The student lifestyle/culture

[Rhyfelwyr]

It is just me or is it a load of bollox as a certain Irish orgah would say?

I only go to university one day a week, despite being in the last year of an honours course at a good Uni. I spend the rest of my time either watching daytime TV or at my job (especially the later for the last week, that is what happens when two full-time staff are off sick while another two are charged with assault for going into McDonalds and battering two of the staff, yay for 6 days of 7-8 hour shifts while finishing a dissertation, which I have been tasked with finishing even though it isn't due until February).

Whenever I am at Uni for a class we do not have any teaching as such, I only have two hours of such classes a week and all that happens is a few of the arty/pseudo-intellectual types students talk crap for two hours. And they talk about all these obscure readings and rubbish.... I don't know what they are doing, but I just do what's set, go in for once a week, and ta da I managed to get a First so far for 50% of my final degree, even got a prize of highest History mark. And I do not mean to boast about that, since I kept getting B's at school for history, I just wonder what these people are doing to not get higher marks.

But I don't give off student vibes it seems, most poeple seem very surprised when I say I am at Uni. And I do not feel like I am a student.

Oh, and I've never been drunk in 3 years of Uni so far.

Anyone else feel like this? Or is the whole student lifestyle think just a myth? It seems most people I know embrace it... I just saw one guy I know who decided to back to Uni, and he was wearing one of those stupid wooly hats... I nearly pimp-slapped some sense back into him...

Anyone with me on this?

[Megas Methuselah]

Hermit.

[Beskar]

2 hours-a-week?

Are you even at University?

I had 15-30 per week regularly.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Back when I was still a student all I saw were empty bottles, books, girls' rooms, and artsy intellectual types dragging me from museum to theatre to obscure arthouse movie. It was bliss.

Even back then I knew it couldn't last, but oh my...I miss it so! I was simply born to be a student. In my entire life, I have not excelled in anything as much as in being a student. You know...parties would start when I entered - if I hadn't organised them outright, I would be the last one to leave too, and I combined that with irritating the boring geek crowd by still getting better grades than them.

Why oh why is there not a profession of 'student'? I mean, grown up men, long after the age of eight, get paid millions to wear shorts and kick a football around. If being a student were a sport I would be Xavi or Iniesta.

[Ibrahim]

currently ~15 hrs

next semester will be 18. all geology.

I live alone, in a dorm room, though I plan on leaving, since there are cheaper ways to live. unlike most of my neighbors, there ain't much drinking*, girls, or partying in my life here. Just studying, work, studying, and well...more of the above. my entertainment, as such, is watching the SpoonyOne, playing strategy games, and walking or hiking. my social life is completely restricted to my floor, the gas station across the street, and the Warner College of Natural resources-particularly geology students. unsurprisingly, I'm not very popular, and most people think I'm either psychopathic (I like to talk about Mortal Kombat fatalities in excrutiating detail; I particularly like to talk about Quan Chi's neck stretcher), overly blunt (don't know what the heck they're talking about), or overly strict with how I behave.

I tend to multitask: as I write this, I am also writing a paper, listening to the SpoonyOne (swirly blue thing FTW!), and enjoying a quiet night.

classes are hard, and I lack basic equipment: magnets, streak plates, and hand lenses aren't always available to me, since money is scarce. Mineralogy and optical mineralogy takes up most of my time studywise, being a hard as heck class. the professor there has famously high standards, and has made it his mission to weed out all the fake students who don't have what it takes to be geologists. its a common enough joke of mine to refer to his questions as "Jerries", after the professor's first name. (no, he's not German). but the professor there has a good sense of humor, is knowledgeable, and is a great teacher.

Sedimentology is fun, low intensity, but well taught. the professor there is quite a pistol: he's German, but his first name is-get this-Sven. He speaks good english, but the simplest words sometimes escape him (he once forgot the anatomical term "Anus", and used the first thing that came to his mind: ***hole; it unsurprisingly drew laughter. I had to remind him that its called "Anus"). He is an early bird, but is always attending lectures tired and stressed (I attribute this to the recent delivery of his child). He's just now had his first child, and he's 42, so I plan on partying-for once-in honor of the event. He's widely traveled, good sense of humor, and as before, is a great teacher.

Statistics is not too hard, but its exceptionally annoying: it gets in the way of all my other classes, and the teacher, while good, seems to have a habit of telling lame jokes at the beginning of class; its demoralizing and most fly over my head. and the funny part is: she KNOWS the jokes are lame. she also has the unique skill of making all her exams/homework due in the most inconvenient times-by accident of course.

last class, Logarithmic and exponential functions, is boring, stupid, poorly taught, and it's math. being an online class, I've pretty much ignored it: I'm somehow averaging ~90%.


*actually, there is absolutely no drinking.

[Husar]

Study something decent instead of an arts degree?

[Cute Wolf]

Spent almost 5 nights a week watching those damn catalystic reactions at laboratory. Spent 3 days a week writing some reports and papers etc...

Student life is killing me....

[Meneldil]

It all depends on what you're studying.

Social sciences are usually just like that, though I don't know how it's possible you only have two hours of class each week. You go to class, listen to a prof and to some wannabe intellectuals who've just discovered Marx/Foucault/Kershaw. It lasts around 15 to 25 hours a week and it gives you more than enough free time to get drunk, play games and flirt.

Hard science on the other hand are another matter, as I understood. Much more demanding.

[naut]

Two hours?! WHAT! How? Seriously, I have 12 (well.... 9, I don't go to two of the lectures as they're useless). I thought I had it easy. You have 2! WHATTHEHELL!

Student life is pretty good, my Uni is pretty anti-social though, but there's two reasons for that, a) no one lives on campus and b) it's specialties are Business, IT, Science, Nursing, Architecture, etc. We do have a pretty good Design and Fashion faculty, maybe if I was part of that there'd be more Uni related fun. Instead, I just go to the other nearby Uni's events as they're less anti-social.... well UNSW is pretty awesome.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Back when I was still a student all I saw were empty bottles, books, girls' rooms, and artsy intellectual types dragging me from museum to theatre to obscure arthouse movie. It was bliss.

I don't know how serious the above is, but yeah, that is the stereotype. All I remember from my student years not the student lifestyle, but first of all the benefits lifestyle (I did nothing but buy games consoles with my student loan and play them all day), and now the standard minimum wage employee lifestyle.

Hermit.

I am at times, but now I spend most of my day surrounded by people, serving customers (the employer said he wanted someone "bubbly" and he picked me lmao). Or with people I know outside of Uni etc... I just do not have the student-like social life.

Study something decent instead of an arts degree?

Wut history/politics is I understood to be considered one of the 'real' degrees, it's not like Sports Medicine or something. Used to be the sciences were seen as worthless degrees and unfit for an intellectual like myself. ~:snob:

You go to class, listen to a prof and to some wannabe intellectuals who've just discovered Marx/Foucault/Kershaw.

Finally, someone who understands!

[Hax]

*actually, there is absolutely no drinking.

B-but you're a Muslim! And Muslims don't drink!

Well, the Abbasid Caliphs used to. And well then, there were the Shi'ites in Iran. Oh, and let's not forget the emirs of the tawa'if of al-Andalus.

But apart from that, there was no drinking! Hashish, on the other hand, is a cultural tradition! Or something..thank Hasan ibn Sabah!

[Cute Wolf]

B-but you're a Muslim! And Muslims don't drink!!

Umm? You never see indonesia, naughty muslims drink.

[stratigos vasilios]

Oh, and I've never been drunk in 3 years of Uni so far.

Wow. You must be extremely responsible or large in statue so the booze doesn't affect you... or cheap.

Luckily for me I'm quite cadbury so it doesn't cost much or take much to send me on my way :-D

[TinCow]

If by "student lifestyle" you mean lots of partying and little class, yes it exists. During my time in undergrad, I drank a fair amount, smoked more marijuana than most people will ever see in their entire lifetime, and went to class about 2-3 days a week. Granted, that was from 1996 to 2000, but I doubt the experience has changed much since then.

[Strike For The South]

Back when I was still a student all I saw were empty bottles, books, girls' rooms, and artsy intellectual types dragging me from museum to theatre to obscure arthouse movie. It was bliss.

Even back then I knew it couldn't last, but oh my...I miss it so! I was simply born to be a student. In my entire life, I have not excelled in anything as much as in being a student. You know...parties would start when I entered - if I hadn't organised them outright, I would be the last one to leave too, and I combined that with irritating the boring geek crowd by still getting better grades than them.

Why oh why is there not a profession of 'student'? I mean, grown up men, long after the age of eight, get paid millions to wear shorts and kick a football around. If being a student were a sport I would be Xavi or Iniesta.

If you're Iniesta I'm bloody Pele

College combines 3 of my favorite things

Drugs
Wimmen
The ability to wow people with pseudo intllectual drivel that your 60 yr old baby boom professor has drilled into you. Make sure your laugh after some non college educated fool gives his opinon before you give yours.

[Ethelred Unread]

If by "student lifestyle" you mean lots of partying and little class, yes it exists. During my time in undergrad, I drank a fair amount, smoked more marijuana than most people will ever see in their entire lifetime, and went to class about 2-3 days a week. Granted, that was from 1996 to 2000, but I doubt the experience has changed much since then.

+1.

It's there if you want it to be, I went 95-97 and then again (because of too much of the above) from 2003-05 and it was the pretty much the same. It's a lot easier if you live on campus or in a student house for this to go on as everyone is in the same situation. And love the booze of course.

I agree though that some lecturers are not all that and that there is always some knobber who has read the back cover of something by Nietzsche and thinks he (almost always a he) knows something that no one else does, but these people are everywhere, not just at Uni.

[Rhyfelwyr]

I didn't have partying in mind so much, just meant the whole intellectual atmosphere. Don't really do either myself. All I will remember from my student years is Cash in the Attic and KFC.

[Ethelred Unread]

heh - you're not part of the intellectual side yet you're on for a first, in history at a reputable Uni? And won a prize? What would you have to do more than to be on/in an intellectual group?

I guess the Oxbridge/Russell group unis might have more famous societies you could join for some academic debate, and have more testing seminars than most unis but at the undergraduate level what you've experienced is pretty much it really.

If you read past the recommended reading list and don't pull all nighters finishing essays a day before the deadline you're about 4 million times more conscientious (sp?I'm tired) than the average student who either expects to be spoonfed everything or do the bare minimum to pass.

Perhaps you should try a postgrad or doctorate!

[TinCow]

I didn't have partying in mind so much, just meant the whole intellectual atmosphere.

Ah, you mean posturing. Undergraduate study doesn't make anyone an intellectual, it just makes them think they are. While the things taught can be advanced for those coming out of secondary school, they are basic in comparison to professionals in any specific field. Above all, undergraduate teaches a person how to learn. The vast majority of the useful information you will gain in life will come after undergraduate. Some of that can come from more advanced and specialized education, like graduate work, but most of it simply comes from doing it (read: employment). There's a reason that in every single field, employers value post-graduate job experience over educational credentials. The degrees just exist to get you the first job.

[Hax]

Umm? You never see indonesia, naughty muslims drink.

Yes.

[Peasant Phill]

I also miss the student life. I was living at what some people may call a dorm. 50 people at 1 floor, 7 floors in total and most of those where aspirant-nurses. Being 'baptized', doing cantusses, having parties at the dorm, ... It was bliss.
Having tequila shots at one moment, blacking out and the next moment you're kissing a girl. My first night I went to the bathroom and I walked in on 2 lesbians making out. Watching 'It' with some (girl)friends and later pranking them...

And you're saying you're missing all this? Uni isn't all about studying, it's about seeking out your limits. Having a hell of a time while still balancing your workload.

[Moros]

I also miss the student life. I was living at what some people may call a dorm. 50 people at 1 floor, 7 floors in total and most of those where aspirant-nurses. Being 'baptized', doing cantusses, having parties at the dorm, ... It was bliss.
Having tequila shots at one moment, blacking out and the next moment you're kissing a girl. My first night I went to the bathroom and I walked in on 2 lesbians making out. Watching 'It' with some (girl)friends and later pranking them...

And you're saying you're missing all this? Uni isn't all about studying, it's about seeking out your limits. Having a hell of a time while still balancing your workload.

What he says!

Which dorm were you at?

[Beskar]

heh - you're not part of the intellectual side yet you're on for a first, in history at a reputable Uni? And won a prize? What would you have to do more than to be on/in an intellectual group?

No decent University gives you 2 hours a week contact time. Also, there are all the hundreds of University societies ranging from every topic under the sun.

[Togakure]

Uni was years ago for me, but it doesn't sound that different from what's being described. I went to the state Uni in my home town, so I had a lot of long-time friends still around, and we had our own social circle. Hence, we didn't party in the Uni circles very much. The fraternity/sorority scene was dominated by out-of-towners, and they tended to do a lot of stupid shyte, so we rarely went into that space. We were also smart enough to take our studies fairly seriously, so we'd study/work diligently during the week, and party up on Friday and Saturday nights, usually. We definitely did party it up though. My buddy worked at the dorms on campus and was renting a room from head administrator of the dorms, so we had a lot of freedom and influence there. We had a key to the roof and would take our lawn chairs, food and drink, and partyables up there at night with our girlfriends and have quiet fun. Despite all the debauchery I managed to keep up a 3.6 GPA, majoring in Business/MIS, which led to a solid but unremarkable career in civil service.

I've never been a big drinker, but have been a fan of herb since reading The Hobbit at age 10 and getting my First Aid merit badge at age 11 (we went out to play Ditch 'Em after the Scout meeting and the Senior Patrol Leader busted out a four-finger; you gotta love the Scouts). I'd rocked 'n rolled for five years on the western US club circuit before returning to finish college, so the party culture was somewhat old for me by then--got plenty of it on the road. Music, live concerts, and outdoor activities (overnight trips to the California coast and Sierra Nevada mountains/Lake Tahoe) were central interests for our group.

After that period, friends got married, moved away and started their family lives, got seriously into their careers, and things changed drastically, as usual. But we had some very good times, and most of us are still good friends despite the time and distances.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

I spend about 6 hours teaching/prep and about 18 hours studying (gotta love the PhD), there's hopefully going to be a job on top of that soon.

[drone]

And you're saying you're missing all this? Uni isn't all about studying, it's about seeking out your limits. Having a hell of a time while still balancing your workload.

Figuring out how to live without parental control, having fun, but still dealing with your growing responsibilities.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Having tequila shots at one moment, blacking out and the next moment you're kissing a girl. My first night I went to the bathroom and I walked in on 2 lesbians making out.

My wildest night ended up with me being woken up by two huge East European men, who brutally kicked me about as I fiercely resisted them throwing me out of my house.

Rather, as I slowly discovered the next few confusing hours, had thrown me out of their house...somewhere in the outskirts of Budapest.




All of which was perhaps not as bad as a drunk Jewish friend whom we had once shipped off to Theriesenstadt concentration camp (Czech Republic), complete with an unwashable Hitler moustache we had painted on his upper lip.



[/Tall tales]
(But only slightly exaggerated!)

[gaelic cowboy]

2 bloody hrs is that per day or per week Rhy.

Most days we were in at 8 or 9 in the morning and stayed till 10 except the wedensday when we went out for drink to blow off steam when we usually called it a day round 6 or 7ish.

Course engineering is differ the craic is more like Jackass than lads like Louis quoting poetry at ye.

I remember once we found a sprinkler system that was connected to the outside wall of the college and drenched people from 2 storey up ah good times.

[gaelic cowboy]

I didn't have partying in mind so much, just meant the whole intellectual atmosphere. Don't really do either myself. All I will remember from my student years is Cash in the Attic and KFC.

I hope yer watching countdown best thing on during the day.

[Rhyfelwyr]

I hope yer watching countdown best thing on during the day.

Of course! Followed by Deal or No Deal. If you think about it is doesn't make a difference what box they pick, I just prefer not to think about it...