Am I crazy or am I on to something?

College Life
1

<p>Okay, so after a long and arduous admissions season, I finally transferred into one of the top schools on my list. However, unfortunately, this has since changed. After my first month being here, I realized, that the majority of my learning is done outside the classroom. Don’t get me wrong, UNC is a great school and I have awesome classes and professors—from distinguished Stanford PhD’s to Harvard trained economist—you name it, I’m taking classes with the best of them. Yet, I still feel restless. After I get out of classes, I sit in the quad and plow through the completed works of Plato and I supplement that with some Adam Smith, then Noam Chomsky and at night I read A People’s History of the United States, and if I can fit it in, I read a little bit of Sir Phillip Sydney and some Anne Sexton (it’s always good to go to sleep after reading a nice poem). Honestly, I feel as though I could sit at home and do this all day and get the same education, only problem: I wouldn’t be getting a degree. </p>

<p>So I thought to myself: How can I still maintain and feed this voracious appetite I have for a wide variety of literature, while still remaining in school—and, keep a decent GPA? I came to the conclusion that St. John’s College would be the answer. There, I wouldn’t just stick to the Classics (which is what I’m majoring in), but I would explore minds of the Renaissance, Victorian, Modern, etc. eras as well. Not to mention that these readings would be supplemented with Greek and French and, also, classical music instruction. I just transferred to UNC as a junior, and therefore the majority of my classes are geared toward my degree. So, there is very little room for exploration. I went to a community college for my first two years of college, so I never got the chance to study the humanities in-depth. There is this dichotomy between the first half of my erudition and where I’m at now; I almost feel like I’ll be graduating as half the person than I can become, due in part to the lousy first half my education. Essentially, the only thing community college taught me was good studying habits, but it did not lead me to any earth shattering explanations on The Big Picture nor did it allow me to participate in The Great Conversation. </p>

<p>For those of you who don’t know, if you matriculate to St. John’s College, you have to start out as a freshman; and, apparently, it is not uncommon for students to transfer there after two or more years of college and begin anew. So, I guess, what I’m asking: </p>

<p>1.Do you think this is the right decision?<br>
2. Have you or anyone you’ve known “transferred” to St. John’s (Santa Fe)
3. Are there any Johnnies out there who could give me their assessment of the college?</p>

<p>If you have gotten this far in reading my post, I would like to thank you very much for your patience. </p>

<p>P.S.: I’m not all that concerned with getting a degree to “boost my earning potential.” I want to (and will) be a writer, so my fate will be in my hands. </p>

<p>(This is the second of two posts. I've posted this in the Parent's Cafe also, but I also would love to have some advice from fellow students :) )</p>

2

<p>Having a degree in the classics is about as good as not having a degree in the classics.</p>

<p>Just kidding. Seriously, don’t transfer. Stay at UNC. It doesn’t take a quantum physicist to figure out that the work required to get a degree - especially a lot of the GEC work - is not often intellectually stimulating, necessarily useful, or interesting. A degree may not matter to you, but it matters to the publishing houses. People who do not have college degrees are not often taken seriously and not extended the same courtesies in writing.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>lol</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>doublelol</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Following up the previous two with this one is really, really, funny.</p>

3

<p>You could always do a master’s program at St. John’s.</p>