Back in my day, you couldn't check dogs out of the library.

Focus: I will be graduating from Ohio State with a degree in Finance in a few weeks, and in retrospect I can't imagine a better experience going to a different college in the area. I have grown so much both personally and professionally here, and feel like I have chosen the correct career path.

The one thing that really stands out about my college experience is how a large university can become small quickly. Through my being involved in various activities, I know at least one person nearly everywhere I go around campus. When I meet someone new, there's a high probability that we have a mutual acquaintance, and I feel that this small world feeling is quite rare at most large universities.

 

I went to Emerson for Writing and Publishing.

Focus: I loved it. Going there was one of the better decisions of my life. First, I loved the major. I didn't want to be an English major and learn how to read. I'm usually not the biggest fan of literature classes. I liked their specific major and the classes that came with it, where I would actually learn real skills on how to be successful beyond a classroom. The professors were nearly always wonderful, and had amazing backgrounds. For writing classes, we never turned in an assignment without a query letter for a magazine or literary journal, depending on the class. Those workshops were invaluable in improving my writing. We learned how to be our own bosses as freelancers. I learned about the actual business of publishing, rather than just the creative side. Almost all of the classes were project-based, rather than focusing on tests, which is how I learn. For a magazine publishing class, we made business plans and proposals for new magazines. For desktop publishing, our final was to publish a book. My senior thesis was to write, edit, design, and produce an original magazine. It was awesome. Also, I tested out of almost all of their gen-eds, so I got to a) graduate in three years and have $40k less in debt and b) actually take classes that I was interested in.

The student body was amazing. Everyone was ridiculously talented and ambitious and being around them all the time was inspirational. Since it was such a niche school, everyone was pretty similar, so it was easy to get along with people and to make a lot of friends. Although, sometimes such a homogeneous student body got a little boring. But, having so many friends right there was one of the best parts about college. Now, my friends are spread out all around the world. It's lame.

Also, I liked being right in the center of Boston. I loved not being in a traditional, isolated campus and having the feeling of actually living in the city instead of being A College Student.

I also just liked that it was a fun, not-particularly-traditional school.

Other than the specific good things about Emerson, I'm tagging onto the "I liked college because I got to start over" train. It was such a relief not having anyone know who I was or what my story was, and to not be dragged down by everyone's expectations of who I was or how I would act. I loved getting to figure out and then actually be exactly who I was or wanted to be. It was freeing.

Anti-focus: All of my complaints about Emerson are first world problems. The first is that while my major was one of the most popular majors, I continually ran into imbalances when it came to funding, opportunities, and benefits for our department versus the film department, which was equal in size. But, all of their famous alums and big donors are from the film department, so surprise surprise.

Also, the majority of the student body was female. About half of the male population was gay. Many of the straight men were in relationships. The dating scene was not in my favor. I did not even kiss a guy who went to Emerson while I was there. Thankfully, there were a few other college students to choose from throughout Boston.

Also, I'm bummed I never studied abroad. Emerson had two options - they own a castle in the Netherlands, and they have an L.A program for film students. I have zero interest in the Netherlands, and all of the courses were gen-eds, so it would've been a waste of time when I was trying to graduate in three years. Spending a semester writing somewhere other than Boston would've been pretty cooool.

 

I went to a tiny university in a bumfuck town in South Carolina. I studied business management and psychology. I was astounded at how easy much of it was, until I stepped on my dick by overloading in one semester and receiving a stellar "C" average for 18 hours.

I hated the small town cliques that formed, both inside and outside the Greek system. I'm a little pissed that upon graduation, I was blindsided by how little I was prepared, but that had more to do with my own arrogance than my school.

I loved the tiny classes (I took a developmental psych class with 8 people in it and it was amazing), the fact that I still shoot emails back & forth with my professors, and the community was small but pleasant. We were ten minutes from a gorgeous lake, a shooting range and an immense natural park. Also, the internships in a small town were much better than in a college town with 50,000 students and they were genuinely interesting, provided good experience and helped me get a job after graduation.

I got into UGA, Clemson and this place. I hated my enormous high school and I could go to the small school for free. I graduated with 2 degrees in 4 years, with no debt, and while the classes themselves didn't exactly teach me wonderful things, the experience was priceless and I've leveraged that piece of paper into a few other unique opportunities.

 

I went to one of the satellite campuses of Penn State and majored in Creative Writing. Now I'm in grad school in Scranton getting a degree in secondary education with a concentration in English. For the purpose of this thread, I'm going to talk about my undergrad, because I don't live on campus at my grad school and I don't like it very much

My favorite part of college was my professors. It was the first time I really felt like I learned something, and they made me want to be a high school teacher so that I could bring that to students at a younger age.

My least favorite part was my roommates. I have told you all stories about them. Because of them, I had every cliche college experience when it comes to drinking, drugs, sex, etc. That might sounds great, but it was actually a pain in the ass when I had a paper to write and they were drunkenly fighting in the next room.

 

Some of you have posted about frats. How do you try to join them? Do you just go up to a bro and say "hey bro, I want to pledge" or do they hand pick you.

If they hand pick you what is the criteria on which they base you on?

 

From what I've heard, you're supposed to grab a farm animal and fuck it in its' ass on the front lawn of the campus. If the fraternity brothers like your technique, one of them will call you.

Focus: I, like rei, went to the University of Toronto. Good school, good reputation, got a non-bullshit degree (well, the anthropology part was bullshit, but the chemistry and ethics were useful). I loved school because the chem profs were amazing and had industry experience. The mix of academics and people who had worked in industry was great to see the practical application of what we were learning. The campus life was quiet, since it was a predominantly commuter campus, so the bar scene was crap, but I think if I'd had a bar at my easy disposal, I probably wouldn't have graduated with honours.

 

Ohhhh, ok. Judging by your reply I'm willing to bet that's why you didn't get into one? I suppose those donkey dicks are hard to take, but I'm sure you gave it your best shot.

 

Varies from school to school, but most schools have what is called a rush process. You basically tour all the houses, talk to the brothers, decide which houses you like best and where you think you would fit. Then basically you go back those houses, hang out, go to "rush events", and if the brothers like you as well, they offer you a bid, and if you accept and enter the pledge process.

Sometimes you get hand picked, but usually in that case you have some sort of nepotistic connection to a brother or alumni.

 

Judging by your reply, I'm guessing you're unfamiliar with Greek or this particular poster's background, sorry to burn you so hard in front of your buds but you know how I gets down, tractorbro.

 

Actually, judging by his reply you could assume he was unfamiliar with both higher education and the concept of witty repartee. And bathing.

 

I went to Rice University, majored in political science and psychology.

My time there was pretty awesome - social life, hobbies, parties, the unbelievable weather - and I was interested in my majors academically (moreso psychology) - I mean, who isn't interested in human behavior? Psychology is basically the science of human behavior and cognition - the actual science, not some marketing team's conjecture and astrology-esque profiles most people seem to confuse with the field.

Nevertheless, I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, considered that I could get by on my staggering genius alone (and humility), and majored in what I found interesting. Obviously, I can now advise you that those two majors are completely worthless in the job market.

I'm glad I majored in psychology - because really, the themes of the courses really show you that we are cognitive misers, and that most people's even basic perceptions and beliefs are built on an elaborate house of lies and self-serving bullshit - including your own. Evo psych is very interesting as well, although obvious very subject to conjecture.

Political science --- with a focus on US government - I remember very little, which shows you how much bullshit that major is (but most majors are). I remember doing a massive research paper on the War in Iraq in 2009 -- and even the information available on the public record - the objective facts -- are mind-boggling. And most people can't explain succinctly even the basic timeline or reasons for us going there - you know, basic history type shit. Other than that, something about utility curves, the median voter, our-military-is-literally-unstoppable, and suicide bombers are actually wealthy individuals doing it for family financial gain. Congrats, I now confer to each of you Honorary degrees in Political Science for knowing what I know.

I'm not really doling out any advice, but at least one benefit to my majors (vs. engineering or a math degree) is that, while difficult at times, it certainly allowed me to go abroad and pursue hobbies and shit in my free time more. In terms of marketability? Obviously shit. But if we were in pre-2007 times, they may have been just fine.

 

I graduated last year from the University of Minnesota majoring in Marketing and Entrepreneurial Management with a minor in Spanish.

There's lots of good things about the U. Despite being such a massive school, I got into the business school and my class size was about 400 so I got to know many of my classmates(especially in my majors) over time. I became a member of several clubs and got to know and meet lot of people through them, and can attribute both internships I got to connections I made through one club in particular. Access to internships and connections is easily one of the greater benefits to the school.

I don't use the skills I learned with the marketing major in my day-to-day job now as a cold calling machine, but simply put the degree has value because of where it came from. On the other hand, what I learned in the Entre major will come in handy once I'm working full time for myself (whenever that happens) and I was able to use class projects to develop and refine my own business plan over a couple years.

It did suck living off campus and having classes spread across such a big fucking campus when it was very cold out. I spent my first year majoring in shitty vodka and Natty Ice (hell yes the dorms were fun) so it took a semester of academic probation for me to get my ass back on track, but it worked. My first year GPA was 2.5, and I ended up with a 4.0 and 3.5 in my major courses. If anything I regret how damn much I worked my last year, because I took 35 credits over two semesters while working 20 hours/week at my internship. I graduated on time and got a full time job pretty easily, but my social life really really suffered as a result. We'll see if that was worth it.

Greek society at Minnesota doesn't have a quality reputation and I never had any intent to pledge. I went to some frat parties my freshman year for the sake of free beer and drunk hot chicks but it got old in a hurry. Sure, not all of the guys in houses were super fratty, but the brahs were impossible to avoid and not the type I want to associate myself with. House parties in Dinkytown (the student neighborhood ajacent to campus) beat the hell out of them anyways.

 

I'm leaning towards Ballsack on this one.

I had a science major in college, and took 18 credits while working full time to pay my tuition. When Spring break or summer rolled around, I didn't relax, I picked up more hours at work. College was exhausting. The 10 or so years after college were FAR better than the years I spent in school for a bunch of reasons.

1. I finally had some real money to go places and do things, other than college pursuits like spending every Thursday at that shitty bar with the $5 pitchers and the hairy waitress.
2. I actually had some free goddamned time to do things, including hang with my friends.
3. College women are a bunch of confused twats, with opinions and goals that are as substantial as a fart in a windstorm. They generally have no clue what they want, simple as the choices may be. Onions rings or fries? Jeans or skirt? Walk or ride? Beatsthefuckouttame. And no, I wasn't a bitter, greasy haired loser - I had one girlfriend the first three years of college, and was getting the carrot waxed regularly.

Jesus, the more I think about, Ballsack is right. Fuck college.

 

Do elaborate...

 

And you seem so happy with how your post-graduation prospects have turned out, too!

OK, but for how many people is this actually true? How many people find that post-graduation, they have a ton more free time? If you worked a bajillion hours, ok, I'm impressed and all the more power to you. But that seems pretty atypical for the college vs. post-college experience in general.


I graduated from Georgetown. All around, I can't be too upset. I had a reasonable amount of fun, learned a thing or too, saw some great basketball, spent years in DC, and was able to parlay the school's reputation into a pretty decent job. That being said....

1) It's a remarkably uptight and homogenous school. Phillips Exeter bros partying with Phillips Andover brodettes. The WASPy vibe was often overwhelming (and I'm even from New England, so you'd think I'd have a higher tolerance than most).
2) The lack of a Greek culture was something that had its upsides, definitely. On the whole, I think I prefered its absence. But you definitely miss out on something without giant frat parties (or serious college football, for that matter).
3) I think the school coasts on its academic reputation. While it has plenty of famous alumni, I'm not sure the quality of education was that much better than at a good state school (i.e. UNC, Michigan, etc.). I think a lot of other departments (my majors were econ and math) ride the coattails of the foreign service and government departments.

The nice thing about #3 is that since Georgetown is a "reputation" school, people assume it is a lot harder than it truly is.

On the balance, I wish I'd gone somewhere that either had a better party culture or a better academic culture rather than somewhere that was merely decent for both. But one can do a lot worse than decent, so I'm not terribly upset.

 

I would guess that's not true for everyone but in my case I did get a lot of my free time back. I worked 50+ hours a week while I went to school online. I know the degree is not worth as much as a traditional school, probably not worth what it cost me to get it, but a business management degree is pretty worthless anyway. At best it opens doors, or so I hoped when I went back to school. At any rate I now have the time to lose the weight I gained when I went back to school and time to chill when I need to. I work more now (I really thought a remote connection to my work computer was a good idea at the time...) but I still have more me time.

 

My college experience was completely and utterly forgettable. Frankly it would be wrong to even call it a "college experience". I went into the USAF right out of high school and have been working a full time job ever since my enlistment ended so I just went part time over 8 years to eventually get my degree in Business Economics. I went to a state school that focuses on working adults so pretty much all of my classmates were people with families and careers. There weren't a lot of extracaricular activities offered at my school either. It was neither the best nor worst time in my life simply because the portion of my life devoted to it was pretty minor.

 

I went to Kennesaw State, a former teaching college that's grown to be the third largest university in Georgia, for my biology degree, and I'm still there for a master's in stats. I have always loved KSU's non-trad environment - I've had classmates from their late teens up into their sixties and seventies. When half of your peers are your parents' age, you don't feel so bad about completing your degree in five years instead of four. We have fantastic learning resources, including a free math amd chemistry tutoring lab, where I spent my second half of undergrad working for more than decent wage, and a learning center that caters specifically to non-trad students. Our study abroad programs are ridiculously affordable. Both of my programs have been ~$2100 plus tuition for three and a half week trips to China one year and France and Romania another. We've also had "pet the doggies on the campus green" days around major exam periods.

I'm paying for a football team that won't exist until more than a year after I finish my degree. Past fees have gone towards the dining hall I don't use, the nursing building I can't use because it belongs to the College of Nursing, and a soccer stadium I've never stepped foot in. I know that this is characteristic of most universities, but I would give something ridiculous to have received a no frills education. I don't care about on-campus dining or athletic facilities; I'm just here to get a degree. Also seemed like the College of Science is one of the last programs to get funding, and that makes me sad.