This, my dear friends, is a college building. I pulled a random building from off the internet to define it's symbolism. You see, this building stands for far much more than just a place to hold classroom lectures. This is the ultimate learning environment. Or so one would certainly hope for.
Let me summarize briefly what happens to you from your last 4 years of high school to your first years of college.
9th to 12th grade you spend constant time, effort, and research into what you want to do with your life. You look up schools, careers, talk to counselors, take campus tours, and even apply for countless scholarships. Then boom! Graduation day hits you, the paper is yours, and you're out the door. You have to decide on your own map where to go from here.
So it's narrowed down to three options: don't go to school and go for a job, with only a high school diploma, go to a junior college then either transfer or go for a job then, or junior college then transfer to a 4 year school. You go with plan C, and pray to God that it doesn't fail you.
Junior college seems wonderful. You've made a ton of new friends, began to embrace your true identity of your own passions, made some good connections, met some respectable and influential teachers, and continued to do well. Then graduation comes again.
You graduate, your friends jet, your awesome teachers stay there, then you move on to a bigger school.
It can't be that bad right? Nope. Not even. You go to a 4 year school near home, offering a very poor degree in what you want, and if you survive, you'll get a bachelor's degree in something somewhat related to your original degree.
Fast forward to the present day. 4 year school. 1 semester down. Very little friends. Very bleak outlook on life. And then it hits you like a truckload of cow manure: you're not doing very well at all in college.
Which brings me to the purpose of this entire post: why college can truly slay your dreams.
To quote Lewis Black in "Accepted", college is a service industry. And he couldn't have been anymore right. College professors are being paid to teach to the best of their abilities to educate the students that pay thousands of dollars for a high quality education. So why is it that when one student fails, it goes unnoticed?
Is it typical for students to have a rocky start in a bigger college? I'm not quite sure. But I will say that to any so called "teacher" *cough *cough lousy graduate students with less than 2 years experience trying to cash in willing to fail a student giving an honest effort to regurgitate the information retained in the class should be fired. You give the college reputation of a higher education a big slap to the face.
I've come to accept time and time again that a 4 year school is more hardcore than anything. I picture it as the T-Rex on the food chain. It can eat almost anything that eats other things. The only trick to it is not to be around when it feeds. In this case, do the work, attend class, pay attention, contact the teachers, and everything should be good right?
Not all is good at the moment. I had to deal with the fact that I did poorly than I expected to be. I have to change my entire life routine just because my GPA went straight down to hell. Is it all my fault? No. Is it all of the faculty's fault? No, but they did pull the trigger to assassinate my grades.
Out of curiosity, I will one day research what requirements are needed to be a teacher at a college university. I would wish that they eliminate grad students teaching classes in general education that have no idea how to teach freshman.
In their own defense, I can see they want to make an honest buck. Perfectly respectable. All I ask is that they factor in that not everyone will be up to speed about everything they lecture about. Thus, I would prefer experience over anything when getting a college education.
The reason why I did poorly this semester was a number of things. Sure, I could point fingers at video games, goofing off with my pals, and chasing after hot girls, but that won't get me anywhere. It's comparable to a dog chasing it's own tail. It's amusing, pointless, and goes in a complete circle. Same with my reasonings, but one reason I can affirm is the lack of quality of my education. 4 out of 5 of my teachers were all graduate students.
What happened to high quality college professors? Up to this point in my school career, I've had nothing but excellence from my own teachers. And they have demanded nothing but the same from me. But the instant I hit OSU, it changes. I learn the same tactics I used at NOC don't apply well to a big wig 4 year school.
But the thing that really irks me the most over there is that they take advantage of the BIG school reputation and run with it. They care less about quality, and care only more about whether or not they're taking some college kid's money, entrenching them in a life full of debt until they get a decent job regardless of that little white paper in their hands saying they spent a good 4 to 5 years of their life learning stuff they need to know in order to prove to the world they're not complete morons.
I try to write these posts for good. That maybe someone out there, in my shoes or can somewhat relate to me, can say that man, this guy hit the nail on the head. We're living in an unjust and corrupt system and until we recognize that, we'll always be the victims.
I apologize if I seem quite radical now, but this newfound manifestation of anger has only seeped through my veins through the past couple of weeks. I hope in turn that any college student struggling with their first semester can seek hope from my post and know that failure is never the end; it's always a new beginning. Sure, you may go through redemption like me, but the road less traveled is the one always worth taking.
To leave on a more positive note: Understand that I wrote this post in order to expose the flaws of any type of school system, regardless of your grade level. Do not take from this post that I mean to insult what educators are doing for students. That is the complete opposite. I wrote this to better prepare students in the future not to make my mistakes, understand when they fail it's not entirely their fault, and that teachers, grad student or not, should take full responsibility if a student is struggling, and shouldn't worry so much about the money they make.
You can't put a price on a good education.
Good night and God Bless
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