<p>A few things:
<p>
</p>
<p>Completely, 100% agreed.</p>
<p>Also, to add:</p>
<p>Success is so much more dependent on hard work than anything else…unlike in high school, where I could just rely on intellect.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The number of idiots and immature people even though I go to a USNEWS top-15 university. I couldn’t believe some of these people were intelligent enough to go to college, and the fact that some of these people acted like 5-years old, making pathetic use of their rich parents paying their tuition, surprised me as well.</p></li>
<li><p>How easy it was to make friends. Honestly, if you go out and get involved with activities and such, you meet so many people. I literally can’t wait for 5 minutes anywhere on the main campus without at least a dozen different people I know saying hi to me. The rumors of it being hard to make friends is such a lie if you actually are involved in things.</p></li>
<li><p>Roommates. I thought that no matter how my roommate was, we could live together in peace if not as friends. I’ve had over 12+ roommates in my life for everything from summer programs to etc., and always got along great so I didn’t expect a difference here. However, my roommate was so insane that I could barely bare it. I rarely went into my room (he always was there) and so often times I felt homeless. The reasons why he was completely unlivable despite my repeated attempts to accommodate and talk with him about it are too long to list. I’m just glad I’m done with his insanity.</p></li>
<li><p>Insane College Professors. I believed that most complaints about insane/crazy college professors were just from people who were lazy/not smart. I realized that the school really does have some crazy crazy professors who do not deserve my tuition money at all for their course that does not teach me anything but I’m forced to take.</p></li>
<li><p>Nice and Good College Professors: A lot more of these, in fact the overwhelming majority of my professors were like this. I would go into their office hours and talk with them about intellectual things, get on a first-name basis eventually with some of them and form truly meaningful friendships with some of them. In terms of teaching and grading they were passionate and fair, and as a people really great.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Interesting a several of you have made this call. How do you guys classify idiots? Academically or socially? If Academically, where these people freshmen? I’d be surprised they could get through if they in fact are idiots.</p>
<p>Mike</p>
<p>My biggest surprises:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I didn’t need to go to college to do what I wanted. Changed my mind about my career senior year after 10 years of certainty about what I wanted to do.</p></li>
<li><p>There was absolutely no reason to go to college until I turned 24 and could get financial aid. Didn’t even occur to me that maybe I shouldn’t have gone until this year.</p></li>
<li><p>College is not anywhere NEAR as economically diverse as my high school or community college was. My classmates always seem to get the impression that I am poor and it is just plain weird. lol</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I’m seriously considering taking the 25k in debt I have and calling it quits instead of going back for senior year and taking on the additional 25k. With a poli sci degree I’m really not convinced it’s going to make that much of a difference, and besides that as it turns out being a housewife/stay at home mom is sounding pretty appealing. It’s realistic if I cut my losses now and start paying the 25k, but if I continue and take the rest of the loans it’s not going to happen. I never thought I’d be considering these kinds of things.</p>
<p>^… so what are you gonna do then, without a college degree?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I can talk to girls now. High School me would’ve been kind of mind-numbed at this. I have a great girlfriend, I think I have game now. Just doesn’t make any sense to me. I also go out a lot more than I expected. I often spend only a 1 hour a day in front of a computer at home. Weird.</p></li>
<li><p>I drink a beer about every other day. Lot more than I expected.</p></li>
<li><p>Senior level math classes were so much more interesting and difficult than I imagined. Freshman, Sophomore, even Junior year, I didn’t know anybody where I felt their intelligence blew me away, or was incredible. I realized now that was just because people in college had different priorities. There are some kids in your class right now who are absolutely brilliant, but you’re probably not going to know it for a while, at least, whereas in HS, you know every kid who’s “brilliant.” There’s a gap there, and it’s pretty significant. People tend to be a lot smarter, a lot harder-working when they’re actually pushed, and at least in math, senior-level classes (algebra, analysis) push one a lot more than freshman calc or diff. eq or lin alg, things like that.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>People on CC are terrible judges of character/intelligence. I think you guys are just too sheltered. There are a lot of slackers in college, but there are also a huge amount of brilliant people, and meeting them is one of the biggest benefits to college. Admittedly, I am too, a little, but hopefully that will change with more drinking in bars.</p>
<p>ygs7s7: Well, if I had not gone to college to begin with I would have become a dog trainer and probably an activist, which would have also allowed me to work from home and be a stay at home mom. Without debt, I could have afforded to do that. But with how much debt I’ll have when I graduate I won’t be able to afford to do that. If I stopped now at 25k, for the next two years I’d be living expenses free with my parents (I am staying until the wedding) and anything I could earn could go toward the debt, and with that much my fiance would be able to help me enough that I could do whatever I want after we’re married.</p>
<p>The bottom line is just that in high school I had a very narrow world view-- going to college and getting some kind of super fantastic career was the only way to live. In hindsight, none of that is even what I want. That was the biggest surprise of college for me.</p>
<p>I go to Case too, but I love it. I have a ton of fun, go out 3-4 nights a week, met a ton of awesome people and get the grades I want. I got involved, write for the Observer, am an officer in Young Americans for Liberty and Kappa Alpha Theta and play a varsity sport. The athletes are a lot of the times d bags, and there are a lot of socially inept kids who can’t talk to people to save their lives, but I have found that despite the high amount of dumbasses in my major, there are actually intellectual people here who share my interests and values. Tons of clubs/activities/chances to socialize. Yeah, Case is work, but if you spend literally every waking moment studying then you should switch majors or transfer. Work hard, play hard. The Professor’s are very intelligent, even if their views are misguided. The work load for me in very manageable, but I am not engineering. I hate when people say there is no social life at Case. There is if you want there to be. Be social, talk to people, take 4 hours away from studying and go to a party and socialize. Join What’s the Deal on facebook. I have always found something to do, whether it’s hanging out in a friends suite and watching movies/playing rock band, chillin, going to a party, going downtown, concerts, movies, restaurants, jersey shore parties, south park parties, pickup, racketball, Cinco de mayo was nuts, there was so much to do. There are a ton of people who want to enjoy Case, and a lot of them are engineers. If school is that hard, change majors. There is no reason you can’t take 3-4 hours out of a friday/saturday night to go out. I know plenty of people on the Dean’s list who go out most weekends. Case is as fun as you make it. Join some clubs, go Greek, do something. Don’t be one of those people who stays in everynight complaining about Case. Do something about it. I have had so much fun the last two years and there are a ton of awesome people. Yeah, Cleveland sucks and there’s crime and everything, but people in general are too uptight and forget that grades matter very little, especially if you’re not going to grad school. There is grade deflation, but whatever. A’s are attainable if you really know the material. I have always done well, and have been impressed with how passionate professors are. Seriously, stop *****ing that there isn’t a social life. It makes Case look bad. Plenty of people are happy here, the disgruntled ones are more likely to talk on these forums because all they don’t do anything. Have fun, enjoy yourself. That’s what college is for.
A couple of things surprised me:
There are a lot of idiots who can’t think critically. But that’s probably my major. A lot of idealists who believe in utopia’s and aren’t properly challenged by some professors. There are some that are critical and challenge everyone, which I appreciate. It’s really sad to see how ignorant people are in college, I thought it would there would be less idiots in college than in HS. I was wrong.
Tons of liberals. Even though I go to an engineering school. And a lot of them are pretty clueless as to how the world works. I never thought political liberals would be so close minded. The Case Dems refuse to coordinate events or to do anything in general.
Anything beyond helping people to register to vote/voting, they don’t do anything.
The administration is filled with a bunch of people who put diversity ahead of scholarship. Case throws TONS of money to lesser qualified minorities in the form of scholarships than to whites. There are people at Case who shouldn’t be here and fail out. I thought that college would be about learning and scholarship, not race and diversity. It’s a shame that the priority isn’t accepting the most qualified students. I guess it’s too much to ask for a merit based admissions process.
How fun it can be. I thought college was overrated, but it’s a lot of fun. I met so many great people, have a lot of friends and can always find fun.</p>
<p>“Interesting a several of you have made this call. How do you guys classify idiots? Academically or socially? If Academically, where these people freshmen? I’d be surprised they could get through if they in fact are idiots.”
Narrow minded people who can’t think critically and resort to petty attacks when challenged. As in, calling something racist/intolerant/stupid/unfair without supporting the claim. Not being able to write a thesis. Writing a 5 paragraph essay. Sure, they may get A’s but that does not mean they understand how the world works. Some people are just unrealistic and idealists, and really think things can be perfect, or that a utopia can exist. Social science majors who only read publications supporting their views, instead of reading both sides and understanding arguments. People with tunnel vision who “know” they are “right” and can’t understand how someone could disagree, and absolutely refuse to accept facts and reality because it counters their claims. Obviously as a poli sci/history/public policy(minor)/pysh (minor) I run into a lot of people who just don’t get it. We have debates and people just can’t argue or support their views. I mean there are people who just can’t accept that there are opposing view points that are logical. They really really really think there is one right answer and have only one life view. People who judge things that they don’t understand and have strong opinions about things they have no clue about. There are people in my law classes who seriously deny holdings because they oppose their view. They completely overlook the law and how the courts have ruled. I think that makes you an idiot.</p>
<p>What an excellent summary, tiff :). I went to some admitted students weekends at top colleges and it was incredible to me how idiotic some people were! There were plenty of great people, too – they were probably the majority, but for some of them…you just gotta wonder how these people got in in the first place!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Oh, you mean an academic. How on earth did you manage to meet these folks in college. 
LOL Yes, these people exist, yes they are entertaining until they are making the laws.</p>
<p>Academics get you frustrated enough to want to yell out “Fn idiots!” at the top of your lungs. However, they are no dummies.</p>
<p>Mike</p>
<p>-I went from a private school to a VERY large public university, so the people mainly.
-Large classes (200+ people)
-How rude/friendly people were. Some people were so incredibly nice and some were beyond rude and annoying.
-How many people cheat. I dunno if it’s because my school is really lenient on accepting applications, but there are some people who just cheat their way through school. They’re not even sneaky about it! My first semester a guy just plain out asked me for the answers, right in front of the teachers. I was appalled!
<p>that’s all I got for now :)</p>
<p>Lots of dumbs.</p>
<p>What is with all the hating on dumb people? They are a part of life and a lot of the time they can be nice well meaning people who are fun to be around (yes if you are around them all the time it gets annoying but the same can be said for people who are always intellectual). If you guys are as smart as you claim you are then you should be smart enough to figure out who not to have intellectual discussions with. There are times in life where you just smile and nod your head because you know that nothing good will come of expressing your intelligent opinion or pointing out how internally inconstant their view is. Accepting this makes your life a lot easier.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>While some academics can be like this, I think the objection is a little different. There are majors [particularly in things like social sciences and humanities] who just have never learned to think critically and see subtlety. Sad, given literature and the humanities are such subtle things. There are certainly fools in other disciplines.</p>
<p>Academics can deal with subjects whose scope is far beyond current practical work, and more in line with things like resolving fundamental problems of language in deep physics issues, etc, which are hardly relevant to someone wanting a faster processor or their plumbing fixed, but important questions to be answered. Not all of these folk are unaware of what is idealistic.
</p>
<p>My view is to keep the judgment as to intellect to a minimum until the individual starts becoming argumentative in an unfriendly way without having the intellect to back it up. Then, either they must be torn apart or left babbling to themselves.</p>
<p>Hey! What’s wrong with 5 paragraph essays? :P</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>As my previous post suggested I am a fan of letting them babble. I save the tearing apart for the individuals that start becoming argumentative in an unfriendly way who DO have the intellect to back up what they are saying. They should know better. Nothing annoys me more than someone who thinks they are smarter than everyone else and constantly tries to belittle others intelligence.</p>
<p>Amound of loan i had
DEPT DEPT</p>
<p>I haven’t been to university yet, but I agree with most of the points after finishing up at a community college. HOWEVER, what has surprised me the most about universities is their LACK OF CONTACT WITH PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS and their MISINFORMED REPRESENTATIVES.</p>
<p>Seriously, train your staff properly, PLEASE. I called Ohio State on three separate occasions and received three separate answers for when I would be notified about my financial aid package, ranging from March to August! I was also assured by all three that I had done all I could do and was just waiting for a letter in the mail. After becoming curious a month or two later, I searched around on the site and find a scholarship application that was due a week earlier… I still have not received any information, and I check my BuCkEyE email daily.</p>
<p>Penn State representatives (more than one) told me I should know by mid-March and that I would be receiving a letter in the mail. Nope. I called finally in May and sat on hold for long enough to hear the recorded message cycle to the part about some financial aid website. While still on hold, I go to the website and realize I had a summary just waiting to be reviewed for who knows how long…</p>
<p>After applying for housing at U-Oklahoma, the message said I would receive an email with further instructions after my application was processed. A couple weeks later, I decide to call and get directed to the housing contract website… Was there ever an email on the way? NOPE. I call and ask about any additional financial aid opportunities and am told to go to a website that had ZERO available scholarships, for anybody. I even tried an incoming, widowed, independent, African-American, ROTC, Jewish, marching band, extremely impoverished, disabled freshman, and STILL got zero results. Thanks for the information, lady…</p>
<p>After going through the application/enrollment process, I don’t even have any advice to give other people. I can’t recommend calling, because you might very possibly receive very inaccurate answers to very IMPORTANT questions. I can’t recommend exploring the university websites, because you might spend hours and hours looking for something that isn’t even there. It appears you just have to get lucky.</p>