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A serious question


~Shockwave~

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How far up do I have to get in the educational system before the teachers goal is prepare me for life outside of school rather then the next level of school?

 

Now excuse me while I cram information into my brain so I can take a test and write an essay on memorized information in ink in the span of an hour and then forget about all of it the second I walk out of the classroom. Because that's apparently what going to a university is all about.

 

Which exactly why I'm at a community college.

 

Did I mention that the essay is given stupid specific guidelines? No? That one mistake can potentially get it thrown out? No? That none of this information was actually given to us and simply mentioned offhand? That the professor doesn't answer questions regarding any of this?

 

And this is all really unfortunate because I thought I was going to enjoy this class, and it's to late to back out.

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In my personal experience, never. If you really connect with a professor, you can meet with them outside of class and try and get a better sense of what direction they think you should be heading in.

 

But school is always going to be school. A bureaucratic nightmare of red tape and nonsense. Hopefully what you learn is beneficial to whatever career you end up finding, but the transition is not going to be seamless and definitely not going to be fun. The best you can do is just to get through it. A degree is worth it (allegedly, mind you...), and if you're not going to burden yourself with much debt, it's not a bad thing to do.

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And I've done that before, most of my professors are pretty open to meeting outside of class and giving me extra information if I need it. But this one has openly said he will not give extra information, will not answer emails, and won't clarify anything for us. If we need that, we need to go to other students in the class.

 

He also mentioned offhand that it's common for students to drop the class, meaning that unless we actually communicate with someone outside of the class on a regular basis, that's a rather unreliable thing to be relying on. Not to mention the students aren't the ones giving the assignments and so aren't well equipped to give info on what the professor wants.

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Unless you're going to school for a specific job (e.g. teacher's college, medical school, culinary school, etc.), never.  Otherwise they're just teaching you how to learn.

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Depends on the major. 

 

Web design & computer science fields & engineering are highly job oriented. And animation/multimedia stuff. Maybe English/writing in terms of getting a book published. Otherwise, it's theorectical junk.

 

[/totally biased response]

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I'm going to school for culinary, though so far I've only done the general ed classes.

 

At least I have that to look forward to, I suppose.

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I was of the opinion that most higher education institutions were out to get your money.  Or at least that's my assumption when they say that there's a rule specifying thta 30% of the class has to fail.

 

:music:

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What I have felt as I've reached the tail-end of my degree process is this: it isn't that they aren't teaching us how to operate in the real world, it's that they are teaching us how to operate under the assumption that we are going into research. Every writing class in my major has been about "peer review" and "writing for science journals" versus actually teaching basic writing skills. At the same time, I've learned some things in a couple classes that will help when thinking about what is going in with one patient or another. Some classes specifically say they want to teach us how to think and develop our mental skills. I've gotten a lot more practical skills and leadership experience through TAMECT and the Singing Cadets. Now, compare that with my engineering housemate: she's been in classes relating to the properties and uses of various material, the math and design principles of engineering, things that will and already do relate to her job. But she's also learned a ton from internships, her job, and from being a student-group officer. The point of higher ed is to teach you knowledge, develop your mind, and give you opportunities to learn practical stuff, either through classes, labs, or internships. Whatever you are doing, I would suggest you seek so outside learning for hands-on things, relying on your college for mind-on development.

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I'm going to school for culinary, though so far I've only done the general ed classes.

 

At least I have that to look forward to, I suppose.

You badly need to take classes in your major right away when you go to college. Otherwise you wash out and lose sight of your goals, I've found. 

 

But that's just me.

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I'm going to school for culinary, though so far I've only done the general ed classes.

 

At least I have that to look forward to, I suppose.

You badly need to take classes in your major right away when you go to college. Otherwise you wash out and lose sight of your goals, I've found. 

 

But that's just me.

 

 

Unfortunately, as much as I would have like to do that, it would have been really difficult. All of the culinary courses they offer are all over at a different campus that's really far away. (2 hour bus ride) And now that's not even looking realistic. 

 

@Zox: I think I've noticed that too. The writing skills I've learned in my college classes can't really be applied many places. At least not for me. At least history is interesting for me, even if it's not really applicable to anything I'll be doing in life.

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Your professor sucks. Your job managers will likely suck. Sounds to me like your school is orienting you to the real world just fine. :P

 

Really, though. It's not fair, but you have to learn deal with it or problem solve. Life outside of school isn't going to treat you any better.

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Honestly, I didn't learn anything practical in a classroom outside of Home Economics in Middle school, Keyboarding in High School and my college classes where they actually did prepare us for life. Our math classes were all about budgeting and money skills. Our English class was literally all about writing a resume and doing mock interviews. (And that info helped me greatly with finding my internship, especially since the school hosted real interviews at a job fair). That information is all applicable to finding any form of work, and my notes and references will probably be valuable to me for a while.

 

I also went to a culinary school, and the classes regarding food preparation were honestly all applicable. We even took part in a student-run restaurant.

 

And, having a degree does help with finding work. However, remember that it's also very important to have references and a letter of recommendation never hurts. Also, for the food industry, when you take your food prep classes, be sure your presentation is fair. Take pictures of your plates and build a portfolio. A small, professional looking binder will do. Just format your pages so you show the picture of the food and label it neatly.

 

Outside of that, though, I wish I had learned more about finances and stuff.

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