mention the classes are cheap, so I can easily take them just because I want to learn about the subjects.

This semester I was kind of locked into taking only one long night class, I needed assessment tests done that I didn't get in time, next semester I'm taking a full load along with some work.

I'm on dial-up so I was not able to view the link, but I got the jist of the subject.

I'm a 40yo f/t student at a state college in CO. There are 6200 students in my college. I'm a geology major and there are about 30 geology majors and 6 geology profs here. I'm on a first name basis with all the geology profs. I have been able to work one-on-one in the field with profs on original research projects and have presented my work at professional geology meetings (GSA section meeting). This will all look good for grad school apps, even though I'm not at a big name school.

What about schools like RIT or Rose-Hulman?

The gamble when you enter a big engineering school like TX A&M or U of Illinois, is can you can survive long enough to get that degree?

A lot of students at Penn State, for example, declare engineering majors and then end up dropping the major because they can't maintain their GPA. In other words, these schools aren't concerned with developing the talents that students have, but just seeing who can hang, weeding out those who cannot teach themselves. Certainly the professors/graduate students teaching those courses aren't motivated to help you.

Students at lesser known schools might not be as talented, they might not get as good of a job right off the bat, but they will graduate with the degree because people have time to work with them.

I agree that there are a few exceptions ro big schools as you pointed out, thats why I prefaced it with a by and large ;).

I would argue that if someone cant hang at A&M then he or she is going to have even more problems at Rose-Hulman or Harvey-Mudd and the like. I see your point that the objective seems to whetting out students rather than helping them but thats sadly what it comes down to eventually when one is in the job market right?

All of this being said, if I had the oppurtunity to go to school in the US, I would have been very tempted to go to a good teaching school rather than big U's such as Stanford, Berkeley etc etc..

Timmyquest, I just saw the video and I can totally agree with it. From my freshman year to my maybe my junior year my average class size was about 100. I hated how impersonal it was. The only way my professors learned my name was for me to step up and introduce myself. I'm going to forward this to my one of my psychology lectures who focuses on cognition and learning.

Great post Timmy.

Meh lady sent it to me, one of her professors in one of her social work classes showed it to her.

I go to a private Jesuit school. Smaller, no football team, way more MONEY yes, but and I do think that going at night cuts down the amount of students. But for me no other choice.

Regius?