School Will Be The Death of Me

[imaguitar]

Originally Posted by Speck

What's you major?

Mine is Mechanical Engineering.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by imaguitar

In all honesty, I just need a break (summer vacation). Taking 4 upper division classes 3 quarters in a row this year & also having to work has just taken a toll on me.

I didn't know I'd get this much feedback from that complaint of a post LOL

What are you going to do when you are out of school, need a break and those nice summer vacations are gone?

[imaguitar]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

You will run into every one of those things in the workforce as well. Bosses that do not have a clue, changes in systems that just don't work, policies and procedures that were obviously written by blithering idiots, having to do things in a manner that you don't think is the easiest of best and just about every other thing that go can happen in school. None of what you said is just a school thing.

Learning to do things with pen and paper even though it is done on computer. It tells you what the computer is doing and gives you an understanding as to what it all means. Also a great way to catch errors and believe me computers (or more accurately their operators) do make errors. Anybody can sit and enter stuff into a computer but understanding that material is a whole different matter.

Right I understand. I guess I'm just being young/closed minded & expecting life to be perfect right now because it's the "college years" haha

& yes I know it totally gives you the fundamentals of why everything you're taught is the way it is. That is why some professors really insist on learning the derivations for some formulas and theories. I'm not saying that those should be taught, I just feel we would have more benefit of learning at least a bit more on how we would apply these things to different scenarios & problems.

[imaguitar]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

What are you going to do when you are out of school, need a break and those nice summer vacations are gone?

[cjd]

Originally Posted by imaguitar

But a lot of people in my generation (at least at my school) are questioning the ways they teach us. Like one of my professors graduated in '71 & he told us how he had to do literally everything by hand & whatnot. But now whenever an alumni comes to talk about what they do after they've graduated, they're always saying how everything is conputerized. Like they're not going to be calculating every single little thing w a pen & paper.

While not necessarily a direct correlation to your class, I can tell you that the differences I observe between people that understand what the tools they use are doing and the people that just know how to do something with the tool are significant. I see this at work and in some of my hobbies.

Then too, tools change but the underlying stuffed doesn't typically. If you know what it's doing, you just have to learn how apply the tool... not relearn how to do whatever it is you thought you could do.

IMO this is the right way to teach. Otherwise it's like claiming you can drive your C7 when you've just got all the nannies on.

Also, discovering applications teaches you to stretch... being handed them can close your mind to new ideas.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by imaguitar

Right I understand. I guess I'm just being young/closed minded & expecting life to be perfect right now because it's the "college years" haha

& yes I know it totally gives you the fundamentals of why everything you're taught is the way it is. That is why some professors really insist on learning the derivations for some formulas and theories. I'm not saying that those should be taught, I just feel we would have more benefit of learning at least a bit more on how we would apply these things to different scenarios & problems.

I see this frequently with my engineering interns (usually have 3 or 4 a year pass through) and figure it is just the way the course schedules work. I have seen ones that had all the math but had no idea how to apply it yet and others that knew exactly what math they needed for an application but had not learned it yet. Unfortunately as much as teaching/learning should be linear the real world requirements make it fragmented and compartmentalized. There really isn't much that can be done about that I am afraid.

[imaguitar]

Originally Posted by cjd

While not necessarily a direct correlation to your class, I can tell you that the differences I observe between people that understand what the tools they use are doing and the people that just know how to do something with the tool are significant. I see this at work and in some of my hobbies.

Then too, tools change but the underlying stuffed doesn't typically. If you know what it's doing, you just have to learn how apply the tool... not relearn how to do whatever it is you thought you could do.

IMO this is the right way to teach. Otherwise it's like claiming you can drive your C7 when you've just got all the nannies on.

Also, discovering applications teaches you to stretch... being handed them can close your mind to new ideas.

Right. I guess that is me in the sense of I understand things conceptually relatively easily. It's when the "hardcore math" comes in is where I struggle a bit.

Originally Posted by Tcoat

I se this frequently with my engineering interns (usually have 3 or 4 a year pass through) and figure it is just the way the course schedules work. I have seen ones that had all the math but had no idea how to apply it yet and others that knew exactly what math they needed for an application but had not learned it yet. Unfortunately as much as teaching/learning should be linear the real world requirements make it fragmented and compartmentalized. There really isn't much that can be done about that I am afraid.

I'm more of the latter. I came into university with a high school education that incorporated many engineering things. We were mostly taught the concepts & I loved it. They never showed us the "nitty gritty" of what lies behind the concepts and that is what they are now teaching us in university. Even when I study with friends at school, it usually goes somewhere along the lines of me explaining to them what everything means conceptually, and them helping me better understand the math behind it.

[bcj]

Go down to Costco and get a case of these for summer break.

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by imaguitar

So school is literally killing me.

So after I die, I'll have my mom part out my car for you all.

RIP me.

Oh, imaguitar, I suggest you just take it test by test; course by course, credit hour by credit hour; semester by semester; year by year ....... and eventually they will give you the piece of paper you're looking for .......


humfrz

[Atropine]

I am 36...about halfway done with my Master's in Healthcare Administration and an MBA (Dual Master's Program).

I am a full-time worker and a full-time student.

I am carrying a 4.0.

I am actually making money while going to school because of the G.I. Bill from my Army enlistment.

The reason I am doing fine? I am more mature and focused than I was when I was in my teens and my early 20s. I didn't start my Bachelor's until I was 32 or 33?

I don't want to shit all over the OP. But I do get tired of hearing how hard shit is.

IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE HARD. It is supposed to prepare you for the "Real World".

Yes, you can have crappy teachers etc. But you can have crappy managers as well.

EDIT: After reading more of the Thread...the OP just seems to be blowing off steam and he is still trucking! Keep on kicking ass OP! And don't feel bad watching people fail out of their "Gender Studies" and other SJW Majors.

[Atropine]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

You will run into every one of those things in the workforce as well. Bosses that do not have a clue, changes in systems that just don't work, policies and procedures that were obviously written by blithering idiots, having to do things in a manner that you don't think is the easiest of best and just about every other thing that go can happen in school. None of what you said is just a school thing.

Learning to do things with pen and paper even though it is done on computer. It tells you what the computer is doing and gives you an understanding as to what it all means. Also a great way to catch errors and believe me computers (or more accurately their operators) do make errors. Anybody can sit and enter stuff into a computer but understanding that material is a whole different matter.

THIS...so much fucking this.

Read above...also my Master's is kinda easy for me because I have been a part of this work force since 1999. I actually understand what is being taught and have RL experience to draw upon.

TCoat whatya said really applies to everything.

[drew_kar]

Man OP, us engineer students have it rough. What school are you at?

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

[jasonojordan]

Originally Posted by MrFisty

Yeah, none of us have any responsibilities, except dealing with the fallout of poor environmental choices by prior generations and other various topics that border on politics, which we can't talk about.

Someone is having a tough time with school and a couple people are already crapping on them. Maybe it isn't as stressful as "the real world," but that's no reason to poop on them.

And I HATE people saying "the real world" as if we're all in some hunky-dorey mamby pamby land of pillows.
Since my sophomore year, I have worked, I have paid the majority of my bills, I have gone to school, etc. This IS the real world for many of us, and it's not a cake walk. Hell forbid we complain about anything short of missing a mortgage payment.

No one was "pooping" on anyone here. It was a simple comment to say if you think your life is stressful now then it only gets more so in the future.

[jasonojordan]

Originally Posted by new2subaru

I'd just like to point out that none of these choices are mandatory. They are options that people choose to do. Don't feel like you have to do what people expect from you. Live your own life!

Or, I could be full of shit and they ARE things you want to do with your life...

This is true and was just a generalization of what most people do with their life. Personally that is the route I am going with my life. However I chose to take advantage of being able to take college classes while in high school. Sure I had 0 social life in the last 2 years of high school. But what I was able to do is get 2 years of college for free(to myself of course tax payers paid of this nothing is free in life). By doing this it allowed me to once I moved on to a life as a WORKING college student to be able to not only go to school full time but also work full time and then some. While going to school for my robotics and automated systems degree I was able to also work 60hrs a week. I was able to do this because I planned ahead and had the avenues open to me to be able to take college classes early and get all the generals done when I was in high school so that I could simply focus on the classes that I was required to take to obtain my degree. Now I'm sure this is not something that is available for everyone let alone something that everyone would want to do. I guess I didn't expect to get some much flak about a simple comment. Perhaps I should of put it bluntly and said "Oh just wait it gets worse" then what I commented. Looks like the OP understood where I was coming from so Ill leave it at this.