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Things that annoyed you in college
danfer91
Registered User Posts: 474 Member
in College Life
So seeing as I'm just a few credits shy of graduating I thought I would start a thread about things in college that people find aggravating or that could be changed. This isn't so much "there's too much work", as that's to be expected in college, but things that irked you that you thought wouldn't be an issue, or things in the front office that could be changed, habits of professors or students etc. This isn't meant to be so serious, just things that were mildly aggravating.
I always found it exceptionally irritating when someone in class asked the professor a question that could clearly be found in the syllabus. Ex.) "How much is this upcoming test worth to our grade?", or, "What day is the exam?". Gee, I don't know, maybe look at that sheet of paper you got on the first day of class that outlines every assignment and every day of class for the whole semester.
I always found it exceptionally irritating when someone in class asked the professor a question that could clearly be found in the syllabus. Ex.) "How much is this upcoming test worth to our grade?", or, "What day is the exam?". Gee, I don't know, maybe look at that sheet of paper you got on the first day of class that outlines every assignment and every day of class for the whole semester.
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Replies to: Things that annoyed you in college
Also people who talk during class. I get being bored -- I'm on my phone sometimes too -- but for Pete's sake don't do it in a way that ruins the experience for everyone around you.
People who hog class time. If you happen to have a lot of good questions with maybe an occasional trivial question in there, I don't mind and if anything appreciate you. But if you're asking a bunch of trivial questions and interrupting the professor to do it, you're annoying. This also applies to people who keep making unnecessary comments that distract the class. I don't mind an occasional small distraction, but seriously don't start doing it every class or making a big scene.
People not taking initiative or not taking academics seriously. I didn't care about this unless it actually affected me though. If you want to stay in your room all day sleeping and watching Netflix but aren't bothering people who are focusing on school, fine. But once you start bothering the people who are focusing on school and making it obvious that you don't care in the meantime, I'm annoyed.
Case in point: One of my freshman year roommates was only there because her parents made her go to college. She didn't take her academics seriously at all, while me and my other roommate very much did. She'd party just about every night, come in in the middle of the night on a weeknight at various levels of intoxication to turn the lights on and be loud with her friends, watch Netflix without headphones in the middle of the night while the rest of us were trying to sleep...and then she'd yell and literally stomp her feet at us for our class alarms waking her up, because "you should just skip like I do, school isn't important anyway". Yeah no, your bad decisions are entirely your own, not ours. The good news is those kinds of people don't tend to last past their first year. Said roommate is a perfect example.
((I just read the previous comments and noticed someone wrote the same thing as me. I'm so glad I'm not alone in this.))
Yes, I get it, you're good at memorization but you don't look any smarter than if you used a word that normal mortals use. In fact, as an instructor, I'm way more impressed if you can take a complicated argument and distill into a blurb that your classmates can better understand.
Yet, each and every year, I hear students (usually first year students) complain about not getting the "college experience" as though the University is in anyway obligated to cater to the fantasy so many students have about what college is "really" like - i.e. an image heavily influenced by the media. No one forced you to come here, no one put a gun to your head and said "DEPOSIT OR ELSE." If you wanted to party it up like you're at Arizona State, you could've gone to Arizona State. (Not to disparage ASU, it's an excellent school!) If you're upset that so many of your friends don't stick around campus all day because they have to commute back home, you shouldn't have gone to a school where everyone commutes.
I also think there's a level of complacency - one's college experience is largely what one makes of it; despite being a commuter campus, my school still offers an extensive study abroad program (and substantial funding for it,) along with sports teams, clubs, honor societies, and so on. Freshman come here, see that the school doesn't perfectly mesh with what they wanted college to be like, and then they just mope around for four years and whine about how it sucks. They don't transfer and they refuse to make any effort to get involved.
It's just terribly annoying.
2) There are certain people that have a sense of superiority over people that didn't go to college
3) People asking for grade changes because they think they "deserved" a higher grade than they got
4) Greek organizations that look down upon other students and organizations... tiers? seriously? ugh it seems so artificial and honestly worse than some high schools.
5) Yik yak. Although it can be incredibly funny and is a great place to vent, it can be a toxic environment sometimes, especially with people who abuse it.
6) Laundry. Can't wait until I have my own place.
7) Meal plans could use some more diversity
8) People who cannot respect their roommates or hallmates and will be blasting loud music at ungodly hours
9) People who cannot properly take care of communal spaces
10) Professors that think their class is the only class that you are taking
And likewise, the professors that do this and then use it as justification to give you way too much work, or way too difficult work.
This reminds me: Professors that give difficulty estimates for assignments based on how long it would take them to do the assignment, not a student who is just learning the material.
Tip for any incoming freshmen reading this thread: Take professor's time and difficulty estimates for assignments and exams with a grain of salt until you get a good feel for the class. They don't always estimate well. Alternatively, talk to people who have already taken the class with that professor and ask about the assignment length and difficulty to get an idea of how realistic the professor is being.
Apparently a couple of the suites in my dorm area had mice problems in my year, though I never personally saw any. And most of my floor wound up with an ant infestation because of a couple messy neighbors who didn't take their trash out enough. It's definitely not something they mention on the tours! I'd agree that it's probably more dependent on the dorm and the residents that year though.
Discovering that eating eggs makes me sleepy. Took me two years.
you could plan out a fabulous club with meetings and events but it means nothing if not enough people show up for it to continue running. and yet im pretty sure our school will tell universities that students have so many opportunities to get involved and lead! and then our transfer apps show we weren't "involved" and it makes us look bad.
and im not even that upset about the application/ECs, but i truly would love to join a club and meet people and learn stuff yet people here aren't here for anything but going to class and going back home or to work. it's understandable, since most people that go to CC are mature adults or people who didn't come straight after high school and they have lives and families to take care of but it sucks for us younger students who couldn't afford to go to a 4 year university right away (or didn't have the grades/work ethic/family problems/any reason ect.) and can't have an environment with which to grow socially among our peers.
i also dislike how unclean our bathrooms are sometimes...im surprised im saying this because our bathrooms are pretty new. but sometimes people leave a mess! that can get annoying. i also find our lab classes pretty annoying. it doesnt feel as if i learn anything from those. it's just follow directions and do this and that. plus they take hours to do.
i wish our library had more entrances/exits. it only has one main entrance/exit, even though the building itself is fairly big. so if im on one side of the school, id have to walk to the other side to enter the library even though i might already be physically next to the library. lazy problems, i know.
i dislike that we have lots of bible club people always asking us to join their off campus bible club. they probably don't even go to our school but they just decided to stake out our school or something, i dont know why they cant go somewhere else. same goes for people asking others to sign petitions. those aren't as annoying though since they're usually only around for a day or few. but these religious people have been here everyday for the past several weeks and it's becoming a huge annoyance. i can't even sit outside anymore without always being approached by one of them. and every day without fail they always ask! is there any way to report them to get them to stop loitering on campus?
something that has recently annoyed me is that there's no stapler in one of my classes. this is the first class ive had where we dont have a stapler yet also the first where we have had to turn in homework every class. so i usually do my homework before class but then i have to search the school for a stapler or ask someone to let me borrow theirs. i really dont want to lug a stapler (even the tiny ones) around because im already getting back problems from my laptop and i try to carry as little as possible for that.
i kinda wish the cafes were open a bit later for night classes. and more study rooms in other buildings, not just two.