pfft. You dont pay for the classes, you pay for the credits that go toward a degree. School is not a purchase, its an investment.

You're not at college/university to get an academic education, you're there for extra-curricular education.

Oh yeah!!!! :em321:

ugh I know how you're feeling. I've never quite gotten that far, mainly because mjy mom would yank me out of college if I failed a class, but I'm pretty much a slacker as well. you'll probably get on Ac Pro for a semester though to clean up your act. Take some more class over the summer and stay an extra year or semester if necessary. Talk to someone in charge too. it'll be okay, it sucks, but it's rarely the end of the world, you can still get your aerospace engineering degree.

lol!

Simmer...

think happy thoughts!

I agree with him though. Words of wisdom in his post. "Clean up your act, or things like this are going to happen to you for the rest of your life." That's the damn truth

I still don't get how he just now realized he is going to fail 4 classes. You should have an indication of where you stand during the semester, and you should know what is required. I can understand if he was borderline 1 class - MAYBE. But to be borderline 4 classes? And then fail them all?

meh, I got a .5 GPA once at Indiana University and they put me on Academic probation.

The following semester, I raised it a whole point! They still kicked me out.

RIT has a recovery program for people who **** up, maybe your school has something similar? Or perhaps you can take a leave of absence or something similar to get out of it. I'd talk to your advisor soon...

Man, that sucks. I failed Linear Algebra in fall semester and dropped Integral Calc this past semester because I was going to fail, and I thought I was in bad shape.

As some sort of inspiration, before my final for Mathematical Foundations (intro to abstract math) I was right around the 50% mark, and I had retained almost no knowledge about the class. I crammed for a few days straight and absolutely raped the exam, ending up with a B- in the class. So I guess the moral is sometimes even if you think it's hopeless, if you work hard enough you can pull through.

Good luck, I can only imagine how stressful this must be. (And don't let all the "yeah you ****ed up" guys get you down, they either haven't been to Uni or they're the type of person that this sort of thing has always been easy for.)

I'm paying thousands of dollars for a degree...not to learn stuff I already knew.

Wahhhhhhhh.

All of school has basically been like that, atleast in my experience.

I'll probably end up going back to school to learn things I already know about metal, just so I can have a degree.

I don't see what's so hard about going to class and doing assignment. Getting poor grades on them is one thing, but doing jack **** is a sign that someone really doesn't give a **** about being in college.

That's exactly it. I've tanked classes because I was lazy and didn't have all my **** together. The only person to blame was myself. I wouldn't expect anyone to hold my hand and tell that everything is going to be ok.

[QUOTE=IRG SithLord]I'm paying thousands of dollars for a degree...not to learn stuff I already knew.[/QUOTE]

But you're not paying for a degree, you're paying for the chance to learn something. The degree is your reward once you've shown that you can learn, retain and apply the things you were taught.

One might also speculate that you could probably still learn something by going to class as I imagine the staff are (usually) going to be knowledgable about what they teach.

But when it's all said and done, it's the degree that matters. That's what gets you your job when you're done with school, especially given that it's common for people to get jobs that have little to do with what they studied in college.

That's what some would claim but, as Avenger said, the degree just says "hey, this person is qualified to be in the work force of <insert field of study>!" for most employers.

So basically, there's a lot of people out there that are not paying for the chance to learn. They're paying to have employers and others acknowledge their skills.

Take these forums for example. You'll see highly knowledgable people debating a subject but people will insist that they are not credible without a degree.

Also, there are many companies who like to hire people who have no background in the field where they will be working because the person is a clean slate and can be trained as the company sees fit.

Don't worry bro, I'm sort of in the same boat. We gotta stop slackin off and keep chugging

[QUOTE=IRG SithLord]I'm paying thousands of dollars for a degree...not to learn stuff I already knew.[/QUOTE]

That's partly true. I guess I'm also paying for the chance to move out of my house and attend a thing with like-minded people, but at the same time classes missed is money down the drain. At my school if you really already know something you can write a test to take a pass on a course.

You can only do that on a couple of em at my school.


Then you also have to take a bunch of worthless electives. Seriously, how is the history of film (pre-CG) related to CS?

If it's an elective, why are you taking it?

At my school, you can take classes P/NP if they aren't required for your major.

I was given four choices and had to pick or exempt out of two. I think that's what he means - you have a choice, but you can't just do nothing.

That's sort of an elective, I guess. I guess the reasson for that is to give you a broader view of what's out there. The class he mentioned would be like taking a history class.

And those four choices are outside of my major. Forgot to mention that.

It's probably just like here where all engineering students are also required to take 18 hours of liberal arts classes, and they cannot be taken Pass/Fail. Private universities love to try and make "well-rounded students".

Most colleges do that.

This is such a fast-paced and intriguing conversation, Avenger.

There are so many things wrong with this statement I don't know whether to laugh, cry, or vomit in disgust.

Yeah. I don't remember half the crap I learn in my lower division courses.

Vomit -> Laugh -> Cry

I imagine you did well in drama. *shrugs* Many of my students are similarly short-sighted. Nonetheless, please accept my apologies for trying to impress upon my students the importance of education for the sake of education. Oddly enough you'll get out of your education exactly what you put into it. If all you want is a degree to get a job, fine, but you'll be doing yourself a disservice. Also, the uni I teach at is more teaching focussed than other similarly sized universities in the country so I'm probably a little biased. Plus I like my job.

It's at this point I should probably indicate that the Australian tertiary system is substantially different from the American version. For instance, you do not need to pay fees up front. Most people defer their payments. Payback is not required until you are earning over ~$37,000 per year and then only at ~1-2% of your income. Secondly, there is no general first year, lower division type stuff (or like what Darth posted). If you are doing an engineering degree, your first year is engineering based.

It's at this point I should probably indicate that higher "education" is the antithesis to retention and application.

...Aren't you a little biased? I mean, like, you failed, right?

Your two previous comments indicate that you'd rather rant about your dissatisfaction with your uni. Fair enough, maybe your uni and teaching staff are crap, I try to ensure my classes aren't. If you want a discussion on this, you're going to have to add more details. Eg why does higher education promote ignorance? Why does education for the sake of education make you want to vomit?

Then don't take my word for it. Ask a college graduate how well he's retained the information he was taught.

That would be his own fault then. You do have to take some responsibility for your own education at some point. You've also missed an important aspect of this, it's not just about how much you can retain, it's about if you can learn. For example, I teach biochemistry. From year to year I can't remember all the structures or steps for everything. But I don't need to, since I know how to learn it. This is a skill that we try to teach the students, but if they don't bother to put in the effort, they won't get anything out of it.

Education for the sake of education is a noble endeavor. I never said it wasn't. What makes me uneasy is this idea that education is bought and sold, and that an education is something you "get." These ideas are great for schools because if they become widely accepted notions, then schools will get more enrollment and more money. It's good for business.

Nothing is free.

I agree. However, retention is attained in spite of the system (which encourages "cramming"). It should be attained because of the system. Then, more students would succeed.

I haven't found that my program is one you have to cram for. I don't know - it's like if you entered it properly prepared (i.e. not just high school marks but actually having the proper background + work ethic) then you're going to be okay. If you're didn't then you may as well not even bother with the advanced stuff.

And I'm kind of surprised Kyle90 hasn't posted again in this thread...did he give up compters forever?