Well, grades posted today. Looks like a 3.15 for the semester. Sadly this is an improvement over the pack of C's that dominated my last academic year; in case anybody was wondering, being pulled out of school for a couple years...not so good for the GPA. Coming back is damn near impossible.
But I seem to have found my groove again. I've still managed to avoid failing anything thus far (which means I've gotten no D's), so I'm making good progress towards my degree. As of now I'm sitting on like a 3.1 GPA, which while not fantastic isn't really all that horrible in engineering. We don't see a lot of 4.0's in my department.
I must have really nailed a couple of my finals though...I was almost positive I was going to get at least one C, if not two. One ended up being a B-, but that was it...the rest were B and above.
Glad it's done, though.
Want a fun story? So I'm doing this take-home final for my Signals class. I'm completely stumped on this problem. Google isn't helping, the textbook isn't helping, nothing is helping. I know how to do convolutions in general, but for some reason the specific problem he chose for the test is beyond me. And I can't even find an example that's similar. So I end up fumbling through, and getting an answer I knew was wrong in the hopes of maybe picking up a few points.
Cut to the next day. Finals are over, I'm sitting at home flipping through the two books that I bought for next semester's classes (both were one of only two or three used copies at the bookstore, so I figured I'd jump on them). I guess I just wanted to see what kind of crazy shit I had to look forward to next semester.
There it is, in my Telecomm book. The exact fucking problem from the final. Verbatim. The fun part? I had bought this book before I did that final.
I mean, obviously the odds that I'd have opened it up to that page the day before and seen that problem are remote. And I'm not sure how I'd have felt about doing so anyway...though it was a take-home, so there's that. But just knowing that the answer was right fucking there all along....maddening.
Casually HardcoreOnce an Asshole. Trying to be better.Registered Userregular
edited December 2007
I'm surprise about the amount of importance people put on their GPA. I can understand the value if you want to go to grad school, but I think that a better investment of time would be in extracurriculars (no, the Anime club isnt extracurricular).
Honestly I've seen employers turn down people with a GPA of 4.0, but with no extracurricular, but accept people with a GPA of 3.0 but with a shit load of awesome extracurriculars (president of such of such, started up a such and such with 20 volunteers, and so on).
I'm surprise about the amount of importance people put on their GPA. I can understand the value if you want to go to grad school, but I think that a better investment of time would be in extracurriculars (no, the Anime club isnt extracurricular).
Honestly I've seen employers turn down people with a GPA of 4.0, but with no extracurricular, but accept people with a GPA of 3.0 but with a shit load of awesome extracurriculars (president of such of such, started up a such and such with 20 volunteers, and so on).
I've been told by so many sources how unimportant GPA is, and by others about how very important GPA is.
At this point, it's out of my control and my main goal is to graduate. Hey, an engineering student graduating in 4 years while doing varsity athletics with a 2.6 isn't bad in my opinion. I'm going to go with the people who say GPA isn't important.
I wrote about the time I played Little League and didn't get a hit until the last game of the season. It was an embarrassing season, but damn did it make for a good college essay.
I wrote about the time I played Little League and didn't get a hit until the last game of the season. It was an embarrassing season, but damn did it make for a good college essay.
Nothing so interesting has happened to me I'm afraid!
EDIT: Awful advice given by a kid trying to be an internet cool guy. Acting rebellious and tough, when in reality he is a hardworking rule-follower who has always been risk averse.
I wrote about the time I played Little League and didn't get a hit until the last game of the season. It was an embarrassing season, but damn did it make for a good college essay.
Nothing so interesting has happened to me I'm afraid!
The only advice i can give you, is definetly fudge the details to make your story/essay more interesting. I definetly added some flat out lies in my essays about me.
So I didn't get into Tisch, which isn't surprising.
However, given that I was interested in an industry that has tens of thousands of people trying to make it into maybe, maybe, 50 openings ever, I've basically taken it as a sign that I should go for something that has more fiscal security and that I seem to be better at.
I never really knew how good I was - I mean, I got leads in plays and tons of compliments from teachers and friends and stuff, but to paraphrase a David Cross bit, L.A. is full of wannabe actors using "But I was so good in my 10th grade production of Fiddler on the roof!".
Haven't not gotten into Tisch (which has accepted maybe 70 Drama ED applicants, so it's not exactly a huge deal) I figure I probably wouldn't manage to break into the industry anyway. Am I giving up because a super-selective university didn't take me? Hell no. It just...made me realize the scope of trying to get into the business, and made me wonder if I wanted that kinda uncertainty.
EDIT: Having only heard back from one school, and having that school be a school where your audition is 50% and everything else is the other 50, I sure do hope SATs are as influential as you guys make them out to be.
once you get past a certain point, and you start applying for better schools, all the kids with high SAT scores start to look exactly alike
high scores are good, but you have to be able to set yourself apart from all the other applicants , and that's where the essays are really important, and I honestly think thats why I got in, and the 99 average 2280 SAT score valedictorian from my class last year didn't.
(97 GPA, 7th in my class, 2140 SAT's for comparison)
So, I just had an experience last week that I didn't think could ever happen.
I applied to North Carolina State University as a transfer student back in the first week of September for Spring '08. They said that they expedite their spring applications, so I expected to hear back by October, maybe mid-November.
When the first week of December rolled around and I had heard nothing from them, not even a message online, I was really worried and called the university. The first person I talked to, a receptionist in the admissions office, sounded surprised by my situation. The person I was transfered to was flabbergasted that I hadn't heard back yet because, apparently, they have a policy of processing spring applications in about 8 weeks (it had been 2 days over 12 weeks when I called). He told me he would find out immediately what the problem was and promised to call right back. Less than three minutes later, he called me back and gave me the good news that I was accepted. Apparently, though he tried to not come out and say it, my application got lost on someone's desk. I couldn't believe it! Has anyone ever heard of this happening?
I mean, NC State isn't Ivy League, but it is a respectable state university that always ranks pretty well.
The good news is that I got accepted. The bad news is that I was accepted so late that the only classes that I could register for were one step up from basket weaving. There weren't any classes left in my major at all. Turns out, as the head adviser of my department told me last Friday, NC State has way too may students. In his words, "good luck getting the classes you need in the first two semesters you're here."
On the other hand, every single person I have met and talked to has been incredibly nice; this includes staff, faculty and students. Almost freakishly so. I had someone help me around on orientation because I have a broken foot, and when we left he told me he wondered if they were all on something because every single person went out of their way to be helpful and charming. I have been to three other colleges, and this one has the nicest atmosphere I've ever experienced.
You really should make a bit of a fuss and get them to find classes for you. There's a difference between a little oops we forget and losing a student's application for weeks. Especially when said mistake means none of your classes are available.
You'll find people work miracles when their ass is on the line
The problem with NC State is that it is very hard to actually get a hold of anyone. The only people who consistently answer their phones and email are the admissions people. The rest are too damn busy trying to handle a student body of 31,000 with a faculty and staff size large enough to manage about 18,000. I complained to my adviser that he didn't reply to my email the day before and he showed me his inbox. I kid you not, the man had more than 400 emails, and the oldest one was only two days old. I felt so bad for him.
Plus, parking is a joke, and I am on crutches. Even being able to park in handicap spots makes no difference. There are buildings on this campus where I have to walk up three flights of stairs before I hit the first floor. No elevators, no ramps, nothing. Stuff I never would have noticed if I weren't temporarily disabled.
I am in the processing of doing something, though. I transfered in as a sophomore and, as such, am required to take a sophomore history seminar (history is my major). Of course, each class has no more than 15 students, and they only hold 4 classes a semester. These four filled up back in November. I threw a bit of a (polite) stink about this and the head of my department emailed me a couple of days ago asking me for my schedule for this coming semester because they were going to try and schedule one more class.
We'll see. I really am looking forward to this. I've been wanting to go here for some time now.
So if I go to UBC I will probably major in Sociology and Minor in Poli Sci, but looking at the description of Poli Sci, it looks like there are an awful lot of Canadian-based government classes. You know, entire courses devoted to Parliament. This doesn't really surprise me, I guess, but does this mean that it would just be silly to study Poli Sci there? Do any of you have experience with UBC or Political Science Minor?
The problem with NC State is that it is very hard to actually get a hold of anyone. The only people who consistently answer their phones and email are the admissions people. The rest are too damn busy trying to handle a student body of 31,000 with a faculty and staff size large enough to manage about 18,000. I complained to my adviser that he didn't reply to my email the day before and he showed me his inbox. I kid you not, the man had more than 400 emails, and the oldest one was only two days old. I felt so bad for him.
Plus, parking is a joke, and I am on crutches. Even being able to park in handicap spots makes no difference. There are buildings on this campus where I have to walk up three flights of stairs before I hit the first floor. No elevators, no ramps, nothing. Stuff I never would have noticed if I weren't temporarily disabled.
I am in the processing of doing something, though. I transfered in as a sophomore and, as such, am required to take a sophomore history seminar (history is my major). Of course, each class has no more than 15 students, and they only hold 4 classes a semester. These four filled up back in November. I threw a bit of a (polite) stink about this and the head of my department emailed me a couple of days ago asking me for my schedule for this coming semester because they were going to try and schedule one more class.
We'll see. I really am looking forward to this. I've been wanting to go here for some time now.
I know you're already in and attending, but the faculty to student ratio should be a big red flag. This should serve as warning for all the young forumers out there. You learn nothing from a 665-member lecture class. It's nearly impossible to pay attention and the glare from 664 other students when you ask a question is unavoidable.
I know you're already in and attending, but the faculty to student ratio should be a big red flag. This should serve as warning for all the young forumers out there. You learn nothing from a 665-member lecture class. It's nearly impossible to pay attention and the glare from 664 other students when you ask a question is unavoidable.
Yeah, the ratio is really bad, except for what I am majoring in and a few others in the liberal arts area. I am a history major on a science/engineering campus. And, normally, this would be also be bad because one would think that the liberal arts divisions would then suffer. In some ways they do, but the history faculty at this university is ranked well. It's why I chose NC State.
I don't have to worry about most of the massive intro classes because I attended other smaller colleges (when I was a bit younger) where I was able to get much of my gen ed out of the way. I am pretty much going to be taking upper level classes from the get go. I am being forced to take English 101 because they say I have been out of high school too long for my AP credit to be any good. I about fell out of my seat when I saw there are only 21 other students in it. The sophomore history seminar never has more than 15 students. In fact, most of the courses in my major, at least the ones I need and will take, usually top out at 20 - 25 seats.
The only 2 courses I have to worry about with concern to large classes are the two required science classes. I am signed up for chem 101 and there are about 250 students in it. Not bad for chem 101, though. I thought it would be worse than that.
I don't think I will have a problem with professors remembering me, just a problem with trying to reach them by phone or mail.
I recently finished my first semester at Sacred Heart (one of my saftey choices along with UCONN, ECSU and UHartford), a pretty small private catholic university in Fairfield CT. My gpa is just about a 2.7 having failed my math course (has always been my weak subject) which I am now planning to retake in the summer, otherwise i've got two A's and three B's.
When I say it's pretty small, it is an understatement; 20+ students is a big class. Due to it's small size there is a lacking of things to do on campus (and even off considering Fairfield and the nearby ghetto of Bridgeport) other than partying/getting intoxicated, and figuring out how to get off the campus, typically to nearby New Haven or an excursion to NYC.
Academically it is a decent school, but seems geared more towards the sciences and business. I am a history major (only because it doesn't offer classics) and the department has only three full time professors with three adjunct professors, along with a slew of part time staff that cover most of the survey classes. Humanities are a bit lacking compared to the other departments. Also lacking are the arts, the music department is literally a hallway with some officies/practice rooms, and then a big general music room with mediocre acoustics. Trying to find ensembles to perform in as a bassist left a lot to be desired.
Of course I am looking to transfer as early as the start of the fall 08' semester and as late as the end of said semester, unless something about the school really wins me over. Having failed to get into the competitive private/expensive univerisities of NYU and Fordham in nyc, I'm looking at Hunter of the CUNY system (which offers the major I want and has a good department for it), and Binghamton of SUNY (not really a fan of upstate NY, but I have a friend going there now, it has my major, and i want to keep transfer options open). Hunter seems like a decent public college, but I'm reluctant about it being primarily a commuter school.
However a new choice i've been looking at (in no small part to this thread) is University of Cincinnati which offers classics, and has a highly ranked department for it (along with it being a top research center for it to boot), and many things that ive been looking for, such as large opportunities for music via the conservatory. It's midwestern location was not something i had considered while I was in high school (I was dead set on being in or around NYC), which I now regret because there seems to be quite a few schools right up my alley academically and geographically (urban setting wise). So now UC is a top transfer contender with my other two options.
I had an exceptional SAT score and it did little to nothing for me. I had a poor GPA (for the schools that I was applying to) and all of my hopefuls shot me down.
Sophomore at East Tennessee State University, tucked away in eastern TN.
Next semester, our student government managed to secure Carrie Underwood as our spring concert. :...:
Had the All-American Rejects this fall semester.
Organic Chemistry lab is my downfall.
Dondums on
internet
0
HakkekageSpace Whore Academysumma cum laudeRegistered Userregular
edited December 2007
So if a college sends you a handwritten postcard saying they are eager to receive your application because they were impressed with your stuff even though one of its reviewers at National Portfolio Day flat out said your portfolio sucked, then is it toying with your heart?
You really should make a bit of a fuss and get them to find classes for you. There's a difference between a little oops we forget and losing a student's application for weeks. Especially when said mistake means none of your classes are available.
Addendum to this:
Fuck them! Pick the classes you want and show up, don't take no for an answer!
(Seriously. There are usually two or three assholes that sign up for the class and don't ever show up. The teacher will you give you an enrollment number to take their place if the spots become available.)
My biggest problem right now is this 5 week break. I'm flying to a few places in that time, but seriously, five weeks? I work on campus so I don't even have work right now. I think this calls for drinking.
i'm currently attending a local community college (bellevue community college, for any northwest washington'ers).
it's a pretty good deal - they pay for two years of my college classes (a high school program they have), and then i get to transfer off to a school as a junior. no SATs or whatever required. booya.
Xenocide Geek on
i wanted love, i needed love
most of all, most of all
someone said true love was dead
but i'm bound to fall
bound to fall for you
oh what can i do
Posts
But I seem to have found my groove again. I've still managed to avoid failing anything thus far (which means I've gotten no D's), so I'm making good progress towards my degree. As of now I'm sitting on like a 3.1 GPA, which while not fantastic isn't really all that horrible in engineering. We don't see a lot of 4.0's in my department.
I must have really nailed a couple of my finals though...I was almost positive I was going to get at least one C, if not two. One ended up being a B-, but that was it...the rest were B and above.
Glad it's done, though.
Want a fun story? So I'm doing this take-home final for my Signals class. I'm completely stumped on this problem. Google isn't helping, the textbook isn't helping, nothing is helping. I know how to do convolutions in general, but for some reason the specific problem he chose for the test is beyond me. And I can't even find an example that's similar. So I end up fumbling through, and getting an answer I knew was wrong in the hopes of maybe picking up a few points.
Cut to the next day. Finals are over, I'm sitting at home flipping through the two books that I bought for next semester's classes (both were one of only two or three used copies at the bookstore, so I figured I'd jump on them). I guess I just wanted to see what kind of crazy shit I had to look forward to next semester.
There it is, in my Telecomm book. The exact fucking problem from the final. Verbatim. The fun part? I had bought this book before I did that final.
I mean, obviously the odds that I'd have opened it up to that page the day before and seen that problem are remote. And I'm not sure how I'd have felt about doing so anyway...though it was a take-home, so there's that. But just knowing that the answer was right fucking there all along....maddening.
Whenever our professors gave us a choice (which was a couple times, maybe) we almost always picked the in class exam.
MORE LIEK 3.0
I don't think I've ever been happier with a shitty grade in my entire life. I'm actually a bit stunned I did that well.
Honestly I've seen employers turn down people with a GPA of 4.0, but with no extracurricular, but accept people with a GPA of 3.0 but with a shit load of awesome extracurriculars (president of such of such, started up a such and such with 20 volunteers, and so on).
I've been told by so many sources how unimportant GPA is, and by others about how very important GPA is.
At this point, it's out of my control and my main goal is to graduate. Hey, an engineering student graduating in 4 years while doing varsity athletics with a 2.6 isn't bad in my opinion. I'm going to go with the people who say GPA isn't important.
Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
College application essay, what to write?
I wrote about the time I played Little League and didn't get a hit until the last game of the season. It was an embarrassing season, but damn did it make for a good college essay.
Nothing so interesting has happened to me I'm afraid!
Fluff. A lot of fluff.
Look Ye On This Truth And Despair.
Or not as the case may be.
That's terrible advice.
However, given that I was interested in an industry that has tens of thousands of people trying to make it into maybe, maybe, 50 openings ever, I've basically taken it as a sign that I should go for something that has more fiscal security and that I seem to be better at.
Basically doing a complete turnaround.
certainly benefited me. God bless them.
Film/stage acting.
I never really knew how good I was - I mean, I got leads in plays and tons of compliments from teachers and friends and stuff, but to paraphrase a David Cross bit, L.A. is full of wannabe actors using "But I was so good in my 10th grade production of Fiddler on the roof!".
Haven't not gotten into Tisch (which has accepted maybe 70 Drama ED applicants, so it's not exactly a huge deal) I figure I probably wouldn't manage to break into the industry anyway. Am I giving up because a super-selective university didn't take me? Hell no. It just...made me realize the scope of trying to get into the business, and made me wonder if I wanted that kinda uncertainty.
EDIT: Having only heard back from one school, and having that school be a school where your audition is 50% and everything else is the other 50, I sure do hope SATs are as influential as you guys make them out to be.
once you get past a certain point, and you start applying for better schools, all the kids with high SAT scores start to look exactly alike
high scores are good, but you have to be able to set yourself apart from all the other applicants , and that's where the essays are really important, and I honestly think thats why I got in, and the 99 average 2280 SAT score valedictorian from my class last year didn't.
(97 GPA, 7th in my class, 2140 SAT's for comparison)
I applied to North Carolina State University as a transfer student back in the first week of September for Spring '08. They said that they expedite their spring applications, so I expected to hear back by October, maybe mid-November.
When the first week of December rolled around and I had heard nothing from them, not even a message online, I was really worried and called the university. The first person I talked to, a receptionist in the admissions office, sounded surprised by my situation. The person I was transfered to was flabbergasted that I hadn't heard back yet because, apparently, they have a policy of processing spring applications in about 8 weeks (it had been 2 days over 12 weeks when I called). He told me he would find out immediately what the problem was and promised to call right back. Less than three minutes later, he called me back and gave me the good news that I was accepted. Apparently, though he tried to not come out and say it, my application got lost on someone's desk. I couldn't believe it! Has anyone ever heard of this happening?
I mean, NC State isn't Ivy League, but it is a respectable state university that always ranks pretty well.
The good news is that I got accepted. The bad news is that I was accepted so late that the only classes that I could register for were one step up from basket weaving. There weren't any classes left in my major at all. Turns out, as the head adviser of my department told me last Friday, NC State has way too may students. In his words, "good luck getting the classes you need in the first two semesters you're here."
On the other hand, every single person I have met and talked to has been incredibly nice; this includes staff, faculty and students. Almost freakishly so. I had someone help me around on orientation because I have a broken foot, and when we left he told me he wondered if they were all on something because every single person went out of their way to be helpful and charming. I have been to three other colleges, and this one has the nicest atmosphere I've ever experienced.
You'll find people work miracles when their ass is on the line
Plus, parking is a joke, and I am on crutches. Even being able to park in handicap spots makes no difference. There are buildings on this campus where I have to walk up three flights of stairs before I hit the first floor. No elevators, no ramps, nothing. Stuff I never would have noticed if I weren't temporarily disabled.
I am in the processing of doing something, though. I transfered in as a sophomore and, as such, am required to take a sophomore history seminar (history is my major). Of course, each class has no more than 15 students, and they only hold 4 classes a semester. These four filled up back in November. I threw a bit of a (polite) stink about this and the head of my department emailed me a couple of days ago asking me for my schedule for this coming semester because they were going to try and schedule one more class.
We'll see. I really am looking forward to this. I've been wanting to go here for some time now.
I know you're already in and attending, but the faculty to student ratio should be a big red flag. This should serve as warning for all the young forumers out there. You learn nothing from a 665-member lecture class. It's nearly impossible to pay attention and the glare from 664 other students when you ask a question is unavoidable.
Yeah, the ratio is really bad, except for what I am majoring in and a few others in the liberal arts area. I am a history major on a science/engineering campus. And, normally, this would be also be bad because one would think that the liberal arts divisions would then suffer. In some ways they do, but the history faculty at this university is ranked well. It's why I chose NC State.
I don't have to worry about most of the massive intro classes because I attended other smaller colleges (when I was a bit younger) where I was able to get much of my gen ed out of the way. I am pretty much going to be taking upper level classes from the get go. I am being forced to take English 101 because they say I have been out of high school too long for my AP credit to be any good. I about fell out of my seat when I saw there are only 21 other students in it. The sophomore history seminar never has more than 15 students. In fact, most of the courses in my major, at least the ones I need and will take, usually top out at 20 - 25 seats.
The only 2 courses I have to worry about with concern to large classes are the two required science classes. I am signed up for chem 101 and there are about 250 students in it. Not bad for chem 101, though. I thought it would be worse than that.
I don't think I will have a problem with professors remembering me, just a problem with trying to reach them by phone or mail.
When I say it's pretty small, it is an understatement; 20+ students is a big class. Due to it's small size there is a lacking of things to do on campus (and even off considering Fairfield and the nearby ghetto of Bridgeport) other than partying/getting intoxicated, and figuring out how to get off the campus, typically to nearby New Haven or an excursion to NYC.
Academically it is a decent school, but seems geared more towards the sciences and business. I am a history major (only because it doesn't offer classics) and the department has only three full time professors with three adjunct professors, along with a slew of part time staff that cover most of the survey classes. Humanities are a bit lacking compared to the other departments. Also lacking are the arts, the music department is literally a hallway with some officies/practice rooms, and then a big general music room with mediocre acoustics. Trying to find ensembles to perform in as a bassist left a lot to be desired.
Of course I am looking to transfer as early as the start of the fall 08' semester and as late as the end of said semester, unless something about the school really wins me over. Having failed to get into the competitive private/expensive univerisities of NYU and Fordham in nyc, I'm looking at Hunter of the CUNY system (which offers the major I want and has a good department for it), and Binghamton of SUNY (not really a fan of upstate NY, but I have a friend going there now, it has my major, and i want to keep transfer options open). Hunter seems like a decent public college, but I'm reluctant about it being primarily a commuter school.
However a new choice i've been looking at (in no small part to this thread) is University of Cincinnati which offers classics, and has a highly ranked department for it (along with it being a top research center for it to boot), and many things that ive been looking for, such as large opportunities for music via the conservatory. It's midwestern location was not something i had considered while I was in high school (I was dead set on being in or around NYC), which I now regret because there seems to be quite a few schools right up my alley academically and geographically (urban setting wise). So now UC is a top transfer contender with my other two options.
"I don't want the world, I just want your half"
I'll be okay then.
hehe, more than okay.
Do we have a perfect score up in this ma'?
Hey I know someone who goes there
It is a very popular school for the best and the brightest of my high school.
What a brutal semester.
Currently a freshman.
Next semester, our student government managed to secure Carrie Underwood as our spring concert. :...:
Had the All-American Rejects this fall semester.
Organic Chemistry lab is my downfall.
NNID: Hakkekage
Addendum to this:
Fuck them! Pick the classes you want and show up, don't take no for an answer!
(Seriously. There are usually two or three assholes that sign up for the class and don't ever show up. The teacher will you give you an enrollment number to take their place if the spots become available.)
My biggest problem right now is this 5 week break. I'm flying to a few places in that time, but seriously, five weeks? I work on campus so I don't even have work right now. I think this calls for drinking.
it's a pretty good deal - they pay for two years of my college classes (a high school program they have), and then i get to transfer off to a school as a junior. no SATs or whatever required. booya.
most of all, most of all
someone said true love was dead
but i'm bound to fall
bound to fall for you
oh what can i do