Uni life thread

[Arete]

Let us not forget that academic and intellectual intelligences do not always equate to "common sense" intelligences. In fact, it is quite often that never the two shall meet. Unfortunately universities are stellar examples of this and they in turn are the machinery that perpetuate this very system. Oh the conundrum....

So, it's impossible to be intellectual and have common sense and it's a bad thing that universites employ smart people? Rightio then.

put up with it for a few years to finish uni (hell, move in with her) and then drop her like yesterdays garbage.

The fact you just suggested forming a relationship with someone for a few years purely to exploit them financially pretty much puts everything you're ever said on this site into perspective.

You also have an incredibly interesting view of tertiary education for someone who is considering postgraduate study. Sounds more like sour grapes towards people who academically outperform you.

 

[mtb1611]

So, it's impossible to be intellectual and have common sense and it's a bad thing that universites employ smart people? Rightio then.
.

No, if you read my post correctly it states quite clearly that intellectual sense "does not always" equate to common sense and that "quite often" the two traits don't meet. Nowhere in the post is the term (nor the implication) "impossible" used.

As to the employment policies of universities, you've been to one so I'm sure you're aware that percentages of their staff are useless and employ outdated methodology and delivery techniques in the course of their work; this is of course to be expected, as any workplace has it's share of dead weight.

 

[Rider_of_Fast]

The thing with doing well at uni is you don't necessarily have to be naturally intelligent... you just need to be motivated to study and find a strategy that works and stick to it (just like cycle training i guess). You don't have to be the brightest kid at high school to necessarily do well at uni... in fact, it can be quite the opposite as I have seen with some OP1-3 students perform quite poorly.

I struggle to see firstly why ppl only bother to P their degrees and secondly how a university allows a student to move through the system if they only understand ~50% of the content. Hmmm... cos at the end of the day, aren't we at university because we are actually interested in learning about the stuff we're going to make a career in? Though, I understand it must be difficult for ppl studying FT and working 20+hrs to support themselves.

So what's with these kids walking around campus barefoot Did their mothers not tell them it's a sure way to get warts on your feet?!?!

 

[jayjay3032]

I work full time and am studying an IT degree online. I do a full time study load on top of a 40hr week of work. It's not much fun.

I work at a Uni in melboure and am amazed at the sheer stupidity of academics at times. I have literally been ask how to turn on a computer by someone with a masters in computer animation, then had a complaint made by her for making her look bad in front of her tute group.
We have another guy that won't socialize with anyone that doesn't have at least a masters. I just don't get it.
As far as hipters, some of the courses we offer are audio, film and game design so you can imagine all the different individuals we get. One guy wears a cape everyday.

 

[mtb1611]

One guy wears a cape everyday.

Frank Costanza's lawyer?

 

[seventyseven]

So, it's impossible to be intellectual and have common sense and it's a bad thing that universites employ smart people? Rightio then.




The fact you just suggested forming a relationship with someone for a few years purely to exploit them financially pretty much puts everything you're ever said on this site into perspective. really do take everything seriously don't you? if she's the sort of person that expects her parents to BUY HER A HOUSE because she would have to TAKE THE BUS then i'm afraid i just don't give a flying fuck about her. just think for a minute about what kind of person that girl must be.

You also have an incredibly interesting view of tertiary education for someone who is considering postgraduate study. Sounds more like sour grapes towards people who academically outperform you.

and you once again missed my point: they don't, and even if they do they're not necessarily right. you assume every test is 100% valid.

the point was about jerkoffs that think that having a better mark in a subject @ uni or having 1 IQ point higher than someone elses (and what a joke IQ tests are) makes them a superior person to the other (utterly ridiculous), and about owning them at a game you care nothing about and watching them crack the shits even further knowing you don't care about being better than them at the very thing they do care about.

you'll find these very people to be quite common outside of uni, i believe they turn into YUPs once they finish.

it would be like a rally driver winning a circuit race, demoralising the drivers (after all they just got beaten by someone that doesn't even compete in their discipline) and then telling the drivers he doesn't even care because he considers circuit racing a joke. it's degrading them and then insulting them to boot, which i'm perfectly happy to do to someone that thinks because they got an 84 instead of an 83 like i did in a subject they're automatically superior to me in both that way and every other way. that sort of person is the absolute definition of narcissistic wanker.

 

[wespelarno]

and you once again missed my point: they don't, and even if they do they're not necessarily right. you assume every test is 100% valid.

the point was about jerkoffs that think that having a better mark in a subject @ uni or having 1 IQ point higher than someone elses (and what a joke IQ tests are) makes them a superior person to the other (utterly ridiculous), and about owning them at a game you care nothing about and watching them crack the shits even further knowing you don't care about being better than them at the very thing they do care about.

you'll find these very people to be quite common outside of uni, i believe they turn into YUPs once they finish.

it would be like a rally driver winning a circuit race, demoralising the drivers (after all they just got beaten by someone that doesn't even compete in their discipline) and then telling the drivers he doesn't even care because he considers circuit racing a joke. it's degrading them and then insulting them to boot, which i'm perfectly happy to do to someone that thinks because they got an 84 instead of an 83 like i did in a subject they're automatically superior to me in both that way and every other way. that sort of person is the absolute definition of wanker.

Seriously, amongst the academically succesful that kind of person is actually quite rare. It sounds more like small man syndrome. Most people who are doing well don't have the time nor inclination to be so pin headed.

I do agree though that common sense doesn't always equate with academic ability. I've had some lecturers who incredibly good at what they do and if you talk to them one on one with a piece of paper for them to scribble are fantastic. But when it comes to teaching a lecture they are a nightmare. Still, also had the opposite where the lecturer was a great talker, but man his lectures lacked content. I prefer to struggle with the first guy then be bored by the second.

I'm doing PhB in biology at ANU. Lots of genetics work. Currently looking for genes in E.coli and trying to figure out what the hell they do.

And one wtf vote regarding the people who walk around barefoot. God damn hippies.

 

[seventyseven]

Seriously, amongst the academically succesful that kind of person is actually quite rare. It sounds more like small man syndrome. Most people who are doing well don't have the time nor inclination to be so pin headed.

I do agree though that common sense doesn't always equate with academic ability. I've had some lecturers who incredibly good at what they do and if you talk to them one on one with a piece of paper for them to scribble are fantastic. But when it comes to teaching a lecture they are a nightmare. Still, also had the opposite where the lecturer was a great talker, but man his lectures lacked content. I prefer to struggle with the first guy then be bored by the second.

I'm doing PhB in biology at ANU. Lots of genetics work. Currently looking for genes in E.coli and trying to figure out what the hell they do.

And one wtf vote regarding the people who walk around barefoot. God damn hippies.

agreed. the good thing about the first guy is that all you need to do is know the questions to ask. the other one will make you stop asking questions. good thing with macro econ & management is that once you get to just your 2nd year of undergrad things are done in workshops rather than lectures, so they're much more like a discussion than anything else, which is nice because it allows you to pick their brain.


nice to hear it's quite rare in other circles. seems to be quite common around here where everyone's trying to prove they're the alpha-dog. then again that is the business world.

 

[NetBiker]

hahaha, 4th year civ eng at UTS, same dress code applies here too!

uni is such a strange place to me, well the engineering faculty anyway.
i usually have no trouble making friends, i'm heaps social, but it took me about 2 years to make any real friends that i actually didn't hate talking to at uni.
i feel like a lot of people take uni way to seriously. i mean by all means study hard and do your best, but for gods sake don't forget to mix in some social activities, enjoy the sun, smell some flowers etc. i can't help but feel some people are missing out on too much of their life due to uni...

anyway, like someone else said, learn how to work the system, get assignments of older guys etc, that's helped me so much over the years.

So True man, Im in final year of chem eng at newcastle and some people go all hard out at it, At some points you have to if you want to get through it but at the end of the day I see these degrees (particularly engineering) as a way of thinking rather than learning the actual knowledge. You learn to think critically blah blah. You find that the blokes who go to parties (without being rediculous), have gf's, do fun stuff like snowboard, wakeboard, surf, mtb whatever it may be end up doing better then the dudes who are hovelled up in there studying.

Engineers are pretty friendly blokes, but I think every single one Ive met has something quirky that is abit different per say.

 

[seventyseven]

So True man, Im in final year of chem eng at newcastle and some people go all hard out at it, At some points you have to if you want to get through it but at the end of the day I see these degrees (particularly engineering) as a way of thinking rather than learning the actual knowledge. You learn to think critically blah blah. You find that the blokes who go to parties (without being rediculous), have gf's, do fun stuff like snowboard, wakeboard, surf, mtb whatever it may be end up doing better then the dudes who are hovelled up in there studying.

Engineers are pretty friendly blokes, but I think every single one Ive met has something quirky that is abit different per say.

from what i'm told by my engineering mates it's the electrical engineers that are the weirdos.

like there's everyone in engineering and then it just takes a particular type of person to do electrical. you can't put your finger on it, but it only takes a few seconds of conversation (and sometimes as little as just looking at them) to tell.

any truth to this?

 

[Steve-O]

from what i'm told by my engineering mates it's the electrical engineers that are the weirdos.

like there's everyone in engineering and then it just takes a particular type of person to do electrical. you can't put your finger on it, but it only takes a few seconds of conversation (and sometimes as little as just looking at them) to tell.

any truth to this?

Yeah electrical engineers are a different breed, but marine engineers are even worse. I'm doing marine engineering at the moment and never met a weirder bunch of people.

 

[3viltoast3r]

Im 2nd year elec. at Newcastle, and yes there are some special types, but of the people in the same group of classes as me, there are no real quality types.. Sure there are just your average high school nerds/geeks, but everyone has their own little nerdy thing/way.. most of my classmates are just the usual beer drinking dorks..

 

[scuba05]

As i posted earlier, 3rd year elec at UTS. Def see some weird people doing elec, not that there are many who do it at all. Some real nerd type people.
Also, you see some of the lecturers who teach the common eng subjects who are elec trained are just plain weird. Very smart, but just weird in some way (usually humour or something)
That being said, there are some pretty cool guys, which i have met through my courses so far.

 

[Red Rocket]

classic example (and it seems to be girls that are the most common for this). chatting to a quite pretty but not all that... aware girl i know. was banging on about how she wants to do behavioral science and major in criminology as well as psych. upon making the observation that "you'd be mainly looking at public sector work then" she asked me "what's that".

While I agree that academic knowledge isn't necessarily congruent with common sense, there's nothing I find more laborious than the argument against privilege. A girl got a house, who gives a fuck? If anything, it should be an incentive to work harder and triumph with personal merit. Some people will always and forever have a better leg up than others, in the same sense that you're not crawling twenty-five kilometres a day in perforated thongs to fill a jerry-can with virulent water. There's really no point in begrudging other peoples' fortune; we all sit along a continuum with people above and below us. The only solution, really, is to accept it.

 

[seventyseven]

While I agree that academic knowledge isn't necessarily congruent with common sense, there's nothing I find more laborious than the argument against privilege. A girl got a house, who gives a fuck? If anything, it should be an incentive to work harder and triumph with personal merit. Some people will always and forever have a better leg up than others, in the same sense that you're not crawling twenty-five kilometres a day in perforated thongs to fill a jerry-can with virulent water. There's really no point in begrudging other peoples' fortune; we all sit along a continuum with people above and below us. The only solution, really, is to accept it.

it's not the fact that she got a house. it's the fact that she expects a house to be bought because she'd have to take the bus otherwise. spoilt princess doesn't even begin to describe it.

i agree, good on her. i'd love for my parents to buy me a place. but to do it because i didn't want to take the bus?

 

[seventyseven]

Im 2nd year elec. at Newcastle, and yes there are some special types, but of the people in the same group of classes as me, there are no real quality types.. Sure there are just your average high school nerds/geeks, but everyone has their own little nerdy thing/way.. most of my classmates are just the usual beer drinking dorks..

biggest nutters @ my uni are far & away the hippies in agriculture.

 

[JaRedy]

Bonus question:

Who is studying town planning? (Urban and environmental management / urban and environmental planning / urban and regional planning / urban and regional development.....you get the picture)

The actual post:

Ahh uni life.
For some reason I still havent managed to make any proper friends. Sure I know some faces and names and will have some small chat here and there with people, but nothing more than that. It's not like I am socially awkward, I have a fantastic group of friends ourside uni, I can easily have conversation with anybody (I work in a fast-paced restaurant in the city so I have learnt how to talk to strangers pretty well). I just cant seem to click with anybody at uni.
So I still find myself sitting alone in lectures, dont have any phoe numbers or people I regularly make a point of meeting up with. Perhaps I just gotta put myself out there more. I dont need to be more confident, I just need to be more social.

On another note, I love the fact that uni is so organised. I can look at the unit outline and actually know I can use it as a reliable source of knowing exactly what and when I will be doing things throughout the semester. Dates dont change (and if they do there is legitimate reason and compensation). Lecturers tell you the brut truth, and arent afraid to actually talk to you, give their opinion, or throw in a swear word here and there. Its so much more mature than school, it's great!

I do dislike the fact that I need to juggle social life and work and uni work. Uni really does cut away from everything. Seeing friends far less. Went from working 28 hour weeks to 11 hour weeks. So theres a money shortage too. Nonetheless, this is part of life, better get used to it.

 

[downhillar]

For some reason I still havent managed to make any proper friends. Sure I know some faces and names and will have some small chat here and there with people, but nothing more than that. It's not like I am socially awkward, I have a fantastic group of friends ourside uni, I can easily have conversation with anybody (I work in a fast-paced restaurant in the city so I have learnt how to talk to strangers pretty well). I just cant seem to click with anybody at uni.
So I still find myself sitting alone in lectures, dont have any phoe numbers or people I regularly make a point of meeting up with. Perhaps I just gotta put myself out there more. I dont need to be more confident, I just need to be more social.

sounds like you're in maybe 1st year? don't worry dude, i was in the exact same situation as you! had tons of friends at home, never had trouble meeting new people, but it wasn't untill the 2nd semester in my 2nd year of uni that i met a guy and a girl that i actually got along with and could relate to.
then i met some of their friends and 2 years later i've got a bit of a group, albeit small though.

obviously the course you're studying and the uni you're studying at are all going to effect the type of people that are there. just give it time, keep meeting new people etc and eventually you'll find some decent friends.

my course (B. Civ eng @ UTS) is fuullll of nerds, people who still watch WWE wrestling as if it's reality TV, people playing pokemon on their nintendos during class, people watching anime during lectures etc etc, not to mention the people on the opposite end of the scale who get drunk at the bar and turn up to class pissed acting like a 15yr old after his first beer and thinking they're the fonz or something...
anyway my point is there are PLENTY of losers are uni, but whatever makes them happy is none of my business, you just gotta fish around a bit more and eventually you'll come across some people that remind you of what you used to call 'normal'

 

[seventyseven]

Bonus question:

Who is studying town planning? (Urban and environmental management / urban and environmental planning / urban and regional planning / urban and regional development.....you get the picture)

The actual post:

Ahh uni life.
For some reason I still havent managed to make any proper friends. Sure I know some faces and names and will have some small chat here and there with people, but nothing more than that. It's not like I am socially awkward, I have a fantastic group of friends ourside uni, I can easily have conversation with anybody (I work in a fast-paced restaurant in the city so I have learnt how to talk to strangers pretty well). I just cant seem to click with anybody at uni.
So I still find myself sitting alone in lectures, dont have any phoe numbers or people I regularly make a point of meeting up with. Perhaps I just gotta put myself out there more. I dont need to be more confident, I just need to be more social.

On another note, I love the fact that uni is so organised. I can look at the unit outline and actually know I can use it as a reliable source of knowing exactly what and when I will be doing things throughout the semester. Dates dont change (and if they do there is legitimate reason and compensation). Lecturers tell you the brut truth, and arent afraid to actually talk to you, give their opinion, or throw in a swear word here and there. Its so much more mature than school, it's great!

I do dislike the fact that I need to juggle social life and work and uni work. Uni really does cut away from everything. Seeing friends far less. Went from working 28 hour weeks to 11 hour weeks. So theres a money shortage too. Nonetheless, this is part of life, better get used to it.

i'm sure many of your friends from school are doing courses other than the one you are doing.

go along to the various barrels/society days of other faculties. you'll find that students rarely attend just their own and the societies are more than happy to have non-members participate. you'll also get to see your mates and their various groups to boot.

classic one @ my uni: the engineering vs science cricket match/bbq/primarily it's a drinkoff. that the arts society (arts girls) is invited to.

 

[Australia]

Sorry for the slight grave dig

At Macquarie Uni in Sydney studying Arts/Law, am in my 2nd year of 5. Am pleased to report that I am killing the academic side of it, and am also recieving extensive support from the University to help me pursue my 24 Solo MTBing Addiction. Fitting in the uni social life was tough in my first semester last year, but I've settled in with a good group and life is now dandy on all fronts.

But onto the purpose of my post. At Macquarie University we are currently turning the cranks towards having University Cycling Jerseys made, and forming a club which will recieve funding from MUSRA (the student body)

If there are any MQ students/staff out there that are keen to get involved, or even just jump on the mailing list, please shoot me a PM.

Cheers,

Andrew