Is anyone an instructor/admin at a college or university?

[rrastro]

Originally Posted by Silmarwen

I guess I've always had this vision in my head of myself doing some sort of solitary, mind-numbing data-entry for the rest of my life, none of which really requires a whole lot of "experience" dealing with much.

If all you aspire to do in life is to work in data entry then you don't need no fancy degree. Get on it today. Heck, I did data entry in highschool.
Sometimes, and not often enough, just sometimes school does teach you life lessons. Bosses are going to spring unfair ish on you and you will just have to deal with it, one way or another. And if you end up self-employed you will find out that running a business invariably springs a ton of unfair ish on you.
It does feel good to grumble about it once in a while, though.

[creekbottom]

Maybe things are different in the States. When I was in college and taking a course the syllabus for that course was our contract with the prof. It detailed what we could expect for a workload in the course, how things would be graded, that sort of thing.

If this part of the course isn't anywhere in the syllabus and the prof has sprung it on the class then I feel that all of you need to make the prof aware that this is unacceptable. Sure you can grumble about it but nothing will change. Grumble to the right people, at the very least the prof will have to put it in the syllabus and next years students will have a better understanding of what is expected.

There also is your opportunity to express your views with the instructor evaluations. I know its at the end of the term but those things can be devastating for profs.

[Silmarwen]

Originally Posted by rrastro

If all you aspire to do in life is to work in data entry then you don't need no fancy degree. Get on it today. Heck, I did data entry in highschool.
Sometimes, and not often enough, just sometimes school does teach you life lessons. Bosses are going to spring unfair ish on you and you will just have to deal with it, one way or another. And if you end up self-employed you will find out that running a business invariably springs a ton of unfair ish on you.
It does feel good to grumble about it once in a while, though.

I don't really ASPIRE to data-entry, I just don't really know what any other jobs in this world entail, that I'm smart enough to do. I always wanted to be an astronaut... But math. >.<

Originally Posted by creekbottom

Maybe things are different in the States. When I was in college and taking a course the syllabus for that course was our contract with the prof. It detailed what we could expect for a workload in the course, how things would be graded, that sort of thing.

If this part of the course isn't anywhere in the syllabus and the prof has sprung it on the class then I feel that all of you need to make the prof aware that this is unacceptable. Sure you can grumble about it but nothing will change. Grumble to the right people, at the very least the prof will have to put it in the syllabus and next years students will have a better understanding of what is expected.

There also is your opportunity to express your views with the instructor evaluations. I know its at the end of the term but those things can be devastating for profs.

Well, it's on the syllabus. Which you don't get until after you've already registered, set your schedule, and can't rearrange things to make them easier. The more I think about it, the more I realized I am mostly pissed that it wasn't listed anywhere before I registered for the course and set my schedule in stone.

[R_Barber001]

This happened to me and I was informed by the department head that the university web site for the program I'm in indicates that it is possible to have the service learning portion in SOME classes of the major. It did not specifically say which ones and it is fine print to cover there behind. Before I failed I withdrew from the class. I did find it unfair but like the above post said it is not unreasonable for them to ask this. Don't stress it, time management is priceless set a schedule and get it done.

[OverStocked]

If this is your worst problem right now.... you're overreacting.

Sorry. But it sounds like you need to understand that in life, things don't always go as we plan. 15 hours over the course of a month or two is nothing. I worked 9 unplanned hours yesterday. That made my day 21 hours long.... It happens. It isn't the end of the world.

It sounds to me that because this is a class you aren't really interested in you don't feel you should have to put in extra work. Think of it this way. You graduate in May. Do the work, do what you have to so you can get by, and get out. Easy?

College isn't just to teach you specific knowledge. Life skills are as key to any of it as anything else. Being able to adjust to a small commitment over a few months shouldn't be this kind of problem. While I'm sure money is tight, you could have taken 1 or two days of work off and been done in just a few days. You say you work that schedule "most days". Well, that means "some days" you don't....

Time utilization and flexibility is no small thing... Between work and school it looks like you have about 42.5 hours of "filled" schedule, with weekends free? So you have time to study. There is no flexibility in your work? By your choice or your employers?

[OverStocked]

Originally Posted by Silmarwen

Well, I've always figured that the "real-world" is going to suck worse than college, but at least there you're getting paid instead of paying to be overworked... It will all come together eventually, I guess, I just can't see it.



I understand that courses are REQUIRED to have something to grade (Otherwise, my entire CHL137 course would have been just random Harry Potter discussions), but the "Service-Learning" wasn't anywhere in the course description. That's mostly what gets me, I guess. It was sort of sprung on us out of nowhere.

I know classwork itself does nothing really to prepare you for anything, but I don't feel that the projects we're doing is really valuable experience anyway. One of our options would have had us answering phones, "fundraiser prospecting," and stuffing envelopes, and the other (the one I switched to) has us meeting with some random international student once a week to (as in my case) bake cookies.

I guess I've always had this vision in my head of myself doing some sort of solitary, mind-numbing data-entry for the rest of my life, none of which really requires a whole lot of "experience" dealing with much.

So why are you going to college for something like this? Perhaps THIS is the problem here? Not the class or instructor?

[Silmarwen]

Originally Posted by OverStocked

So why are you going to college for something like this? Perhaps THIS is the problem here? Not the class or instructor?

Ah... Well.

I started college with the naive understanding that it would be impossible to get a good-paying, decent job without a degree. So I went, and having been told that it didn't matter WHAT degree you had, as long as you had one, I went for a Japanese major. As part of that major, I had to take an anthropology class. So I added an Anthropology minor so that I could take more classes with that particular professor, because I thought she was awesome.

Then I went to Japan, screwed up, came back, and dropped Japanese to a minor so that I could be done with it. Bumped Anthro up to my major, because I was only two semesters away from graduating, and we'd already wasted all that money so far, I may as well finish.

But then one class I needed wasn't offered when I needed, so I added a Psych minor so I could stay full-time (requirement for my health insurance) and have a use for the spare classes I was in.

And now I'm FINALLY almost done with my Frankendegree, and regretting almost every minute of every class I took. I've wasted 6 years, god only knows how much time, energy, and money, and all I'm going to have to show for it is a slightly-below-average GPA and a degree that is absolutely useless outside of the academic sphere.

I'm a mess, honestly. I'll be first-generation college grad in my family, and I had to learn all of this by trial-and-error... And it's unfortunately been a VERY expensive trail-and-error... But it's literally too late to change.

[OverStocked]

So we're in agreement that this has nothing to so with the class or instructor?

Throwing more money into a bottomless pit of unhappiness isn't going to fill it up or make you happy.

Do you understand how silly the insurance logic is? You could have worked fill time and got benefits too.... Without spending 40 grand a year in education you don't want or need....

[mistergreen]

Originally Posted by Silmarwen

So I went, and having been told that it didn't matter WHAT degree you had, as long as you had one

Oh man, whoever told you that gave you bad advice. Of course the major matters. Liberal arts degree is notoriously bad for finding jobs after graduation.

[rrastro]

Actually I think I have what might be the perfect job for you.
Teach english in Japan!
Unless you're barred from ever returning there.... in which case you're SOL. j/k!!!
Seriously though, it doesn't require any math and they would prefer english majors but take other majors too. Having an interest in Japanese culture and language is a plus. You'll probably live in a hole in the wall but you can save a surprising amount of money for whenever you want to come back to the states, if you want to come back.
Don't think that you can't do it. You will essentially be acting as a conversational english teacher for advanced english students so the amount of structured "teaching" you have to do is quite minimal. Mostly you'll just be talking in english and correcting grammar / spelling / pronunciation errors.
I would do it if I didn't have a gaggle of kids and a wife at home. My major is criminal justice administration. It could be a lot of fun, look into it.

[Silmarwen]

Originally Posted by OverStocked

So we're in agreement that this has nothing to so with the class or instructor?

Throwing more money into a bottomless pit of unhappiness isn't going to fill it up or make you happy.

Do you understand how silly the insurance logic is? You could have worked fill time and got benefits too.... Without spending 40 grand a year in education you don't want or need....

Well I know these things now. A significant part of the problem is that I never worked in high school, so I had my 1.29 GPA and nothing else to recommend me to a position anywhere. Nobody would give me a full-time job; not anywhere that gets decent benefits, at least. Either way, it's in the past now. I have to lay in the bed I've made.

Originally Posted by mistergreen

Oh man, whoever told you that gave you bad advice. Of course the major matters. Liberal arts degree is notoriously bad for finding jobs after graduation.

I was told "It's how you sell yourself" and that "you don't need a specialized degree unless you're going into a technical field." Since I loathed the idea of doing anything related to math (accounting, economics, etc) and science goes over my head (Huh? Why use K for Potassium?! Periodic what?), I couldn't imagine what else existed in the world of "doing stuff as an adult" that wouldn't be covered by a degree in whatever I wouldn't loathe myself for studying for four (six...) years.

Originally Posted by rrastro

Actually I think I have what might be the perfect job for you.
Teach english in Japan!
Unless you're barred from ever returning there.... in which case you're SOL. j/k!!!
Seriously though, it doesn't require any math and they would prefer english majors but take other majors too. Having an interest in Japanese culture and language is a plus. You'll probably live in a hole in the wall but you can save a surprising amount of money for whenever you want to come back to the states, if you want to come back.
Don't think that you can't do it. You will essentially be acting as a conversational english teacher for advanced english students so the amount of structured "teaching" you have to do is quite minimal. Mostly you'll just be talking in english and correcting grammar / spelling / pronunciation errors.
I would do it if I didn't have a gaggle of kids and a wife at home. My major is criminal justice administration. It could be a lot of fun, look into it.

I've looked into the two prominent programs that do that thing, AEON and JET. Both have gotten outrageously competitive in the last 2-3 years even. One friend my freshman year went to an interview in Chicago for JET. He was one of maybe seventy applicants in the area. Another friend went this past summer; one of over 500 applicants.

I'd love to do something like that, but I hold few illusions about my ability to make it past the interview stages, and I'm hesitant to look into any of the less reputable programs, since I've heard horror stories about programs and districts who warp the system and do horrible things to their exchange teachers. One district took out double the tax they should have, then after telling a teacher that one company was supposed to pay them, not the school directly, nearly got her deported because she defaulted on her rent for too long (which the school was supposed to be providing).

Sooo... Yeeaaah.

tl;dr: I screwed up, I'm aware of this. ¿( ._.)

[creekbottom]

I guess having no idea what you want to do and then going to school to figure it out is not the best idea. Any arts degree you get is most likely not going to land you a job when you're done. If you wanted that then making math and science work for you would have been a good idea.

I spent ALOT of money on education, way too much. I have 2 bachelors degrees and they are completely unrelated. The first one was agriculture (pretty easy to get a job actually) and the second one was music. Sure I made the mistake of doing the agriculture degree but it still works for me. I just ended my summer contract and have a nice fat bank account. Now I get to spend the winter playing music! BUT... that arts degree does nothing for me unless I market myself. I have a very successfull string quartet that I started. If I wasn't pushing it and marketing it my arts degree would be an expensive piece of paper on the wall.

[rrastro]

Originally Posted by creekbottom

I guess having no idea what you want to do and then going to school to figure it out is not the best idea.

Yeah, except that is what the vast majority of students do who go straight from high school to college. They might have an idea of what it is they want to do but often that idea will change many times over before they graduate and then again after they are spit out into the real world.

[Silmarwen]

Originally Posted by creekbottom

I guess having no idea what you want to do and then going to school to figure it out is not the best idea. Any arts degree you get is most likely not going to land you a job when you're done. If you wanted that then making math and science work for you would have been a good idea.

I spent ALOT of money on education, way too much. I have 2 bachelors degrees and they are completely unrelated. The first one was agriculture (pretty easy to get a job actually) and the second one was music. Sure I made the mistake of doing the agriculture degree but it still works for me. I just ended my summer contract and have a nice fat bank account. Now I get to spend the winter playing music! BUT... that arts degree does nothing for me unless I market myself. I have a very successfull string quartet that I started. If I wasn't pushing it and marketing it my arts degree would be an expensive piece of paper on the wall.

Originally Posted by rrastro

Yeah, except that is what the vast majority of students do who go straight from high school to college. They might have an idea of what it is they want to do but often that idea will change many times over before they graduate and then again after they are spit out into the real world.

Unfortunately, common "wisdom" preaches that, if you take a year of school, you'll never go back, that you need a technical skill to make it without a bachelor degree (mechanical aptitude, etc), and that non-college-educated people never go anywhere. With everyone and the President pushing the idea that YOU NEED A DEGREE, it's hard for people to just 'not.' Admittedly, there wasn't much opportunity in my high-school area unless I wanted to work as a farm hand or at the credit union (which asks for at least an associates anyway), and by coming to college I truly did grow as a person (before uni, I'd starve to death before I asked directions to the nearest grocery).

Still. I wonder every day if it's been worth it, and it is or it isn't largely depending on whether I've more recently been paid, or had a particularly despicable person harassing me at work...

[Aquaticz]

I think the best advice anybody could give you would be for you to figure out what it is you like in life. What makes you happy what's fun what's exciting that's what you need to do for living. Liking what you do makes all the difference in the world. Remember to sometimes it's the journey and not the destination
Best of luck regards


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD