Did Anybody Love College?

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Just wanted to know of anybody who thought college was a great experience. Making a lot of friends, gaining new experiences, and having great memories that will last a lifetime. It would give me great hope and inspirtation since I will be leaving community college and going to a four year soon.

I just want to know that there is a good chance that I can really enjoy this experience. I feel like this is a great opportunity and I cannot afford to blow it. Like I said, feel free to tell me if college to you was amazing and really worth while.

Yes, but not for the social stuff. I liked the stuff I learned and what I could do with it. Someone once told me I could have a better social life living in the dorms, but now that I think about it I would really rather have lived off campus in an industrial unit, working on my PhD there, because I don't have anything to show for the rent I paid to live in student housing and I'd rather have the money back.

Last edited by sgrannel on 30 Mar 2010, 6:17 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Freshman at my college were put into "pods" for their first quarter. The pod had all the same classes and lived in the same dorm. I found it pleasant to be grouped with people with similar interests and similar classes/responsibilities. I quite enjoyed their company and that period of my college life.

I tend to like school in general. I enjoy learning and require the structure and timelines imposed by class requirements. Outside of my first quarter pod, I made a few friends, but I spent a lot of my time by myself, simply reveling in my first chance at independent living.

I enjoyed it, but I was fortunate and met a couple of people who became good friends who could put up with my awkwardness.

My first college experience was good for maybe the first two weeks. Beyond that, freshman year was HELL. I had two teachers I didn't get along with, pledged a fraternity my first semester (and you KNOW what goes along with fraternities, but I was really determined to do it), my girlfriend became a long distance relationship. It was a lot of pressure.

My second year was marginally better--one of my teachers left, so I was able to get a little more oxygen. My girlfriend joined me, too. This was great, on the one hand, but she never quite understood that, as a music major and an active frat man, I had a lot of obligations OTHER than her. This caused a lot of friction, of course, and it didn't help that she'd go mouthing off to her friends about how big an idiot I was. At this time, she was the root of a lot of my meltdowns, and then she'd get all weepy when I started screaming back at her--you know, like it was all MY fault or something.

I'll save the details of the last two years. Suffice it to say I figured out I was in a bad situation and started taking steps to get out of that relationship and repair all the damage done to my transcript during those first two years. I'd figured out music education wasn't really the place for me, but I had too much vested in it and really didn't know how to get out of it.

Now grad school, on the other hand, was AWESOME. Seriously, if AS is getting you down in your first 4 years of school and you're just sick of it, make plans to get your master's degree immediately after. I went halfway across the country for my master's degree. Sure, I still had ONE teacher I wasn't compatible with, but so what??? At least at that school I had a choice. There was also a chapter of my fraternity there, so I had the advantage of instant friends from day 1. Those boys looked up to me and listened to me (they just ignored me at home) because of my experience. I even earned the nickname "The Colonel," probably because of being outspoken about my ideals and partly because of my Southern accent (I'm from Mississippi). Since I was a composition student, part of my work involved recruiting undergrads to work on my projects. The faculty were very helpful with that. I had a lovely girlfriend (in every way), and even found a church I liked. The church was a big deal because after leaving home, I found it difficult to find a church where I felt like I really fit in. Finding one so far from home encouraged me to be braver about doing the same after graduating and moving around. This really helped later on because now I'm on staff at my current church as a pianist. The worst part about that school was graduating and having to go home!! !

Good luck with school. I hope your undergrad years go a lot better than mine!

No, I haven't enjoyed it at all. It's pretty much been like an extension of high school.

I did, and since finishing (successfully) I have fallen apart.

I completely adored university. I made friends in halls but never quite managed to get there with people on my course. Tbh it didn't bother me that much anyway, it meant I didn't get distracted from the lectures. I love my subject though, so that definately helps.

I loved college for the most part - I loved some of the classes, especially where the professor could lecture well and the readings were interesting.
Hated the frat boys/girls who made it seem way too much like high school, hated the dorms and hated the classes with the professors with political/religious agendas. If I could I'd stay forever and just get more degrees, no idea what to do out in the "real world" and the academic stuff is quite fun for me at least.

Sorry you felt that way. My experience as a "frat boy" was mostly good because the interests and ideals of the group closely matched my own (nearly all of them were active musicians, though not necessarily music majors). The ritual was deeply meaningful to me, and I still make every effort to live that out in my own post-college life.

I wasn't a big fan of dorms either--they were just a necessary evil. My second year of grad school I got a room in a completely co-ed building, no roommate, and devoted nearly ALL my time to writing my thesis.

I think I was lucky that my professors didn't seem to want to push any religious agendas on us. My philosophy teacher was one of my favorites. He had a way of challenging our beliefs not to push an agenda, but to try to get us to make up our own minds and take a stand for what we believe. Most of us actually thought he was an atheist, while those of us who got to know him knew he was a Methodist minister.

By and large most of my profs later on were decidedly liberal according to political agenda, and I made no point of hiding my more conservative, Christian viewpoints. I think they liked me so much because I could make a case for my ideas/ideals (challenging them and my classmates, in other words), and make people think without coming across as an ignorant, redneck bigot.

I'm curious: What kind of agendas did you feel certain professors where trying to push on you? There are some pretty horrible ones on both sides--the ultra-conservative, and the (I think) ultra-liberal atheist who WILL flunk you if you believe in God and/or bring his conclusions into question. There are ways of dealing with both tactfully and respectfully without compromising your convictions or your grades! With more and more accepting moral relativism versus modern humanism these days, it's difficult for someone to talk down to you about your beliefs without making themselves look like hypocrites (I'm not a relativist, but they do make themselves easy targets, IMO).

I thing the most egregious example was a Early World History class where the professor would just randomly start reading from the Bible, spent an entire class talking about how global warming is false, how atheists are stupid and if any of us "girls" get knocked up, he'd be happy to adopt our babies. He also introduced the class by saying how stupid students are and how most will fail his class - so good teaching all around. Plenty of others but nowhere that bad. My rule is, if it's related to the class in some manner and if it's open to class discussion it's ok - otherwise they should just shut up and lecture about the topic we signed up for.

Wow! Seriously??? That is inappropriate on so many levels.

The only legit reason I could see using the Bible for that kind of class is possibly as a comparison with other philosophies/theories of human origins and how that plays into early cultures, especially since the OT is known to provide a reliable history of the nation of Israel and hence the origins of Christianity.

Global warming--well, I won't get into that, though I believe there are some truly silly people out there using "climate change" as an excuse to get media and political attention. ANYONE who twists facts to suit their purpose (no polar ice caps in 5 years? Come on!) doesn't deserve to be given credibility. I think climate change has been blown way out of proportion by its supporters. But that's no excuse to ignore environmental issues.

Atheists being stupid--personal opinion aside, that's just inappropriate. The Bible quote in support of that is "The fool has said in his heart there is no God." Christians get called idiots all the time, and it isn't always warranted. Even if that's what you think, it's not a very nice thing to say. Hello, Golden Rule! So why call someone else stupid?

Taking your babies--I have no idea what that's about. Again, why would anyone in a position of authority say that?

I had an American History teacher that, no matter what, would NOT give grades higher than a D. I actually like the prof. I even retook a class to try to get a better grade, and it was still a waste of time because I still got a D. Eventually I took from a different teacher who photocopied and handed out the notes for ALL his lectures. That earned me a B. I think in some schools there are THOSE profs who often roam in packs trying in every way to fail kids. Well, they fail us alright--they fail to teach! The ones I despised the most were the English profs. If you weren't in agreement with their opinions on literature, you were WRONG and would always be wrong. I think there are too many that are hung up on being right all the time and don't concern themselves enough with getting students to make up their own minds.

Sounds to me you weren't terribly burned and maybe it was only one somewhat misguided prof that gave you a hard time.

I agree, some legitimate uses of the Bible as a historical document or in a comparative religions/class on Christianity/Judaism, etc. The global warming thing - I'm not a scientist so I won't comment - but this was a history class - the guy's expertise is (supposed to be) history, has no science degree/training so I don't want to hear a rant from him.. and the babies thing is when he went on an anti-abortion rant.. again completely unrelated to the class which took up nearly the entire class. It bugged me a lot - but in the grand scheme of things, I needed the credit more than I needed to protest and I've learned to teach myself things so I just ignored it.

And that sounds really messed up - I don't get why a prof would go out of his way to fail students. It should be about whether you do what's expected - but that's the problem with universities - lack of standards in grading/teaching and lack of teaching professors how to actually teach. And literature always bugged me too - I read the book and think one thing and then apparently it's about whatever the professor says it is and if you disagree you're wrong no matter how much you don't see it.

I absolutely loved being in college/university. I made a few friends but I was always focused on my studies. I could take classes for the rest of my life and be perfectly happy.

I love college. i have so many friends and there are so many clubs that even people who have asperger's can fit into. I have a lot of friends that also have Asperger's, and they are great. College has given me confidence and great independent skills, and the positive encouragement to succeed in life. It is the best thing that has happened to me.

I go to college now and it's OK because I enjoy the lessons but I haven't made any friends STILL! I had some friends in highschool so why not now?
Atleast I do still see my school friends sometimes.