Why Do People Like College?

[JanatUrlich]

I'm at uni doing a subject I love during the day and getting smashed every night.

I'm also away from my parents. What the fuck is not to love??

 

[Dags90]

I am going to Fordham, so being in the heart of the Bronx really does add to the scariness in the area outside my campus walls. So wait, you would actually go to camp longer than two weeks?

My summer camp would typically last 6-8 weeks. The whole point of summer camp was somewhere to send the kids when parents are at work (and to employ teachers over the summer, I guess).

There's plenty of outdoors just outside of the city if you wanted to spend a day hiking or whatever.

 

[Kanlic]

I'm in college at 33. I swear I appreciate it more for a variety of reasons:

1) Being way too old for frat parties means I can focus on my studies instead of trying to get laid (which is most of what derailed my first attempt at getting a college education when I was 19-20---mom stopped subsidizing what basically amounted to me fucking around)

2) I've held jobs that don't require a degree. Low-paying, soul-crushing, Theory X manager jobs that I'd do anything---even live like a starving twenty-year-old for three years---to avoid. (why three years? Well, I did get SOME transferable credit from those early misadventures, so I got to start as a sophomore.)

3) There is no small bit of satisfaction to be found from showing those darned whippersnappers what's what. Some of those kids legitimately value my counsel because I've been a lot of the places in life that they're anxious about going---work, marriage (albeit a failed marriage in my case), that sort of thing. Stuff they don't want to ask teachers and counselors, they'll ask me.

4) Eye candy. I'm still a red-blooded guy after all! There's been a hell of a heat wave out West the last week or so, which means lots of short shorts, micro mini-skirts, and more bouncing boobs and jiggling than a Team Ninja production.

5) I can't emphasize this enough---knowing that I'll be qualified for jobs that pay more in one year than I used to earn in four is a very strong motivator.

That's all true I assume, but I guess I lack the self-esteem to pursue most of that stuff, and the weather here has been pretty shit as of late, so the eye-candy is on the low side. Besides its a private school where all the smart ugly chicks from high schools all over come to. I should have went to a state school where all the girls attending it managed only to get through high school by blowing the professor.

I feel like I am pissing away 50k a year for an education that doesn't mean jack-shit to my chosen profession.

Why on earth did you choose a course that means so little to your chosen profession? Surely that's the most important part of university - y'know, picking a course that either a)you want to do, or b) furthers your career goals. If you only went to university because you heard it was fun then to be honest you only have yourself to blame for wasting money.

I've been going to a University in New York City for the past 2 months now, and I am bored off my ass. To put things in perspective, I've lived in a desert town in West Texas all my life, and I wanted to go to school in New York because I thought it would be fun. Instead, college feels like Summer camp, just that it is extended for 9 months rather than the normal 2 weeks. I've tried to put myself in situations that would be conducive to a fun environment, going to school dances, sporting events, exploring the city, going to bars illegally, but I am perpetually bored. I even joined a ton of groups around school to make up for all the dead time I have, like joining the Rowing Team, Newspaper, Radio Station and what have you, but I am just bored. All the time.

So the question that I pose to you guys is "Why do people like college?" It so far has been a dull experience for me, and I feel like I am pissing away 50k a year for an education that doesn't mean jack-shit to my chosen profession.

And there's your problem. All the extra-curricular stuff is made better when you know what you're doing during the day is worthwhile. Otherwise there is a sense of just wasting your time stopping you from truly enjoying yourself.

2 months in is also pretty short. Give it a few more months so you get to the stage where some out of all of the people you've met become your new circle of friends - the people you regularly hang out with. Then you'll slowly find yourself coming to regard NY as home, and all the fun will follow. Only a couple of months into your degree means you'll still feel unsettled, and not comfortable with putting down some roots.

Well to be fair, I want to be in radio, and the University I am going to has an NPR affiliated station that I will start working in a week or so. The reason why I say my degree won't matter is because every single radio host I am aware of are all quick to point out that their degrees were never looked at, and that most of the stuff they learned in college has had little effect on their personal life. That's why I am bitter.

As for the whole friends thing, I ain't the kind of guy who needs friends to have fun, so making them hasn't been a top priority to me, and by the looks of it, it hasn't been one for anyone around me.

 

[Get_A_Grip_]

Skittles + Ice Cream + Beer = Breakfast!

That's why college is awesome.

 

[ICanBreakTheseCuffs]

do I have to say it?it's obvious

[HEADING=1]TOGA TOGA TOGA![/HEADING]

OT:I don't know.maybe the thought of being free from parents?

 

[CrustyOatmeal]

college is a time to find new frends with similar hobbies and joining clubs that you find interesting and fun. if you doing shit just for the sake of doing it then you generally wont have fun. find out what you like to do and then find others that like to do the same thing and then find a way to do it together. i liked video games so me and a few frends had LAN parties every other week. i also like aerospace engineering so i also designed/ constructed gliders (which all had horrific crashes) but i had fun doing both of those things and one of them actually pushed me into my field of study (aero engineering). just try and find the things that make you happy and expand upon them

 

[Kanlic]

You're not enjoying it because you blew 50k a year on undergrad at NYU. As a native NYer, I can attest that the only worthwhile reason to go to NYU is for the grad programs and law school they have there.

You should play on the school's strengths, what little they have. First of all, it's a great city to get lost in, IF you know where to go. Midtown Manhattan is a giant tourist trap. World Financial Center, on the other hand? And then you get into Brooklyn/Queens and the ethnic neighborhoods there... it's a sociologist's dream. Then there's the food. There's this one Spanish pizza place near the West 4th station that's just terrible, but like a block away is another place that's really, really good. Especially the bread. If you've tried pizza by now (and if you haven't in 2 months of being in NYC, you're doing something wrong), you know how good that stuff is.

But above everything else, you have to understand that the great irony of NYC is that it's better to be lonely than socially active. If overloading on clubs and going out to places isn't working for you, abandon those things. Go to a library (they got a great library at NYU), go to a park, go eat by yourself. Eventually and invariably, in the next 4 months, you will make at least 2 close friends on 2 separate occasions that will then introduce you to more friends to create your circle of friends that is the key to avoid boredom. Or focus on just one club. Or hang out with the law students, because they're from just about everywhere.

It's more homesickness than college. You've gone out and you don't have your old friends, you don't have your old hangout spots, and you've just gone from one of the most conservative areas of the US to one of the most liberal. You should have been expecting to be bored.

Wow, thanks man, I appreciate all the advice. Yea, I do love the pizza around here, its great. I'll probably just spend the day tomorrow wondering the city I guess. I just had this expectation that I would have more fun in college, but nah, its arguably more boring than grade school, so I hope you're right when you say that things will get better.

I'm at uni doing a subject I love during the day and getting smashed every night.

I'm also away from my parents. What the fuck is not to love??

I don't know, I guess I got all the crazy partying out of my system in High School, the shit that goes on around here can't even compare.

I am going to Fordham, so being in the heart of the Bronx really does add to the scariness in the area outside my campus walls. So wait, you would actually go to camp longer than two weeks?

My summer camp would typically last 6-8 weeks. The whole point of summer camp was somewhere to send the kids when parents are at work (and to employ teachers over the summer, I guess).

There's plenty of outdoors just outside of the city if you wanted to spend a day hiking or whatever.

The whole outdoorsy things they have around the city are just too far to travel to and get back from in one day.

 

[thiosk]

Take harder classes. I'd be bored if I did a communications/art major.

 

[SimuLord]

That's all true I assume, but I guess I lack the self-esteem to pursue most of that stuff, and the weather here has been pretty shit as of late, so the eye-candy is on the low side. Besides its a private school where all the smart ugly chicks from high schools all over come to. I should have went to a state school where all the girls attending it managed only to get through high school by blowing the professor.

As for the whole friends thing, I ain't the kind of guy who needs friends to have fun, so making them hasn't been a top priority to me, and by the looks of it, it hasn't been one for anyone around me.

Dear gods, boy. You're not ready for college. You're ready for a career as a French Army officer. The entire objective of your 18-22 years should be breaking out of your shell, realizing you're not any more special or wonderful than anyone else, giving an ugly girl a charity fuck just to have a story to tell the guys at the bar (the alcohol-serving joint or the lawyers' association, either will do), and accidentally meeting the girl of your dreams in the process.

Ever see that Seinfeld episode with Keith Hernandez? That attitude should go along with everything you do. It's college, for fucksakes. If you can't be like "screw it, I'm Keith Hernandez!" in college, you're destined to fail for the rest of your life.

Either shape up or drop out and come back when you're ready to leave your childhood anxieties behind and grow into a man. You're in New York, for fucksakes! If you can't find self-actualization and a good time there, then you never will! I've been to NYC. More than once, as a matter of fact---it's a hell of a town. I might live there myself after I'm done with my own education (it's currently third on my shortlist behind Boston and Seattle.)

 

[Good morning blues]

I love college because I love what I study, and I have a great network of friends that I love. I'm free to do whatever the shit I want to, and I've got a great bunch of people to do it with. I kind of think that if you hate it that much, you're just lacking good friends.

 

[Dags90]

The whole outdoorsy things they have around the city are just too far to travel to and get back from in one day.

Nonsense. I live a half hour (or less) from the outdoorsy things and I've gone into the city for a day many, many times. You might spend 4 hours total on travel and that's being generous considering you'd be going against traffic patterns.

If you got up at 9am on a weekend, you could be hiking in Jersey/Upstate by noon.

Starting to sound more like excuses than anything else.

 

[Aur0ra145]

I've been going to a University in New York City for the past 2 months now, and I am bored off my ass. To put things in perspective, I've lived in a desert town in West Texas all my life, and I wanted to go to school in New York because I thought it would be fun. Instead, college feels like Summer camp, just that it is extended for 9 months rather than the normal 2 weeks. I've tried to put myself in situations that would be conducive to a fun environment, going to school dances, sporting events, exploring the city, going to bars illegally, but I am perpetually bored. I even joined a ton of groups around school to make up for all the dead time I have, like joining the Rowing Team, Newspaper, Radio Station and what have you, but I am just bored. All the time.

So the question that I pose to you guys is "Why do people like college?" It so far has been a dull experience for me, and I feel like I am pissing away 50k a year for an education that doesn't mean jack-shit to my chosen profession.

Where in west Texas? I have family out in Alpine and I'm one of those Terlingua chiliheads you hear so much about.

As for jumping from somewhere like Fort Stockton to New York, yeah I can see how it would be difficult to know how to have fun in a city scene.

Now I'm one of those types that love college, I love the enviroment and for the most part I like the people there, but then again I've only attended Texas Tech, Midland College, NCTC and the University of North Texas. All of which could be referred to as a more country/urban college.

 

[Rickyvantof]

Who said it has to be fun? You go to college to learn shit right? Learning never has been and never will be fun. Also there might be something wrong with you if you're not having fun at dances, doing sports and whatnot.

 

[Randvek]

College is only as good as the freedom it gives you is. Make some friends. Have fun.

 

[Tetranitrophenol]

College, fun? 9months?

College is not fun, definitely not boring, but not fun at all. It took me 7 years to get my degree and I still hate it with a passion. Yet you cant or should I say you shouldn't go to college for the sake of having fun! if you have a legitimate interest of going to college it should be because you want to get a higher education and get a better job.

If what you are looking for is fun, you wont find it there, use the tuition money to go on a trip to Amsterdam.

 

[Catalyst6]

Well to be fair, I want to be in radio, and the University I am going to has an NPR affiliated station that I will start working in a week or so. The reason why I say my degree won't matter is because every single radio host I am aware of are all quick to point out that their degrees were never looked at, and that most of the stuff they learned in college has had little effect on their personal life. That's why I am bitter.

There's your problem.

The reason why you go to university is to learn, nothing more. Liberal arts majors have a... loose curriculum, so I can see why you're bored off your ass. Take up a more difficult/labor-intensive course of study. You'll certainly not be bored then! Sui/homocidal, maybe, but not bored.

 

[Kuilui]

Well I don't really like College but I see it as the gateway to what I want to do with my life and escaping my current arrangements. Along with that though college has really opened my eyes to who I am. It sounds cheesy or lame perhaps but it really is the truth. It's helped make me a better person.

 

[esperandote]

You do all that and you're bored? I have no idea how.

 

[Criquefreak]

I very much enjoyed the structured learning environment and *gasp* dedicated instructors. The fact that college is often less prone to the mind-numbing personal politics of adolescents (sex, popularity, hedonistic recreation) also makes it far more enjoyable and effective. Also, being able to socialize with people who had similar career goals and hobbies was great (went technical college rather than state or community).

Still had plenty of free time, but had to work hell-a hard on assignments to earn that free time (without failing/guilt). Made both the work and the free time a lot more appreciated by me.

Only real downside is my degree has yet to be helpful in me getting employed at all, but I know a lot of people with advanced degrees struggling to get any job these days.

 

[bak00777]

i dont rly like college, ive been here for a lil over 1 month, and i wish i didnt go. All my friends went to other colleges(that might be the main reason) but i also hate the education system, i just want to take classes that will get me my degree and leave, i dont want to spend 4 yrs here.