The Good and the Bad of Attending Uni
Well, this has been an interesting time these last few months. I’ve begun university level coursework at University of California, Santa Cruz, and it is proving to be a much different experience than I thought. There are things that really annoy me, misconceptions, etc. that I feel should be addressed for anyone out there thinking of attending a university level college. Misconceptions: Private schools make the claim that at public universities, like my school for example (and yes, there was actually a private school that specifically targeted my school for this), you will never be able to talk to the professors, your classes will be enormous and only be lectures, etc. This is really somewhat of a lie. I have only taken one course that had more than 80 people in it, and that was a class that EVERYONE has to take (no matter the major, it’s a requirement). It’s understandable that that course would be full. While the class was only lecture, with some time for discussion, the sections (discussion groups separate from class) were really smile. There were only 15 people in my section for that class. I spoke to my TA every section, directly, without having to beg for an appointment.Of my other courses, only one was over 30 students, most were under 25. The idea that you can’t approach professors is actually a lie. You can approach them and they encourage you to utilize their office hours, email them, set up other appointments, etc. I get the impression that really students don’t bug them enough for their liking. Remember, these people have valuable information. If you have questions, ask them. Professors love answering questions (well not all of them, but a lot do). They like to know you’re interested. You will read so much you’ll never have fun again (or at least until you graduate). This has more to do with managing your time than having lots of reading. Last quarter I had about 20 books to read, this quarter it is significantly less, but equally difficult. It’s actually not that hard to read all that, if you just sit down and do it. Public universities don’t help their students in a bind. That’s a lie too. While those lovely private schools might want you to think this, it’s really not very true. If you have a legit problem, there is usually some sort of help. Talk to your financial aid office. Often times they can work out deals with you, etc. Truths (the bad): University level work is expensive. Yes, it is. Not cheap. I get my fees, books, travel, and living expenses paid by tax payer’s dollars. I’m making good use of that money. I’m not failing my classes, I study, I’m working on going to graduate school, etc. I also paid into this for several years and I am grateful for people who do pay for my college. College is not cheap. Text books are disproportionately expensive. Another great truth. Text books are actually ridiculous, especially at university level. You buy these books for 20 or 30 bucks (we’re talking small novels here, not giant science texts) and then when you want to sell them back you can’t get much more than 1/10th of that. I list mine on Amazon, because I can get more money back for them. Another problem is that a lot of these books don’t get used again for a long time, which further reduces how much money you can get for them. Course Readers are stupid. Yes, they. Here’s why:When you buy them you can’t sell them back, even for a small chunk of change. You also can’t sell them online because they aren’t actual books, but groups of articles put together by the professor into a ringed binder. Alternately, that reader will likely never be used in the same way ever again or articles will be changed. That means, basically, you’ve just spend money on something that is useless to anyone else. They’re essentially a waste of money. University students bitch and complain about the stupidest crap ever. I’ve heard this one a lot: “I can’t get out of bed by 9:30 to get to class by 10:00. That’s too early.” Bull. You know what’s hard? Trying to get to campus by 7:45 when no buses run that early where you live. Yeah. They also complain about things like “Gosh, I have to read five pages tomorrow” or “I had four weeks to start my essay but now it’s due in two hours”. I’ve also heard other complaints that have little to do with school, and they are equally as stupid. Get over it. This is the easy life. Wait for the real world. I’ve been there. The “I can’t get up that early” excuse is a surefire way to get yourself canned. Learn discipline now while you still can. Yes, things can be stressful, but that’s no reason to bitch about stuff that, in all actuality, is trivial. You reading five pages is not remotely the same as someone losing their home, or being booted out on the streets, etc. Campus transit is somewhat difficult during the middle of the day. The problem is that university students are excessively lazy. Here’s an example: I’ve seen students take a bus that goes all over campus, only to get off two stops (about a quarter mile) later. Were they late for class? Nope. They were just meeting friends. Now the problem with the transits is that they are overcrowded during the day. Nobody walks. They all cram into the buses. This is stupid and counterproductive. Just walk. It’s good for you and you can walk just about anywhere on campus in twenty minutes. I know, I’ve done it. Some lack of diversity in coursework and difficulty in finding professors with similar interest. If you love science fiction, it’s rather difficult to learn more about it in an academic setting in most universities, including mine. Lack of discipline.
(Almost) Required Essentials For Writers
These might seem like no-brainers, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t have or do something of these things. I’ve learned the hard way, which is probably not the best way. Regardless, there are things that writers really should have, whether it be a product or a feature turned on in a program, or whatever. So, the following list is a bunch of stuff you should be doing. Some of them do overlap, but they are options for you to think about: Extra ComputerIf you have two computers, keep a copy of all your writing on each one. This gives you that lovely buffer. MS Word Auto-saveTurn on your auto-save to every minute. For slower computers this can be a problem, but what happens when you’ve just written 500 words and your computer suddenly shuts off? Well, sometimes the recovery feature doesn’t get those words, and that auto-save won’t have them either because it wouldn’t have been on. I lost 350 words the other week. They were awesome words. I turned MS Word’s auto-save to one minute and haven’t lost anything since. A Flash Card/Stick/Disk/WhateverYou need one. Period. There is no argument here. Computers do break and explode. Get one. I got mine for $15 USD. That’s not that much money considering the time and the frustration you’ll save by having a little flash drive to stick your work on. They come in GB these days–1 GB to 4GB on average. If you’re not rich, get a 1 GB, or if you can find a smaller one look for a 256 MB. Even that little one would have problems holding all your writing.This is no joke. Trust me, I learned this the hard way by having my computer get killed by a virus due to XP having stupid problems with it (MsBlaster and Sasser). I almost lost everything. Use Google Docs, Personal FTP, etc.Google is awesome, if not a little insane. They have a great feature that allows you to keep spreadsheets and documents. It’s a great option if you have files you really want to save. If you don’t want it there, you can put up a password protected FTP, which is relatively simple to do, or use another online document service to keep files safe. This is great if you do your writing at work and would like to save it somewhere other than on the work computer or in an email. It’s great as a backup too. MS Word, Open Office, etc.Obvious right? It is. While MS Word isn’t the most perfect word processing program, it is probably the best. Its spell-check is decent, though not perfect, and its grammar aid can help you pick out the most noticeable of your issues (which saves you time). You can get great statistics about your writing, such a grade level, reading ease, etc.There are other programs too, though I’ve never used them. Regardless, if you use a computer it’s great to have a word processor. .txt is not a good format for writing, trust me. Electronic DictionaryIf you are like me and you travel and write or go in places where you can’t bring your computer without destroying it, then you should really consider getting a little electronic dictionary. I have one from Franklin. It’s small and functional. It’s beat up too, since I’ve taken it with me into the woods and sat on it a few times. But it works wonders. It’s great for getting a definition, finding a similar word, etc., and wonderful if you’re sitting around and can’t remember something. Dictionary SoftwareI use Word Web. There are many others out there. Word Web has a free version and a pro version. Both are excellent, though the pro version is a little better. However, as far as free dictionary/thesaurus software goes, Word Web is the best. Become Friends With Dictionary.comNo, I don’t mean that literally, but you should become acquainted with the site. While you should probably turn off your Internet when writing, Dictionary.com is great for finding stuff in ways that a free version of Word Web can’t. You want the etymology of a word, then go to Dictionary.com. End of story. Writersplanner or anything else to keep track of your submissionsI use Writersplanner and it works great for me. You should always keep some sort of spreadsheet or use some sort of software to keep track. There are few things that look worse than sending a story twice to a publisher/magazine. It’s amateur and looks bad. So keep track. There you go. So, do you have those?