Describe your time in college

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I spent my 5.5 college years between two private art schools, The Minneapolis College of Art & Design (MCAD) for two years and then the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA) for three and half years. MCAD was an okay school, just wasn;t right for me, CIA had the right major for me (Biomedical Art) but was and is a woefully mis-managed school.

In short - I learned a lot and became a better artist, but it fucking sucked the entire time. The funny thing is - between MCAD and CIA - I can count on one hand the number of classmates I had who actually liked art school, everyone pretty much hates it. You know how people joke about how easy it is to get into art school? Absolutely true, the hard part comes from getting through art school (well, depending on the major).

Private art schools chew people up and spit them out, because they get no state funding the way university art schools do, they'll take almost anyone because they desperately need the money. The problem with that brilliant strategy is that a large chunk of the freshman class end up being completely thrown to the lions because, frankly - and I'm going to sound like an elitest asshole here - they have no business being in art school due to a severe lack of artistic spark or base technical ability. Whether you're a clear artist at heart or you're just some kid who drew crude anime characters in his/her notebook in high school - private art schools don't give a fuck. As long as your ACT score is above a 21 and you have a passing interest in becoming a professional artist, you're in.

A lot schools unfortunately operate that way - the exception being some of the "bigger" and more prestigious schools like the School of Visual Arts in NYC or Ringling College of Art & Design in Florida. Those schools actually do have relatively high standards for enrollment.
 
Necromanti said:
I'm still straddling the line between a junior and a senior, but...

As an international transfer student coming in from a community college, I'll admit that it has had its ups and downs. I've made a few good friends, although it does get quite lonely at times. Haven't really been to any parties (or had opportunities to get invited to any). Doesn't look like I'll find a boyfriend any time soon, either.

I feel like living in a dorm or being a local would have made socializing easier.

I'm prioritizing my education at this point, though, while not taking it it so seriously that I will not have any down time either.
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First bolded is going on my list of things that I'll never understand, right below #3; attractive women who complain about their lazy, unemployed/mooching boyfriends that ignore them.

Second bolded bit is entirely true, but seems odd. I was under the impression that living on campus your first year, regardless of where you transferred from etc, is mandatory. That's how it it is at my university and that's how it was everywhere I applied to.
 
Pagusas said:
How did this happen, were you in a dorm or apartment? What do you feel kept you from socializing or doing things with people? It may give others insight to avoid a similar thing.
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Dorm for all four years.

I didn't socialize for the same reason anyone doesn't socialize I guess. Fear. Of being awkward or rejected or what have you. I never really had trouble talking with people in class especially if I was in a group with them but once we didn't have to be in the same room with each other they would go do their own thing and I'd make the long lonely trek back to my room. I just never really had the courage to go about asking them to hang out after class or any idea of what we'd even do since I didn't have a car or a job. And I never managed to catch any breaks with anyone inviting me anywhere either which just brought the self-confidence down more.

I don't think this is unique or anything. There's this idea that seems to permeate our culture where you go to college and suddenly everything changes and you just fall into friends, casual sex, drugs, etc but I'd imagine the people who this does happen to were already experienced with these things from high school. Either that or put a hell of a lot of effort into changing how they went about their business when they arrived at college. Because I basically treated it the same way I treated high school and managed to graduate a kissless virgin with no friends who'd never been drunk/high or anything like that. Such is (the lack of a) life. You get what you settle for I guess.
 
The first year was incredible. I was in a party dorm and that was a big change for me because I wasn't the party type. Everybody on the floor got along great; we'd hang all day together, watch some porn together (we saw Pirates as a floor), and the situation and people were refreshingly different for me. One of the guys on the floor was even put on house arrest because he was an accessory to a robbery ("accidental" getaway driver). And that's when I met my current SO.

Then it was all downhill from there. I was separated from my first year friends and the night life by about a mile and a half during my second year, it was difficult for me to meet new people outside of dorm life (I hated the people I lived with in my second year dorm) and my SO had a habit of disappearing for weeks when her workload piled on so I was pretty lonely my third year.

But my fourth year was decent. Skipped graduation ceremonies but it was decent.
 
My 6 years in college were a lot of fun. But major-league regrets. "Wasted Opportunity" would be a good way to describe it, and my life suffered for several years for it after graduating.
 
Aquavelvaman said:
First day moving into the dorms:
Friends are renouncing their religion. Friends are doing cocaine in their dorm rooms. Roommate begins making connections to try to buy large volumes of painkillers. There is a thong hanging from the ceiling in the elevator. Some random guy shows me a photo on his phone of him fingering two girls at the same time. I go to a frat party, drink beer and smoke a cigar with some dudes. Is this what college is?

Two months later:
Friends are failing their classes and having all sorts of friendship/relationship drama that I never imagined in high school. Roommate is selling cocaine and meth from our dorm room, and doing cocaine with strangers in our room when I'm not around. A lot of my things are stolen from my room. Roommate is always smoking weed in our room, which you can smell from the elevator, and we live across the hall from the RA. Some of my college friends steal a car and are arrested. Two times I walk into my own room to find two strangers I've never met having sex in my bed. Is this my life now?

The rest of the first semester:
A strange older guy who does not attend our university moves into our suitemate's (connecting bathrooms) room does a lot of weird, gross shit all the time. Roommate trades a bag of cocaine for a truckload of stolen university property, which he stores in plain sight in our room ("It's okay because it's not on your side!") Roommate failing most of his classes, decides to do speed to study for finals and then sleeps through them all when he crashes. A couple of my friends kill themselves. Someone detonates some explosives on campus and dies during a football game. I just do my best to finish without being arrested or having more of my stuff stolen.

Semester two:
Move in with another friend. Things are better. Have casual drinks, meet people, go to parties, have fun. Class is still easy but not engaging.

Semester three:
Time to move out from the dorms and into an apartment. Live in a really cool place, right on the main drag of bars and restaurants and really close to campus. A little price but whatever. Oh wait, it's infested with giant roaches, the air conditioner breaks every week during summer, the roof caves in during an ice storm during finals week...

After that I moved into a decent apartment and felt like I could actually handle life for the first time since I had left high school. University was entirely different when my living conditions weren't miserable. Managed to learn a lot of life skills and pick up some useful hobbies with the free time. Finished my degree and have since had a tremendously better life as a working adult than I ever could have had as a student.
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That sounds like a pretty harsh experience. You have South Korea listed in your profile as your location, did you go to college in South Korea as well?
 
I drink 3 Monster drinks a day, I rarely get time to exercise, and I'm getting 5 to 6 hours of sleep a night.

You can't just attend college thinking you're doing the right thing. You have to know what you want out of your life, then work hard to obtain that goal.

I love what I'm doing, so it's well worth it.

I think college is worth the stress. If life was easy then we wouldn't work as hard.
 
Northeastmonk said:
I drink 3 Monster drinks a day, I rarely get time to exercise, and I'm getting 5 to 6 hours of sleep a night.

You can't just attend college thinking you're doing the right thing. You have to know what you want out of your life, then work hard to obtain that goal.

I love what I'm doing, so it's well worth it.

I think college is worth the stress. If life was easy then we wouldn't work as hard.
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So if I am unsure of what career I want to be pursuing five years from now, what should I do?
 
Ezduo said:
I didn't socialize for the same reason anyone doesn't socialize I guess. Fear. Of being awkward or rejected or what have you. I never really had trouble talking with people in class especially if I was in a group with them but once we didn't have to be in the same room with each other they would go do their own thing and I'd make the long lonely trek back to my room. I just never really had the courage to go about asking them to hang out after class or any idea of what we'd even do since I didn't have a car or a job. And I never managed to catch any breaks with anyone inviting me anywhere either which just brought the self-confidence down more.

I don't think this is unique or anything. There's this idea that seems to permeate our culture where you go to college and suddenly everything changes and you just fall into friends, casual sex, drugs, etc but I'd imagine the people who this does happen to were already experienced with these things from high school. Either that or put a hell of a lot of effort into changing how they went about their business when they arrived at college. Because I basically treated it the same way I treated high school and managed to graduate a kissless virgin with no friends who'd never been drunk/high or anything like that. Such is (the lack of a) life. You get what you settle for I guess.
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I think it's normal if you don't want to socialize in a broader college environment. Such thoughts never even occurred to me: I've always had a circle of close friends, who I can do stuff with, but other people? I just don't really have interest in them, hence the idea of engaging in some partying of whatever is strange for me. I just don't feel very comfortable around people I don't know very well and hanging around such people is not my idea of a time well-spent. Isn't that basically introversion?

Loxley said:
Private art schools chew people up and spit them out, because they get no state funding the way university art schools do, they'll take almost anyone because they desperately need the money. The problem with that brilliant strategy is that a large chunk of the freshman class end up being completely thrown to the lions because, frankly - and I'm going to sound like an elitest asshole here - they have no business being in art school due to a severe lack of artistic spark or base technical ability.
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Good insight — I have zero knowledge about art and it's actually interesting. But does it matter if everyone else is no good as long as you are doing your thing? I mean, ultimately, it's the quality of teaching that matters, not that of your classmates.

Northeastmonk said:
I drink 3 Monster drinks a day, I rarely get time to exercise, and I'm getting 5 to 6 hours of sleep a night.

You can't just attend college thinking you're doing the right thing. You have to know what you want out of your life, then work hard to obtain that goal.

I love what I'm doing, so it's well worth it.

I think college is worth the stress. If life was easy then we wouldn't work as hard.
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I actually thought it was a negative thing, lol. You might as well spend most of that time procrastinating (many do) and describe it in the exact same way. What I can say for sure is that this doesn't sound healthy at all.
 
Crunch time and the stress of running a group mixed with good friends and some excellent times.

I'm a wee bit older, though, so I'm less into the drinking yourself comatose thing. I actually feel quite sorry for people that do that, boiling your life down to nightclubs and the occasional intensive study period for 3-5 years sounds shit.
 
Iacobellis said:
So if I am unsure of what career I want to be pursuing five years from now, what should I do?
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Nothing. I'm saying it as a precaution. It's a good time to think about what you want to do. Don't slack off, stop doing homework, and other distractions. Focus hard on what you like and go from there.

I see and hear about students who throw away their college years on parties, classes that don't apply to your future goals, and time spent worrying. What do you enjoy? Start from there.

If you're unsure don't quit. College is also a time where you figure out what you want to do. Just remember its precious time you're using because classes aren't cheap. That's what I mean.
 
The most expensive and unenjoyable 4 years of my life. Grad school was barely any better.

I try to avoid talking about it.
 
Somehow went four years without making any really close friends that I feel the need to stay in contact with beyond an occasional Facebook posting. A bit of a shame. I did have roommates I considered friends at the time and earlier people in the dorm that I did social things with like go to parties, play video games, see movies, but once we stopped living in immediate proximity to each other we stopped socializing almost completely. I put a large part of the blame for that on my inability to end a couple of soul-sucking drama-filled relationships that I wasn't particularly happy in but still allowed to consume almost all of my time.
 
Was high all the time, appreciated some literature/philosophy/religious studies/psychology/liberal arts classes that I took, hated 99% of and flunked out of some of the STEM classes I took.
 
Like high school, but more stressful and less forgiving. No idea where I'll end up, even though I know exactly what I want in life.
 
I probably would have had a better time if had gone to a school I actually liked and didn't have to pay for it.

Took me over 10 years to pay that shit back.

Frankly, high school was more intense, free, and more fun. Would have been happy to continue that for 4 more years.
 
One thing I would suggest for anyone still in there is to visit their uni's career development center if you're needing help job-wise post graduation. Mine at least was an amazing help in that regard, plus your uni's job search database is usually better for most majors than LinkedIn/etc.
 
Spent a year at a public state university in Texas before transferring to a private liberal arts school in New York.

Overall I loved it, but I had my fair share of hard times during my time there. Worked hard on my studies, battled loneliness and bipolar depression for my sophomore and junior years, finally hit my stride and made some good friends, got a girlfriend, and completed some great accomplishments during my senior year.

Didn't do any internships or study abroad. This is my biggest regret. I was worried that I wouldn't do as well in my concentration (creative writing) if I ratcheted up the stress too high and moved to yet another locale, but now I realize how crucial those activities are for those who wish to continue succeeding.

Tried living in the city for a few months after graduation, couldn't find a job, ran out of money, came back to Texas and got an office job.
 
Tenrius said:
I think it's normal if you don't want to socialize in a broader college environment. Such thoughts never even occurred to me: I've always had a circle of close friends, who I can do stuff with, but other people? I just don't really have interest in them, hence the idea of engaging in some partying of whatever is strange for me. I just don't feel very comfortable around people I don't know very well and hanging around such people is not my idea of a time well-spent. Isn't that basically introversion?
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My problem is that I didn't have any friends when I got up there so I basically started with nothing. So it was either get myself out there in the broader college environment or hope I could fall backwards into some friends eventually. Unfortunately I choose the latter.
 
Very poor planning and execution. I'll be graduating this semester with a degree in marketing, and I'm not sure where that will get me. Due to a couple aimless years at community college and a change of major after that, it's taken me five and a half years to get a bachelor's degree. On the whole it's sort of depressing.

That said, I did take some interesting classes along the way, mostly at community college. In hindsight, there were probably some subjects that I should have latched onto and pursued, which would have been more fulfilling than what has happened since.
 
Loved it. Got to experiment and socialize for the first time in my life. I definitely got depressed a few times, but it all helped build my character and understand who I was as a person. I would definitely do things differently if I went back, I focused too much on my new-found freedom and failed to develop a professional network and my grades wasn't up to par. Right now I'm enjoying my professional development and my new career path so I don't really feel the urge to go back if I had to do it all again. I'd rather just move forward and try something new.

EDIT: Should also add that I got a full ride through college so that erase any monetary worry during and post graduation. Yay.
 
The most miserable part of my life. I had no idea what I was doing or why I was there, the environment made me stressed, anxious, and depressed, I became heavier and suicidal, and I was paying lots of money for all of these horrible feelings. I promptly dropped out and now my life is already much better.
 
Ezduo said:
My problem is that I didn't have any friends when I got up there so I basically started with nothing. So it was either get myself out there in the broader college environment or hope I could fall backwards into some friends eventually. Unfortunately I choose the latter.
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Well, I somehow made quite a few pretty good friends in the process, don't know how exactly. But I always interacted with people in a very personal way, not as a part of the community, that's the point.
 
Crusty computer lab with a shitty girlfriend in a community college filled with people who want to waste their days in the lunch room instead of intending class.

Then I went to Chicago, and it became:

Hipville with fun classes, great friends, and an amazing girlfriend.
 
My first year; went to a school that was a 40 minute commute each way, had crappy professors (by crappy i.e lots of canceled classes). You think sweet no classes that's fun right? Nope, not when you'd have to drive 40 minutes to find out your class is canceled because your professor doesn't bother sending out mass emails or notices, then you have to kill 3 hours for your next class.

I got fed up transferred from Kean University to Rutgers University, couldn't have been a better choice, 40 minute commute is now 3 minutes. I knew a lot more people things went better.

Got my Bachelors in a little under 3 years, my Masters a year later, and I just got my PhD last May.

Never dormed, always lived at home. I do miss that aspect though.
 
Hated every second of it. I spent the first 2 years not really knowing what I wanted to do, which was stressful and felt like my life was on a timer. I didn't know anyone since everyone from high school drifted to other places and I'm not the kind who starts making new friends very easily. I mostly just went to class, did what I had to do and immediately went home.
 
Derrick01 said:
Hated every second of it. I spent the first 2 years not really knowing what I wanted to do, which was stressful and felt like my life was on a timer. I didn't know anyone since everyone from high school drifted to other places and I'm not the kind who starts making new friends very easily. I mostly just went to class, did what I had to do and immediately went home.
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This is probably why most people have a bad time in college. I did this my first year and thought university was overrated and shit. The next year I decided to get more involved with my campus and faculty and had a blast. Im in my third year now and its amazing. The only way your going to meet people and make friends is if your willing to put effort into it.
 
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