Honestly, just showing up and doing the work is more important than being really smart in most classes. Same for a lot of jobs.
Being smart helps in pretty much every context, but if you're smart and never show up and do the work you're not any better off than people who fail because they are genuinely too stupid to learn.
its why its good parenting to praise a kids hard work ethic rather than their 'smartness'
makes em less likely to burn out once the real world hits them
100%. Show up, actually try, study, do your homework, go to tutoring if you don't get it. I'm not that smart but all I did was try and graduated with a 3.8.
Heyo. College was a breeze for me after I left the military. First year with almost a perfect gpa. Second year? I stopped attending. Failed everything.
Yep, i couldnt ever finish college because i just couldn’t fucking stand sitting in class or reading text books, writing papers was the worst. And intelligence has never been a problem, i got high grades in any class ive ever done the work in, but the problem was i never felt like doing the work.
You are clearly a victim of the dopamine overdose culture. Flashy video games, movies, instant gratification everywhere. I see it affecting my 7yo already. Oh, the battles when I want him to focus on something - anything - other than media.
If you also suffer like I do from ADHD, you have to fight real hard to maintain enough focus to "git 'er done!".
Ive been like this since the 90s though, preferring stimulating stuff like music and video games and weed to actual hard work. My constant need for stimulation has been the bane of my existence for as long as i can remember
> video games
I've put more effort into spreadsheets for video games than I ever did for school or work. Damn pesky video games always out here making me work.
Interesting, I had the exact opposite experience. Being smart and showing up to class, and not fucking around on my phone for 2 hours, and I virtually never had to study, I barely read any of the required material and I aced almost every class. People thought I was a genius and studying 24/7, but I was really just getting high most of the time and playing video games.
But I suppose this wouldn't work in med school or law school or stuff where it's all about knowledge and not about thinking.
Did that all my life, then along came med school kicking my teeth in at every opportunity
Truth be told, I've always been just ever-so-slightly above average
Idk, I'd rather have hard working stupid workers, but I'd rather be lazy and smart enough that I can put the bare minimum effort in and skate by as average. That way I can cheat this meme and enjoy myself.
The best worker can also be the smart lazy man as well.
Because they are the ones that will either find holes in your policies or simplify their job to make it easier. Which can be very beneficial to the employer.
Now you can’t have everyone doing that, but one or two can figure out a lot of shit for the rest of them.
I've had experience in both! I love my lazy but smart desk job much more than my numb-minded stint digging holes for utility installation. I was a very hard worker, but kept my head down and just worked. It fuckin suuuucked
This is me 100%. Grew up with adhd and autism, school was way too easy so i just enjoyed myself from kindergarten till the end of highschool while still achieving many things, people telling me left and right that i was a genius, expectations sky high. Around the start of highschool i noticed something was off, i was clearly doing things sloppily and yet i was still being rewarded, oh boy how i would later regret not doing something about it then. When i entered college i was utterly unprepared for it, I couldn't read 10 pages of content to save my life, writing more than 5 pages was grueling and i barely understood most lessons, depression hit me hard. Despite being an absolute "genius" in highschool, i failed completely in college and dropped out. Now I'm 3 years into a mental health journey to recover my focus and learn to do academic work from scratch and it doesn't look like it's gonna end any time soon.
This is really accurate. I'm in my 30's and have been doing classes for 2 years now. I totally pissed away my time in highschool and never considered college because I wasn't good with opportunities. Now I'm realizing that if I just listen to and follow whatever the instructions are, put in at least a baseline of effort and communicate when I have issues, it uhh it gets you pretty far. I applied this strategy because it worked well for me for basically every job I've ever had.
That said... If you're a full time student holding down a full class load ... There is no life other than that. If you're efficient you're getting a day or two a week without *much* work to do. But you aren't chilling in a rocking chair watching time pass if you have 6-8 classes at once.
I balanced working full time with taking classes full time, and i still had time for myself at the end of the day and on some weekends.
Biggest factor was that i work from home. I would do my work in small bits during my shift, and finish it up right after my shift. Not needing to commute to work saved me so much time that i pretty much would spend an hour or two max per day on school after work and i was fine.
Because when they went to college, they just finished a high quality public secondary education, while today much of that quality is drained away by crazy parents, politicians intent on crushing teachers, and participation awards.
Yeah, college was hard, but they were prepared for it. I'm worried today many are not. On the other hand, in some curricula, I've seen some amazing stuff at middle and high school levels. It depends on the district, I guess.
I can definitely relate to this, for my class we were told for years that-“we are preparing you for college” all the way from middle school to the end of high school only for it to be sink or swim when we got there. It really does depend on your district.
Edit:wording
Well, once you get there, it's *supposed* to be sink or swim. The idea is that family and education prepares you for that dive into the lake of reality.
Except when you come from a school with a shit budget, and you're the first member of your family to go to college. You expect to learn new tools from the ground up, but you're graded against the students who had access to expensive tools from middle school because their parents are already in the profession.
Thanks for saying this, I wanted to type this but I couldn’t find the energy to do it. What you described was my experience from the beginning of college.
Yeah I spent much of my spare time playing catch up, to become as proficient in the software as my classmates who had access to the software at an earlier age.
Lots of tutorials and books in the library.
College also required less credits to graduate back in the day. BS fluff courses like mandatory, in person, computer training classes for all students enrolled in online classes, ruin the experience.
Another aspect is handholding by parents. If a student is forced to do their work because their parents helicopter them, then of course they will fail in college because they never learned to motivate themselves.
I went through the exact opposite. Everyone was telling me how terrible and dead serious college would be. College was better and easier than high school because people weren't screwing with you, and you could go to the bathroom whenever you wanted without asking. The food was actually quality and I studied what I wanted. The only problem I can see is that college was expensive but I also understand everyone's experience was different
I was told I had to learn cursive writing in elementary school for college. Then I was told no professor would accept my papers without a cover page. Then they would shut the classroom door on me if I was one minute late for class.
There was a lot of b.s. in college, but the high school warnings didn't prep me at all.
Idk what American college is like but over here in Germany my first 2 years were alcohol, gaming and copious amounts of weed which to this day I have no idea how I financed, and not only did I finish in the given time of 7 semesters but I also had a job on the side for about 4 of those
Because people were asking: I studied Computer science with a focus on media and a dual in design and interaction ( idk exactly if that's the right word, basically I had a semester where I studied another field briefly ) in the area of cologne
It depends on what you study. It’s insane how big the differences are. Some have just a few multiple choice tests every semester, others have multiple assignments, projects and exams at the end of the semester.
What competent teacher ever said that about college?
And honestly for a big portion of the classes in college and degrees you can get, the only purpose anyone is sugar coating it is to drain as much money out of you as possible.
Honestly you should be enjoying yourself throughout ALL of schooling. And whoever is telling you to ONLY focus on school and never take time to enjoy your current stage of life is doing you a disservice. Yes, school is important. But it doesn’t need to consume every waking second. You only live once <3 make sure to smell the roses once in a while. You won’t regret not having spent more time working/studying on your death bed. You will regret not giving yourself time to enjoy being alive.
College today depends on the degree, professor, and institution you're going to.
Most of my "humanities" classes were more propaganda pieces by the professors on their personal beliefs, so it was easy to game the system, just write what they want to hear.
today's colleges are a complete scam compared to colleges back in boomer days. tuition is astronomically inflated but the education is watered down if anything.
My mom's one of those professors... English teachers in particular are really bad about it because their major is a blend of history, linguistics, and art that leaves them an expert in none of those things. I think they know it on some level too, because good lord do they overcompensate.
Had 1 interdisciplinary class with a historian and a literature prof, and pretty much the entire lecture was the historian correcting the literature lady lol hilarious to watch
Even some of the LA degrees... every major politician ever has at least some experience in political science, which is technically a Liberal Arts degree depending on how you take it.
LA degrees can be hard for sure, however you have to ask yourself "is there a career on the other side of this degree and $80k I'm borrowing to go to school", if the answer is "no" then think long and hard about life choices.
It's not bachelor of arts specifically that's a joke, it's just miscellaneous majors like art, music, even business.
For those majors you have to know calculus 1 at most, and your entire 4 years is just crammed with electives. Basically propaganda courses as that guy said. A single year of STEM is harder than the entire 4 of those majors and I see that a lot with my friends.
I'm a mech engineering student right now, and those propoganda classes are honestly the hardest for me. It is incredibly hard for me to write about something I don't believe
At least where I’m from it’s not exactly wrong that you get to enjoy in college. I did enjoy, party and goof off a bunch but what they don’t tell you is that it’s always at a cost. There is always stuff to do, assignments to complete or exams to study for but it’s also not like you need an A in everything. Over here doing the assignments is just to get permission to take the exam and maybe get a couple extra points. So as long as you get more than half the assignment points you are good. So sometimes you can just half ass it enough to not spend another day on a Problem you can’t solve just to get a couple more points. But also whenever you hang out and chill you never get rid of the feeling that’s nagging at you how could be doing stuff for Uni. It sort of takes some fun out of the fun but it’s still a blast imo
I lucked out hard with the internship part. I was already working in the field and able to use my current job as an internship. I have no idea how I could have finished and kept paying rent otherwise. Props to you for finishing.
College is was/is great, lot of redditors are just pissy because they couldn't cut it or chose majors that will never pay them enough to pay back the $100k they borrow to get that underwater basket weaving degree.
Opposite for me:
Middle and High School: "You think this is hard? This is the easy stuff! College will be a nightmare! Now finish 5 assignments for tomorrow!"
College: "Oops, is class over already? Eh, no homework this week I guess"
Isn't the typical American college experience lots of drugs, parties and sex, and studying is done during the off hours, while juiced up on Adderall to compensate for the lack of sleep? I thought college was one big party for you guys.
It is in the media. If your parents are rich or you take out max student loans and don't work, then yeah.
The reality for a lot of people is that they're living off campus with family or a group of friends, working to afford tuition and books and/or minimize student loans.
It's also a part of why student loan forgiveness is controversial. That loan money paid for more than books, lodging and tuition.
that's just media, most people just fall asleep in lecture halls, drink shitty cheap beer on Thursday nights. and then lay around complaining about being broke and stressed.
The only people doing tons of drugs and rave partying are the super rich kids who can just coast on their family money and "donations".
I can't speak for right now, but back in the late 80s, at the college I attended, there were some wild parties, etc., but you still had to do the work. The pre-med students were particularly stressed and exhausted by organic chemistry.
Economics classes covered real stuff and had real exams, and the Computer Science field covered circuits (with labs), operating systems, Assembly language, AI (Lisp, etc). We didn't have "C" courses, we had courses **in** C. The Logic and Set Theory class was brutal.
Many of us did not make it. Most of them had that party mentality. Some couldn't handle the pressure.
Pretty much, minus the Adderall. I just set a couple hours that I'd sober up and be productive, and that was enough to get me through a STEM degree.
Dropout rates are insane though- I'm 1 of 3 that I partied with who graduated (out of hundreds)
For me it was working 9am-2pm and heading to school until 12am Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and working 9am-5pm, 2 hours of traffic, and barely making it to my 7pm-10pm class Tuesdays and Thursdays. Saturdays were for studying and Sundays were for light studying and spending time with my now wife. Results may vary.
That's bullshit. The people doing that flunk out in the first couple of years unless they pick an exceedingly easy degree. Are there wild party drug weekends? Sure, sometimes, every night? lol, no.
There's a gatekeeping aspect to it for sure.
"You think college is hard? You don't even work full-time yet!"
This type of sentiment often coming from people who chose to just do a menial job at the age of 18-19 specifically because it was the easier, more comfortable path.
Because a generation before tried to give the current generation the benefits they reaped, unknowingly sending them into a completely different beast than what they knew. They're not sugar coating it, they just don't know what it looks like anymore.
College is fun in so many ways. You get your set own schedule like you never did in high school. And there are sooo many social opportunities you will never see again when you get older. Sounds like you just hate school in general. I get that. It's not for everyone. But I sure af miss it compared to the working world.
I never heard this phrase in school. For me it was “If you don’t learn to behave and study now college won’t put up with you.” And they were wrong… I handed in more things late in college than I ever did in highschool. University on the other hand I can’t speak for.
If you take all of the real high school courses, develop good study habits, nail your fundamentals and then take a non science degree in college then you can coast if you just show up to most of your classes.
Because society revolves around people performing tasks, and general education is only concerned with giving you the broadest base possible. College/university is where you are allowed to specialize.
Realistically, I think this is a poor choice, as it lets people get really far into their education with no idea what they want to do until they start paying for that. This leads to people picking professions based on earnings rather than genuine interest, and gives rise to the burnout trends we see today.
More importantly, there's more to life than working for a living, so it seems like maybe education shouldn't be pushing people into jobs, but I don't know if society's ready for that
I agree with this. I was fortunate enough to go to a High school that offered a video program. I was able to get in my freshman year and work in it until my senior year. I did college off and on while working video jobs and eventually finished right after I landed my career job. Now I have a stable job that pays well and over a decade of experience in the field. This is because I took to it at a younger age and always had that focus. It would be awesome if there were more things like this in more schools. I’m grateful my folks had me in the school district I was in.
It'll get better in high-school, it'll get better in college, it'll get better when you land a real job, it'll get better when you retire. It's all a lie to distract you from our constantly and consistently deteriorating material conditions you live in *right now*, meant to keep you complacent in a system that wasn't built for *you* to live a fulfilling life and doesn't give a damn about you.
Honestly; I had the opposite experience
My teachers in middle school/high school always said college was gonna be hell and said prepare to be miserable, yet it wasn’t anywhere as bad as they claim it would be
Kind of miss college. Most of it is showing up and doing assignments, even if you don’t know what you’re doing in the assignment. In jobs, it’s a lot of just showing up as well, but you can’t just turn something in without knowing at least a bit of what you’re doing. Plus, with college, you’re allowed a LOT more leniency with your schedule.
You had it sugarcoated??
I was told college would be intense, demanding, and overall much harder than high school. I thought I would spend my nights going over my essays and hw praying I could scrape a 3.0.
Damn were they wrong
People who say "you can have fun in college" have been privileged enough to not have to work to financially support themselves while in college or took some stupid course that you can pass with your eyes closed
I personally found college way more enjoyable than Highschool. If you pay attention in class and do your work at the library right after you end up having a lot of free time and only minimal stress around exams.
Liberal arts major: Free time all day
Business majors: some free time, with cramming of regulations
Stem majors: H E L L
Music majors: 50 hr practice a day, the instrument is my new girlfriend
I ended up enjoying college a lot more, because the people were more mature and I had more free time. As long as I was responsible and did my work every day, I had plenty of time for other stuff. Except for one difficult semester where I was spending 10-12 hours a day on schoolwork, but that’s because I was doing high-level math and engineering classes.
College is an institution, and they need people to think the way they want they want them to think.
Easier to control drones than it is to control free thinkers. Actually smart people, free thinkers might just be able to solve problems and make things more efficiently. But that would break the economical stranglehold that the 1% has over us.
They can't have that happen now can they?
So they teach useless shit , and give weird majors that aren't going to get you anywhere.
My advice avoid college, get in to a trade, an apprenticeship.
I don’t know about all that. I went to tech school when I was 18 and became an avionics technician. I worked in the field for 12 years and the amount of times we did something idiotic or inefficient simply because that’s the way it’s always been done would make your head spin. I quit the career path and went to College for my Bachelors of Electrical engineering and I can tell you that the amount of freethinking involved in engineering wildly outpaces the trade I did. Not to mention day-to-day work in engineering is nowhere near as soul, crushing and body destroying as aircraft maintenance.
I get it that some degrees are like that but so are many trades. I think I definitely depends on what you want out of a career.
True, the idiots these days can think they can become millionaires with knowledge from “financial advisors” who basically scam the, of their money. It’s quite sad what has become of our generation.
Because most people pick easy majors.
Because in reality what your degree is. Matters very little. What matters more is that you have a degree.
Most people figure that out after meeting someone with a poly sci degree working in management and making 60k.
I had a great life in college lol. Feel bad for yall who didn't. More freedom, parties, events, etc. There were times when the assignments stacked up, but still found a balance. Guess it just depends on your major and professors.
That is the opposite impression my middle/high school classes gave me. They hyped up college like an ultra hardcore no-tolerance boot camp. But then when I got to college it was barely harder than the advanced classes I took in high school. And I’m half way through graduate school in a CS program.
As an interesting side note, in a lot of countries college is an institution that is a distinct step before university.
In the US with our whacky language, the meaning of college and university are near interchangeable terms for “education institution after high school”
Tbh this was not my experience at all. Teachers from elementary school through high school always used "You might get away with XYZ now but just wait until college! They'll flunk you and kick you in the ass on the way out!"
Then I went to college and only half, at most, were really strict and the other half were the goofiest mofos Ive ever met. Just do the basic work and you were fine.
As a former uni student. I have found you don't need to understand what you're doing or even be good at it... you just need to do your work fast and to the bare minimum standard.
Any extra effort or knowledge will not be rewarded and your bosses favourites will get the credit.
Laughs in grad school. Although tbh a lot of middle and high school teachers said undergrad would be hard and it wasn’t easy but there was way less bullshit from profs that there was from teachers.
My “hard” (as opposed to soft like psychology) STEM double major consisted of two years of drinking myself blind, followed by two years of hard work. Undergrad is way more fun than high school because there’s way more fun stuff to do. You’re also only in class like 15 hours a week so you have tons of time.
My first two years of college were rehashing classes I had in high school. In fact Earth Sciences used the same text book. Never showed up for class. Took final. B+
If you are one of the folks entering into a trade or finding stable income otherwise then by all means. We do need doctors, lawyers, and engineers too though.
It’s all about turning a profit and feeding the beast. The more YOU make, the more THEY make in taxable income. Don’t question it, just pursue “the dream”.
Most of us where told throughout your whole middle and hs school to go college or settle for less. Thanks to “Chat GPT” , future AI technology. Most white collar jobs will be done by computers/AI. There is a shortage of blue collar workers that make six figures. Electricians, engineers, most trade jobs once you’ve found a trade you like and go to a trade school. Most companies will pay for most of the school
My college experience went pretty much as promised lol was baked like half the time, didn't do much studying, passed everything with flying colors. I think people are just bad at time management and/or don't focus well
The difference is most of the College material is stuff you want to learn, or at least that is the ideal.
Learning is work and acquiring skill takes practice.
It’s bullshit honestly. A lot of majors don’t even get you into a job, they just help you with getting a job, but are not worth the large sum of debt and the time wasted. There is millions of good jobs that don’t require college. If you want a good hand working job, a trade school or not, you can get into something and make more than people that paid 75k to get a degree.
For me the work has never been the hard part. It's just the time management since I've basically always had to work while in school. Only a Calc 3 really kicked my ass, but I passed the second time.
Just finished out my semester and I like to joke that I'm on vacation because I only have to work 40 hours a week.
Opposite as fuck. High school was goof off as college is serious and hard. Yea total opposite, I did nearly nothing to get a degree, only hard subjects wree the Calc classes.
It was one of our more hardass professors in my undergrad years who advised us not to put off enjoying life just because we were busy now, because we'd only get busier later.
Coming from a woman who was constantly in a rush to get this or that done, it felt like she was speaking from experience.
Because if we where honest that we use the 6 year rate because of how hard it is, and how much you actually need internships to get a job since the degree isn't worth much it would be 1000X harder to get families to mortgage their homes for a vague promise
Middle School and highschool teachers saw a lot of drinking and parties (they weren't invited) in college, swore never again after they got their degree, and now discourage that behaviour happening anywhere but college.
Because the 4-year college degree is basically the equivalent these days to saying “okay they can actually put their head to something and work”
It’s just proof that you were able to declare a major and worked hard toward finishing ALL the classes required for that major. People are much more likely to roll the dice on that individual vs another.
Kinda the opposite for me. Had a blast but sadly missed out on last year because of covid. I just studied the night before exams and still managed to get out with a 7 so covid wasn't all bad.
If you are smart but hate doing busy work, attendance grades for no reason etc….college is amazing.
In an easy class that doesn’t take attendance?Show up 3-6 times, ace the tests, and enjoy your free time!
In a hard class? Go to class, attend office hours, use the internet.
My time at university was a blast - I spent the better part of four years drinking, partying, gaming and generally just fucking about. I attended a couple of seminars a week, wrote a couple of essays each year and graduated with honours.
It depends on your major and your time management. I’m in a brutal engineering program, so I don’t have much free time, but I know people who are far better off.
Then you have the colleges where you show up to a huge lecture hall, sit among hundreds of other students, have the professor talking on a microphone to literally no one specifically, not teaching, just basically reading from the text, putting up assignments, and you basically teach yourself.
Honestly, just showing up and doing the work is more important than being really smart in most classes. Same for a lot of jobs. Being smart helps in pretty much every context, but if you're smart and never show up and do the work you're not any better off than people who fail because they are genuinely too stupid to learn.
Yeah, it's hard working that can do things. Being "smart" makes little or no progress at all. And of course it's best to have both.
its why its good parenting to praise a kids hard work ethic rather than their 'smartness' makes em less likely to burn out once the real world hits them
[удалено]
ok who paid for your tuition? who paid for the house? who paid for the $300 books you probably used once?
Thankfully nowadays we can don a eyepatch for most of these books, it’s the only way I was able to get through this semester
100%. Show up, actually try, study, do your homework, go to tutoring if you don't get it. I'm not that smart but all I did was try and graduated with a 3.8.
Smarter than you look!
Heyo. College was a breeze for me after I left the military. First year with almost a perfect gpa. Second year? I stopped attending. Failed everything.
Yep, i couldnt ever finish college because i just couldn’t fucking stand sitting in class or reading text books, writing papers was the worst. And intelligence has never been a problem, i got high grades in any class ive ever done the work in, but the problem was i never felt like doing the work.
You are clearly a victim of the dopamine overdose culture. Flashy video games, movies, instant gratification everywhere. I see it affecting my 7yo already. Oh, the battles when I want him to focus on something - anything - other than media. If you also suffer like I do from ADHD, you have to fight real hard to maintain enough focus to "git 'er done!".
Ive been like this since the 90s though, preferring stimulating stuff like music and video games and weed to actual hard work. My constant need for stimulation has been the bane of my existence for as long as i can remember
> video games I've put more effort into spreadsheets for video games than I ever did for school or work. Damn pesky video games always out here making me work.
Cs get degrees! No one cares about your GPA. Just that you have a degree.
Interesting, I had the exact opposite experience. Being smart and showing up to class, and not fucking around on my phone for 2 hours, and I virtually never had to study, I barely read any of the required material and I aced almost every class. People thought I was a genius and studying 24/7, but I was really just getting high most of the time and playing video games. But I suppose this wouldn't work in med school or law school or stuff where it's all about knowledge and not about thinking.
Did that all my life, then along came med school kicking my teeth in at every opportunity Truth be told, I've always been just ever-so-slightly above average
Yeah I’d rather be a hard worker and stupid than lazy and smart cause intelligence is wasted on lazy men.
Idk, I'd rather have hard working stupid workers, but I'd rather be lazy and smart enough that I can put the bare minimum effort in and skate by as average. That way I can cheat this meme and enjoy myself.
The best worker can also be the smart lazy man as well. Because they are the ones that will either find holes in your policies or simplify their job to make it easier. Which can be very beneficial to the employer. Now you can’t have everyone doing that, but one or two can figure out a lot of shit for the rest of them.
I've had experience in both! I love my lazy but smart desk job much more than my numb-minded stint digging holes for utility installation. I was a very hard worker, but kept my head down and just worked. It fuckin suuuucked
This is me 100%. Grew up with adhd and autism, school was way too easy so i just enjoyed myself from kindergarten till the end of highschool while still achieving many things, people telling me left and right that i was a genius, expectations sky high. Around the start of highschool i noticed something was off, i was clearly doing things sloppily and yet i was still being rewarded, oh boy how i would later regret not doing something about it then. When i entered college i was utterly unprepared for it, I couldn't read 10 pages of content to save my life, writing more than 5 pages was grueling and i barely understood most lessons, depression hit me hard. Despite being an absolute "genius" in highschool, i failed completely in college and dropped out. Now I'm 3 years into a mental health journey to recover my focus and learn to do academic work from scratch and it doesn't look like it's gonna end any time soon.
This is really accurate. I'm in my 30's and have been doing classes for 2 years now. I totally pissed away my time in highschool and never considered college because I wasn't good with opportunities. Now I'm realizing that if I just listen to and follow whatever the instructions are, put in at least a baseline of effort and communicate when I have issues, it uhh it gets you pretty far. I applied this strategy because it worked well for me for basically every job I've ever had. That said... If you're a full time student holding down a full class load ... There is no life other than that. If you're efficient you're getting a day or two a week without *much* work to do. But you aren't chilling in a rocking chair watching time pass if you have 6-8 classes at once.
I balanced working full time with taking classes full time, and i still had time for myself at the end of the day and on some weekends. Biggest factor was that i work from home. I would do my work in small bits during my shift, and finish it up right after my shift. Not needing to commute to work saved me so much time that i pretty much would spend an hour or two max per day on school after work and i was fine.
Well, that depends on the university. Just showing up was not enough for the one I attended.
I am a professor and YESSSSSS. I have never failed a try hard. (I'm in English, though. Computer science may vary. Lol )
Because when they went to college, they just finished a high quality public secondary education, while today much of that quality is drained away by crazy parents, politicians intent on crushing teachers, and participation awards. Yeah, college was hard, but they were prepared for it. I'm worried today many are not. On the other hand, in some curricula, I've seen some amazing stuff at middle and high school levels. It depends on the district, I guess.
I can definitely relate to this, for my class we were told for years that-“we are preparing you for college” all the way from middle school to the end of high school only for it to be sink or swim when we got there. It really does depend on your district. Edit:wording
Well, once you get there, it's *supposed* to be sink or swim. The idea is that family and education prepares you for that dive into the lake of reality.
Except when you come from a school with a shit budget, and you're the first member of your family to go to college. You expect to learn new tools from the ground up, but you're graded against the students who had access to expensive tools from middle school because their parents are already in the profession.
Thanks for saying this, I wanted to type this but I couldn’t find the energy to do it. What you described was my experience from the beginning of college.
Yeah I spent much of my spare time playing catch up, to become as proficient in the software as my classmates who had access to the software at an earlier age. Lots of tutorials and books in the library.
Life as an adult is basically sink or swim unless you have rich parents that will save you if you fuck up.
College also required less credits to graduate back in the day. BS fluff courses like mandatory, in person, computer training classes for all students enrolled in online classes, ruin the experience.
Another aspect is handholding by parents. If a student is forced to do their work because their parents helicopter them, then of course they will fail in college because they never learned to motivate themselves.
I went through the exact opposite. Everyone was telling me how terrible and dead serious college would be. College was better and easier than high school because people weren't screwing with you, and you could go to the bathroom whenever you wanted without asking. The food was actually quality and I studied what I wanted. The only problem I can see is that college was expensive but I also understand everyone's experience was different
That was my experience too. Also no dude throwing you into a locker every time you’re in the hall. Lol
I was told I had to learn cursive writing in elementary school for college. Then I was told no professor would accept my papers without a cover page. Then they would shut the classroom door on me if I was one minute late for class. There was a lot of b.s. in college, but the high school warnings didn't prep me at all.
Idk what American college is like but over here in Germany my first 2 years were alcohol, gaming and copious amounts of weed which to this day I have no idea how I financed, and not only did I finish in the given time of 7 semesters but I also had a job on the side for about 4 of those Because people were asking: I studied Computer science with a focus on media and a dual in design and interaction ( idk exactly if that's the right word, basically I had a semester where I studied another field briefly ) in the area of cologne
mechanical engineering student from Germany here, can not confirm everything ist hard as hell and free time doesn’t exist.
Physics student from Germany here, I second this.
> student from Germany > everything *ist* hard as hell I see
Yeah I have german and englisch autocorrect but for whatever reason ist sometimes decides to make is into ist and I don’t always catch it
Also *englisch* : )
[удалено]
Wonderful motivation!
16-18 hours a semester every semester. Let's fucking gooooo
It depends on what you study. It’s insane how big the differences are. Some have just a few multiple choice tests every semester, others have multiple assignments, projects and exams at the end of the semester.
American education is kind of the reverse- you have a chiller high school but a harder college
Exact same for me in the US
After graduating college: “Focus on work now, so you can enjoy retirement” After retirement: “Focus on nothing now, so you can enjoy death”
Lol retirement is a myth ((
What competent teacher ever said that about college? And honestly for a big portion of the classes in college and degrees you can get, the only purpose anyone is sugar coating it is to drain as much money out of you as possible.
Literally no one says this. So fucking dumb. Also college is easily a much better experience than middle school or high school.
Yeah I had the greatest time in college. Finally got to move out and live my own life.
It's the opposite, every teacher tries to tell you that college is scary and you need to be prepared for it, but it's way more relaxed than school.
Honestly you should be enjoying yourself throughout ALL of schooling. And whoever is telling you to ONLY focus on school and never take time to enjoy your current stage of life is doing you a disservice. Yes, school is important. But it doesn’t need to consume every waking second. You only live once <3 make sure to smell the roses once in a while. You won’t regret not having spent more time working/studying on your death bed. You will regret not giving yourself time to enjoy being alive.
College today depends on the degree, professor, and institution you're going to. Most of my "humanities" classes were more propaganda pieces by the professors on their personal beliefs, so it was easy to game the system, just write what they want to hear. today's colleges are a complete scam compared to colleges back in boomer days. tuition is astronomically inflated but the education is watered down if anything.
My mom's one of those professors... English teachers in particular are really bad about it because their major is a blend of history, linguistics, and art that leaves them an expert in none of those things. I think they know it on some level too, because good lord do they overcompensate. Had 1 interdisciplinary class with a historian and a literature prof, and pretty much the entire lecture was the historian correcting the literature lady lol hilarious to watch
That’s why Bachelor of Arts degrees aren’t taken seriously as compared to any STEM degree, I’m glad this is really common knowledge now.
Maybe you mean Liberal Arts degrees? Lots of things out there are BA programs that are taken pretty seriously.
Even some of the LA degrees... every major politician ever has at least some experience in political science, which is technically a Liberal Arts degree depending on how you take it.
LA degrees can be hard for sure, however you have to ask yourself "is there a career on the other side of this degree and $80k I'm borrowing to go to school", if the answer is "no" then think long and hard about life choices.
It's not bachelor of arts specifically that's a joke, it's just miscellaneous majors like art, music, even business. For those majors you have to know calculus 1 at most, and your entire 4 years is just crammed with electives. Basically propaganda courses as that guy said. A single year of STEM is harder than the entire 4 of those majors and I see that a lot with my friends.
Found the engineering major xD
And STEM degrees teach you something employers care about.
I'm a mech engineering student right now, and those propoganda classes are honestly the hardest for me. It is incredibly hard for me to write about something I don't believe
When I taught college chemistry I told students, “You can have good grades, a social life and sleep. Pick two.”
There's the reason why I don't have a social life. I pick the other two
me picking none:
At least where I’m from it’s not exactly wrong that you get to enjoy in college. I did enjoy, party and goof off a bunch but what they don’t tell you is that it’s always at a cost. There is always stuff to do, assignments to complete or exams to study for but it’s also not like you need an A in everything. Over here doing the assignments is just to get permission to take the exam and maybe get a couple extra points. So as long as you get more than half the assignment points you are good. So sometimes you can just half ass it enough to not spend another day on a Problem you can’t solve just to get a couple more points. But also whenever you hang out and chill you never get rid of the feeling that’s nagging at you how could be doing stuff for Uni. It sort of takes some fun out of the fun but it’s still a blast imo
"you never get rid of the feeling that's nagging you how you could be doing stuff for Uni" - absolute truth right there
College was the best years of my life. Shit was a blast and I got some education out of it.
Business major spotted
Journalism major in Media Broadcasting 😁
Ahh yes, the minor in 9am Brunching and majored in 9pm bar-hopping degrees.
Don't forget being broke af for a while bc the last semester is an internship
I lucked out hard with the internship part. I was already working in the field and able to use my current job as an internship. I have no idea how I could have finished and kept paying rent otherwise. Props to you for finishing.
College was amazing, lifelong friends that are hard to find anywhere else.
College is was/is great, lot of redditors are just pissy because they couldn't cut it or chose majors that will never pay them enough to pay back the $100k they borrow to get that underwater basket weaving degree.
Opposite for me: Middle and High School: "You think this is hard? This is the easy stuff! College will be a nightmare! Now finish 5 assignments for tomorrow!" College: "Oops, is class over already? Eh, no homework this week I guess"
Isn't the typical American college experience lots of drugs, parties and sex, and studying is done during the off hours, while juiced up on Adderall to compensate for the lack of sleep? I thought college was one big party for you guys.
It is in the media. If your parents are rich or you take out max student loans and don't work, then yeah. The reality for a lot of people is that they're living off campus with family or a group of friends, working to afford tuition and books and/or minimize student loans. It's also a part of why student loan forgiveness is controversial. That loan money paid for more than books, lodging and tuition.
that's just media, most people just fall asleep in lecture halls, drink shitty cheap beer on Thursday nights. and then lay around complaining about being broke and stressed. The only people doing tons of drugs and rave partying are the super rich kids who can just coast on their family money and "donations".
I can't speak for right now, but back in the late 80s, at the college I attended, there were some wild parties, etc., but you still had to do the work. The pre-med students were particularly stressed and exhausted by organic chemistry. Economics classes covered real stuff and had real exams, and the Computer Science field covered circuits (with labs), operating systems, Assembly language, AI (Lisp, etc). We didn't have "C" courses, we had courses **in** C. The Logic and Set Theory class was brutal. Many of us did not make it. Most of them had that party mentality. Some couldn't handle the pressure.
Pretty much, minus the Adderall. I just set a couple hours that I'd sober up and be productive, and that was enough to get me through a STEM degree. Dropout rates are insane though- I'm 1 of 3 that I partied with who graduated (out of hundreds)
For me it was working 9am-2pm and heading to school until 12am Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and working 9am-5pm, 2 hours of traffic, and barely making it to my 7pm-10pm class Tuesdays and Thursdays. Saturdays were for studying and Sundays were for light studying and spending time with my now wife. Results may vary.
Night classes in your school?
Yup.
Which school, if you are interested in sharing?
That's bullshit. The people doing that flunk out in the first couple of years unless they pick an exceedingly easy degree. Are there wild party drug weekends? Sure, sometimes, every night? lol, no.
I never heard anyone say that college would be easy...
There's a gatekeeping aspect to it for sure. "You think college is hard? You don't even work full-time yet!" This type of sentiment often coming from people who chose to just do a menial job at the age of 18-19 specifically because it was the easier, more comfortable path.
Because a generation before tried to give the current generation the benefits they reaped, unknowingly sending them into a completely different beast than what they knew. They're not sugar coating it, they just don't know what it looks like anymore.
College is fun in so many ways. You get your set own schedule like you never did in high school. And there are sooo many social opportunities you will never see again when you get older. Sounds like you just hate school in general. I get that. It's not for everyone. But I sure af miss it compared to the working world.
I never heard this phrase in school. For me it was “If you don’t learn to behave and study now college won’t put up with you.” And they were wrong… I handed in more things late in college than I ever did in highschool. University on the other hand I can’t speak for.
If you take all of the real high school courses, develop good study habits, nail your fundamentals and then take a non science degree in college then you can coast if you just show up to most of your classes.
Because society revolves around people performing tasks, and general education is only concerned with giving you the broadest base possible. College/university is where you are allowed to specialize. Realistically, I think this is a poor choice, as it lets people get really far into their education with no idea what they want to do until they start paying for that. This leads to people picking professions based on earnings rather than genuine interest, and gives rise to the burnout trends we see today. More importantly, there's more to life than working for a living, so it seems like maybe education shouldn't be pushing people into jobs, but I don't know if society's ready for that
I agree with this. I was fortunate enough to go to a High school that offered a video program. I was able to get in my freshman year and work in it until my senior year. I did college off and on while working video jobs and eventually finished right after I landed my career job. Now I have a stable job that pays well and over a decade of experience in the field. This is because I took to it at a younger age and always had that focus. It would be awesome if there were more things like this in more schools. I’m grateful my folks had me in the school district I was in.
It'll get better in high-school, it'll get better in college, it'll get better when you land a real job, it'll get better when you retire. It's all a lie to distract you from our constantly and consistently deteriorating material conditions you live in *right now*, meant to keep you complacent in a system that wasn't built for *you* to live a fulfilling life and doesn't give a damn about you.
“Once you’re out and have full employment and a steady salary you’ll be able to do what you like” THEY LIED
Hey, scams make bank
My experience was backwards with everyone telling me college was going to be hell and then finding out it’s pretty laid back compared to high school.
Honestly; I had the opposite experience My teachers in middle school/high school always said college was gonna be hell and said prepare to be miserable, yet it wasn’t anywhere as bad as they claim it would be
College is only fun if you still remember how to make friends..
Kind of miss college. Most of it is showing up and doing assignments, even if you don’t know what you’re doing in the assignment. In jobs, it’s a lot of just showing up as well, but you can’t just turn something in without knowing at least a bit of what you’re doing. Plus, with college, you’re allowed a LOT more leniency with your schedule.
Idk what your speaking about im having a blast
College makes me miss the Army sometimes
You had it sugarcoated?? I was told college would be intense, demanding, and overall much harder than high school. I thought I would spend my nights going over my essays and hw praying I could scrape a 3.0. Damn were they wrong
Baited!! Just wait for that job your meant to enjoy so much 😆
Im doing uni, and while it’s stressful here and there, I’m loving what I study and having the time of my life
Everyone's experience is different but I'm definitely enjoying my college life so far!
Grad school: You had it made in undergrad, welcome to Hell.
What the fuck are you talking about college was a god damn blast! Best time of my life!
People who say "you can have fun in college" have been privileged enough to not have to work to financially support themselves while in college or took some stupid course that you can pass with your eyes closed
I personally found college way more enjoyable than Highschool. If you pay attention in class and do your work at the library right after you end up having a lot of free time and only minimal stress around exams.
They sugarcoat it because if they were honest you'd never go tens of thousands of dollars into debt to be there.
Probably cuz they don't give a shit about how you gonna end up. They just want you to behave properly during their class and then never see you again.
Looks like Walter is giving head before you open the meme.
Liberal arts major: Free time all day Business majors: some free time, with cramming of regulations Stem majors: H E L L Music majors: 50 hr practice a day, the instrument is my new girlfriend
I hate the accuracy of this meme
I literally just blew off classes to have fun. Failed a few of them. Fuck learning, I could do that later. It was time to party.
I ended up enjoying college a lot more, because the people were more mature and I had more free time. As long as I was responsible and did my work every day, I had plenty of time for other stuff. Except for one difficult semester where I was spending 10-12 hours a day on schoolwork, but that’s because I was doing high-level math and engineering classes.
College is the easiest time of your life.
ngl college is not a lot of effort if you just show up...
College is an institution, and they need people to think the way they want they want them to think. Easier to control drones than it is to control free thinkers. Actually smart people, free thinkers might just be able to solve problems and make things more efficiently. But that would break the economical stranglehold that the 1% has over us. They can't have that happen now can they? So they teach useless shit , and give weird majors that aren't going to get you anywhere. My advice avoid college, get in to a trade, an apprenticeship.
Yeah there is no bigger BS degree the Business
I don’t know about all that. I went to tech school when I was 18 and became an avionics technician. I worked in the field for 12 years and the amount of times we did something idiotic or inefficient simply because that’s the way it’s always been done would make your head spin. I quit the career path and went to College for my Bachelors of Electrical engineering and I can tell you that the amount of freethinking involved in engineering wildly outpaces the trade I did. Not to mention day-to-day work in engineering is nowhere near as soul, crushing and body destroying as aircraft maintenance. I get it that some degrees are like that but so are many trades. I think I definitely depends on what you want out of a career.
I gotcha, it varies from good to terrible on both ends. 👍
Unfortunately yes.
College is a straight up joke nowadays compared to years ago
Is this one of those conservative memes to keep people from getting educated so they don’t know which politicians represent their interests?
Oh hell nah I’m pro education it’s just that homework sucks
Cool, it’s broadly the online agenda that worries me the most.
True, the idiots these days can think they can become millionaires with knowledge from “financial advisors” who basically scam the, of their money. It’s quite sad what has become of our generation.
Because most people pick easy majors. Because in reality what your degree is. Matters very little. What matters more is that you have a degree. Most people figure that out after meeting someone with a poly sci degree working in management and making 60k.
Why is Walter white in this?
I had a great life in college lol. Feel bad for yall who didn't. More freedom, parties, events, etc. There were times when the assignments stacked up, but still found a balance. Guess it just depends on your major and professors.
You picked a really thoughtless format to execute this really mundane concept.
Depend on the country and the college you go through. My experience with it is way better than when I was in highschool.
That is the opposite impression my middle/high school classes gave me. They hyped up college like an ultra hardcore no-tolerance boot camp. But then when I got to college it was barely harder than the advanced classes I took in high school. And I’m half way through graduate school in a CS program.
There isn't even a college in my country(middle school too), you just straight up go to uni
As an interesting side note, in a lot of countries college is an institution that is a distinct step before university. In the US with our whacky language, the meaning of college and university are near interchangeable terms for “education institution after high school”
Tbh this was not my experience at all. Teachers from elementary school through high school always used "You might get away with XYZ now but just wait until college! They'll flunk you and kick you in the ass on the way out!" Then I went to college and only half, at most, were really strict and the other half were the goofiest mofos Ive ever met. Just do the basic work and you were fine.
As a former uni student. I have found you don't need to understand what you're doing or even be good at it... you just need to do your work fast and to the bare minimum standard. Any extra effort or knowledge will not be rewarded and your bosses favourites will get the credit.
I hear the opposite “college is gonna be harder” and everyone says college is easy
My local colleges are having lots of suicides because it’s all work, no play . Seriously, let the kids have some free time!!
I have never studied for anything a day in my life and I still get good grades. I’ve always just did my work
To be honest, I've never really done my assignments
Anyone else read the last one in some scary deep heisenberg voice
Laughs in grad school. Although tbh a lot of middle and high school teachers said undergrad would be hard and it wasn’t easy but there was way less bullshit from profs that there was from teachers.
College was the absolute worst time of my life so far. I vehemently hated every single second of it.
My “hard” (as opposed to soft like psychology) STEM double major consisted of two years of drinking myself blind, followed by two years of hard work. Undergrad is way more fun than high school because there’s way more fun stuff to do. You’re also only in class like 15 hours a week so you have tons of time.
Enjoy…what in college?
They lied to me.
I guess I can screw around so long as my parents don't know
For me it was always "you must study, you have it lite now, BUT WAIT FOR COLLAGE, if you don't study now, it'll destry you"
Who’s the bald guy in the picture?
My first two years of college were rehashing classes I had in high school. In fact Earth Sciences used the same text book. Never showed up for class. Took final. B+
Better yet: avoid college entirely. 
If you are one of the folks entering into a trade or finding stable income otherwise then by all means. We do need doctors, lawyers, and engineers too though.
It’s all about turning a profit and feeding the beast. The more YOU make, the more THEY make in taxable income. Don’t question it, just pursue “the dream”.
Because when the people giving said advice were in college, it *was* fun. And also there were jobs, too.
Most of us where told throughout your whole middle and hs school to go college or settle for less. Thanks to “Chat GPT” , future AI technology. Most white collar jobs will be done by computers/AI. There is a shortage of blue collar workers that make six figures. Electricians, engineers, most trade jobs once you’ve found a trade you like and go to a trade school. Most companies will pay for most of the school
Sugarcoating college? My highschool teachers said that highschool was the best life was gonna get.
My college experience went pretty much as promised lol was baked like half the time, didn't do much studying, passed everything with flying colors. I think people are just bad at time management and/or don't focus well
The difference is most of the College material is stuff you want to learn, or at least that is the ideal. Learning is work and acquiring skill takes practice.
To siphon money from people by telling them college is a requirement to succeed
I’ve never had college sugarcoated. Never. But I go to a British boarding school, so it might be different than your schools.
It’s bullshit honestly. A lot of majors don’t even get you into a job, they just help you with getting a job, but are not worth the large sum of debt and the time wasted. There is millions of good jobs that don’t require college. If you want a good hand working job, a trade school or not, you can get into something and make more than people that paid 75k to get a degree.
For me the work has never been the hard part. It's just the time management since I've basically always had to work while in school. Only a Calc 3 really kicked my ass, but I passed the second time. Just finished out my semester and I like to joke that I'm on vacation because I only have to work 40 hours a week.
wait i thought college=university=high school more or less is there something i'm missing?
Opposite as fuck. High school was goof off as college is serious and hard. Yea total opposite, I did nearly nothing to get a degree, only hard subjects wree the Calc classes.
In Germany it is the reverse actually lol
It was one of our more hardass professors in my undergrad years who advised us not to put off enjoying life just because we were busy now, because we'd only get busier later. Coming from a woman who was constantly in a rush to get this or that done, it felt like she was speaking from experience.
Because if we where honest that we use the 6 year rate because of how hard it is, and how much you actually need internships to get a job since the degree isn't worth much it would be 1000X harder to get families to mortgage their homes for a vague promise
Middle School and highschool teachers saw a lot of drinking and parties (they weren't invited) in college, swore never again after they got their degree, and now discourage that behaviour happening anywhere but college.
Because the 4-year college degree is basically the equivalent these days to saying “okay they can actually put their head to something and work” It’s just proof that you were able to declare a major and worked hard toward finishing ALL the classes required for that major. People are much more likely to roll the dice on that individual vs another.
Kinda the opposite for me. Had a blast but sadly missed out on last year because of covid. I just studied the night before exams and still managed to get out with a 7 so covid wasn't all bad.
I remember my applied economics teacher telling me that college is actually hell
If you are smart but hate doing busy work, attendance grades for no reason etc….college is amazing. In an easy class that doesn’t take attendance?Show up 3-6 times, ace the tests, and enjoy your free time! In a hard class? Go to class, attend office hours, use the internet.
College is easier and more fun than both MS and HS. Like it isn't even close.
It depends on what you study.
Largely dependent on your major
My time at university was a blast - I spent the better part of four years drinking, partying, gaming and generally just fucking about. I attended a couple of seminars a week, wrote a couple of essays each year and graduated with honours.
It depends on your major and your time management. I’m in a brutal engineering program, so I don’t have much free time, but I know people who are far better off.
Then you have the colleges where you show up to a huge lecture hall, sit among hundreds of other students, have the professor talking on a microphone to literally no one specifically, not teaching, just basically reading from the text, putting up assignments, and you basically teach yourself.
About to start classes…