I’m a second-year student at OSU, and I’m honestly bored to death. None of the courses at this school are rigorous, and I’m constantly at odds trying to get help from my advisor or basically anyone else at the school.
Is OSU exclusively a party school?
There is no way that is true.
So you have a cumulative 4.0 or close to it?
Have you looked to challenge yourself? Have you taken upper level classes? Have you spoken to professors about getting involve in research etc.? Have you looked into the possibility of taking grad level classes (my brother took grad level math classes as an undergrad at a different college)? Have you applied to the honors program (if you are not in it) or taken honors classes?
Yes, it happens. You might be in an unchallenging major (and there are a lot of those at OSU) or you’re in Gen Ed classes taught by really easy TAs or adjuncts.
The NY Times did an article about the relative easiness of some business schools several years back: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/education/edlife/edl-17business-t.html
There’s also this book called “Academically Adrift”: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Academically_Adrift/A2lxFH5cgukC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover
I would recommend using RMP to pick out more challenging instructors. Anyone with a rating in the 3-range is probably going to be a better instructor because they have standards, which piss off lazy students. Instructors who get high ratings do so usually because they are very easy. Not always, but most of the time.
You’d be surprised how common this is. When I TA’d, I’d always get students coming up to me complaining that I’d ruined their 4.0 by giving them a B+. They were oftentimes terrible students or not that bright (and my B+ would be a generous grade–often they deserved more like a B-) but still maintained a 4.0.
This article demonstrates that my experience isn’t just anecdotal: https://www.thelantern.com/2018/11/grades-rapidly-increase-over-five-years-at-ohio-state/
@MarcusOSU The OP didn’t even mention his/her major, so I’m not sure why you shared an article that is almost 10 years old, focuses on a handful of business programs, and doesn’t mention Ohio State at all.
At a large public university (or almost any university for that matter) you are going to have some programs that are easier than others, so perhaps the OP needs to find one of those if he/she feels like the current program is a waste of time.
@rbc2018 I shared the article because it provides an example of certain majors being easier than others. For many universities, their business programs are considered the “easy” major where students barely spend any time at all studying outside of class.
The article is 10 years old, but such programs almost certainly haven’t gotten more challenging in the meantime.
Not exactly sure why this is a sticking point for you.
@MarcusOSU Yes, some majors are easier than others, and some universities are considered easier than others. Then again, a major can be ‘easy’ at one institution and harder at another. Also, ‘business majors’ includes a lot of different majors at different levels of difficulty. It’s not a sticking point for me, it’s just reality.
At any rate, the OP is obviously in a major not suited to him/her, or perhaps at an institution not suited to him/her.
Looking at your posting history I have to ask if you have visited the counseling office at OSU? You had similar complaints about high school yet you only had a 3.36 UW GPA there?
Your high school issues seem to have followed you to college.
It is. I’m currently in the process of enrolling in some graduate-level classes, but I’m halfway through the CS curriculum and am losing my mind.
Yes-- 3.8; dean’s list every semester without virtually any studying thus far; I’ve already taken most of the “gpa killers” and am feeling quite disappointed.
@happy1 In the process of signing up for some classes, one of which is 6000-level; however, it’s taken a long time and lots of pushing to get this far through things, and my advisor almost never responds to myself or anyone I know. Also, I did reach out to a few professors regarding research (roughly two weeks ago) and have yet to receive a response.
@MarcusOSU I’m in CS. While it’s not the hardest major at the school, most people I know consider it to be one of the harder engineering majors. Additionally, I’ve already taken courses with some of the worst-reviewed instructors on RMP. I barely went to classes last year and still was far above the average on every exam/assignment.
I’m in CS (which is not considered easy), but your advice is honestly terrible because I chose this major due to pre-existing interest and the actual desire to study the subject-- not because it’s perceived as being “hard.” Why would someone ever want to switch majors if they enjoy their current area of study?
@TomSrOfBoston I feel as though I’ve said this before, but my problem in high school was that I never turned in any of my assignments. Even so, I was taking a plethora of AP classes and graduated a year early in the top 15% of my class.
At OSU, I have a 3.8, have taken all of the major’s weedout courses, am now approved for graduate coursework, and am still not finding any challenge whatsoever.
As to your last comment about visiting the counseling office, I didn’t go during the first two semesters because I was consistently told by everyone around me that things would get harder if I just took harder courses and rushed through the major. At this point, I’m in exclusively upper-division classes and am still bored out of my mind, but the virus has thrown a wrench in the way of going.
Since this got quite a few replies, I’m going to just leave this particular comment as a more detailed explanation of my situation:
I’m a CS major who didn’t do particularly well in high school due to a jaded attitude towards the educational system and overall laziness. I took more AP classes than anyone else in my district and was constantly underchallenged, passing all of my exams but still refusing to do enough schoolwork to make a higher UW gpa than a 3.3. I graduated before I turned 17.
Obviously, this meant that I was rejected from CMU (the only other school to which I applied) and likely only got into OSU because of my test scores, coding-related YouTube channel, and personal projects on GitHub. After this, I felt as though things were looking up and was excited to start the year. I scheduled harder classes than many of my peers and felt a bit nervous.
When the year started, I found myself bored. I started my math career with 2153, and I aced all of the tests and exams without having to study; this was obviously fun because it felt like an easy A, but it was the same with my other classes. I was taking a full course load and doing well, which made my parents proud, but it felt wrong.
It was the same problem as in high school, and I reached out to my advisor for advice. He told me to take Linear Algebra and Engineering Statistics, both of which are considered difficult and which he recommends you separate into two semesters, along with my computer science and engineering courses, and still didn’t need to study. Linear Algebra was so easy for me that by the end of the semester I had begun tutoring some of the students in my dorm.
This summer, then, I decided to get some more CS classes out of the way and get myself into upper-division stuff. I took two more and was entirely unimpressed with the difficulty. Again, I never needed to study much, skipped all of my lectures, and was always above the mean, sometimes going above 100% with the curve.
I get that you guys may be somewhat skeptical since before this I’d not specified my major, but it’s honestly pretty miserable because I really want to get the most out of my education. I can’t even vent to my friends because they basically just laugh it off and say that they’d love to be in my shoes. Maybe my experience is unique, but I can’t help but feeling like OSU has no academic rigor whatsoever.
Then transfer. I’m not sure what problem you have. You are clearly not at the right school, so go elsewhere.
Many people have had this issue and leave college without graduating. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs. Are you in that league? If so, drop out and get on with your life.
Remember that some jobs do require a college degree no matter how smart they are. Doctor, nurse, lawyer, government workers at a certain level all require degrees. Some don’t care if your degree is in astrophysics or in French, you just need the degree. (Some DO care).
@Lindagaf I would love to transfer and thought about doing so during my first semester, but most if not all of the schools at a tier above OSU basically never accept transfer apps unless you have some remarkable research as far as I can tell. Unfortunately, despite wanting to do research and inquiring about it a few weeks ago, I’ve yet to receive a response. Am I wrong?
@twoinanddone sure, they dropped out, but they’d already come up with innovative ideas. I’m good at CS and math, but it’s not like I have some life-changing business model. Plus, I can’t even find an internship right now, so it’s not like I’d have a career waiting for me.
The worst part is that I can do LeetCode and perform well in coding screens, but my resume isn’t compelling enough for anyone to actually give me an interview. We’ll see, though.
Sorry, I realize I read your post wrong, so I deleted my first reply.
You can’t just assume one research position will come through. Apply to a lot of them. Make a lot of enquiries.