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Undergrads are ****ing morons.

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
I was just subjected to a forced proofreading of a research paper rough draft by a classmate in literature.

Her biggest complaint was that I had too many sources. Nevermind that the paper currently has no thesis or logical train of thought (it's literally a mess of paragraphs that I've yet to congeal into a paper). Kids here are dumber than bags of hammers.

Sigh. Release me from jc hell, oh California residency...but something tells me UC is just as stupid. It might be a hunch based on the number of fixies I see getting walked up the hill to campus every day.
 

Ithnu

Monkey
Jul 16, 2007
961
0
Denver
When I was a TA back in WI, I had a student who cut and pasted web pages into paper. He pretended he didn't, I pointed out the background was still blue. I found the site he used on the first page of Google results.
 

chicodude

The Spooninator
Mar 28, 2004
1,054
2
Paradise
I was just subjected to a forced proofreading of a research paper rough draft by a classmate in literature.

Her biggest complaint was that I had too many sources. Nevermind that the paper currently has no thesis or logical train of thought (it's literally a mess of paragraphs that I've yet to congeal into a paper). Kids here are dumber than bags of hammers.

Sigh. Release me from jc hell, oh California residency...but something tells me UC is just as stupid. It might be a hunch based on the number of fixies I see getting walked up the hill to campus every day.


Hahaha....All high and mighty huh? Its a ****ing junior college! What did you expect, The academic elite? It's the 13th and 14th grade.

:bonk:
 

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
College is what you make of it.

You can surf through or be an Ace student, no matter where you are or what you do.
 

Austin Bike

Turbo Monkey
Jan 26, 2003
1,558
0
Duh, Austin
Yeah, I have a bunch of MBAs working for me. Proof that having an advanced degree is valuable, but not as valuable as common sense and hard work.

An undergrad in economics is doing more than masters in business.
 

Ithnu

Monkey
Jul 16, 2007
961
0
Denver
College is what you make of it.

You can surf through or be an Ace student, no matter where you are or what you do.
Not sure where you went to school, but I was in Aerospace at UW-Madison and there is no way to surf through. In general at the entire College of Engineering there, they'll flunk your a$s because there are people waiting to take your spot.
 

ire

Turbo Monkey
Aug 6, 2007
6,196
4
Not sure where you went to school, but I was in Aerospace at UW-Madison and there is no way to surf through. In general at the entire College of Engineering there, they'll flunk your a$s because there are people waiting to take your spot.
At our school you could make it through the first two years without knowing a lot, but most of those people failed the third year and had to change majors.
 

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
You coming to Riverside, Blue? That's close to my place. come by and drink beer.
Nope, UCSC or Cal.

Wait....so, aren't you an undergrad....?
Shhhhhh....you're missing the subtle hipster irony.

College is what you make of it.

You can surf through or be an Ace student, no matter where you are or what you do.
No, surfing=acing at Cabrillo. I think elementary school was more difficult.

I shouldn't be so mean to the asshats. I should be mean to UC for not taking any of my English credit from the U. of Utah and forcing me to retake sh!t classes.

Still...TOO MANY SOURCES!?!?
 

bikenweed

Turbo Monkey
Oct 21, 2004
2,432
0
Los Osos
Still...TOO MANY SOURCES!?!?
Well, since you had a bunch non-logical paragraphs without any organization, her critique might very well be valid. If you don't have your sources oganized, and there are tons of them, cutting out the excess and getting back to the basics would be a fitting thing to do.

Then again, maybe you had something like three sources, and she thought one would be enough.

Post up the paper in question!
 

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
wow, you have no clue about how the UC system works, do you?
lol wut?

I know UCSC doesn't work. I've been to Burger Kings with more informative and helpful staff.

My limited interaction with the UCB admissions/FA/admin has been quite positive, however. That's one big reason I'm considering it. Of course, having an endowment roughly equivalent to the GDP of Switzerland probably helps on that end. That said, if I do want to go there I'll have to effectively start over, aside from the AP credit from HS.
 

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
Well, since you had a bunch non-logical paragraphs without any organization, her critique might very well be valid. If you don't have your sources oganized, and there are tons of them, cutting out the excess and getting back to the basics would be a fitting thing to do.

Then again, maybe you had something like three sources, and she thought one would be enough.

Post up the paper in question!
I will, when it's done. This weekend. In PAWN!

It wasn't valid, IMO. Since these were "rough drafts", there was no bibliography, just citations for facts in the paragraphs and a quote or two. I had to proofread her paper. She told me she was about "done". It was six pages long and contained a grand total of two sources. She used them quite sparingly, and used one only once. Entire paragraphs full of information (and 7th grade sentence structure) with no citations. I guess I'm used to writing papers where you have to cite anything that isn't opinion or blatant common knowledge.
 
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skatetokil

Turbo Monkey
Jan 2, 2005
2,383
-1
DC/Bluemont VA
I don't think its a matter of stupid/not stupid.

Liberal arts college requires a very specific set of skills like reading writing and critical analysis that people are simply not born with. These also happen to be skills that the public school system does not actually teach, so many students are hopelessly lost by the time they get to the undergrad level. For those of us who did have the benefit of good training and actually care about developing our skills in these areas, sitting in class with a bunch of uninterested and untalented people is very frustrating.

However, you will be in this situation at almost every college in the country for one simple reason: unless you are an evil genius, if you want a good paying job you have to go get your ticket punched at a four year college. That is even if it teaches you nothing remotely useful for your future career.

The cynic in me would say that a liberal arts degree really only demonstrates to future employers that you can conform and obey, that you can perform reasonably well under stress, and that you are about equal with your peers at overcoming arbitrary obstacles.

Maybe they really care about Platonic philosophy though...
 

manimal

Ociffer Tackleberry
Feb 27, 2002
7,212
17
Blindly running into cactus
However, you will be in this situation at almost every college in the country for one simple reason: unless you are an evil genius, if you want a good paying job you have to go get your ticket punched at a four year college. That is even if it teaches you nothing remotely useful for your future career.

The cynic in me would say that a liberal arts degree really only demonstrates to future employers that you can conform and obey, that you can perform reasonably well under stress, and that you are about equal with your peers at overcoming arbitrary obstacles.
wow...you just said what i've been trying to say on RM for a long time. :clapping:
my problem is that my bitterness towards this "right of passage" often offends people who take college too seriously.
 
wow...you just said what i've been trying to say on RM for a long time. :clapping:
my problem is that my bitterness towards this "right of passage" often offends people who take college too seriously.
This statement seems muddy. I hope to hell you're working hard on getting the best educational yield for your time and money spent. You're paying for a service, demand and earn it. The bitterness piece could lead you to idle back and just get through, which is a loss for you and for society.

BTW, it's "rite of passage" as in a ritual, not "right of passage."
 

BurlyShirley

Rex Grossman Will Rise Again
Jul 4, 2002
19,180
17
TN
This statement seems muddy. I hope to hell you're working hard on getting the best educational yield for your time and money spent. You're paying for a service, demand and earn it. The bitterness piece could lead you to idle back and just get through, which is a loss for you and for society.

BTW, it's "rite of passage" as in a ritual, not "right of passage."
I don't know how people could honestly believe college is anything but an immeasurably valuable experience. I learn so much on a daily basis that I almost feel stupider realizing how much I dont know. There's more information out there than I could reasonably be expected to digest without the structure, but school makes it manageable.
Sometimes it sucks, like today when I'll be in the GIS lab for 5 or 6 hours, but it's worth every bit what it costs to me.
 

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,232
20,015
Sleazattle
I don't know how people could honestly believe college is anything but an immeasurably valuable experience. I learn so much on a daily basis that I almost feel stupider realizing how much I dont know. There's more information out there than I could reasonably be expected to digest without the structure, but school makes it manageable.
Sometimes it sucks, like today when I'll be in the GIS lab for 5 or 6 hours, but it's worth every bit what it costs to me.

You are actually going to school for something you want to have a career in, as did I. I knew too many people that got generic degrees with no real career goal in mind, they never seemed to enjoy school as much as I did.
 

skatetokil

Turbo Monkey
Jan 2, 2005
2,383
-1
DC/Bluemont VA
I personally like the ivory tower academic experience, am taking continuing GIS training myself, and plan to go to graduate school at some point.

However, I recognize that it's not for everyone. I may be able to talk at length about the differences between constructivist and realist political theory, but is that a skill I think everyone needs? Hell no.

The fact that we all need to go to college because of how the job market functions means the classes are bigger, the material is oversimplified, and people are distracted from developing skills that are actually useful for their life's work. It's bad for both the people who want to be there and the people who don't.

I contend there is a baseline of education that we all need to have that includes the classic "three r's" but also lots of practical knowledge that doesn't get taught in most schools.