Old Dudes in College Anonymous
 

There's what, like 10-15 people, here who are giving it the "old" college try. So I figured maybe we could centralize something so that we could discuss stuff.

Some thoughts-
1. I probably go to a dumb kid school, but kids are dumber than expected. I can't imagine having to grade papers.
2. How much participation is too much participation? I feel like an asshole for talking a lot, but there will be times when nobody is contributing and class drags ass.
3. I'm married, but just in case, how young is too young? A friend wants to know.

1. It's the nightmare you think it is.
2. If you're participating too much, the instructor will let you know or call on other people. Also depends on the style of the class. But in general, participation is a good thing.
3. Depends on the people in question.. no real hard and fast rule, other than if you're as old as Chevy Chase, you can pretty much forget any action.

I can only answer number 3...

Yes, there is such a thing as too young. I don't think lawyer fees and jail time will help much with the dating prospects. However, that all goes away as soon as the object of his affection is 18. 18 be the magic number.

(Your age/2) + 7 = Their age. :D Also, if I have a niece who is older, that's a killer right there. I will say right now even as a person who can pass for 30, the only girl who looks my way on any remote level looks at every guy since she's the typical tall long legged blonde cheerleader type that all the guys flock to. Seriously, every guy around her talks to her as where the actual best looking girl in the room pretty much no guy talks to.

1. Agreed. High School is really failing kids by not teaching them how to write a proper argumentative essay, much less a coherent research paper.

2. I participate as much as possible. I sense annoyance from time to time, but moreso from classmates than the professor. The prof will usually say "someone else answer this one" if I've been monopolizing too many of the answers.

3. Tell your "friend" that it depends on the girl. Some dig older guys. Some will think you're a creeper. Just avoid any situations where Chris Hansen would have a reason to show up.

4. Writer's cramp is intolerable

5. If you can't get an A, get the lowest B possible. Had some chick(correctly) give me a 89.4% B. I wish I would have given significantly less effort in that class.

I never really noticed this until I got out of college. I can't sit there and write for 90 minutes and not cramp up in my hand anymore.

I went to school and got burned out, worked for a couple of years, and then went back and finished up. Two things really stuck out:

1) I'm paying gobs of money to be there so I'll do it as I damn well please. That did mean monopolizing the class time sometimes when people didn't want to learn. I had a poly sci class on political parties where it was me, the 23 yo engineering student and a bunch of poly sci undecided freshmen. There were some decent discussions but sometimes it just got to the point of "it's time for you youngsters to be quiet, mom and dad (the professor and I) are talking big kids stuff".

2) GPA was already in the toilet so what stevew said really applied: pick what you want to learn for after school and study that hard. With the rest, just do enough to get by without putting yourself in any danger of not getting by at the whims of the professor.

SI

Concur on #2. Once I went back and I had the bad GPA I stopped worrying so much about what grade I would get in classes that I wasn't interested in...didn't obsess about trying to get straight A's or anything. Didn't get anything bad, but it was a nice weight off my back to just focus on the classes I actually cared about (although lo and behold I didn't end up becoming a historian).

Funny how the final semester when all of my classes were engineering senior electives, I made the honor roll again ;)

SI

Also, I'll admit it- I really took school for granted when my parents were paying for it. It wasn't until it was my own damn money and racking up loans that I really changed my tune.

SI

-if you're a stickler about attendance, Fuck You. I need to know this ahead of time. Especially when half of every class seems to be review of the previous class.

Good idea Steve. I've just been working on some stuff this morning for an online course, and it's a good thing it's online given how much eye rolling and swearing I do reading people's "contributions."

I'm going through U of Maine, whose distance learning stuff (they have a center in town I can take classes at, interactive TV, videoconference classrooms, and then online) is the main business at all but the central campus. And it's very clear that the bar is lowered. As far as I'm concerned 95% of every class i've been in so far should have failed, and I'm quite sure they didn't. They bend over backwards for these kids and adults, and people just don't even try.

So yeah, it's a bit awkward if you're actually engaging the material. I kind of like the online classes because I can post as much and as intelligently as I want without feeling as much of that awkwardness. In the in-person classes I don't talk as much because they're often so far off track that it's hard to say something without making it obvious how dumb they're being.

It's kind of funny that people push for more people to go back to school to help the economy, when it's clear that most of these people I'm seeing aren't coming out of college with anything approaching a college education. It's just kind of a rubberstamp. I wish I had the time and money to go somewhere more challenging.

But it is nice going back now that I know what the hell I'm doing, and have an interest, and a work ethic, and a passion, as well as just knowledge.

Nazi Alpha-dog every group project. Just assume you're doing 100% and it becomes much less stressful.

Oh hell, that went back to middle school for most of us, I imagine

SI

Some colleagues and I were discussing how students that come back after a few years shouldn't be burdened by a previous GPA. In my experience if they come back after several years they are a completely different student. The motivation and understanding of the consequences of fucking up are completely different than when they were a kid.

I went back and graduated in 2010 with my BA in History from University of Washington.

I concur that when you are the one paying for it you take it far more seriously. I don't think there is too much participation, you are there to learn and be a part of it, plus I always found classes more tolerable when I was engaged instead of looking at the clock every 3 minutes.

I found not procrastinating as the key, it really helped to do a little for projects each day.

Also, I don't know what your end game is but see if there are any classes that are special projects where you can work directly with a professor. I did one where I got 3 credits for working 10 hours a week on a website project one of my history teachers was doing. I did a good job and he gave me a letter of recomendation when I was looking for a job.

I think finding some sort of mentor is hugely important.

That's one of the reasons I keep knocking it out of the park with my work, even if the expectations are low, because I figure for me at this stage it's more about connecting with and being noticed by the professors. I want to leave an impression in case i need a recommendation, or they have something interesting to tell me about, have a recommendation for me, etc.

1. I'm in a community college, but I agree completely. I feel like there are some seriously brain dead people in 3 of my 4 courses.

2. There is no such thing as too much, I feel. I'm a huge contributor in most of my classes. We do free-writes in every English class. I always share mine, nobody else wants to. I hate the silence with the professor waiting for someone to say something. I'll fill the gaps.

3. There's a girl in two of my classes that I'd love to sink my hooks into. Through talking to her today I've estimated she is 23-24. Lots of attractive girls, but a lot of them are clearly under 20. I won't go under 21/22.

Pretty much how it went for me in my first run through with college (I say first, because if things keep going the way they are going for me, there's going to be a second - so I'm reading this thread with a lot of interest). First half of college with the classes being all general studies, and core classes that were all theory, "book learnin'" and tests, I got mostly Cs. The second half where most of my classes were core classes, and my grades depended much more on the programs I coded and presentations I gave, I made the Dean's List most of the time (I think 4 out of my last 5 semesters).


Another contributing factor to the raise in my grades. I learned this by the end of my Sophomore year.

Oh, and dola...


18 if you don't mind that she's probably just fucking you so you will buy her and her friends alcohol. 21 otherwise.

Hmm, I could probably make this work for me.

As long as both parties understand the terms of the arrangement, I guess...

SI

Buy her booze only if she provides pics. For us. :)

Ok. 18 if drinking isn't a concern. 21 otherwise. However, that's so you can have her stop and get it before she comes over to your place.

I'm 25 and in nursing school so I am surrounded by girls. The age isn't so much a problem for me in regards to society standards, but I do get uneasy talking to girls that I get the feeling are only 19 years old. Something weird about her not being able to join me for a drink if we would like to kind of makes me uneasy.

Don't let irrational fears get in the way of having fun, young man! ;)

Bingo.

When the girl I mentioned said "I haven't had time to get out, sometimes you just need to get out and have a beer," my interest was certainly raised.

If I had it all over again I would definitely participate more, and make more of an effort to forge relationships with professors. I'd think that's one of the big advantages of going back when you're a little older, you might have more confidence, and you might not be as concerned about having the wrong answer or whatever.

Yes, I feel basically on par with my professors, even if they're the experts in this particular field. It removes that sense of hierarchy and makes the experience more purely intellectual.

Makes it hard to slip them a roofie

Scheduling probably starts soon. I suggest that you do some work on this cause it's important. Game plan this shit. Basically there's the shit you want to take, and the shit you have to take for your major. But the shit they make you take for gen-ed requirements? Fuck those classes in the ear. For instance, we need two classes on this long list of humanities. I could take subjectively graded mythological literature, or I could take history of film.

And always make friends with the people you sit around, if only cause you want to know what gen-ed's they've taken and if those particular classes are easy. Always ask what foreign language they took and who they had. I hear there's a dramatic variance onto what your experience can be.

There's something about tramp stamps and nurse scrubs that just go together. Assuming the chick isn't really fat.

You actually write? What they won't let you type your answers?!?!?

17 is too young. 18 is your lucky number, Stevew!!!!!!

I'm 35 and back in. It is about a billion times harder when you have a (small) child.

Hell no. It's maddening.

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I go to Georgia State and they use a sliding GPA system, where the + or - affects your GPA. You would've got a 3.3 for your B+, but only a 2.7 if you slacked and got a B-.

That is crap.

As is any scale other than 90-100=A, etc.

DOINK! :D

I don't know why, but, that was the first thing that popped into my head.

Ugh. I was told before starting Nursing school that the sooner I was happy being a B student and able to forget about straight A's the easier the adjustment would be, but their 93-100(A), 85-92(B), 75-84(C), 0-74(Fail), scale is so frustrating.

When asked a professor gave us some, "Would you want a nurse that just barely got a C taking care of you?"

I do know a student body group is pushing for the minimum 75 to stay, but to revert back to 90-100, 80-90, 75-80. Their reasoning is that they would still have that increased minimum, but students could still maintain their GPA for graduate school prospects. I really want to go for my Masters, NP, PA, etc but I cant help but wonder what my prospects will be when I graduate and my almost 4.0 is a 3.3. Nursing school is already difficult enough, let alone battling a tougher scale. One of my classes has six ways to fail.

Hopefully they institute this new scale before I am already 3 semesters deep in B's.

I have a great story from a history of film class, but it's really only great if you've taken a history of film class.

"And then I told him, 'Buster, you ain't Keaton about that Eisenstein fella.'"

The biggest thing I found was realizing that your professors are people too, and it is easy and extremely helpful to befriend them. Or at least, if not befriend them, talk with them outside of class. Not only will they help, you'll learn more and it's liable to be very interesting stuff (and it can't hurt your grade to be in good with the professor). I graduated with a BA in History back in 2003, and it wasn't until my last year or so that I realized I could pick the professors I enjoyed and go take only the classes they taught. Made a HUGE difference.

The lady who taught our class had ginormous tracks of land.