Did you enjoy college?

KnifeWRENCH · 21-11-2010 04:54AM

Killer Pigeon wrote: »

The whole college experience for me holds some odd paradoxes; you lose so many braincells yet you somehow become smarter.

Yeah, that's actually true (though I hope I haven't lost that many braincells; only one horrible experience with alcohol so far!)

I feel a lot smarter in the sense that college has made me grow up a lot. I definitely feel like being in college has made me more mature, more streetwise and less socially awkward.

On the other hand, I feel like I've become more stupid academically. It's not a good sign when your average grade goes down by about 10% every year.

nisior · 21-11-2010 04:59AM

Ok I hate that I read this thread. I had to drop out of school two years ago because of illness and all my mates are in 1st year college this year and I'm feeling left out.

Ah **** it. Haha

Killer Pigeon · 21-11-2010 05:34AM

Davidius wrote: »

Enjoy the course. Don't enjoy not having much to do between lectures or having to use public transport. The horror of it all.

... get involved in societies ... talk to people ... spend time at the student bar gym.

21-11-2010 11:25AM

I loved it

scientific1982 · 21-11-2010 11:50AM

Best craic I ever had.

Agricola · 21-11-2010 12:19PM

Whats not to enjoy? Meet like minded people, 5 or 6 hours of lectures beats 8 hours of work every day, half days all over the shop, tonnes of holidays.

I wasnt a party animal and rarely bothered with the traditional student carry on of going out as much as possible, getting bladdered etc etc and even I enjoyed it hugely. Its important to get the right course though. I went into a one straight after school which I hated. It really bored me, and the people on the course werent really my type of people. The following year i went into a course I liked and it was full of similar personalities with the same interests.

Princess Peach · 21-11-2010 12:24PM

I used to hate college. Didn't really like my course, didn't like the people in my class, way too stressful. I may just be focusing on final year too much. The rest wasn't too bad, but that last year was hell.

Now I work full time and I realised how much I really miss college. Way better than working!

Xavi6 · 21-11-2010 12:27PM

Call me cynical but the OP is a first time poster asking for opinions from Boarsdies. Wonder which paper he/she is connected with....

Anyhoo, my college days were the best of my life. I did the minimum to get my degree and had a bloody good time for three years. The social life was carefree and constant.

I'm envious of those Van Wilder types who just never have to leave.

Nodin · 21-11-2010 12:28PM

Yogi3 wrote: »

Just wondering for anybody either in college now, or finished college in the past – do you actually like college, or did you do your degree just for the sake of having a degree? To be brutally honest, that is the situation I am finding myself in right now, I absolutely despise the subject I am doing, yet feel compelled to work at it and put my best in for the results and the degree (hopefully) at the end of it all.

Also I guess when you start courses, its not the same as they often make it out at the beginning in order to get people interested, and they become quiet tedious. Are / were you in college for no other reason but to get a degree, or did you actually enjoy it?

Was never in it.

Went to a freshers ball in UCD once though, if that counts. Can't remember how I got home, so it wasn't bad.

Sugar Free · 21-11-2010 12:29PM

For the first two years I enjoyed both the course and the other aspects.
For the last two years it was purely to get a degree and get working on a good job and career - which I now have and do enjoy.

Nodin · 21-11-2010 12:30PM

Xavi6 wrote: »

Call me cynical but the OP is a first time poster asking for opinions from Boarsdies. Wonder which paper he/she is connected with....

.

Hope its not the Sindo, as we aren't allowed criticise the shitty standard of some of their journalism.

HalloweenJack · 21-11-2010 12:40PM

When I started I enjoyed it and was enthusiastic about it. Now, I just want it to be over.

I'm in my final year of studying journalism and as the years have gone by, my enthusiasm for the subject has turned into cynicism. I'm going to finish my degree but, tbh, I don't see myself having a career in that field.

College has been meh. I live an age from the city and I haven't had a job since I started so I haven't been able to fully partake in the social side, unfortunately. I have met one of my best friends there.

By far, the best experience from college for me has been the Erasmus exchange. It was brilliant.

Overall, I'd do it all again, I'd just pick a different course.

candy-gal1 · 21-11-2010 12:49PM

Imho :

School = 80% crap mostly.
PLC college = Meh, not too bad really, spent most of it studying.
College = 100% the best! It shaped who i am today, made me realise that education wasnt **** after all, and its something I can look back on fully and think of all the fun times and experiences in the classroom.

Sounds cheesy and shmaltzy but its true.

tallus · 21-11-2010 12:56PM

Never went myself.

School was ok tho

21-11-2010 01:15PM

It was fine. At the time I didn't think I was having a great experience as I didn't go out much, but I look back it at and I think I was happy. I think I focused too much on studying and going to lectures, if I could do it again, I think I'd party a bit more, although to be fair, I was putting myself through college, so I was always broke. My Erasmus year was the best year of my life, loved every minute. Had money because of the low cost of living in Spain, became fluent in Spanish, made loads of friends and went out all the time. Would have loved to have done my whole degree over there. Dublin at the time was just too expensive to be able to enjoy the student lifestyle on a student budget.

pakb1ue · 21-11-2010 01:21PM

Hated it at the start ended up loving after the first few months. I only ended up enjoying my course in final year as that is when we started doing all the interesting modules.

Was known for doing the bare minimum, would actually work out how much marks I needed just to pass, then in final year I was working out how could I get a 2.1 and both worked out quite well until I realised I didnt know a lot of stuff when going for Job Interviews.

Miss the lifestyle big time, arsing around college for most of the year only when exams came around I actually started to do work. Avoiding study like my life depended on it by playing tennis with a bottle cap and the lap computers being the net or playing makeshift blowing in the lab when with my class mates when we should have been doing an assignment worth 40% of a module which we all hated and where crap at and it was due at midnight that night.

Ha I even have fond memories of sitting in a big lecture theatre at 9am dying from the night before hand with all my mates taking the piss out of me for something I had did the night before

just before we had to sit a class test which I was in no shape to do. Fail that exam shockingly enough but still managed to get a 1st in that module somehow.

All that said I wouldnt go back there now to do a masters as I know I wouldnt enjoy it what so ever.

SeaFields · 21-11-2010 01:25PM

I loved college. Was good at it too. Probably could have made better decisions as regards what to do but, as a 17 year old filling out a CAO form, I did what I thought I wanted to do. Still tho I did well in what I eventually chose.

A good lecturer can make all the difference. I had the pleasure of being taught by several outstanding lecturers (one in particular is known around the world in his field) and their ability to present the material in an interesting/enjoyable fashion was second to none. Nothing worse than a poor lecturer. They might be experts in their field but communication skills can make what should be enjoyable lecture experience into a dull, drab 50 minutes.

I enjoy learning so will prob keep it up for life. Not a bad attribute to have I hope.

Mars Bar · 21-11-2010 01:25PM

I'm in my 3rd and final year.
I have a really good attendance, do my work on time etc...and it's probably the reason why I hate it.

My course is all over the shop too which doesn't help.

Novella · 21-11-2010 02:20PM

I hated college. It wasn't really the course, it was the experience in general. Too many breaks in the timetable - lecture 9-10am and the next lecture not 'til maybe 2 or 3pm. Ugh. I just didn't like it at all. I went to a really tiny school, with a huge work-load and then in college... I guess I was bored tbh.

flahavaj · 21-11-2010 02:30PM

Had an unbelieveable amount of craic in college.

Xavi6 · 21-11-2010 02:33PM

Novella wrote: »

I hated college. It wasn't really the course, it was the experience in general. Too many breaks in the timetable - lecture 9-10am and the next lecture not 'til maybe 2 or 3pm. Ugh. I just didn't like it at all. I went to a really tiny school, with a huge work-load and then in college... I guess I was bored tbh.

That was my favourite bit as you had no choice but to spend the break in the pub. It was like the college was forcing me in there and I was happy to oblige.

Motley Crue · 21-11-2010 02:39PM

Good people in my college, nice classes and great lecturers, but I was never really into the after college social aspect and since I lived with my parents throughout college (since I grew up in Dublin and it was cheaper that way) there was no real opportunity for "fooling around" or anything like that

I've even found I enjoy it more living away from home now so I think if that had happened when I was in college I would have been more outgoing and more inclined to go out and do something as much as I could

I joined a few clubs and what not, some of which did a few things and others which just disappeared after their opening seminar, and even tried to found my own club at one point - although most people never knew we existed - but I think a lot of it also had to do with my lack of a car...that would have helped as well

So, to recap, if you want to have fun in college:

live in student accommodation
embrace everything, not just some things
have your own car or at very least a best friend with his own car as your personal driver

JonB · 21-11-2010 02:47PM

I love college. As the years progress through my degree I find myself with even more work load. I like my course alot, I feel I'm doing something that I actually enjoy. Nothing like getting a hard assignment and you feel incapable of doing it, then when you manage to complete the assignment you feel a great sense of achievement and have learned alot.

I find college amazing when you have an amazing lecturer who teaches his course great. A great lecturer makes you feel so interested in the course and you do the work cause you enjoy it. But a bad lecturer just makes the work feel like a choir.

Collie D · 21-11-2010 02:58PM

Novella wrote: »

I hated college. It wasn't really the course, it was the experience in general. Too many breaks in the timetable - lecture 9-10am and the next lecture not 'til maybe 2 or 3pm. Ugh. I just didn't like it at all. I went to a really tiny school, with a huge work-load and then in college... I guess I was bored tbh.

That was the same for me so I just dropped out. Wasn't worth my while travelling for three or four hours a day for one or two lectures. That and there seemed to be a high proportion of stuck-up **** there.

Davidius · 21-11-2010 04:35PM

Killer Pigeon wrote: »

... get involved in societies ... talk to people ... spend time at the student bar gym.

Those things are boring.

The_B_Man · 21-11-2010 04:37PM

Loved it first time around. Carlow is a class place to go to college, for social reasons.

In another college now just doing the 1 year, and while I like some of the subjects, its not half as much fun. but that can be down to a few reasons, like I'm living at home instead of a student house. And theres no good student bar.

I reckon fixing them 2 issues would make any college fun! Of course, you do need friends to socialise with, else it can be ****e either way, i'd imagine.

JohnMearsheimer · 21-11-2010 05:11PM

I enjoyed it for the most part. Somtimes when I'm sitting at my desk in work I think that I'd almost love to be back in a lecture on French local government followed by an awful lunch in the main in ucc or something. I suppose I miss lack of responsibility. I know some people carry a lot of responsibility throughout college but I lived at home and had a part time job that I loved so the most I had to worry about was passing my exams.

Leelaa22 · 21-11-2010 05:19PM

Im still in college and Im not really enjoying it. I thought it would be all partying, drinking, getting laid, road trips every other weekend.. the usual.

But I think it could just be my college, its **** for that side of things.
Its all work work work I havent been out in months!!!
This is not what I signed up for!!!
So I guess I'm just here for the degree.

HxGH · 21-11-2010 05:41PM

I can't wait for college!!!! ONE MORE YEAR!

Celtise · 21-11-2010 06:21PM

I love the lifestyle but hated final year undergrad and currently hating first year postgrad.

Did you enjoy college?

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