@baileyj57 - My school is claiming it’s for security reasons. What’s funny (or not funny) is that because of New England’s snowmageddon combined with Monday holidays at the beginning of 2015, we’ve already missed like 5-6 Mondays worth of classes, and this is yet another Monday we won’t be having class.
They just rerouted traffic when Obama came to my school. He gave his speech on the part of campus with few buildings - just the fieldhouse and rec center really (the baseball/softball/soccer/etc fields are all in the area instead of buildings).
I didn’t get to go because my history professor has a strict attendance policy, and you drop a letter grade for every unexcused absence. And I wasn’t going to drop to an automatic B by the second day of class!
Also, Obama stayed in the Holiday Inn when he came here. I don’t know why I find that so humorous, but I still do…
Obama signed a bill at my high school my sophomore year. Secret Service notified the school administration the day before in the afternoon lol. Seniors got to be in the gym with him and some of the top senior project groups got to meet him. The rest of us had to watch it live cast on the tv from the classrooms. They shut down all entrances to the school but one and the music wing, which was kinda annoying.
When I was in middle school, I was at a summer performing arts school thing (hard to explain but IFTA for those who know it) and they held a debate for the primaries there, so Obama was there. This was held at a secondary school (7-12) and it was huge. None of us got to see him. They lined the entire main hall of the school with metal detectors. They also closed down the main hall that led to the music wing, so we had to walk all the way around the school to get to the band room. The best part, though, is my dance class got displaced (i don’t remember if we still had class or got moved- too long ago) because the blackbox theater where class was held was turned into Obama’s dressing room! It was kinda a mess and we were all upset at the time.
Wow, that’s pretty cool. I don’t think we’ve ever had any sort of politician visit my high school or college. I remember that whenever Obama was in town there’d be a ton of traffic on the freeways, but that’s about it.
There have been tons of helicopters flying over campus the past week. A bunch of contractors have also been planting flowers, artificial grass, and other various fixtures in an attempt to make the campus look less… ugly.
@Vctory: I was like “people apply to middle schools?” but then I realized you meant middle tier…
I don’t think Obama’s come to my school, but he has come to my hometown before.
@preamble1776: whenever I hear a helicopter, I’m like “oh great. there’s MORE rioting?!” and promptly check the news, since that’s usually it.
Oh Californiaaaaaaa!
My school is near an airport (lol) and there’s always commercial airliners flying close overhead; I always envy the people on them - especially when I see a European airliner and think that they must be going somewhere great like Spain or the Netherlands and I’m stuck on the ground.
My school’s right next to our own little airport, BWI, Dulles, and National (Reagan)
Does anyone else feel somewhat underwhelmed by college? I’m taking 17 credits, doing a ton of EC’s, exercising regularly, and still have a huge amount of time for partying/relaxing/socializing. I don’t have much time in the day, but the time I spend on my activities seems…boring.
I was thinking about making my own thread about it, but it seems like I’m just waiting for law school/graduation. I can’t add any credits/activities because I don’t have the time, but the classes I’m in now seem obscenely easy. Granted, I’m not taking anything particularly challenging or discussion-oriented, but if I never showed up to a single one of my lectures for 4 of my 5 classes (the 5th being mock trial, where I have to go to lecture to compete) I could pull a 4.0 this semester. My EC’s are interesting, but it’s hard to find orgs/activities on campus I find fun (despite having ~800 of them). Partying/socializing can be fun, but it gets boring.
I don’t know. These are probably just some late-night ramblings, but it feels like there’s little I could do inside of my field (Econ/Poli Sci) that would be challenging.
I’ve always wanted to stay in school as long as I can get some institution (the college, the government, etc.) to pay for it. 
Given the job market, I don’t want to come out of college younger and more uneducated than I need to be. (I wish I could study everything, and I hope I can go back and take more classes even when I’m a “real adult” with a “real job.” People don’t seem to do that very much, and I’m not sure if it’s because they don’t want to or because they have so many other things demanding their time and money.)
Some classes are innately challenging, but other classes require you to impose the challenge on yourself rather than having it given to you. I’ve experienced this in lower-level humanities classes, probably because there are still a lot of non-majors who take them. You can write mediocre papers and get the same grade as if you wrote good papers, but it’s best if you’re intrinsically motivated to write good papers.
Some semesters, you don’t realize how hard it was until it’s over.
^I can see why many people have that perspective; it’s one my cousin has (philosophy/journalism double starting law school this fall). Personally, I guess I’m not really excited about learning for learning’s sake. If I’m contributing to the academic community through a paper, thesis, dissertation, &c. (or as a prerequisite for my degree), then there’s a point behind all of the learning; but if I’m just learning to know more about a topic, studying that topic seems like an inefficient allocation of my time. It might be different when I move onto the upper level’s–idk.
My perspective on the “can’t wait to get out” mentality (which holds true for me intellectually/academically, but not socially) is that I’m memorizing and applying conceptual knowledge and receiving nothing in return (excl. being credentialed by a university; polishing problem-solving ability; learning for learning’s sake). In the real world, we memorize, apply, and are rewarded with money; that money accumulates, and there’s no limit to how much we can earn. We receive a smaller reward in college (our GPA’s), but that’s capped at a 4.0.
Usually, I have the intrinsic motivation needed to write the award-winning paper, but it doesn’t take me long to do so. When I put my nose to the grindstone, I can finish an A+ 10 page paper (that earns specific mention from the TA) in about 3 hours. I did it last week, and I’m doing it again this week. The subject matter’s somewhat interesting, but it feels like I don’t work nearly as hard as some for the grade (ex: I spent 3-4 hours on a paper after only attending lecture/reviewing academic literature for some citacians, earned an A+; close friend spent 20-25 hours on the paper after attending lecture, independently reading, talking to the prof. during office hours, &c &c &c., earned an A-)–and that’s one of the roots of this problem.
(Honestly, a lot of it is “working smarter not harder” (e.g. reading through one metaanalysis as a goldmine of citations vs. pouring over 20 journals) and time management skills, but still).
It’s a (somewhat) narcissistic/pretentious comment to make, but I don’t feel particularly challenged and I’m finding it difficult to create any type of challenge; it’s not because I lack the motivation–that’s not the case–but I can’t find any way to challenge myself without starting my thesis three years early.
Also, completely, 100% unrelated, but has anyone noticed their political views changing with college? If anything, shockingly, I’ve become more conservative. Most of my friends are becoming more liberal, but it’s working the other way around for me (who was already to the right of the center, despite my Lenin tar–I just like cats).
I think this sentence says a lot, though only you can say its exact meaning?
Possibilities:
- You equate money with happiness and thus want to get out ASAP to be happier / get more money
- You don't know what you end goal is in life and go after 1 via lack of endgame
- Others I don't apparently see
It’s clear you aren’t an intellectual primarily. Not for lack of ability but of interest. For those like @halcyonheather , your cousin, and myself, we love the academic side of college. I myself also plan to go back, even if possible to teach. If you don’t like academia, it’s hard to like college excluding social factors. You’re pretty outspoken that you’re socially active in college which is great, but that also appears to be aiding your concept of money as an endgame with networking being a big part of your socialization from what I can tell.
I think the most important question you’re faced with right now is what you want to do with your life. Tell me if I’m wrong but I think you’re going after a definition of success without checking to see if it’s what will actually make you happy.
As far as challenges, I am sure there are plenty of challenges that could stump you but once again I don’t think that’s the problem. It’s as you said, your interest. I think finding your interests sounds like the most important thing for you right now.
If any of this is off base just let me know, not trying to judge but just read in between the lines a bit to see if any of it helps. It sounds to me that you’re a bit bored with life. You’ve got plenty of ability to use and I think finding an interest would give your life much more personal purpose. I know that’s what drives me: not to get to the next step but to explore X and work on my answer to problem Y while keeping all the other balls in the air (GPA, social, etc) so the other challenges will keep presenting themselves.
PS:
Within Econ / Poly Sci challenges
- Ideal Society from a Philosophy standpoint
- New Economic theories
- Other Philosophical Questions
- Revising the Electoral System
@PengsPhils
Extremely insightful post. I’ll respond in chunks:
It does. I’ll respond to #1 and #2 soon, but it’s important I elaborate on the meaning behind that personal philosophy before doing so.
Allow me to revise that statement: In our future fields, we memorize, apply, and achieve a goal. Without the proper setting, that statement is, itself, a truism; I never specified either a field or a goal. In law, finance, or consulting, we memorize different codes, practices, and strategies, apply those tactics to problems in the field, and are rewarded with money and connections. In academia, we memorize the foundation for the current body of knowledge in our field (e.g. econometrics, theoretical macroeconomics, &c), apply that foundational knowledge to novel problems, and are rewarded (intrinsically) by expanding the body of knowledge (assuming that’s the goal of most academics; feel free to substitute your own).
This statement works in a number of ways. Most importantly, it helps us realize that we identify a field so that we may specify a goal. If I choose corporate law, I’m limiting the scope of my goals (e.g. I’m ruling out contributing to the academic community through intensive research; you’ll argue I could still contribute on the side, and I’ll counter that I’m splitting my potential and would ultimately do worse in both fields–this is because I perceive time as such an enormous constraint). If I choose academia, I’m also limiting the scope of my goals (e.g. money’s probably not one of them).
When I originally wrote the statement, I was speaking mainly towards external motivators; it’s nice to see a tangible reward for your work. Whether that prize is money or tenure or partnership or an elected office depends entirely on the persons’ chosen goal, which depends on their field. As a college student, we don’t really see our progress in achieving that goal. We don’t get the reward. We go through the same cycle of memorization and application as we will in our professional lives, but don’t see any results excluding a capped number (excl. a rise in credits).
“But we have to understand the basics before we can make any more contributions!” You’re right. My only complaint is that we don’t see any progress toward our end goal while we make it through the basics–which was, in a way, the point of my earlier post. It feels like I’m paying my dues. If we’re going to one day play chess in the real world, regardless as to if we move around companies or theories, as most of our goals dictate (assuming either money or contribution to the academic community as goals; really though, substitute any rook or bishop for any endgame–it’s your call), we need to earn that chessboard. I’m excited to play chess when I don’t even have my board–don’t lose that statement–I’m excited to play chess when I don’t even have my board. And that’s why this wait is antagonizing.
This gets more into my personal philosophies and less into my beliefs re: college, but you’re right: I haven’t yet figured out all of my end goals. I want to provide for my family, but that’s about all I know right now–and I could do that in virtually any job with virtually any salary. I don’t know why I have a fascination with nice things, but I do; and those nice things usually require money. I’m finding something else, though, don’t worry. I really wanted to comment a bit more on your next point, so I’ll switch to that.
Correct. Truth be told, I like academia but not academics. I’d love to go into academia if I wanted to, but I don’t know if I want to, you know? I’ve gone to a few seminars for the grad students in my Econ department (we’re high ranked in Economics, surprisingly, so we get researchers coming in from Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, and UChicago). I like them, but I’m not terribly interested in them (while maintaining my longterm goal of law school). I’ve considered giving the law school path up, but always come to back to the conclusion that I should stay keep following it. It’s normal to want to shake it up every once in a while, but it’s not healthy to fall prey to that urge. I only want to shake things up because I haven’t yet seen any results–and I won’t for a while.
I think that last paragraph explains a lot about what I mean re: money. At the moment, I can see it as a quantifiable measure of progress. Not because of the potential happiness it brings, but because college is underwhelming/I can’t play the game yet, so I can’t see any of the progress.
That’s probably a more coherent version of the question I’m asking: how do all of you measure your progress in college? If you have a goal, how do you know you’re doing the right things to reach it? How do you tell?
Re: my social activity: Yes, I am.
Networking isn’t a huge part of it; the kid in the other thread asked for the pros of being social, so I responded with one of the perks.
Agreed with the first sentence. The second, I’m not entirely sure. The third, I’m not entirely sure. The fourth, agreed. The fifth, agreed. I don’t really get academic interests, but I don’t really get why people like the color orange either. There are certain subjects I see that deserve more studying, but that’s not to say they interest me–but someone should study them. I need to find my interests.
Completely agreed with your judgement–and I’m not saying that in the pejorative. This might be the first semester where it’s been almost entirely smooth sailing for me, and the absence of difficulties is one of the reasons I’m bored/finding college underwhelming.
I’m more of an absurdist re: purpose. (Camus, anyone?) I took my desires, put them into a goal, found a career that matched my professional interests with that goal, and used backward induction to see what I needed to do to get to the next step. I’ll definitely look for more challenges, though.
Again, extremely insightful post. Apologies if this post is too long-winded; I’m a bit tired.
I probably wouldn’t vote any differently, but I’m more conscious of nuance. I used to think the world was more cut-and-dried than it is. In class discussions, I always end up being sort of a contrarian or devil’s advocate. For better or worse, I can’t just sit there and say “amen” to other people’s statements (or my own from the past). At the same time, I’m probably more inclined to seek understanding rather than write people off when they disagree with me.
@Vctory - I’ve become more conservative (and religious.)* FDR is still my favorite president. (He’s also my favorite person, in general.)
College feels very easy to me but I’ve sort of just chalked that up to the fact that I’m a first year taking lower level courses that are more survey based rather than detail/theory oriented. Most of my classes seem very mechanical and much of it consists of learning what to do relative to earning a grade, rather than what to do relative to supplementing my understanding of the world around me. I love learning - it seems childish, but I really like knowing something that I literally never knew before; I feel more liberated by it.
I’ve found the most intellectually stimulating classes I’ve taken thus so far are my Religious Studies courses; specifically the classes that are grounded in the analysis of religious texts. I think there’s something rather profound about reading a small passage from one of the Gospels and realizing that those 5 or so lines have fueled centuries of anti-semetism or how exilic Jewish lamentations in Torah/Tanakh are still used today with regards to political arguments of Israeli/Palestinian statehood. Aside from application, I think that Theology in and of itself is fascinating - I like examining how different groups conceive of morality, ethics, life after death, sexuality, family, and so on and the nuances of these conceptions.
*I’m not more religious by virtue of my Religious Studies courses - if anything, Religious Studies as a field is antithetical to the fostering of religiosity; I became more religious because of “life events.”
Pretty interesting talk here.
note: very disorganized rambling
College is very challenging for me, although this semester has leveled off a bit. Last semester, I had a lot of things happen to me that I wasn’t expecting (and couldn’t expect) that negatively impacted my performance. But, I feel bored. I’m mainly just doing school and work. I wish I were doing other things, that I had more people to talk to. Yes, there are clubs, but some of them are very closed, i.e. even requiring applications.
Honestly, sometimes I wonder what I’m working for. It’s really hard to say. I figured out the minimum amount of money I would be happy living on, and that’s kind of… a lot lower than most other people. I’m not sure whether I’m studying for the love of learning. I think that being a TA would be interesting, but not so much a professor. And then there are some classes (mostly lower divs) which just take the joy out of learning, so I admire anyone who still continues with that subject after the lower-divs.
Kind of. At a state flagship with a fairly large commuter population, I shouldn’t be surprised, but still. I feel at times like I’ve exhausted all the opportunities that my college has to offer as well. I’m on hall council, do research, make Dean’s List, work as a tour guide, etc. but it doesn’t feel particularly rewarding. Just checking off boxes on an imaginary application.
Also, it is really hard to meet people at a state school 
And I don’t really know what I want to do with my life either. I love learning but I hate being graded on it, so I end up going for the gut classes instead. I’m majoring in Environmental/Animal Science and hope to work with wildlife in exotic locales, but at the end of the day I feel like I’m going to end up in a consulting firm like everyone else and don’t know how I’ll feel about it. It’s as if I have all the time in the world to figure things out, but then again, none.
(also feel like rambling, clearly my spring break has been productive)
I would go to college even if it couldn’t help me get a job. (This ignores the fact that college probably wouldn’t be available to me if it didn’t have practical value. The whole landscape of higher education would be different in ways I can’t even imagine.) Since it can help me get a job, I’m using it for that too. I don’t care about having nice things, but I care about relatively basic things (primarily, financial independence from my parents) and I’m really paranoid about the economy. :-S It’s like, what if I can’t even get a low-paying job?
I chose to major in math because it’s my favorite subject, but also because I think it’s a compromise between computer science (which is better for jobs) and philosophy (which is worse). As time passes, I’ve been getting more fearful and I’m probably going to double major in computer science. I like it well enough, and I think I’ll like it when I know more about it, and you need it for a lot of math research, and the theoretical stuff basically is math—but I got into it primarily because it’s lucrative.
Contrary to what most people are saying, I feel like my social anxiety has stopped me from taking advantage of a lot of opportunities. (For example, I can’t bring myself to talk to professors about research.) I’m basically a stereotypical commuter student who doesn’t do anything other than show up for class once in a while. :-<
@Vctory Appreciate you taking my post seriously, my response as well, probably about equal length.
To the general idea of memorize, apply, achieve a goal: The statement itself revolves around a consequentialist philosophy. I think one thing you aren’t considering is that you can enjoy the application and even the “memorization” (I would argue it isn’t just memory, see fields where you can add creativity to the process) just as much if not more than the ends/goals. These are the things that people call passions usually. Your idea of doing anything for the ends leaves that out and I think that is critical.
Some general background on my view of happiness:
H1. Happiness is an active process. You cannot be immobile in all aspects of life and be happy. There is no state you can get to that guarantees happiness forever.
H2. Happiness can be achieved by doing different things for every person and no one thing has more personal value. i.e there is no greatest good, anything that brings you happiness is just fine.
H3. Happiness is self sufficient: that means that it will do regardless of the ends / reward.
H4. One who is always improving their life will be very happy. What one cares to improve is dictated by H1 through H3.
Note: A lot of this is Aristotle, but he had personal happiness down well if you ask me.
By my definition, your outlook doesn’t allow for happiness. In fact I would say it violates all three of those guidelines.
So, I think the first question is what your happiness is. Let’s start with what you know:
- You want to provide for your family - could be done in any job
- You prefer nice things / enjoy luxury - money is needed
- You aren’t attached to academia
- You strongly prefer stability to risk (correct me if that’s wrong)
So far all reasonable. But, I think you are approaching #4 wrong. You don’t have to stray from one path to explore another. It is important to get a taste of everything so you can make the most informed decision you can when it comes to where you spend your time. Investing time in subjects and activities is a smart investment even if you find just one passion.
So, it seems the logical conclusion is to invest time in activities and subjects you have yet to try. I think that answer is a bit obvious and you may have already known it, but it’s good to have a logical backing. Good. Let’s shelve that for a second. Call it C1
To your central question: How do all of you measure your progress in college? If you have a goal, how do you know you’re doing the right things to reach it? How do you tell?
My Personal Answer: Being Happy. I don’t care about my grades. My employers care a bit and my school cares a bit so I care transitively, but I myself don’t actually care. I care that I
- am currently happy
- am on a track to achieve happiness later in life
Those two both expand out into activities and goals on their own, but at heart those are the only two thing I care about and I would argue any human cares about. I won’t go into detail on mine but lets say mine include problem solving, living in cities, academics, philosophy, organization and physical activity.
So, let’s expand yours.
- I think since you don't know what makes you happy beyond nice things / providing for your family, you can't currently achieve happiness, thus your boredom. We know you can work at C1 to improve this, but what else is there? My second suggestion, lets call it C2, would be to start planning out the two things that make you happy: how exactly are you going to provide for your family? What items do you care about most when it comes to luxuries? Planning these out will bring you happiness in itself via anticipation, and show clearly a path of self improvement. Improvement is key to happiness in my opinion, see H4.
- You know money will help so you are on track here somewhat but a clearer definition of #1 may modify this plan.
So, in conclusion, my suggestions:
C1. Invest time in activities and subjects you have yet to try. Not to get off your current path but to explore options to see if there are any alternatives that better serve your happiness than the current path.
Some personal suggestions for C1:
Rock Climbing
Philosophy (interesting pairing with economics)
Try an Art (it won’t be a major/career but it could actually be a passion)
Try creating something (digital, physical, invention, whatever you prefer)
C2. Plan out details of your current path: really flush it out and understand it and see if you will enjoy all the steps along the way. Plan all your semesters, your post-college life, when you want to retire, where you want to live, everything. As you do this you will also gain insights on what makes you happy and be able to adjust your current activities and explorations accordingly.
I could have just just posted from the break line down but I think the reasoning is important here. Let me know what you think / any objections / questions.