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Kavak
Aug 23, 2009


Egregious Offences posted:

It wasn't that great. By that, I mean it wasn't him going on some 7 min. long Jack Thompson-esque diatribe on how GAMERS WILL ESCAPE THEIR BASEMENT CAVES AT NIGHT AND ACT UPON THEIR DOOM FUELED BLOODLUSTS:byodood:. It was about "You shouldn't play videogames because there are these fat, anti-social neckbeards who got sucked into it. Therefore playing more than 2 hours will turn you into a neckbeard."

What was more distressing was that two speakers cited the Huffington Post.

Did he happen to work as a school counselor and use the phrase "Reminder that" a lot?

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Egregious Offences
Jun 15, 2013

Kavak posted:

Did he happen to work as a school counselor and use the phrase "Reminder that" a lot?

I don't quite follow. :confused:

Kavak
Aug 23, 2009


Egregious Offences posted:

I don't quite follow. :confused:

He just sounds a lot like a guy I used to follow on Twitter is all.

Irish Joe
Jul 23, 2007

by Lowtax
Took an exam today and one of the questions had the most ridiculous set of answers I have ever seen:

For so-and-so to do such-and-such a thing is
A. not uncommon.
B. extremely common.
C. common.
D. the norm.

Kavak
Aug 23, 2009


Irish Joe posted:

Took an exam today and one of the questions had the most ridiculous set of answers I have ever seen:

For so-and-so to do such-and-such a thing is
A. not uncommon.
B. extremely common.
C. common.
D. the norm.

:psyduck: Can't wait to see how the Professor justifies the correct answer, unless this is a freebie of some sort. What was the subject?

teen phone cutie
Jun 18, 2012

last year i rewrote something awful from scratch because i hate myself
Two TAs each gave mini-lectures in my Abnormal Psych class and sounded like they never took a Public Speaking class ever. They were reading straight from the powerpoints which went over all the poo poo I read in the textbook the night before, so I was just starting and not taking notes. Also they just went silent for five minutes every time they got through a slide to let people write the points down. Christ...

Kids wearing fedoras to the cafeteria are the dorkiest people.

Also, I'm starting to hate going to a liberal arts school. Some kids and professors are way more philosophical than I'd like

Double Plus Good
Nov 4, 2009
-

Double Plus Good has a new favorite as of 19:30 on Aug 17, 2014

Spanish Manlove
Aug 31, 2008

HAILGAYSATAN
The cute girl at the starbucks counter has memorized my usual order.

Irish Joe
Jul 23, 2007

by Lowtax

Kavak posted:

:psyduck: Can't wait to see how the Professor justifies the correct answer, unless this is a freebie of some sort. What was the subject?

It was about the business practices of multinational corporations. The test was apparently written by the textbook publisher, so I'm sure the professor will make it a freebie if enough people complain.

Skinny King Pimp
Aug 25, 2011
Skinny Queen Wimp

JediTalentAgent posted:

Her instructions: After 2 years at their school, even if I was short just one class, I'd have to transfer to ANOTHER 4-year school and fulfill all their requirements for graduation (essentially, another 2 years of school work) in order to get my degree.

What kind of school kicks you out instead of taking more of your money? I transferred in to a school with a 2 year degree and graduated three years later with an unrelated BA. Now I'm going to the same school again for a BS and nobody ever said poo poo about "authorized terms of enrollment" or whatever. That's weird as hell and I've never, ever heard of that.


Also, I realize in the middle of conversations about my day with my husband that I am no longer really speaking English on account of all the jargon that starts coming out, even when I try to simplify things. Ensemble predictor for a computational repressilator model is like, not even real words to 90% of the English-speaking world, and that's just one thing from one class.

memy
Oct 15, 2011

by exmarx
I got up before sunrise today to register for next semester. Half the classes I needed for my major filled up within seconds anyway. Might as well have stayed in bed.

Hummingbirds
Feb 17, 2011

memy posted:

I got up before sunrise today to register for next semester. Half the classes I needed for my major filled up within seconds anyway. Might as well have stayed in bed.

I'm sure you already know this but there will be openings as people adjust their schedules, most likely.

John Liver
May 4, 2009

Spanish Manlove posted:

The cute girl at the starbucks counter has memorized my usual order.

That ain't a complaint, it's sweet :unsmith:

Now a complaint - two of my courses this year are taught by the same professor, and last night she assigned one class a paper that was meant for the other.

Horrible Smutbeast
Sep 2, 2011
My school is apparently one of the best for art in the world, but recently they decided that students don't actually need teachers or class time pffft. All our core classes are less than 2 hours long now with one teacher per subject for well over 100 students. No teacher's aids or assistants either. There's an internship we have to take in one year that is 3 months long, but we might not get paid for it. If we don't do it, we can't get our degree/pass. I've also discovered that in the 4 years here, you actually start learning anything of worth in 3rd year where one of the teacher starts at the beginning again and reteaches you everything because the first two years were taught wrong.

But hey we got new computers!!! NEW COMPUTERS GUYS.

Fried Watermelon
Dec 29, 2008


Our state of the art computer lab has Windows XP and whatever the default Explorer that you can't update because they turned all downloads off. All projectors don't use HDMI inputs and have been installed into the walls of every classroom. To upgrade the projectors would require taking a huge component physically out of the wall. The state of the art building has cracked concrete floors since they ran out of money for carpet. We have one elevator that consistently breaks down, apparently it was a second hand freight elevator not designed for rapid use.

The building really fits into our downtown community as the city also fails to look a few years into the future when planning things.

suztan
Jul 4, 2012

I had no idea that there was supposed to be a Halloween party today (I say "supposed to be" because Student Activities is lazy and half-asses everything). Imagine my surprise when I walk into the elevator lobby and am instantly surrounded by cheap Hot Topic furries.

communitycollege.txt

JediTalentAgent
Jun 5, 2005
Hey, look. Look, if- if you screw me on this, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine, you rat bastard!

Skinny King Pimp posted:

What kind of school kicks you out instead of taking more of your money? I transferred in to a school with a 2 year degree and graduated three years later with an unrelated BA. Now I'm going to the same school again for a BS and nobody ever said poo poo about "authorized terms of enrollment" or whatever. That's weird as hell and I've never, ever heard of that.

It was a very protracted and screwed up situation that gradually got worse and worse. You wouldn't be the only one that never heard of it. I'd spoken to other schools over the years that never heard of it either.

I'm posting this from the school's site but taking their name out.

quote:

Each student is assigned an Expected Graduation Date (EGD), which represents the last semester for which he or she is authorized to register. Students in XXXXX are accorded a maximum of 10 semesters of eligibility for enrollment for completion of degree. The 10 semesters include enrollment in all post-secondary institutions attended, not just enrollment at XXXXX.

...

An extension beyond 10 semesters requires extenuating circumstances, is rare, and is at the associate dean's discretion. Extensions in most academic areas are prohibited because of crowded program conditions.

So, any time spent at a community college, even, counts on this. If I left, 3 years later took a class at community college, then reapply, they count it as a full semester against them. They specifically pointed this out to me.

ILL ON PZONES
Oct 13, 2013
It seems weird that someone actually took the time to write out that policy without stopping to realize that it's loving retarded.

Spanish Manlove
Aug 31, 2008

HAILGAYSATAN
I finished my whole semester's worth of assignments within the first three weeks because I like to think ahead.

GreenCard78
Apr 25, 2005

It's all in the game, yo.

JediTalentAgent posted:

It was a very protracted and screwed up situation that gradually got worse and worse. You wouldn't be the only one that never heard of it. I'd spoken to other schools over the years that never heard of it either.

I'm posting this from the school's site but taking their name out.


So, any time spent at a community college, even, counts on this. If I left, 3 years later took a class at community college, then reapply, they count it as a full semester against them. They specifically pointed this out to me.

From reading your original post, my guess is that the plans for graduation regarding date of initial matriculation would change if you took too long. Schools sometimes change their core requirements but I've never heard of it happening like yours where you get screwed over, only people taking 7-10 years and that's at one institution, not split across two.

I would have thought you'd just have to meet the "new" requirements, not have to leave.

Spalec
Apr 16, 2010
I'm not in college but my wife is and the amount she spends on textbooks is ridiculous, every course needs at least one $60+ book (normally written by the professor, nice way to forcibly sell your book and make some cash!).

Is that the normal in the US/Canada? I went to university in the UK and I bought maybe 5 textbooks my entire degree, none of which were compulsory. 2nd year onwards we mostly used scientific journals which we could at least access freely at university.

Spalec has a new favorite as of 23:58 on Oct 31, 2013

ILL ON PZONES
Oct 13, 2013
Yes it's a racket and students can't do anything (legally) about it.

The Droid
Jun 11, 2012

Spalec posted:

Textbook costs
I spent nearly $200 on a required non-returnable book for a biology class only for the instructor to tell us a way to get an acceptable alternative for $60~ on the first day of class. :argh:

Kavak
Aug 23, 2009


You have to learn to buy your textbooks on the cheap from the web- places like Abebooks are a good starting point.

teen phone cutie
Jun 18, 2012

last year i rewrote something awful from scratch because i hate myself
Better than that, go to textbook comparison sites like, slugbooks

Type in what school/course and it'll give you Amazon's, Chegg's, Abebook's, Ebay's, etc. prices on one page.

Mocking Bird
Aug 17, 2011

JediTalentAgent posted:

It was a very protracted and screwed up situation that gradually got worse and worse. You wouldn't be the only one that never heard of it. I'd spoken to other schools over the years that never heard of it either.

I'm posting this from the school's site but taking their name out.


So, any time spent at a community college, even, counts on this. If I left, 3 years later took a class at community college, then reapply, they count it as a full semester against them. They specifically pointed this out to me.

Breathe. Almost every university does this; I went to the University of California system, and we were given 4 semesters after transfer to graduate. But have no fear! Plenty of people were multi year "super seniors" - It just requires you to write and defend a petition.

Also, classes not being offered or being full will be more manageable at a university than a community college. Advocate for yourself, talk to professors of classes you absolutely need to get into, and make sure you communicate with academic advising about possible substitutions for unavailable courses.

Also, I now have a huge crush on Spanish Manlove.

Razorwired
Dec 7, 2008

It's about to start!

Horrible Smutbeast posted:

My school is apparently one of the best for art in the world, but recently they decided that students don't actually need teachers or class time pffft. All our core classes are less than 2 hours long now with one teacher per subject for well over 100 students. No teacher's aids or assistants either. There's an internship we have to take in one year that is 3 months long, but we might not get paid for it. If we don't do it, we can't get our degree/pass. I've also discovered that in the 4 years here, you actually start learning anything of worth in 3rd year where one of the teacher starts at the beginning again and reteaches you everything because the first two years were taught wrong.

But hey we got new computers!!! NEW COMPUTERS GUYS.

Is it your first year? Because most of my freshman year was "survive this because most freshman learn that their fun major is actually work and quit."


GreenCard78 posted:

From reading your original post, my guess is that the plans for graduation regarding date of initial matriculation would change if you took too long. Schools sometimes change their core requirements but I've never heard of it happening like yours where you get screwed over, only people taking 7-10 years and that's at one institution, not split across two.

I would have thought you'd just have to meet the "new" requirements, not have to leave.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't a fairly recent development due to the fact that I don't have to pay my student loan as long as I'm full-time somewhere.

Kavak
Aug 23, 2009


Trilineatus posted:

Breathe. Almost every university does this; I went to the University of California system, and we were given 4 semesters after transfer to graduate. But have no fear! Plenty of people were multi year "super seniors" - It just requires you to write and defend a petition.

'sup long enrollment buddy :smith::hf::smith:. Thankfully I'm not a transfer so I don't have to petition for anything- I still feel like crap for dicking around and failing classes my first year before getting on track.

achillesforever6
Apr 23, 2012

psst you wanna do a communism?
My adviser told me to take Structural Geology for Spring Semester even though I just basically transferred and had only taken the basic Geo courses at the time. I swear to God if that D ends up loving my chances at finishing above 3.0 :argh: Funnily enough my current adviser is my Structure Teacher because the adviser took a job to Vermont where he'll disappear to go to Grateful Dead concerts. (If it weren't for that Structure mistake I would miss him, I think that's the only reason I got a B in Mineralogy was because he and I got along.)

Also as others said, gently caress MasteringPhysics/Biology, thank god for Google, because if I'm going to pay that much for this poo poo I better get the answers right.

pageerror404
Feb 14, 2012

I finally killed them.
It's registration time once again.

I always have to submit these prerequisite overrides because the automated system doesn't recognize my transferred courses. So every time I try and register for a class the computer is like, "NOPE YOU GOTTA DO ALGEBRA AND BASIC ENGLISH FIRST IDIOT."

Anyway I tried to register for some stupid English glass to fulfill an upper division literacy elective. I submitted the override form. Then this bitch emails me back saying, "I see you took English 1A and 1C at your last school. Here is a form for you to fill in and submit to us so we can begin a formal evaluation of your coursework."

I was like "Ehhh I don't think so, I will just register for one of the other two-dozen courses I can take instead. Maybe one from a department run by rational human beings and not pedantic jobsworths." Seriously they just press a button on their computer and I can register, I do this for almost all of my classes every semester.

Still kinda pisses me off because that class fits my schedule really well.

teen phone cutie
Jun 18, 2012

last year i rewrote something awful from scratch because i hate myself
Wanna take 2D Animation because that's what I think I want to do when I get out of college, but it's only been offered twice between Fall 2008 and now. My advisor said there's nobody who knows anything besides Flash and After Effects and animation is going towards HTML 5. God knows if it'll ever be offered before graduation.

Dammerung
Oct 17, 2008

"Dang, that's hot."


Just found out today that my institution has been mistakenly thinking of me as a Sophomore because the credits I got from my previous institution don't seem to have transferred over yet. It's only been a year and a half, it seems like it should have been more than enough time for those credits to have been counted, but what do I know?

GreenCard78
Apr 25, 2005

It's all in the game, yo.

Dammerung posted:

Just found out today that my institution has been mistakenly thinking of me as a Sophomore because the credits I got from my previous institution don't seem to have transferred over yet. It's only been a year and a half, it seems like it should have been more than enough time for those credits to have been counted, but what do I know?

Did you transfer between states or from private to public/vice versa?

Dammerung
Oct 17, 2008

"Dang, that's hot."


GreenCard78 posted:

Did you transfer between states or from private to public/vice versa?

Nope, nothing like that - both colleges are members of the SUNY system, which makes this miscommunication really strange.

Memento
Aug 25, 2009


Bleak Gremlin

achillesforever6 posted:

My adviser told me to take Structural Geology for Spring Semester even though I just basically transferred and had only taken the basic Geo courses at the time. I swear to God if that D ends up loving my chances at finishing above 3.0 :argh: Funnily enough my current adviser is my Structure Teacher because the adviser took a job to Vermont where he'll disappear to go to Grateful Dead concerts. (If it weren't for that Structure mistake I would miss him, I think that's the only reason I got a B in Mineralogy was because he and I got along.)

Also as others said, gently caress MasteringPhysics/Biology, thank god for Google, because if I'm going to pay that much for this poo poo I better get the answers right.

Structural geology: actually super loving hard. I loved every single second of it, but I worked my loving arse off for my Distinction grade (think 3.0-equiv GPA level).

Page or so back, but it's accurate: even in Australia every university I've ever visited has a group of ham planets playing wargames or Magic or pen'n'paper whatever in the campus centre, and yeah, all of the girls wear cat ears and all of the guys wear fedoras.

Miijhal
Jul 10, 2011

I am so tired... I am so tired all the time...

Spalec posted:

I'm not in college but my wife is and the amount she spends on textbooks is ridiculous, every course needs at least one $60+ book (normally written by the professor, nice way to forcibly sell your book and make some cash!).

Is that the normal in the US/Canada? I went to university in the UK and I bought maybe 5 textbooks my entire degree, none of which were compulsory. 2nd year onwards we mostly used scientific journals which we could at least access freely at university.

$300+ for a textbook that is obsolete within a semester, so if you take the class again you need to buy the SAME loving $300 BOOK with all the questions changed.

Kinda got hosed over by that this semester, thinking that my second edition book which has literally identical chapters as the third edition would have the same questions too!

It's even better because the online bookstore for my University is programmed by idiots so you can't just order any one thing. You have to order everything your classes list as required because they used radio buttons instead of checkboxes, and they're all pre-filled, arranged in groups of one, and unselectable.

Miijhal has a new favorite as of 00:00 on Nov 2, 2013

Skinny King Pimp
Aug 25, 2011
Skinny Queen Wimp
On textbook chat: Over the summer I bought a textbook for a class and it cost me $180 or so. I thought, hey, no bigs, I can sell it back for some of the money and I know I'm going to need it. Except wait, they put out a new edition in time for fall semester. Now you can buy the exact same book new on Amazon for $40. On top of that, my school changed books for Fall semester. YESSSSSS.

Looks like I'm stuck with that book even though I don't give a poo poo about microbiology for the most part!

Jasper Tin Neck
Nov 14, 2008


"Scientifically proven, rich and creamy."

My university has gone through a fusion with two other universities, an overhaul of the enrollment system, several program course overhauls and of course the EU-mandated Bologna Process (which was a good thing). All this has left us with courses whose credits are on average equal to 1.3 credits at any other university.

Since course sizes weren't standardised for the longest time, we've ended up with a lot of very short introductory courses. Trying to split your attention to cover all eight courses you're taking is mentally quite taxing. My university also doesn't employ any kind of time slot system, so you can bet your rear end lectures and exercises will overlap.

There isn't really much of a learning culture and the university has done very little to foster one. For many courses, the only realistic way to pass is to memorize last year's exam. Course descriptions are vague if faculty even bothered to spell them out.

The head of our department doesn't even try to hide how much he despises bachelor students. He recently took over a mandatory course and the failure rate jumped from 10% to 70%. I suspect he's just trying to get as many people as possible to drop out.

The good news is that all of this in changing, sinced my university has committed itself to improving the B.Sc programs. The bad news is that I'm too close to graduation to benefit from it. The masters programs won't be overhauled until 2016, so I'm considering going to another university for my M.Sc.

GreenCard78
Apr 25, 2005

It's all in the game, yo.

Dammerung posted:

Nope, nothing like that - both colleges are members of the SUNY system, which makes this miscommunication really strange.

The SUNY system doesn't have a standardized system of credits? That is surprising.

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Razorwired
Dec 7, 2008

It's about to start!

Memento posted:

Page or so back, but it's accurate: even in Australia every university I've ever visited has a group of ham planets playing wargames or Magic or pen'n'paper whatever in the campus centre, and yeah, all of the girls wear cat ears and all of the guys wear fedoras.

Update on mine. I complained about it at the Student Union and it turns out that they did it by registering as a school club. As a chartered club they have access to the same funding clubs I belong to have to on things like gender/racial equality, a student publication, or community outreach. It also means that they can for some reason declare "Meetings daily, 8-5 in the cafeteria."

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