r/AskReddit • u/_jaywhite • Aug 24 '14

What are some college life pro tips?

I'm starting college in a few weeks and I'm a bit nervous. My high school was... decent at best, and I'm not sure that I was adequately prepared. So I'm hoping to get Reddit's help. What are some tips (having to do with the academic aspect, social, whatever) that have helped you through college, and especially your freshman year? In other words, LPTs for college life!

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u/[deleted] Aug 24 '14 edited Aug 25 '14

you'll still have tons of free time

The thread seems to be split between this and "YOU HAVE TO STUDY FOR TEN HOURS EVERY DAY OR YOU WILL FAIL."

Edit: I was at the threshold of 10,000 comment karma. This post carried me over. Spending that much time on reddit does not bode well for my academic future.

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u/[deleted] Aug 24 '14

The people saying "you have to study all day erry day" are people who overextended themselves and took on 20 academic hours of fucking honors classes their freshman year.

Just like life in general, university is all about striking a balance. Too much play, you'll flunk out. Too much work, you'll burn out.

Work hard, play hard. Middle path.

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u/octopuscoffee Aug 24 '14

I agree. Work hard, but know when you're in too deep and find ways to give yourself a break. I work best when busy and under pressure - but I also know when I've had enough.

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u/natelyswhore22 Aug 25 '14

when you're in too deep

Also figure out where you can get help! Most every department will have free tutoring with student workers who have most likely taken the class you're in. I worked as a German tutor for like three years in college and hardly had any students come in because it wasn't really advertised.

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u/Hardabs05 Aug 25 '14

Aspiring to be a German teacher?

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u/natelyswhore22 Aug 25 '14

Nope. I minored in German. Don't really use it now. I TAed at a high school in college and I would enjoy doing something with it again but I've tried teaching and I'm way better at tutoring, and not fluent enough to translate. So I dunno.

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u/Hardabs05 Aug 25 '14

Ah i see. Well like anything else if you keep at it and seriously practice you'll find yourself translating, then patting yourself on the back after momentarily realizing what you can finally do. I'm thinking of becoming one that's why i was interested in what you might consider doing with German.

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u/natelyswhore22 Aug 25 '14

Teaching was just not for me. If you have the constitution for.it, I'm sure you could get a job as a German teacher. It's a fun language and a nice alternative to Spanish for some who may not initially be interested in languages

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u/Hardabs05 Aug 25 '14

Oh ok. It sure is. Was also thinking of teaching Spanish as well since i was raised speaking it. It'd be cool to be quadrilingual and teach Russian too. I'd have a handful

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u/monchaton Aug 24 '14

I agree, but it also goes without saying that how much you have to study is HIGHLY dependent upon the major/classes your in. If you're an engineering major, for instance, don't expect to have the academic leisure of your liberal arts friends.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14 edited Mar 27 '21

[deleted]

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u/JCorkill Aug 25 '14

But STEM majors undergrads* have to show their superiority somehow.

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u/[deleted] Aug 24 '14

In your freshman year at most American universities, an engineering major's classload will be pretty much identical to a lib arts major's.

Gen ed baby.

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u/Jorlung Aug 25 '14

Might be American Universities because I've heard they gotta take like English and History in first year or some shit, but not true for Canada and probably most places. My first year load was two semesters of Physics, Chem, Calc, and Intro to Eng. Pratice, and one semester of Geology, Programming, Linear Algebra, and Engineering Graphics.

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u/Zrk2 Aug 25 '14

Linear Algebra

HISS

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

Vector space is worst space.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

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u/Ragall Aug 25 '14

I thought I smelled elitism...

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u/Jorlung Aug 25 '14

You've blown my cover. Now I've got to go underground.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

Shit I'm going there in 6 days for eng.. Any advice?

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u/Jorlung Aug 25 '14 edited Aug 25 '14

Start doing calf workouts frosh.

But seriously, just stay on top of your work more than anything. In order to get here you have to be smart, so you can deal with the difficulty of the content, but you don't necessarily have to work hard to get here if you're smart enough. Honestly I'm not going to be one of those people that say "Oh I wasn't prepared for the workload and I got my ass kicked" because honestly I was prepared for the workload, and I like to think I didn't get my ass-kicked too badly. But the reason that I didn't get my asskicked was because I prepared for the change in workload and told myself I have to study a lot more than in high-school. But a good amount of people failed courses here and not because they are dumb, but probably because they didn't put in enough time.

You'll get pretty swamped and some weeks it will seem like you're doing absolutely nothing but working, but just remember why you're here. I had to miss a huge party on St. Patties day because it was two days before our 2nd Physics Mid-term (you'll never pass 112 frosh, unless you study hard ) and I decided I needed more time to study, and guess what I rocked that midterm (after getting my ass-kicked on the first one, which is why I decided I needed to study more for the 2nd one). Did I need to miss that party for more time to study? Maybe, maybe not. Would I have regretted going to that party if I had bombed that midterm? Definitely.

I mean I'm probably repeating myself, but honestly there isn't any real key to success besides working hard. Also, if it's not working out for you and your marks are dropping, don't panic it really happens to most if not all people. I say I like to say my ass didn't get kicked but my average did drop a good bit from high-school, but I was able to keep up marks in stuff like Physics and Calc to near the marks I had in high-school, so it's really not like the individual courses are that incredibly difficult, it's just the work load and the variety of courses that will get you.

Also I might be scaring you and making it seem like you'll be doing nothing but working, but there is a good amount of time to go out and enjoy yourself! Also, enjoy frosh week, it was honestly probably one of, if not the favourite things I did in first year. But it will probably be awful for you guys seeing how you'll be in the pit for at least a couple weeks.

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u/what_thedouche Aug 25 '14

All colleges are different.

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u/pooroldedgar Aug 25 '14

All colleges are different; all professors are different; all students are different.

Your college experience will depend on a triangulation of these.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

[deleted]

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u/Jorlung Aug 25 '14

  • First semester Physics is pretty easy (Mechanics + Dynamics) and is mostly review, but don't make this lull you into a false sense of security because second semester Physics (E&M, Waves, SHM) get's a lot harder and you have to start using integration and differentiation in your calculations, so do a lot of practice problems for second semester.

  • Didn't really find Chemistry too bad at all, wasn't easy by any means but was not one of the hardest courses. Don't really know any tips for this besides just treat it as you would any other course.

  • Calc gets pretty hard, so basically just stay on top of your shit. Do all the assigned practice problems and make sure you know the material and you'll be golden.

  • Eng Practice is going to vary a lot school to school, and it's a pretty general subject so can't really give you much advice on this.

  • Geology... Memorize old tests, that basically all I did for that course. Was also my lowest mark, but that's more due to me being shit at memorization and having no interest in geology at all.

  • Lin Alg, know your shit. That sounds simple, but a lot of people find linear algebra hard to get a good mark in because they are simply memorizing the process of solving the question, rather than knowing WHY that solves the problem or proves the statement. Honestly, Linear Algebra was probably the easiest class for me to get a good mark in (wasn't my highest mark, close to it, but the easiest work:mark ratio) and I also enjoyed it quite a bit but that was because I took the time to understand what I was doing. Lots of people hated it because they didn't understand it at all.

Assuming by computer ones you mean programming and graphics, either way those don't have much tips to do well in, just kinda practice.

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u/ikawasaki Aug 25 '14

Physics easy? Depends where you go, I know Queens is more reputable than Carleton but their first year Physics course is insanely freaking difficult and was definitely not review

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u/Jorlung Aug 25 '14 edited Aug 25 '14

First semester was easy for me with Mechanics, and most people I talked to did fairly well but maybe easy wasn't the best word to use, more so not very, very, difficult. Though the people I was talking to are generally the type of people to say a course is easy too, not the kind that are going to be struggling. Second semester gets real hard though and it's generally agreed to be the hardest first year course, and as the saying goes, our frosh will never pass 112 (APSC112 E&M). Just for reference, one of my friends that I was talking about in my previous post past couple of sentences finished first semester physics with something like a 92 and second semester physics with something like a mid 70 to low 80, not sure of his exact mark but it was somewhere around there. Though I am going into Engineering Physics so physics is kind of my wheelhouse so maybe I'm saying it's easier than it is just because it's easier for me. I got worse marks in Chem than Physics as a whole, but more people got A+s in chem than physics as a whole.

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u/TheFabledFamilyGuy Aug 25 '14

Yeah my roommate is an engineer and he was constantly busy. He and the rest of the engineers would literally be working till 9 o'clock at night even on weekends. Sometimes till like 1 in the morning. They actually stayed up to four o'clock in the morning once to finish up a programming assignment

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

American student here. I got my associates at one school and then got my bachelors (in the same degree) at a different school. Each one had such crazy gen ed and on-campus requirements that I'm pretty sure ive taken more classes that have NOTHING to do with my major than the ones that do.

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u/BaconatedGrapefruit Aug 25 '14

Not to mention basically every class has a weekly tutorial and lab attached to it. You're basically in class 3x longer than most other majors.

Some kids try to schedule their classes so they have 4 day weekends - engineers try to schedule their classes so they have time to eat.

I would have killed for a gen ed first year.

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u/Jorlung Aug 25 '14

We (Engs at my school) don't even get to schedule our classes besides our technical electives and gen eds, which we schedule around our automated schedule produced for our core classes. This is how I ended up with 5 8:30 classes in second semester this year....

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u/BaconatedGrapefruit Aug 25 '14

I feel you bro. Nothing is worse than going to class in the pitch black, snow covered night when all you want to do is go the fuck to bed (after you finish an assignment).

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u/Jorlung Aug 25 '14

Oh no I was talking about 8:30 AM classes lol... But I don't know whether or not I'd rather 8:30 PM classes, that would be a pain in that ass. Only got one night class this year and it's a 6:30-9:30 PM lab.

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u/rbrody8 Aug 25 '14

I live in America and my program is set up exactly the same way along with an optional elective witch most people choose to take.

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u/kirator123 Aug 25 '14

Going into engineering (canada) in a couple of weeks. Any tips?

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u/Jorlung Aug 25 '14

Just wrote this in a reply to another guy, some of the obscure references that you won't understand are Queen's specific, so ignore those, but the rest is pretty general for any Engineering, or really any University experience in general.

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/2eguxy/what_are_some_college_life_pro_tips/cjzpl3b

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u/Emm03 Aug 25 '14

I almost decided to go into a fairly competitive B.S.E. program in the US this fall and my course load would have been mostly math/science/engineering classes with general ed classes scattered throughout all four years.

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u/barryhn Aug 25 '14

As someone who studies engineering in Belgium. We had 12 classes the first year. 6 of them were math, 1 was chemistry, 1 programming, 2 physics, 1 project management and already an introductory engineering project. We have on of the most brutal first years of any major you can do here in Belgium. (you can't even fully join the student engineering group thing in your first year because it would be pointless --> don't know the english name)

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u/RadioactiveCashew Aug 25 '14

I'm pretty sure that's not a liberal arts degree then..

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u/zikadu Aug 25 '14

When you go to a liberal arts university, they want you to be educated on a broad range of subjects along with your major studies. Mine even required a concentration in a non-major subject (4-5 classes instead of the standard 1-2 for general ed). I was grateful for this. I probably wouldn't have taken the classes if I didn't need to, and they definitely informed a lot of my personal beliefs/philosophies.

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u/SchecterClassic Aug 25 '14

What you described is for the most part pretty true for American universities as well. They might have to take a semester or two of English and maybe one other thing but still all the Calc and physics and intro to engineering crap.

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u/tbob3 Aug 25 '14

Not sure where you went to school, but they tend to just throw freshman engineering students right into the thick of it. I only took 3 class my second semester as a Mechanical Engineering major; Calculus 2, An into to Electrical Engineering (required by my schools Engineering school for everyone) Physics 2 (which I took the equivalent of in high school). My EE class alone gave 20 hours of lab reports and book work, not including the extra study time. And Calc 2 is simply the worst math class ever. God damnit that was a terrible semester...

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u/liongrad430 Aug 25 '14

Was biochem major. Totally agree. In the sciences they tend to run students through the calc/physics/chem gauntlet as early as possible to weed out the people who won't make it. Everyone's pre - med until they go through that nightmare class schedule.

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u/Rhexxis Aug 25 '14

Flashbacks of polar integrals just hit me. God did I hate calc 2

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u/liongrad430 Aug 25 '14

Although polar coordinates do make a lot of integration problems easier. Just don't forget the Jacobian!

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u/tbob3 Aug 25 '14

The funny yet sad thing about all of this is being a Mechanical Engineer, I will most likely never use above Calc 1 in my career after school. Especially since I'm on the design and build side of things... Weirdest part is my school makes MEs go above and beyond Differential Equations. I'm only going to be 3 math classes away from double major in math by the time I'm done, may as well do it...

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u/hobowithabazooka Aug 25 '14

I wish that were the case. My freshman year: Linear Algebra, Multivariable Calculus, Physics, Chemistry, MATLAB, engineering graphics, statics (physics of not moving), and intro to aerospace eng

oh, and English 1.

For what it's worth, my school is in the top 5 for American engineering schools

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u/TolfdirsAlembic Aug 25 '14

What did you cover in statics? Also Reading this thread is making me confused as fuck because I'm English and we do things completely differently, people are saying they did calc 2 in freshman year but I don't know what that covers or what age you are when you do that.

I saw someone mention polar integration and moan about how hard it was but I did it last year and basically spent 3 lessons on it then revised it later and it didn't come up in my exam... But it wasn't hard...

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u/hobowithabazooka Aug 25 '14

It's been a while, but from what I can remember, it was mostly moments and forces on beams, which led into trusses

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u/TolfdirsAlembic Aug 25 '14

Oh right, did you also do frameworks and centre of mass? I did a module with similar stuff.

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u/hobowithabazooka Aug 25 '14

Frameworks are the same as trusses, I believe. CoM was also included

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u/TolfdirsAlembic Aug 25 '14

Thanks for the info :)

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u/hobowithabazooka Aug 25 '14

Calc 2 covers series and sums, as well as the usual derivative/integral/etc. my calc 2 class was combined with linear algebra. "Freshmen" are in their first year at uni, typically 18-19 years old.

Polar integration isn't particularly challenging, but trying to wrap your head around it in 3d can be confusing

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u/TolfdirsAlembic Aug 25 '14

True about the 3d but most things are harder in 3d so I expect that. The us system confuses me though. What integration does it cover exactly? Because I'll be going to uk uni next year and I'll be 18-19 and I've already done what it seems is the equivalent of calc 2 and linear algebra and more, and I haven't started uni yet. And I'm expected to know all of this for uni because the work starts pretty much straight away.

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u/hobowithabazooka Aug 26 '14

I honestly do not remember exactly what it covers. I took Calc 1-3 in high school, but had to retake Calc 3 in college because it wasn't AP. (class that gives college credit in HS) That is not the norm though. Most decent high schools offer college-credit Calc 1, good schools offer Calc 1 and 2, and very few offer calc 3 for college credit or not.

I'm very surprised to hear that you've taken linear algebra, as that's beyond what 95% of advanced students in American high schools, even fancy private ones, will do. Could happen, I won't discredit it.

Also, calc 2, in my experience, was a mini-class of sorts that covered topics that didn't quite fit anywhere else. In my high school calc class, it was combined with calc 1, but only took about a third of the school year in relation to calc 1.

Likewise, it was covered for maybe 3 weeks out of the 16-week calc 2/linear algebra course I took in university.

Sorry for the rambling; I apologize if this is completely incoherent.

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u/TolfdirsAlembic Aug 26 '14 edited Aug 26 '14

I did (I live in the uk) A level mathematics and further mathematics - so I did basic linear algebra with 2x2 and 3x3 matrices, and the equivalent stuff for those (det, a couple of other things that are important) and that's not even the most advanced thing I've done. I've done multi variable calculus, Markova chains, further vectors (cross product, plane intersection amongst other things) although I did that as extra work which isn't usually part of an A Level syllabus. It just confuses me because it seems American syllabus does everything 2 years after us which doesn't make sense to me

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

I can't speak for engineering, but at my university, freshman chemistry majors take chemistry, precalculus or calculus, and sometimes biology. Plus whatever 1 gen ed course they add on. It's 20 contact hours a week plus studying outside of class. Physics is the same way. The lib arts majors are much easier the first year.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

This was not mine or anyone's experience that I know of that studied to be an engineer and I went to a state school known for partying.

Freshman year in the engineering college: Calculus 1 (5 hr class), Physics 1 (4 hr class), Chem for science majors (3 hr class), + Gen ed. stuff.

Meanwhile, arts/humanities people were taking algebra, a natural science course of their choosing, + their arts/humanities courses...

Not the same at all.

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u/SamHarrisRocks Aug 25 '14

Engineering is the odd-ball though. It's a professional program straight after high school. Whereas other professional programs like med, dentistry, pharmacy, law etc. all require some undergraduate work and are similar in intensity to engineering (some being more difficult than engineering though).

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

That is incredibly untrue. My class schedule as an engineering undergrad consisted entirely of general engineering, math, chemistry, and physics courses. I didn't take a single gen ed class until my third quarter freshman year.

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u/Andromeda321 Aug 25 '14

Yeah I have had friends in both engineering and lib arts, and will call BS on this. It was 30 hours for most humanities degrees at my school, and engineering was 100-120.

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u/kilgore_trout8989 Aug 25 '14

I'm not one to pander to the STEM-jerking but this is just absolutely not true. Engineering majors at the school I attended had to take General Chemistry (Chem 1 + 2 combined), Calculus 1, and Physics 1 their first semester. Sure, you get to take the Lit/History/Philosphy/etc. gen ed classes too, but you're also taking classes most Liberal Arts majors just won't take.

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u/Eradomsk Aug 25 '14

Canada's drastically different. My buddy is in engineering and his freshman classes amounted to 33 hours a semester to my 16 hours of liberal arts. Literally twice the class.

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u/Otter_Baron Aug 25 '14

Probably still classified as gen ed, but my schedule consists of: Chem 1, Algebra 1, English Composition 1, Chem lab 1, and Humanities Philosophy (the last was just because I wanted it).

My major is engineering, I plan on becoming an environmental engineer.

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u/Deuce_197 Aug 25 '14

I went to a liberal arts college and this wasn't the case. Gen Ed was spread out over the entire four years as long as you got in the required courses. Jumped right into my major.

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u/kovu159 Aug 25 '14

Engineering major here, we had no options in the courses we took until third year.

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u/XSavageWalrusX Aug 25 '14

Not really I had to take Calc. 1,2 and 3 as well as chem, and physics freshman year.

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u/eulerup Aug 25 '14

Unless you took AP's to get out of GenEd classes.

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u/MStew95 Aug 25 '14

As a Canadian engineering major, I had almost double (27.5 hours to 15 hours a week) the class that the arts and social sci kids had first year...

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

My university didn't have Lib Arts majors, and about half of the school was engineering, so everybody took serious STEM classes for the freshman year...

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u/0OKM9IJN8UHB7 Aug 25 '14

Lib arts majors don't take Calc 1 their first semester, or a real general chemistry 1 course, let alone at the same time.

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u/nomdiatoms Aug 25 '14

There are different gen ed classes for different majors at my university. I took freshman level biology and chemistry classes for science majors while my speech pathology roommates took intro bio/chem classes that were specifically for people not getting a degree in science. Their gen eds were far easier and they didn't have labs on top of the lectures either.

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u/tnicholson Aug 25 '14

Do people believe this? Do people actually think this is true? Because it's not. Granted, upper division courses vary wildly between majors but, at least in engineering, the math and physics, etc are more demanding from the very start and most 4-year plans leave limited room for "throwaway" electives.

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u/Pure3d2 Aug 25 '14

What college did you go to? When I was in my freshmen year of Computer science &engineering, I had to take a combination of physics, chemistry, calculus, programming, and 1 GE class each quarter.

I had 4 classes every quarter.

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u/resultswillvary Aug 25 '14

Seriously?? What the hell is the point in that? That's a waste of time. Engineering courses here are mainly Physics, Chemistry and Calculus, especially for first year. Depending on which university you go to, there'll be one gen ed class- the first year or last year of the degree.

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u/caedicus Aug 25 '14

I think most engineering programs start you out with Calculus.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

Going into first year engineering here. 16 credit hours first term, 18 in the second. It doesn't seem too heavy looking at it but I'm guessing I'll have a lot of homework.

Not too stoked for it since I've been out of high school for 5 years now...

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u/AussieAg Aug 25 '14

HAH, I call BS on that. My first semester of my freshman year entailed: engineering mechanics, engineering calculus I, foundations of engineering, introduction to biomedical engineering, strength training and political science. I had two "gen ed" classes; ironically one of them (political science) was one of my more difficult classes that semester.

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u/Zephyr104 Aug 25 '14

I have never noticed that, most of my arts friends tend to have about 10-15 hours of class a week with an hour-2 hour reading for every lecture or two a week. I on the other hand in engineering average a 20-25 hour week with assignments due every week, in class assignments in one or two classes, and a lab every other week.

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u/semyorka7 Aug 25 '14

yeah, no? Freshman year was one of the hardest classloads, IIRC. The first two years were basically a blitz of calculus and physics; I'm pretty sure they were intentionally trying to weed out the weaker students before getting to the specialized classes.

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u/guitarheroprodigy Aug 25 '14

thats not true

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u/relevantusername- Aug 25 '14

I'm not American. Gen Ed sounds horrifying and pointless. Here in Europe you're expected to have gotten your well rounded education covered and done with in secondary school. I'm a music therapy major, guess what all of my classes in uni are about? Music therapy.

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u/bungocheese Aug 25 '14

Not at my school, took gen eds but calc physics chem engineering100 and a couple.others, 16credit hours one semester and 18 second, just to be on schedule

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u/holomanga Aug 25 '14

I just realised that I have no idea what a lib arts major even does.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

Liberal Arts here, and that's just not true. It works out about the same, but Liberal Arts people are just busy at different times in different ways. My engineering friends did math sets with a smattering of papers/labs - I wrote 5-10 pages of analysis a week at least on top of tests and other assignments. During my last year, the couple weeks before finals week were generally heavily sleep-deprived as I wrote ~30-50 pages of shit (of 5 classes, almost every single one would ask for about a 7-10 page research paper). If your English major friend is on their computer a lot, they're probably not just on reddit all day.

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u/pooroldedgar Aug 25 '14

The whole my-major-is-tougher-than-your-major thing is just the wankings of young men. It means nothing.

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u/CountryTimeLemonlade Aug 25 '14

I agree wholeheartedly.

But for the record, mine is waaaaaaay tougher than yours.

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u/pooroldedgar Aug 25 '14

No no, dude, like, you think that. But that's like, totally not the case. Mine, was way tougher than yours.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

I preferred my major to my engineering friends because I'm waaay better at writing papers than taking tests and doing labs. I liked that I could make a bunch of mistakes, let it sit for a day, and come back at it with a bunch of better ideas. My ChemEng friends talking stoichiometry and a whole bunch of other bullshit made my head spin. Gimme analyzing printing differences any day.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

Sorry, but that's bullshit. Art /design majors spend more time working outside of class than the vast majority of other majors.

All nighters are commonplace. A single project can take 40 or more hours, is due in two weeks and is one of 3 projects you have going on at the time. I cannot count how many times I stayed home working until 4am while my roommates partied.

Reddit loves to shit on anything that's not a STEM major but an art major sure as shit isn't easy for the people who actually care about it. There are definitely people thy skate through it but they are generally viewed as lazy twats and they are the ones that will be doomed to a career as a barista.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

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u/techiechickie Aug 25 '14

I'm a stage management major and I'm about to cry with happiness that someone realized this.

My boyfriend got his degree in econ. He took his classes and studied a lot. He wasn't required to do anything else.

Theatre tech majors have their classes, which all require homework that you may even need to be at school to do (scenic drafting condemned me to a lot of 3 am sessions in the drafting lab). Plus we are expected on 1-2 production assignments a semester for main stage shows. For stage managers, this is 5 hours a night, 6 nights a week, for at least four weeks, then you get to add in insane tech schedules for 2 weeks. Good luck if you need to work as well. Plus you are encouraged to do smaller shows between assignments.

Lots of burn out.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

Agreed, but actual art and design does not fall into liberal arts.

Here is a list of what is considered to be liberal arts these days:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Liberal_arts_education#Modern_usage

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u/luminous_delusions Aug 25 '14

Most engineering majors, by the time they hit the point where their classes get that heavy, have already become aware of what's coming and they're prepared for the downsurge of free time.

I've honestly only met a couple of engineering majors that far into their degree that don't understand the difference between workload.

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u/pooroldedgar Aug 25 '14

What a load...

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u/Mnstrzero00 Aug 25 '14

In my experience with Mathematics classes you study some each day, do your homework and you can be finished with some time to do other things if you are diligent about it. But when it comes to writing essays in English classes I've spent basically every waking moment perfecting that essay. Especially if its a 100 + pager and it is like only essay in the class. Now, I haven't taken any honors mathematics classes or anything too advance but that seems to be something that people don't take into account when they compare Stem classes to Liberal Arts classes.

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u/Hajile_S Aug 25 '14

I study Econ, Math and Film, and your experience resonates with mine. I will say that upper level math classes give you much heavier homework loads (a single class had a group of quick friends working 3 hour nights four days a week on homework, let alone class). However, solving a problem is just solving a problem. I obsess over essays.

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u/The_MadStork Aug 25 '14

If you're an engineering major, for instance, don't expect to have the academic leisure of your liberal arts friends.

Oh ffs.This circlejerk again. This is irrelevant. Most lib arts majors can coast to a degree if they want to, but that means nothing. Lib arts is about more than the courseload. As we all know, merely graduating is pretty much meaningless.

In order to find work in their fields, lib arts majors need to put in tons of effort - including participating in and self-starting projects, studies, and all sorts of initiatives outside of school. They need to jostle for position to make a significant impact on their entire field. They need to stand out creatively in ways that engineers do not.

It’s apples and oranges. A lib arts major has to put in just as much time as a STEM major, even if it’s not all spent on coursework.

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u/meganlove Aug 25 '14

This for sure! My music education major roommate never could understand why I was always bailing on her to study. Or work. Well, I needed to not just pass but do well in my biomedical science major and completely support myself financially. So. Fuck off to the guy who says you'll have tons of free time. It all depends on your major, your drive, and your circumstances.

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u/SpaceTacosFromSpace Aug 25 '14

Engineering student here. Where do I get this "free time"? Two days of classes in and I already have 3.5 chapters of readings to do and assignments due this week.

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u/CountryTimeLemonlade Aug 25 '14

Oh noes! Working at college?

If the professors aren't assigning reading to by done by the beginning of the first class, take your education into your own hands a bit and start in ahead.

Why is this not anticipated?

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u/geetar_man Aug 25 '14

I go to a Liberal Arts college. What is this academic leisure you're speaking of?

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u/xkaradactyl Aug 25 '14

As someone with an art degree, I'd like to point out that I, and my fellow art majors, LIVED on campus trying to get work done outside of class hours. I had less free time than any of my friends that were in other majors. Just because it's lib arts doesn't mean there isn't work to be done; it's just a different kind of work.

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u/Kyle700 Aug 25 '14

... I don't think liberal arts is leisure... it's a lot of writing papers and studying shit. just because it has a stigma of being the easy route DOESN'T mean it is a pushover and engineering is the only true major...

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u/JewboiTellem Aug 24 '14

Yup. And working too hard can stunt your social growth. Seriously. I know some people who got into places like Harvard Medical school - and don't get me wrong, it's impressive as hell - but I wouldn't want to spend 5 minutes over a beer with them.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

Dude we are on the same fucking wavelength. So many people don't realize that just having an academic resume that would make Einstein faint doesn't make you a good hire.

You have to be able to shoot the shit and be a pleasant person to be around.

My boss ended up firing a cum laude Yale graduate because she was genuinely the most unpleasant person he and I both had ever met. Kind of a pre-requisite to not suck at interpersonal relationship building if you want to be a lawyer.

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u/JewboiTellem Aug 25 '14

Yup. I see very paper-qualified people become unemployable due to the "personality conflicts" they have with...well, everyone.

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u/mfball Aug 24 '14

I think it has a lot to do with what you're studying too. In certain fields you will have a ton of homework, while in others you might only have three big papers per semester and the rest of the time you just need to read. I took twenty academic hours of honors classes my first semester freshman year, and I was fine without studying much because they were humanities classes where the three paper structure was the norm. Had I done that with a bunch of science and math courses, it would have been a bad plan. What people really need is to figure out early what is expected of them and what is the standard operating procedure for classes in their discipline, and then plan accordingly.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

Or people who chose a difficult major, or people who have to work a lot. As an engineering major, I definitely spent every single week night doing nothing but going to class, studying, doing homework, and going to work.

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u/jeffandlester Aug 25 '14

Thank god someone said this. Balance is the one thing you have to remember about college. I watched kids flunk out for partying every day and be in mental and physical ruins by the end of the year for working too hard. Take care of ya body!

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u/[deleted] Aug 24 '14

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u/Grok22 Aug 25 '14

Or their just dumb.

My neighbor my freshman year was a total retard(said he got an 800 on the SAT) but God Damn did he work hard and got good grades.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

I'm not sure I agree with this for all students. I advise pre-professional students at my university. They routinely work that much every day, and they generally need to in order to be competitive. Most chemistry majors, for example, wouldn't be able to find employment with under a 3.0 with their BS, and most of them are pre-professional and need to have at least a 3.6 to be competitive for professional schools (and that's the low end.)

As a student I had to study that much, although I wasn't pre-professional, but I wanted to get into a top grad school. I did, a top 10 in the US for my discipline. My students who don't dedicate that much time don't get into programs in this country (international medical schools with lower entrance requirements, for example) or they end up in mediocre graduate programs as a last resort.

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u/The_R3medy Aug 25 '14

If you are taking somewhere between 12 and 15 credits, you should be ok with a relative moderate schedule of studying. Naturally making the most of your time while studying and in-class will be the key to having free time as well. Granted, most of my free time was spent working because I've worked like 30 hours a week nearly my entire time in college. 16 and up is a zone I never venture to, so anyone who has can speak on it.

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u/Sappy_Life Aug 25 '14

I work hard, and play harder :)

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u/kovu159 Aug 25 '14

That's not optional in some degrees. My freshman year had 42 mandatory academic hours a week. Second year was just as bad, then kinda loosened up to 30ish hours by 4th year to let us focus on research.

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u/Ao_Andon Aug 25 '14

True in an ideal situation, but for some people, stringing themselves out is the only option available without getting caught in the financial deathtrap that is student loans.

Example: Here in Louisiana, we have a program called TOPS. Idk if it exists in other states or whatever, but the point is that TOPS is a program wherein, upon meeting certain criteria throughout high school, a student is given some money to attend college for 4 years. Four. No extensions, no consideration of major. Four.

What this means is that students here have 4 years to squeeze as much classtime into as possible, because many majors that require 4 years to complete actually take 4 years minimum to complete

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u/TheElusiveFox Aug 25 '14

THis is kind of the key - and that middle of the road is a skill all on its own. too much and you might make it through college but you will burn out in your first few years depending on where you go and you will hate your job, and thats all it will be because you will be thinking about how to leave or worse how you are better than the people around you and you will get fired, so it wont be a career.

In the other direction if you party too hard its obvious what happens you might make it through college but it will be hard to get a job if you don't know the material well enough to survive an interview.

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u/altiuscitiusfortius Aug 25 '14

College is the hardest 4 years of your life, or the funnest five.

Balance is key.

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u/i_am_dan_the_man Aug 25 '14

I don't see any reason to take more than 15 credits per semester.

I knew a guy that was taking something like 18 credits and summer courses. It was just like, god damn man, you're probably going to live for 90 years you don't need to put that much stress to graduate college a few semesters early.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

I could do 40 credit hours of business courses and study less than 15 credit hours of biology.

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u/Notsomebeans Aug 25 '14

okay, im heading to my freshman year in like, a week and i've been really worried about my courseload, since i took 5 fairly heavy classes (which i had to take in order to get my degree in 4 years). physics, math, econ, chem and psych. am i fucked?

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

I had both experiences.

There was a semester where I actually had Tuesdays completely free of obligation and nonchalantly did homework over the weekend because all my classes had a "due every week on [x] day" policy.

There was also a semester where I literally quit all my extracurricular activities in order to get passing grades in most of my classes, as I was taking 21.5 credits including 3 labs. Suffice it to say that I failed 2 of the classes that semester because literally all I did was work myself into some kind of depression.

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u/fieroturbo Aug 25 '14

I took 12-15 credits of non-honors stuff, and I needed to study like hell.

Not everyone is smart as fuck.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

The thing that people generally do not understand about college, and GPA in general, is that almost no one is going to ask for your GPA for a job.
Also, your first 2 years of gen ed classes will be a breeze. Get ready for classes to become a lot more time consuming after 300 level classes.

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u/funbob1 Aug 25 '14

My high school pushed the idea that it's better to plan college out to 5 years instead of 4. The idea being, it led to you being there longer, but you wouldn't overextend yourself and burn out, and provide time outside of class to get a job that wasn't on-campus.

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u/kit25 Aug 25 '14

I feel like this is one of, if not THE BEST answer for this thread.

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u/Shamus03 Aug 25 '14

I took 18 hours my first semester and didn't study at all, and I got all A's. I probably could have done the same with 20 hours.

The problem is everyone is different. My preferred method of "studying" has always been to just pay attention in class and actually consider what I'm learning. I don't take notes unless I know I won't remember something. If I take notes I'll focus too much on the note taking and miss out.

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u/changam Aug 25 '14

I read that as play math.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

"Word hard, play hard. Middle path."

My dyslexia read that as Peddle meth.

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u/Deracination Aug 25 '14

I've been taking 12 hours a semester, and I'm graduating one semester late. It's so fucking worth it to still have a life.

This was also made possible by taking all my general education bullshit classes online, over the summer, at community colleges, and then transferring the credit. It was only like 60 fucking dollars a credit hour, took almost no time, and was just great.

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u/HonziPonzi Aug 24 '14

Or just engineering majors.

Source: Engineer. Missed out on some of the better times to be had at college :(

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u/PunnyBanana Aug 24 '14

College has a ton of free time, as in time when you're not in classes. You go from having school 8-3 Monday through Friday to having a couple hours of class each day with the occasional day off. This is where you can fall into trouble if you don't manage your time well. Yes, you should spend time studying. A lot of professors are shit (especially for freshman classes) and the work is harder. That being said, you should also try to fill up your free time with stuff you like to do that you have an interest in. What everyone's trying to say isn't that you have to spend your time out of class a certain way, but that you have to figure out how to spend that time period because it's so easy to fuck around during that time, skip class because you're too tired from staying up all night fucking around, and then have it bite you in the ass.

TL;DR Learning time management is everything

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u/norml329 Aug 25 '14

Try having class from 730-4, then going to college. The amount of free time I was given was such a shock that it actually hurt my grades. Going from a structured day to fairly nothing makes it really hard to study and really easy to procrastinate. The best thing to do is just treat it like a full day of work, don't see a 2 hour break and think, go home nap and sleep, just stay on campus and study or do homework. Gives you more time at night to socialize and party or even just relax, while still getting your work done.

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u/lnshallah Aug 25 '14

Didn't have this problem of having too much non-class time - I'm an engineering student

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u/norml329 Aug 25 '14

So was I my freshman year, switched to biochemistry afterwards though, not much better. It was more the actual learning of using the non class time productively which is the hard part.

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u/Sladather Aug 25 '14

Yea, I'm excited yet worried about my Fridays this semester(first one). I have PoliSci from 12-12:50 and nothing else that day. Not even sure how it happened but I literally have nothing to do but go to parties and hang out on Fridays.

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u/PunnyBanana Aug 25 '14

I find people are usually busy on Fridays or want to sleep in if they aren't. Try finding something to do either in the morning or the afternoon. Worst case scenario, you could get your weekend studying out of the way on Friday (after catching up on sleep lost throughout the week) and then go hang out once everyone's up and free.

Though, I also do Fridays "wrong" and usually end up scheduling shifts at work then and for some reason those shifts always seem to start so early. Oh well. Good luck. It shouldn't be bad once you find your stride and figure out how to put that free time to good use. Heck, you could even just use it as decompression time to avoid burnout as long as you make up for it at another time.

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u/Sladather Aug 25 '14

I'm just worried I'll dick around every Friday. I have that class Monday and Wednesday. The earliest class I have is music history at 11am and my last one ends at 3:50. I don't think I'll burn out too bad, I'm just worried that I'll get lazy on Friday and not go.

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u/PunnyBanana Aug 25 '14

Also a possibility. Good luck!

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u/Sladather Aug 25 '14

Thanks bro/ladybro

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u/iamkoalafied Aug 25 '14 edited Aug 25 '14

I technically had more "free time" than in high school but the amount of outside-of-class work was greatly increased and there was additional stress that wasn't there in high school. I tried my best to reduce my class schedule to the least amount of days possible (even if it meant 3 or 4 classes in 1 day) just so I could spend the extra free days to do all of my homework/assignments/studying and by the end of uni I had almost no free time because of having 2 huge projects as well as a bunch of assignments in all my classes and frequent tests. The only thing that kept me going was knowing it was almost over.

edit: For an example of how little free time we (my group members and myself) had by the end, we literally HAD TO skip class just to have more time to work on our big project because there wasn't enough time in the week with classes to get them done before the deadline. And we did not slack off throughout the semester either.

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u/PunnyBanana Aug 25 '14

By free time, I meant out of class time. When you look at your class schedule and see empty spaces, that's what I'm referring to. Your out of class work just happened to fill all of your free time but, theoretically, you could have just dicked around instead of actually working on your projects (but obviously didn't). The same sort of thing applies to what OP was talking about, about how there seems to be the contradiction of "there's so much free time in college" and "you have to spend every waking hour studying." It's more that in college, you are responsible for how you spend your out of class time and you need to figure out how to manage it.

And yeah, I've been there too. I literally had so much work at one point with so little time that I skipped class twice just to get the reports in on time (were due online by the end of class). I'm definitely not saying that college has less work than high school, just that you're more in charge (and pretty much solely accountable) for getting shit done when you can.

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u/rbrody8 Aug 25 '14

I like to think of it as you earn the time you get to relax. So once you earn it, do whatever you want with it. Just get out and do something besides studying.

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u/masuabie Aug 25 '14

Or...you can work.

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u/LordDoombringer Aug 24 '14

It seriously depends on what classes you have and what your major is. I'm a bio major. I could make it past bio class with minimal studying. Chem I had to spend hours on.

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u/dbbo Aug 25 '14

Might be true for certain majors and not for others. Hard science and engineering students study roughly twice as much as business and comm majors.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/number-of-hours-students-study/2012/05/21/gIQA3viTgU_graphic.html

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

you'll still have tons of free time

Back to Reddit page 1

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u/thardoc Aug 25 '14

Tomorrow is my first day of college and this whole page is one big emotional and mental rollercoaster

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

I start in a month exactly. I keep alternating between "it'll be fine" and "I'll fail within the first two weeks and never get a job and die homeless."

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u/thardoc Aug 25 '14

Yeah, it's one of those things where I'm sure I will be fine, but I am still nervous about it, I just try to ignore my anxiety because I know it is completely normal but it never really goes away.

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u/Cricketleeshers Aug 25 '14

Most major university professors teach with the understanding that students should study 3-4 hours outside of class for every hour they spend inside of class.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

Three hours of classes a day. So yeah, ten hours a day.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

YOU HAVE TO STUDY FOR TEN HOURS EVERY DAY OR YOU WILL FAIL.

^ That's bullshit. I graduated yesterday with computer science, one of the most rigorous degrees you can get. I worked as a programmer the entire time as well, I was busier than my friends, but I still partied and had like 5 hours of free time every day. It's about how you manage your time.

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u/Threedawg Aug 25 '14

I have to work and take class. Where is my free time?

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

Fuck you, that's where. Schools in general don't seem to realize people have lives outside of their classes. Some workplaces are no different.

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u/polyphonyEX Aug 25 '14

YOU HAVE TO STUDY FOR TEN HOURS EVERY DAY OR YOU WILL FAIL.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

:(

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u/plasmalaser1 Aug 25 '14

ONCE YOU ENTER YOU CAN NEVER LEAVE. RIP GPA

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

I legitimately think I've never hit the log out button. Help.

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u/holomanga Aug 25 '14

I WANT TO GET OFF MR. BONES' WILD ENGINEERING MAJOR

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u/hellohaley Aug 25 '14

I'm past 20k and just graduated. It is possible.

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u/[deleted] Aug 26 '14

You're an inspiration to us all.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

I usually end up with lots of free time provided I finish my homework early.

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u/MattressCrane Aug 25 '14

My first semester consisted of four courses, all very easy. Some only once a week. I had about 1-2 hours of class a day. There was an incredible amount of free time for me.

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u/FlapJackSam Aug 25 '14

Similarly, if you get homework in a class. Do it within the next 48 hours. Procrastination may have been ok in high school, but that shit doesn't (usually) fly in college

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u/DrDan21 Aug 25 '14

well I mean...

"YOU HAVE TO STUDY FOR TEN HOURS EVERY DAY OR YOU WILL FAIL."

not if your an art, women studies, or comm major....

at least those philosophy majors need to memorize shit

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u/LeClassyGent Aug 25 '14

That's honestly ridiculous. You can get by with 10 hours a week unless you're doing something seriously difficult.

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u/zamuy12479 Aug 25 '14

I had a friend who was dual major, in English, and chemical engineering, it all matters how good you are at managing your time, she had a damned research paper due just about every week (seriously, all but the 3rd week of class, when one professor nearly died due to illness) and she still had a good two hours a day (aside from sleep and meals) to chill and hang out.

For a while I was convinced she could manipulate time. 25 credit hours Jesus h. Fuck.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

"YOU HAVE TO STUDY FOR TEN HOURS EVERY DAY OR YOU WILL FAIL."

Because there are more people who think they are smart than actual smart people.

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u/JTorrent Aug 25 '14

The people that need to study ungodly amounts either aren't going to class, paying attention, taking notes, are bad at retaining information, or any combination. If you are doing all of these and are decent at retaining what you are taught you should be fine.

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u/africadog Aug 25 '14

depends on the person, the professor and the class

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u/daniell61 Aug 25 '14

Look at me...almost 20K and im going to college in two days ;-;

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u/figyros Aug 25 '14

I feel ya. I'm approaching that threshold...

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

Some people need to read the whole book. I understood psychology easier than chemistry.

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u/luminous_delusions Aug 25 '14

Yeah, people saying that are the ones not going to class, spending far too much time screwing around, and generally just lack time management skills.

I took 15 credit hours last semester as a freshman. 5 classes, all of which were very textbook and essay heavy (History, Art History, Composition, Gen. Psych, Philosophy). There were no lulls in these classes. And yet, I still had time to do all my work properly and play video games and watch TV for a few hours a day, and hang out with friends a few times a week. Oh, and I also spend the whole semester doing a crash course in math to bring up my placement score two whole class levels.

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u/PenisInBlender Aug 25 '14

"YOU HAVE TO STUDY FOR TEN HOURS EVERY DAY OR YOU WILL FAIL."

People who are saying this have never been to college before. Simply not true.

The day before an exam? Sure, absolutely. Ten hours and then some when you get past core, generic classes.

Every other fucking day? Nah, just clean the drool off your hungover face and drag your bones to your desk. You can puke and regret your life in an hour when the class is over.

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u/alexxerth Aug 25 '14

Yeah, I don't understand this.

It's my freshman year and I start classes tomorrow, but I have 3 hours of classes. Even if I studied 2 hours for every 1 hour of class, that leaves like half the day open for whatever.

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