<p>Well, I think the last few posters are emphasizing the problem. The hype is so built up in high school that expectations because unrealistic. The same goes for students who even are realistic - friends take months or maybe even a year to discover; for most students, lasting relationships aren’t formed during orientation. That can make the freshman year pretty crappy. If that’s coupled with a bad academic fit, it can be downright unbearable. Although I am not a college student, if college were worse than high school, I’d have to seek suicide prevention therapies. High school is literally that low. So, I think when I’ve reached the almost bottom, there’s really no where to go but up.</p>
<p>I do think that to some extent the college experience is often romanticized by the media, and so in high school everyone expects it to be exactly like that. I’m sorry to all the people who feel like their first semester of college hasn’t been what they expected, especially to those of you who want to transfer.</p>
<p>I think that one important thing to keep in mind is the fact that the first semester of college is a huge transition period. You’ve moved away from family, at least some of your friends, and you’re in a new place. I go to college in the same town in which I went to high school, and I still feel like I’ve moved. Obviously these changes are huge, and they take an adjustment period.</p>
<p>Overall, I’ve really enjoyed my college experience so far. I feel like I’ve been challenged academically, and I feel much more excited about going to lectures/learning in general than I did in high school. While I have made a few good friends, I’m a little concerned that I haven’t made any friends in my classes. All of my friends are from my floor, and I wonder if I’ll still hang out with some of them when we don’t live so close to each other. I’m also surprised by the number of times I’ve been to parties. I’m not a huge partier, but my school is known for partying, and I rarely seem to be invited. For the most part I hang out with other people on my floor who don’t go out. I think part of this could be because I’m on an honors floor though.</p>
<p>So overall, my experience has been great, just not exactly what I expected.</p>
<p>I feel the same way, and no one would expect it from me. I’m an RA. I’ve thought about transferring but I would get too much attention if I did because I’m too well known. I’ve just now realized that this place isn’t for me and I’m a junior.</p>
<p>The only thing that bothers me is the grades. To get into a good grad school or professional program- you’re pretty much expected to make a 4.0; which means either A) You’re really good at what you do and it comes easily or B) You have to run around and waste energy and so much of your time in order to make the grade</p>
<p>Disillusioned by college? Hell yes, I am. </p>
<p>Like many of my peers, I hoped that college would be at minimum, on par with high school, but it has yet to even reach the level of satisfaction that I got out of high school. </p>
<p>All of my high school friends are gone, my grades are significantly lower (compared to high school), and I haven’t really made any good friends yet. (Of course, I do have acquaintances here and there.) I initially considered transferring as an option, but the viability of transferring to a peer school has diminished because my college grades are meekly average and transitioning into another school would likely bring on more stress than I could possibly bear.</p>
<p>I have given up on trying to imitate the “college life.” Since I commute to school, such an exercise is an act of futility for me. These days, I allocate my attention to more mundane and earthly-minded matters instead. Concerning college, I only want two things out of it now: a degree and a job offer.</p>
<p>Sometimes, I wonder if my college experience could have been more enjoyable if I had attended a school farther away and dormed there instead of commuting to school as I do now. </p>
<p>It’s interesting to see how much one’s choices can bring about so much dissatisfaction.</p>
<p>@Linz that’s pretty sweet. There were like two people on my floor who didn’t go to many parties, and one of them would always go places with her friends (since she knew some of them from high school). Girls nights out, y’know, so it’d be awkward for them to invite me along since I’m a guy. The other feller, well he was cool and all but I can only handle so many weekend nights playing Rock Band before I go insane (since that’s what half my junior year and first semester senior year consisted of anyway).</p>
<p>@XX55XX funny enough I’m the opposite. I went about as far as I could without leaving the Lower 48. Dorm and all. Can’t say it was the most enjoyable experience actually. Now I’m gonna be going somewhere much closer to home and I’m hoping I can get a cheap car so I can commute.</p>
<p>Well, DC, I know people who have gone far away to attend college who regret it now, too. Funny how the grass isn’t that green on the other side either…</p>
<p>Honestly, my “college experience” isn’t that bad, despite the commute and lack of friends. I saved a lot of money by commuting, too. But, nonetheless, I still sincerely believe that my college experience could have been so much more enjoyable had I gone farther away (even if it wasn’t necessarily going out of state.)</p>
<p>Oh well. Regardless, BC is a decent, if not a necessarily outstanding, school. People at the grocery store are impressed whenever I tell them that I attend BC, even though I consider BC to be a pretty “meh” kind of school in my own books.</p>
<p>I presume I will just have to make the best of it. After all, the best years of one’s life are not necessarily spent in college.</p>
<p>Still, society needs to stop hyping up college as though it’s some sort of tasty pesto sauce that everyone needs to put on their pasta. College is good, but it’s not that good.</p>
<p>What did it taste like?</p>
<p>Whenever the sauce gets stuck to the bottom of the jar, I usually put some water into the jar so that I can pour out the rest of the sauce onto my pasta. It’s still somewhat good, even though the mouth feel is inferior to sauce without the extra added water. That is what it tastes like. A watered down version of pesto sauce. </p>
<p>College is more watered down than what society’s hype machine makes it out to be.</p>
<p>Well, it was a long time ago but I wasn’t that fond of Chapel Hill after the first semester. Most of it had to do with being an out of state student. Anyway, by the end of Christmas break, I realized things weren’t too bad. In the spring many of my out of state friends were ready to transfer and sent out applications. I reached out a little more and found some interest clubs, workout places, and more challenging classes and by the end of the first year was ready to stay.</p>
<p>Sometimes, I wonder what my college experience would’ve been like had I just gone to Penn State…</p>
<p>…but I like my school now. I mean, it’s not a party school at all (that’s what UW’s for! haha) but it does have a home-y atmosphere about it that I can well respect. My college experience has still been pretty fun, even if most of the fun wasn’t exactly at my OWN school.</p>
<p>I find people generally don’t like to talk about themselves being unhappy at college. College is so romanticized by society that it would be embarrassing for someone to admit that they are not having a good time there, as if something was wrong with you.</p>
<p>Personally, I’m doing fine over here at UC Santa Barbara. It’s a very serene campus. The “party scene” was disillusioning the first couple weeks, but most of us have gotten over that. The dorm is a great place to meet people. I’ve made a few friends whom I’d consider “good friends” and I have a great roommate. Academically, Calculus (Math 3A) is probably the hardest class I’ve ever taken in my life, but all my other classes have been easy. I hope 3A was just due to a bad professor.</p>
<p>Watch out for romanticism guys, especially Facebook romanticism. The movies and the media can exaggerate as much as they want but a lot of us can easily see past it. It’s worse when it’s the people we personally know that are the culprits of romanticism. Everyone has to know at least a few people on Facebook who are always bragging about the great time they’re having in college. Don’t let them get you down; they’re most likely exaggerating. Trust me. Society puts so much pressure on us to have a good time; people like to fabricate their own lives to make them look happier. I know plenty of people who love to talk about all the fun times they have, but then when you see them in real life they just aren’t very fun people at all.</p>
<p>Just don’t pay attention to other people. Don’t let social pressures get to you. I came in here expecting to be a “loner by choice;” one who has somewhat decent social skills but chooses not to participate in too many social activities. Just the fact that I didn’t care so much about making friends eased the stress for me, which actually led to me making friends easier. Ironic.</p>
<p>The way I see it, I’m paying a lot of money to come to this school. I’m not paying for misery, I’m paying for an education. An education is my top priority and everything else takes a back seat. Friends are nice, but a lack of them isn’t going to bring me down. Who pays tens of thousands of dollars a year to feel lonely, miserable, stressed, and depressed?</p>
<p>Lackluster is the word I’d use.</p>
<p>I’m not at all a partier. Not one bit. I force myself to go to meet people, but it’s such a huge, inescapable part of the social scene here. But you would know that, DCHurricane. You’re an engineer as well, I assume?</p>
<p>I have a lot of fundamental problems with the school, and I’ve been thinking about transferring ever since I got here. The big issue is, I love engineering, but I can’t stand Oregon State. Unfortunately, the few places I can think of I’d love to go aren’t financially viable or else I wouldn’t get into (University of Washington, Berkeley, and Stanford come to mind). I’d like a little more intellectual vitality, school spirit, a focus on things other than partying, a bigger student population, and a bigger name. Not to mention, I don’t think I feel comfortable taking out any loans for this school in particular. So I’m kind of “stuck”, I guess. I hope to figure things out over the break though.</p>
<p>Hope the transfer works out for you, DC!</p>
<p>I’m kind of disillusioned with my university as well. I was sold on that despite a big SEC school that’s not Vanderbilt, it’s a great academic college, but so far it hasn’t been that way and I don’t foresee it changing as I advance down my major, which I’m changing as well. Throw in that the social scene isn’t that great for me personally(high percentage jerk) and one of my roommates is a total freak and I’m not too happy. If I didn’t have one of my best friend from high school down here I don’t know what I’d do. It does help that many of the other OOS that I’ve met feel the same way though.</p>
<p>As for the college experience itself, I like it, but it’s not like everyone makes it out to be. I’ve partied a lot more and had more free time, but I still miss high school (never thought I’d say that haha).</p>
<p>@allemanau heh, small world. Yeah it is a big part of the social scene here. That wasn’t what they told me in the brochures, that’s for sure. I expected parties, but I also expected more people who wanna do things other than get drunk every weekend. I kinda miss my high school days where me and some friends would go to this one guy’s house, then go see a movie, eat some dinner in the downtown part of where he lives, then walk to his house around 11PM or even midnight, stop at 7-Eleven along the way and stock up for a few hours of playing some games and talking about life. It was great. All I did at SCU was go with friends to parties and get drunk, or just go to a friend’s dorm and get drunk. I stopped doing that though.</p>
<p>Also what’s stopping you from getting into UWash or UCB? Feel free to PM me; I think we’ve got a lot in common.</p>
<p>I go to Princeton. Such a disappointment</p>
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<p>Really? Please elaborate.</p>
<p>^I dunno if this is what BananaSandwich is talking about, but my friend at Princeton says the students there are way too intense about school/gpa</p>
<p>It’s not something that can easily be explained. There’s just something wrong. The academics are fine, but many kids worry more about grades then learning. The problem is more in the atmosphere and the internal values of the school and the student body that is actually extremely disturbing. I’ve been here for a semester and I’ve slowly watched the school suck the life out of the students here, especially the ones with truly special personalities. Some kids like it, but a good amount don’t. Nobody leaves though; it’s Princeton. You just live with it.</p>
<p>I’ve become disillusioned and disappointed from my two years of college. </p>
<p>Glad to see a lot of people feel the same way and are willing to share. I agree, its hard to admit your feelings on this issue. </p>
<p>I’ve lived at a dorm, commuted, and lived in off campus apartment. I think going to college in my hometown has harmed my experience (though it seems some people have the opposite experience, I’m very interested in your views). I find it hard to relate to anyone on anything more than a superficial level and I’m not a big partier or sports fan, which are the strengths of my school. I</p>
<p>I also found the academic experience to be disheartening. Academically, I felt like I went from high school to middle school, not high school to college. Granted, I attended an extremely competitive private prep school, but still, the late nights of studying really haven’t happened (except before the 1st midterms). My reading and writing abilities have become weaker and my love for learning is disappearing. I’ve maintained a 3.9 GPA, but at times I feel I don’t even deserve that. I know for a fact that I turn in some pretty lackluster essays and term papers which would have been bleeding red from my high school teachers, but that still earn me A’s in college. </p>
<p>For two years I tried to convince myself that it was OK, that I was doing well socially and being challenged academically, but now I’ve come to accept the truth. </p>
<p>I dropped out after 2 years and am attempting to transfer for Fall 2010. I am very thankful that my parents are supporting me financially and that I’ve developed some great relationships with professors and T.A’s. </p>
<p>For those of you unhappy, DO try and seek out opportunities in your current school, be realistic, but never lie to yourself about your own unhappiness.</p>