Do you think college is easier OR harder than real life?

College Confidential Community
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<p>"I am certain I could do all those chores much faster than you can."</p>

<p>I sure hope your folks see this and take you up on it!</p>

<p>"I just have a much easier time with work because you don't have to push yourself so hard to do it. .... It's much easier to motivate yourself to do something when you at least have the incentive of satisfaction that you're accomplishing something ...."</p>

<p>Man! I want YOUR job! What do you do?</p>

<p>"And you're never doing your job from 7am to 1am, are you? If you did you chose an exorbinantly stressful career."</p>

<p>Yeah.... parenting.</p>

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<p>wow, i've actually learned some things from this thread!
1.) i knew i didn't want to take those extra credit hours to graduate early (instead i got a part time job)
2.) i'm happy i know this is the best time of my life and i'm not to ignorant to enjoy it (or say it's harder than the "real world").</p>

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<p>Shrinkrap beat me to it. Parenting and caring for infirm elders is 24/7/365.</p>

<p>Last time I checked, there were several days off during the semester. Labor Day, mid-term break, a couple of days at Thanksgiving which many students stretch even longer, reading days between the end of classes and start of exams in both semesters, spring break, Easter break, perhaps a founder's day and, of course, weekends. Not every school gets all of those days of course, but some get even more.</p>

<p>As it happens, I am not in top physical shape and some of the more demanding chores take longer than they might have thirty years ago. Something tells me that in thirty years or so football may not be in quite as good shape as now, which will lead to increased stress, taking longer to get things done, less free time in general and an all around harder life. QED.</p>

<p>Paying bills and keeping track of the finances is not physically demanding, but it can take some time when you have a couple of different checking accounts, a savings account, a brokerage account, some CDs, retirement accounts, kids savings accounts, college savings accounts, various stocks and bonds, 401k's, IRAs, and so forth to keep track of. Then there is the absolute joy of keeping track of medical expenses, what part of them insurance should be paying, what parts got screwed up by the insurance company or doctor's staff and will be referred to a collection agency if I do not take the time to figure out how they screwed up and make half a dozen phone calls to get it fixed. That happens so often, I wonder if the insurance company does it on purpose to avoid paying for as long as possible.</p>

<p>I worked full time while obtaining a Master's degree at night. I finished in two years by taking three graduate classes a semester. They were busy years, but I still had more free time then and an easier life overall at that time because I did not have a house, wife, kids or older parents to worry about. Football cannot tell me that someone who works and goes to school automatically has less time and a harder life than I do. I have been there, done that and may do it again several years down the line, but right now I am a darned sight busier and have a lot more to worry about than when I was in grad school.</p>

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<p>This is what I'm talking about. If you're in the library till 10 every night that pretty well surpasses someone's frivolous chores that your kids should be doing anyway.</p>

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<p>Big deal. On an hourly basis, I also worked more in college than I usually do in my day job. Unfortunately, those "frivolous" chores (and some that no minor should have to do) have a way of piling up to much more than compensate for the difference. Those kids, who are certainly capable of taking care of the frivolous jobs and even a few not-so-frivolous ones, have a way of creating more work for parents than they provide. In some cases, a lot more work than they provide, and for many years. Then, just as they get capable of producing more work than they cause, they go off to college and don't appreciate what they have.</p>

<p>Going to the library every night until 10 and reading books sounds pretty cushy to me. I look forward to being able to do something along those lines after I retire. If the stock market will ever let me retire, that is.</p>

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<p>Ok, you obviously just really hate any kind of manual labor even if it's lifting a 3 pound garbage bag and would rather do calculus for 10 hours than lift weights. Make your kids do chores if there's that much to do around the house.</p>

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<p>I graduated from college 28 years ago and on average work about 256 hours a month. And that doesn't include carrying a beeper. Going back to college would be a vacation - and I still consider my undergrad years the best 4 years of my life. </p>

<p>There are only a handful of schools across this nation that you would earn my respect for overall academic rigor and hard work. But 12 to 15 credits, and attending classes 3 days a week doesn't impress.</p>

28

<p>"College is easier than high school."</p>

<p>Evidently, you never took organic chemistry in college.
Now, go back to writing papers...a night before.</p>

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<p>College is life's last extended vacation -- until you retire...</p>

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<p>So true...and this is all so relative...organic was easy compared to physical chemistry.</p>

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<p>Try Engineering.....not a vacation</p>

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<p>...or science...or architecture...</p>

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<p>I studied engineering in school and its not all that hard in comparison to other things in life, infact its really quite easy in comparison.</p>

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<p>You think your professors are hard, wait till you have to deal with your boss at work.</p>

35

<p>Superdrive,</p>

<p>Amen to that. The political end of the job is far more demanding and time consuming than the technical end. And we have not even started to talk about the rest of the corporate structure, customers who want much more than they are willing to pay for, standards organizations, foreign and domestic government agencies and so forth...</p>

36

<p>I know!!!</p>

<p>In college, you're paying for the privilege to attend classes. No big penalty if you skip class once or twice a week.</p>

<p>At work, they are paying you. Try skipping work every week.</p>

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<p>Football, I find ad hominem arguments to be tiresome, irrelevant and puerile. </p>

<p>You do not know me well enough to make some of the implications that you have made about me or my children. If you wish to engage in civil and rational discussion, I will be happy to oblige. If you want to trade insults, find someone else.</p>

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<p>So . . . it's not just my kid that thinks being an adult is easier than being a student.</p>

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<p>That's because you're inclined towards being a bookworm and you have a perfect memory. You probably think cleaning the gutters is 10x more demanding than linear algebra, but for me, benching 300 is a cakewalk compared to business calc.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
There are only a handful of schools across this nation that you would earn my respect for overall academic rigor and hard work. But 12 to 15 credits, and attending classes 3 days a week doesn't impress.

[/quote]
Mechanical Engineering meet your seal of approval (~17 units a quarter, on average)?</p>