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Is anyone here not in college?


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Well, I am in university, it's the year break, and then I'll be approaching my final year :P (And yeah, we call it university here--college is this intermediate step between secondary school and university, but university is the equivalent of the American 'college'.)

 

I'd echo the calls not to be afraid of uni. Honestly, I really, really love what I'm doing, I'd study all the things if I could (it is rather unfair that most of us can't be Manets and do the eternal E'lir/undergrad thing) and it's just the best time of my life :P

 

Alas, all things must end and I've got to graduate soon.

 

...However, as the Tenth Doctor said:

 

...I don't want to go :/

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In America...

 

High School = grants diploma after 12th grade - basic requirement for most jobs

Trade schools = grant certificates in specialized fields, i.e. carpentry, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, mechanic, etc...

Community College = can grant an Associates degree (2 years of college)

College = can grant Associates degree (2 years) or Bachelors degree (4 years of college) - some colleges also grant Masters degrees (2 years after already earning a bachelors degree)

University = in addition to what a college grants, can grant a doctorate/PhD (2-4 years after already earning a Masters degree)

 

Other points:

- In a college or University, the Associates degree and Bachelors degrees are called undergraduate and the Masters and doctorates are called graduate (or postgraduate). Someone in graduate school is earning at least a Masters degree.

- Universities also perform research

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so a college is like a university, but it does not do research? so strange to hear of it. in europe they don't exist. if it gives university-llevel education, it also does research.

anyway, while most sanderfans seems to be in the 20-25  age range (or in the 15-30more broadly) there are plenty of them from every age. myself, i am doing a PhD.

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In America...

 

High School = grants diploma after 12th grade - basic requirement for most jobs

Trade schools = grant certificates in specialized fields, i.e. carpentry, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, mechanic, etc...

Community College = can grant an Associates degree (2 years of college)

College = can grant Associates degree (2 years) or Bachelors degree (4 years of college) - some colleges also grant Masters degrees (2 years after already earning a bachelors degree)

University = in addition to what a college grants, can grant a doctorate/PhD (2-4 years after already earning a Masters degree)

 

Other points:

- In a college or University, the Associates degree and Bachelors degrees are called undergraduate and the Masters and doctorates are called graduate (or postgraduate). Someone in graduate school is earning at least a Masters degree.

- Universities also perform research

 

To make things even better, universities often consist of multiple colleges. So while I officially went to the Illinois Institute of Technology (a university), I was enrolled in the College of Science and Letters there (which was responsible for science majors, more or less), instead of the Kent College of Law, or the College of Arts and Sciences. 

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so a college is like a university, but it does not do research? so strange to hear of it. in europe they don't exist. if it gives university-llevel education, it also does research.

anyway, while most sanderfans seems to be in the 20-25  age range (or in the 15-30more broadly) there are plenty of them from every age. myself, i am doing a PhD.

Colleges in America do do research, because as Argent said, they're usually within universities. There are research universities in America that are made up of colleges. 

 

However, to be even more confusing to everyone, I went to the College of Letters and Science at the University of California, Davis but do not identify that "College" as where I went to school. It's UC Davis through and through. I took classes all across the university, not just in my college. 

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University/College can be both Fantastic and Horrific.

Things to look forward to: Adventures! New Friendships! Excitement! Starting a quasi-legal Racing League! (though that last one was just me, most people do that sorts of things)

Things you'd do best to avoid: Rooming with stoners and alcoholics(not fun), taking math classes at 8 in the morning, getting busted by the cops for jamming out in an abandoned building with your mates(not that I'd know anything about that...)

I've experienced both sides, and I can say it's awesome when it's the former, but it's not fun when it's the latter.

 

Then again, that can be said of the rest of life too...

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Once upon a time, I was in College/University whatever you call it in your country  :ph34r: Seems like a lifetime ago  :ph34r: I drank a lot of beer, had a lot of fun, passed through several sleepless nights both voluntary and involuntary, half crumbled under stress before I finally graduated.

 

I now have two young bouncing kids and a very cool job  B)  B)  B) so yep, it was totally worth the effort  ;)

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Oh, high school. Junior. Just one more year... *le sigh* As someone on the interwebs once put it, "I did my waiting! Twelve years of it! In Azkaban!"

 

I am pleased that there are so many similar-aged-ish Sanderfans here, though. :)

Edited by Slowswift
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Oh, high school. Junior. Just one more year... *le sigh* As someone on the interwebs once put it, "I did my waiting! Twelve years of it! In Azkaban!"

I am pleased that there are so many similar-aged-ish Sanderfans here, though. :)

Or, to borrow from Count Rugen in The Princess Bride....

"I just sucked twelve years of your life away. Tell me: how does it feel?"

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Or, to borrow from Count Rugen in The Princess Bride....

"I just sucked twelve years of your life away. Tell me: how does it feel?"

 

Terrible. I actually can't wait to finish and get to a mission and college, despite how taxing I've heard they can be.  :ph34r: At this point, I think anything would be better than the mental asylum high school.

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Terrible. I actually can't wait to finish and get to a mission and college, despite how taxing I've heard they can be. :ph34r: At this point, I think anything would be better than the mental asylum high school.

I don't know about missions, but I can tell you that college is worlds better than high school. Most profs treat you like an adult, trust you to finish the work on your own, and on test days, if you finish before class is over, you can leave early. There is the odd prof who thinks they're still teaching high school freshmen (one I had would make us stay late if we packed up our books early...and on a campus where it could take 10 minutes just to get from one building to the other, she was basically making us late to our other classes because we were packing up our books so we'd be on time) but for the most part, even the mediocre ones are better than high school teachers.

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I guess I'm one of the old men here. 40 years old with 4 children - 2 of them adults! I have a Bachelors degree in Nuclear Engineering, a Masters degree in Systems Engineering, and I'm working on a PhD in Engineering Management.

 

As others have said, college isn't about going out and partying. You're there to get an education and most of what they teach you you'll actually use in your job (at least with technical-type degrees). I'm not saying don't have fun, just don't do as much partying as the typical young guy. Save it for the weekends and don't show up to class tired or hung over. Do your homework on time and actually study for tests.

 

If you like being treated as an adult, then act like one. Part of being an adult is delaying pleasure until it's appropriate. A lot of the pressure college students feel is because they put things off until the last minute. There will be the occasional professor that forgets you have a life other than his/her class, but most of the time, if you work on your classes a little bit every day, you'll do fine, have plenty of time, and not be stressed.

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I guess I'm one of the old men here. 40 years old with 4 children - 2 of them adults! I have a Bachelors degree in Nuclear Engineering, a Masters degree in Systems Engineering, and I'm working on a PhD in Engineering Management.

 

As others have said, college isn't about going out and partying. You're there to get an education and most of what they teach you you'll actually use in your job (at least with technical-type degrees). I'm not saying don't have fun, just don't do as much partying as the typical young guy. Save it for the weekends and don't show up to class tired or hung over. Do your homework on time and actually study for tests.

 

If you like being treated as an adult, then act like one. Part of being an adult is delaying pleasure until it's appropriate. A lot of the pressure college students feel is because they put things off until the last minute. There will be the occasional professor that forgets you have a life other than his/her class, but most of the time, if you work on your classes a little bit every day, you'll do fine, have plenty of time, and not be stressed.

 

 

Old man high five!

 

I graduated from college/university/whatever-you-want-to-call-it 17 years ago.  That "learning to act like a responsible adult" thing was kind of tricky for me, though.  It was one of the lessons that took me the longest to learn.  :) 

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I'm one of the older guard - 37, married, no kids, but managing this whole adulting thing pretty well, all things considered.  I mean, my life is kind of weird; I have an elementary education degree, and I work for a bank in merchant support.  You'd be surprised how often training dedicated to helping you handle small children translates over to a customer service support role.  (Or, if you've worked in customer service, you probably wouldn't be surprised at all.)

 

I was pretty directionless when I was college-aged.  I was still suffering from the bitter disappointment of my childhood, which was finally getting old enough to understand that Starfleet Academy wasn't real.  I wanted to be a starship captain, and couldn't figure out what else would be as good.  So I bounced around from physics to music and eventually to teaching, and wound up working in a completely different industry than any of it.  That's the way life goes sometimes.

 

I wish this site had existed when I was in middle school, but I started high school a year before Elantris was published. And now I feel old. :mellow:

 

Aheeheeheeheehee!  Stop feeling old.  I graduated high school a full decade before you did.  :)  AND I AM STILL YOUNG, DAGNABBIT

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So, I'm a special case. I'm in collage, and high school, so yeah...

 

College is way more fun than high school, but it is more work, so the trade off is pretty fair. Calculus!!!!!! I'm loving it so much, I'm just sad that we have to take tests. Why can't we just sit in class and learn stuff? 

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Calculus 2 is the hardest math class I ever had. Once you get past that, calc 3 and differential equations is pretty easy (given a solid foundation in calc 2). I haven't done any truly advanced, way-up stuff that a Math major might do though. My favorite classes are actually in Probability & Statistics.

 

@Kaymyth, yes, dealing with children is very much like dealing with customers - or subordinates - or superiors - or people in general.

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