Questions on UF Academics

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Florida
1

<p>Hey CCers, I was wondering if any of you could help me out with a project that I have to complete for an English class I'm taking in high school. The basis of the project is for the students to ask several questions to a college student who is not a freshman that studies at the college that the high school students wants to attend. Unfortunately, I do not actually know anybody that goes to UF, so I thought that this would be the right place to ask. The questions are as follows:</p>

<ol>
<li> How much writing are you required to do per week?</li>
<li> How is the writing graded? What do professor expect to see in your writing?</li>
<li> How long do you typically have to write papers and what are the required lengths?</li>
<li> What are typica1 lengths of reading assignments? How long do you have to complete those?</li>
<li> Do you have to write in non-English classes?</li>
<li> How wou1d you compare studying for tests in college to the studying you do in high school?</li>
<li> How do professors handle late work? How rigid are they with deadlines?</li>
<li> How do you take notes for classes? Are notes important?</li>
<li> Is there any assignment that you did in high school, that you did not like doing, yet found it was helpful to your college experience?</li>
<li>How much time do you spend working outside of class?
Thanks in advance!</li>
</ol>

2

<p>your english teacher seems to think that most college students are in majors that have to write a lot. most majors are not writing intensive. political science, english, psychology, sociology, philosophy, and stuff like that do a lot of writing. most other majors don’t.</p>

<p>1) not much at all. like, none. but most/all of my classes are math based. the only writing i’ll be doing at this point is on research papers, so about 20 pages a semester total, if i’m taking a research class.</p>

<p>2) by TA’s or grad students, late at night, and harshly. they expect concise, clear, and thorough explanations of ideas you put fourth. a meaningful and obvious comprehension of the subject at hand. they also expect a certain minimum quality in terms of grammar. you always feel dumb when they give you more marks for grammar than for you actual ideas.</p>

<p>3) for me, an entire semester. or 2 hours if its a ‘written’ exam.</p>

<p>4) 10 pages every night, on average. across all classes, with a lot of mathematical stuff (yes, you can actually ‘read’ math textbooks)</p>

<p>5) only research papers and short response answers.</p>

<p>6) i wouldn’t. the biggest difference there is between college and high school is studying. there is not much work you have to do in most classes for a grade–all you have to do is prepare for exams. every amount of work you do is in preparation for an exam. your daily homework is to study. depending on the class, that means you study for an exam hour(s) per day, every day, for months at a time. it is not even remotely comparable to high school where you cram for 2 days or straight up wing it. you can almost never wing college exams without having done the ‘homework’ beforehand. lectures are almost never enough.</p>

<p>7) depends on the professor and reasons. many straight up don’t accept late work. others don’t collect work at all (especially as you get into higher classes). some let you turn your work in whenever you want to. others take points off. its not much different than in high school really. some professors are nice and chill, others are strict, and some just don’t want to deal with it at all (i guess those aren’t really in high school).</p>

<p>8) by hand usually. in classes that don’t require math, i like to take notes on my computer in onenote. its easier to format lecture outlines on the fly on a computer.</p>

<p>9) math homework. i had to do a big research paper in my english class as a senior. students need to be able to understand the magnitude and difficulty of synthesizing a broad swath of information and organizing it into a paper to support a central idea. research, synthesis, and generating new ideas off old information is truly the hardest thing you can do in college. i wish i had more practice at it.</p>

<p>10) if i’m doing a good job of not falling behind, i work about 15-20 hours a week studying. if i’m slacking like i am this week, 8 hours or so a week.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the insight!</p>

4

<ol>
<li> How much writing are you required to do per week?</li>
</ol>

<p>2-4 pages for Professional Writing. </p>

<ol>
<li> How is the writing graded? What do professor expect to see in your writing?</li>
</ol>

<p>My professor is very explicit on what he wants. Each assignment varies but the standard is absolutely no grammatical errors or spelling issues. </p>

<ol>
<li> How long do you typically have to write papers and what are the required lengths?</li>
</ol>

<p>Most of my papers are 10-20 pages and lab reports can be more. </p>

<ol>
<li> What are typica1 lengths of reading assignments? How long do you have to complete those?</li>
</ol>

<p>Most of my reading assigments are 20-50 pages. Ex: My economics chapters are 22 pages. </p>

<ol>
<li> Do you have to write in non-English classes?</li>
</ol>

<p>Yes, I have written for Chemistry, Project Design, and Physics. </p>

<ol>
<li> How wou1d you compare studying for tests in college to the studying you do in high school?</li>
</ol>

<p>I study starting about a week before college exams whereas I hardly studied for high school exams. </p>

<ol>
<li> How do professors handle late work? How rigid are they with deadlines?</li>
</ol>

<p>I have not had a professor yet that would accept any late work. </p>

<ol>
<li> How do you take notes for classes? Are notes important?</li>
</ol>

<p>I take notes on important things the professor talks about or says he wants you to know. Otherwise the meat of my notes comes from the readings we complete. Yes, they are very very important. </p>

<ol>
<li> Is there any assignment that you did in high school, that you did not like doing, yet found it was helpful to your college experience?</li>
</ol>

<p>The only thing in high school that has been helpful was the review process. My HS english teacher made us write many drafts and that has been especially important in college.
10. How much time do you spend working outside of class?
I spend 3 hours for every one hour I am in class. I am in class 14 hours a week so I study for at least 45 hours a week. </p>

<p>– An Industrial & Systems Engineering Major</p>