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Hopefully the title should be self-explanatory, but if it isn't: complain about college here. Whether it's lovely professors, horrible classmates or otherwise, let us hear it! I would ask that you refrain from naming names, but other than that, go hog wild. For content: most programming classes at my college use an e-homework site. This invariably requires students to buy new textbooks so as to have a license for the website. Recently, my Java professor sent out an email stating that the bulk of the e-homework was optional. Sure am glad I had to drop money on that new textbook.
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Oct 16, 2013 18:40
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| # ? Apr 16, 2024 07:02 |
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Spent $100 on a parking permit, can't ever find a spot.
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Oct 16, 2013 18:49
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Back when I was in college, my newswriting professor was late more often and later than any of the other students. One day, he decided to crack down on lateness and locked the door to the class. The people most often late were the ones who -- like me -- had to take the bus, which meant dealing with overcrowded and frequently late buses. Mr. Furlong, you're a bad teacher and a hypocrite.
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Oct 16, 2013 19:24
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The astounding naiveté of a lot of students is baffling. You left your Macbook, iPhone, purse, backpack and wallet unguarded in a library, without asking anyone to watch it, for 30 whole minutes? And you're surprised you got robbed? Like, I feel bad about victim blaming but there were numerous warnings all week about people stealing laptops left unattended during bathroom breaks, you left all your possessions at the mercy of exam-stressed students for 30 minutes?
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Oct 16, 2013 19:30
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Lizard Wizard posted:
We had to pay for something like that in my physics class, except it was less "optional" and more "loving terrible". Like wanting the y coordinates listed first in a question about a graph, but without telling us that it reversed the way people have always been writing god drat coordinates since basically forever. And then other questions, it would be back to normal. Multiple choice questions usually had the wrong answer key, and basically every assignment had to be manually regraded. gently caress you, Mastering Physics!.
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Oct 16, 2013 19:34
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Because lovely education happens everywhere,more in third world countries: One professor decided that giving two classes wasn't that important, and instead of finding a replacement she decided simply not to show up. Cue to everyone angry,lots of confused students and several that don't care. Also, classes have been cancelled these last two Fridays and this next one will be cancelled as well, there are two classes that I only have on Fridays. Yay,my education! Fudge Handsome posted:Back when I was in college, my newswriting professor was late more often and later than any of the other students. One day, he decided to crack down on lateness and locked the door to the class. The people most often late were the ones who -- like me -- had to take the bus, which meant dealing with overcrowded and frequently late buses. Hahaha, I get that a lot. Some teachers take even half an hour to show up, then one day they show up extremely early and close the door to everyone else,not giving a single poo poo about it.
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Oct 16, 2013 20:48
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Don't we have threads like that in SAL?
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Oct 16, 2013 20:56
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My Risk Assessment professor is insanely smart and one of the national leaders in Epidemiology. That being said, she uses the word "irregardless" all the time and pronounces nuclear as "nukular."
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Oct 17, 2013 06:55
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Every Engineering lecture in a Mechanical or Business module is going to start ten minutes late, because nobody arrives on time. Plus, no-one puts their phones on silent, so they're always going off. In the computer lab, there's always someone with the Mario coin notification sound. However, it's set to the maximum volume, so you can hear it from across a crowded room, and it's so loud and high pitched that it sounds distorted, like it's practically breaking the lovely speaker in the phone. It will also go off frequently enough that you can't concentrate on your work, but not frequently enough that it becomes predictable.
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Oct 17, 2013 09:08
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Man, I had a professor who was pretty much a GOP partisan shill at UC Irvine during Winter 2013. While talking about Rousseau and Locke, he would often launch into tangents about how Social Security was unsustainable, calling us all moochers because he pays income tax and we don't, and talking about "Barack Obama, father of the welfare state." When he was talking about postmodernism, he eventually launched into a tangent saying, "Look! I bet a lot of you are Republicans, but it's hard for you to say those views because people won't agree with you!" It made me feel like I was paying $10k that quarter to watch Fox News in person.
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Oct 17, 2013 12:17
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At the first college I went to, I had a professor who made everyone spend 30 bucks to buy what was essentially xeroxes of a bunch of public domain literature. That was when I realized I was going to kill myself if I went there another semester (I dropped out of that school and did not kill myself). edit: This school also had a format for its radio station: alternative rock. And I don't mean like grunge, punk, or even indie folk rock stuff, I mean a college radio station that played nothing but stuff like Nickelback and Staind. Twitch has a new favorite as of 12:31 on Oct 17, 2013 |
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Oct 17, 2013 12:26
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Never take a Political Sciences course, ever. The only people who attend them are hardcore libertarians who'll poo poo up lectures and tutes with bullshit about not being able to ride a bike without a helmet. It is basically hell.
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Oct 17, 2013 12:40
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Yeah Bro posted:Never take a Political Sciences course, ever. The only people who attend them are hardcore libertarians who'll poo poo up lectures and tutes with bullshit about not being able to ride a bike without a helmet. It is basically hell. Dunno dude, all the PoliSci students I know are all hardcore Democrats. On another note, I remember when we were reviewing for an Urban Studies final, and we were discussing the point that "people tend to move to less poor neighborhoods because less poor neighborhoods have better schools," some dumbshit Computer Science major was saying, "that's bullshit because people want to go to USC, and it's in South Central!" Expensive, exclusive private universities are totally like cash-strapped "ghetto" high schools, guys  He later talked about how that point was proof the class was "biased." I guess because it's not occurring in his bullshit South Park/Reddit fantasy world where "the truth is always in the middle"? Probably should have asked him if he was willing to go to Crenshaw High School or something, but then he'd probably have said "Yeah, since then I'd be at the top of the class and would have gotten into Stanford!"
Jerry Manderbilt has a new favorite as of 13:30 on Oct 17, 2013 |
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Oct 17, 2013 13:13
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So I'm doing my master degree in China. I could fill this thread with crap I experience: My thesis supervisor has no idea how my thesis is supposed to be. Exams before Christmas = exams during Christmas One of the professors constantly canceling classes beacuse she has "very important meetings in Frankfurt/Los Angeles/Istanbul/whatever" The same professor as above changes the book one month before the exam and the exam has only questions from the new book 3 weeks of running around the campus so I could get my transcript of grades One class was just student presentations, every god drat time Getting a B on your paper you actually put effort into, while the guy who more or less copied his off of Wikipedia gets an A Getting an A on your paper because you taught the professors child English A TA that is afraid of the students so he hides in the bathroom My point is, education in China is a joke. And I always find it funny when people in Europe or USA talk about how China will take over the world because "OMG math skills!!!"
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Oct 17, 2013 14:41
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It's been about ten years since I was in school, but I still remember this loving piece of bullshit: Everyone who took calculus I and/or II had to take this online test of 10 questions. To make sure you didn't cheat, you had to go in person to a random computer lab that had a TA proctoring it, so there were only so many time slots and locations. And even though they started offering it maybe halfway through the semester, the questions they asked required skills you wouldn't get until later, so unless you already knew or studied ahead, you had to wait until close to the end of the semester, and then you'd basically wait in line for like an hour outside of one the labs for enough people to finish so you could use one of the stations. Logistical issues aside, the test was horrible. For Calc I, it was ten equations that you had to provide the derivative for, and likewise for calc II it was ten equations you needed to provide the integral for. They loved throwing tiny little curveball equations here and there to trip you up, but the worst part was the software. It couldn't parse the answers correctly to save its life. You'd frequently get the right answer, but type it in "wrong" so it wouldn't count. The ten questions were all random, and you could re-take it as many times as you want, hence why it took so long to get a station. People would sit there and take it over and over and over again. And it didn't give you the correct answers, either, just say if you were right or wrong, so sometimes you had no idea if it was wrong because it was actually wrong, or if it was wrong because you just forgot to put a space after a comma, or something, so it didn't fit the perfect format it was looking for. This test determined your grade, more or less. You see, whatever letter grade you got on this test was the highest letter grade you could receive for the class, regardless of how well you did in class work, real tests, homework, etc. This test could prevent you from getting your "real" grade. So let's say you're averaging a 92% so far, my school didn't use pluses or minuses, so that's a straight A/4.0. But you take this test, and no matter how many times you take it, you can never break 8/10...sorry, you actually will only get a B/3.0 for the course. And yes, even worse would be only ever getting 7/10 and you end up with a C, despite otherwise having an A. I knew someone who had that happen to them. They took it over and over and over again, and never broke 7/10 for whatever reason...consistent typos in entering in the answer, or just getting the trickier ones, whatever, didn't matter. It happened to me to, but not as dramatically. I had a B average and also could never break 7/10, so I ended up with a C in calc II. I'm pretty sure they dropped that loving test in a year or two after my freshman year when I took it. DrBouvenstein has a new favorite as of 15:01 on Oct 17, 2013 |
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Oct 17, 2013 14:58
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Douche Wolf 89 posted:The astounding naiveté of a lot of students is baffling. You left your Macbook, iPhone, purse, backpack and wallet unguarded in a library, without asking anyone to watch it, for 30 whole minutes? And you're surprised you got robbed? Like, I feel bad about victim blaming but there were numerous warnings all week about people stealing laptops left unattended during bathroom breaks, you left all your possessions at the mercy of exam-stressed students for 30 minutes? Why is it bad to victim blame in this context? What planet do we live on again?
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Oct 17, 2013 15:16
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I got put on academic probation, so now, in order to register for classes, instead of doing it online and clicking Submit, I have to: 1. Write down each class section, professor, etc, on a physical form. 2. Take the form to every professor of every class, which usually takes a week because professors aren't just on campus every god drat day 3. Take the form to the academic probation office and have them sign it. 4. Take the form to my academic advisor for my major and have him sign it. 5. Take the form to the registration office and have them register me for classes. Oh you wanted to change your 8AM discussion section to a 10AM? DO IT ALL AGAIN  One of my cinema classes is making me write a 3 page paper on "my brand identity". Every day is a struggle in trying not to drop out. I'm taking all my major classes in order to actually learn, and then absconding, degree be hosed.
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Oct 17, 2013 15:23
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DrBouvenstein posted:It's been about ten years since I was in school, but I still remember this loving piece of bullshit: I had that too! I remember going crazy trying to finish it for my calc I class so that I could leave for thanksgiving break, and the more I took it the worse I did, because my tiredness and frustration led to more formatting errors. When I took Calc II over the summer, the professor said it was bullshit and skipped it. The joy of summer classes. I know that my school was still doing it as of a year or two ago according to some people I talked to.
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Oct 17, 2013 15:27
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Zurreco posted:My Risk Assessment professor is insanely smart and one of the national leaders in Epidemiology. That being said, she uses the word "irregardless" all the time and pronounces nuclear as "nukular."  Every fall term, I have to deal with his class and grad students who take it. It seems that 30-40% of them are woefully unprepared to be in such a competitive program (or, sadly, what used to be highly competitive). I've had to spoon feed how to get readings off of the magical world of the internet FOR FREE through our university's library system if they weren't available on PubMed. If you're already 2 years into a PhD program, you really should now how to do this for your drat self. I blame NIH funding cuts over the past 15 years I've been in this position that lead to fewer grants that lead to fewer faculty members having good funding/opportunities for students that sadly leads to less applicants and stringent requirements for admission. In other words, I blame the government's hatred of science/knowledge for most of the ills facing higher education in this country. /rant 
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Oct 17, 2013 18:05
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My favorite college class was differential equations. I was really good at them and got every question right on the first exam. Laplace transforms were a joke and well prepared me for engineering. Overall I suggest taking it. A+
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Oct 17, 2013 18:09
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$100 parking permit despite not needing one to park in my (school-owned) off-campus apartment complex, yet I'm not allowed to park on campus. Because I'm "not a commuter." the good news is I only paid $50 for a semester pass and they hosed up and gave me a full-year one 
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Oct 17, 2013 18:11
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Paying like a hundred bucks for a parking pass then having to move my truck for football games is kid of a pain in the rear end.
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Oct 17, 2013 18:50
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Ugly In The Morning posted:We had to pay for something like that in my physics class, except it was less "optional" and more "loving terrible". Like wanting the y coordinates listed first in a question about a graph, but without telling us that it reversed the way people have always been writing god drat coordinates since basically forever. And then other questions, it would be back to normal. Multiple choice questions usually had the wrong answer key, and basically every assignment had to be manually regraded. Grad students hate it too since we have to play tech support and answer questions about why people can't get their browsers to work correctly with it on their iPads and phones during office hours. On the otherhand, our department doesn't have enough money to get a sufficient number of instructors to grade handwritten homework either. We also call it "Novicing Physics". 
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Oct 17, 2013 19:05
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Ugly In The Morning posted:We had to pay for something like that in my physics class, except it was less "optional" and more "loving terrible". Like wanting the y coordinates listed first in a question about a graph, but without telling us that it reversed the way people have always been writing god drat coordinates since basically forever. And then other questions, it would be back to normal. Multiple choice questions usually had the wrong answer key, and basically every assignment had to be manually regraded. I'm pretty sure several classmates and I spent several hours a week trying to get Mastering Physics to accept our homework answers. Online assignments for science courses are the worst thing ever.
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Oct 17, 2013 20:19
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Did a Bachelor's degree at a university, it was fine. Started an MSc at the same place and suddenly the classes were massively overcrowded (70 people in rooms meant for 30) and a good quarter of them talk through the lecture, with another quarter regularly arriving 15-30 minutes late. Out of the 5 or so people I know who did masters degrees there's only 1 who didn't hate it.
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Oct 17, 2013 20:28
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I met a girl in a Stem class and we dated for three months.
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Oct 17, 2013 20:29
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Lieutenant Dan posted:I got put on academic probation, so now, in order to register for classes, instead of doing it online and clicking Submit, I have to: drat, and I thought it was bad enough that when I was on academic probation, instead of registering online, I had to actually make an appointment with my academic adviser to do so, only to have her try to convince me to change my major five times in the 15 minutes it took to get my registration done. (Irony now being, that I'm off academic probation, and going to change my major anyway.) Also frustrating is the fact that there's a lot of roadwork going on around my school, so it's a maze of closed roads and construction cones to get anywhere. This drat Atlanta streetcar project drat well better be worth all the annoyance.
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Oct 17, 2013 20:57
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In 2007-2008 when my class started video editing, our editing "suite" was an un-insulated back room with exposed pipes, the same computers my highschool used in the late 90s, and we were still using reel-to-reel editing with VHS tapes. Dials and knobs and everything. The only thing digital was the instructor's wristwatch. Great job preparing me for entering the journalism industry, guys.
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Oct 17, 2013 23:18
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Jerry Manderbilt posted:Dunno dude, all the PoliSci students I know are all hardcore Democrats. My experience is that most of the people who take poli sci classes are hardcore Democrats, and most of the people who raise their hand in poli sci classes are hardcore libertarians. Lieutenant Dan posted:I got put on academic probation, so now, in order to register for classes, instead of doing it online and clicking Submit, I have to: Man, that would have killed me. I usually made like 10-15 class switches before I had the perfect schedule for the semester. At UConn we had so many people that registering for classes involved taking what you could get first, then drop/switching into the classes you wanted as more people dropped from the sections.
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Oct 17, 2013 23:40
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The IT at my college suuucks. Some highlights: My first semester the email had just started working again. Thing was, it wasn't technically down. The mail servers had been hacked and were spewing out spam from their .edu domain. No one noticed until they were blacklisted by major mail services and as a result no one outside the college got their messages. The email also went down for allmost a week once. Completely down, any messages sent to your address were lost to the abyss. They eventually contracted it all out and it's worked fine since. I still just use gmail and most professors do too. They gave my friend a copy of an antivirus that they must have downloaded from some sketchy source because it had a trojan on it. When it hosed up her computer they told her this like it was a mistake anyone could make. The lab computers aren't locked down in any way. This is great if you need to install something but often they get infested with toolbars and the like. Well, the basic setting are locked, including time. This is a problem because the time is always wrong! I thought windows got the time from a service by default, I don't know what the gently caress. This can mess up security certificates of course. We don't have user accounts or anything. You log on to the wifi by connecting and going to any website, it then redirects you to the login page. For some reason, if you ever go back to the URL you first entered, it logs you out, and will again with that site for the whole day. You had to be careful not to have your first URL be a site you wanted to go to later. I'm lazy and just enter a random URL, I've gotten porn a few times in class aha.
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Oct 18, 2013 00:18
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I was in a 'flipped' class that the professor boasted about how awesome it was and how students love it (no one loved it). He is in love with himself and any opportunity he has to post pictures of himself on a slide he will. And video. Rather than a live demonstration, he will use a pre-recorded video of himself with the college mascot in it as well. A 'flipped' loving class is bullshit. I didn't pay to teach myself at home off your lovely drawing on an iPad and talking slowly 'lecture'. Going to class was a joke. He used a program that asked you questions then you had to turn to classmates to discuss when everyone got the answer wrong. He did not teach one drat thing. He relied on you having smarter people around you to teach you. One student put in a comment that he totally didn't understand it at all, and if he could explain it. His response was exactly, word for word: "Well, try this one out. It's much harder. Give it a shot over the next 5 minutes, and if you guys still don't get it I'll walk you through it" He was constantly harassing everyone to vote for him to have a booth at SXSW so he could show the world his awesome method of teaching. Also he has a large fan-girl base that tweets him during class of 'cute' quotes that he says. 
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Oct 18, 2013 01:43
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The water fountain in the math building outputs water that tastes like pennies.
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Oct 18, 2013 01:52
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Pekinduck posted:You log on to the wifi by connecting and going to any website, it then redirects you to the login page. For some reason, if you ever go back to the URL you first entered, it logs you out, and will again with that site for the whole day. You had to be careful not to have your first URL be a site you wanted to go to later. I'm lazy and just enter a random URL, I've gotten porn a few times in class aha. Zombo.com could finally have a use! 
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Oct 18, 2013 02:13
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The only limit is yourself.
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Oct 18, 2013 02:18
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My biology tutor is cool and all but she keeps pronouncing squamous as squashmous. Like I'm not an expert but I'm 99% sure that ain't right.
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Oct 18, 2013 18:29
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BAKA FLOCKA FLAME posted:My biology tutor is cool and all but she keeps pronouncing squamous as squashmous. Like I'm not an expert but I'm 99% sure that ain't right. See, you typed squashmous, but I'm hearing it in my head as Squashmass. So now I have an image in my head of a squash decorated like an X-Mass tree.
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Oct 18, 2013 18:37
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Sarah posted:I was in a 'flipped' class that the professor boasted about how awesome it was and how students love it (no one loved it). He is in love with himself and any opportunity he has to post pictures of himself on a slide he will. And video. Rather than a live demonstration, he will use a pre-recorded video of himself with the college mascot in it as well. Your prof sounds like he owns fairly hard.
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Oct 18, 2013 19:47
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Bought a (used) copy of a textbook for $55. On the first day of class, the professor told us he hated the text (that he chose) and wouldn't be using it. He told us we shouldn't have even bought it (how could we know that before the first day?) He then recommended a different version of the same text that was available online for $1. Kinda pissed me off.
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Oct 18, 2013 19:54
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I had an Intro to Economics prof who was old as dirt and in a massive auditorium of students, opted to forgo the equally massive computer projectors in favour of one lovely little overhead projector you might remember from elementary school. Trying to understand his terrible scribbling on transparency sheets as he blasted through equations without explanation or later notes destroyed any interest I had in pursuing that major. Blows my mind that people were paying top dollar at one of the best institutions in the country to deal with that fossil.
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Oct 18, 2013 19:58
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| # ? Apr 16, 2024 07:02 |
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I haven't taken a class in 10 years. Please tell me what happened in the intervening time period that makes it OK for people to wear a fedora in a classroom.
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Oct 18, 2013 20:04
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