How would you rate your college experience?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Madaglan
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
M

Madaglan

Guest
How were your college years? (college years being the 4 years of undergraduate studies)
 
you didn’t have a choice for 10 years to get my undergraduate degree, between jobs, babies, moves etc. went to an urban state school, got a great education because I learned to seek out the good professors and ignore the bad ones. when forced to take a required course from a professor who should not have been granted tenure, I learned to do the research on my own to supplement and make up for defects in what I was taught. On the balance, some great professors made up for the bad ones. As far as a social experience, only had one year of the on campus thing at Michigan State, probably the most traumatic year of my life (1967-68). By what I can only assume to be the guidance of the Holy Spirit I rejected a scholarship to a “Catholic” school that is now a hotbed of dissent and heresy, and took the scholarship to the state school, where my faith was challenged every day, and eventually strengthened. Had I gone to the “Catholic” school there is no doubt I would be a Kerry Catholic today.
 
I am glad I graduated from college, and I LOVE academia. And although I went to a prestigious Christian liberal arts college - my degree has nothing to do with what I do in life, or any position that I hold today.
The greatest benefit to college IMHO - was that it opened up my mind, and taught me how to learn. It was the renissance of my life - and was the doorway to my conversion to the Catholic faith.
For that, I am grateful.
 
It was a decent 5 years for me. The first three at a big state university, not some of the proudest years of my life, but I learned a lot (life lessons) without doing too much damage.

I came home for the last two years and earned my biochem degree at a local Jesuit university. Those were two of the best years of my life. Loved the campus, loved the academic program, loved the profs and fellow students.
 
If I had to do it over again, I probably:
a) Wouldn’t have gone to college
b) Chose a different college
c) Not have made certain decisions while in college and that would have changed my outlook of the past.

As I have shared with all of you about my past. I engaged myself in a wide variety of sins that haunted me years after college. College brought out all the bad I could ever imagine. My Catholic faith as a child, or lack there or, did not prepare me for the ‘world out there’. And with the train of thought in college today, I am afraid more than ever for this generation of youth in college life today. Liberal professors and re-writing history to fit THEIR teachings will warp the minds of our cherished young ones.

In retrospect I would have:
Gone to the same college and chose a different major and NOT gone into a social fraternity. I would have gone to the ‘local’ Catholic Church (more traditional) than the Campus Parish with a bit more liberal emphasis. (this was Bowling Green State University in Ohio from 1979-1983). In 1980, BG was ranked in the top 10 to being a ‘party school’.

Oh well, we live and learn and now I pray that others can learn from our mistakes and choices we made in our pasts.

Go with God!
Edwin
 
Undergraduate was O.K. I commuted and wasn’t in an area where tons was happening. I got a good education & did fairly well.

Graduate school was extremely stressful. #1, I went to The University of Texas at Austin. Great school - terrible attitude. I felt there was so much arrogance associated with UT. “If you didn’t learn it from us, you never learned it” was the basic attitude especially from the professors who had written the books.

It was a real struggle academically which was O.K.; however, there was kind of a cold feeling associated with the professors - no compassion for the struggling.

There was also a very temporary feel about it all. People treated you with a sense of, “well I’ll never see this person again” especially during the dating process.

Looking back at it all, I should have joined a Catholic organization. That would have helped tremendously.
 
The good part was that I learned a billion times* more about God and the Bible in my first class at a Baptist university than I did growing up Catholic.

Other than that… It wasn’t the traditional “college is my life and the campus is my world” experience most kids enter after high school. I was working full time, with a wife and 5 kids so i was only taking 2-3 classes a semester. From first class to graduation took 6-7 years, I think.
  • Obvious hyberbole to make my point.
 
the first two years of college were hell on earth for me, due to a very sick and abusive relationship. Despite that, I was still able to grow in my faith very much during that time. The second two years of college were great, I went to Rome, met my husband, got into my first choice for grad school, made some really great friends for the first time, etc.
 
I’m in 3rd year of my degree, and I’d have to say the best experiences have been those outside of the classroom. Kind of reminds me of Mark Twain’s famous line ‘I never let my schooling interfere with my education’, or something like that.
 
I’m in College now.
I’m not sure about how I rank my experainces 90% of my struggles are internal.
I go to a Catholic school where we have amazing homilies that are very pro-life, not every student is, but its a good environment.
I love my clubs, St Vincnt dePaul Society, the radio show, NU Stirngs&woodwinds and I love that I will be in the senior one act festivle.
I love my professors who are ALL more than willing to help me with my struggles even if I am not willing to share my difficulities.
I love that there are six priests and 4 or five brothers(their might be more in different departments that I don’t know of) right on campus. I love that I have a priest as a professor.
I love that I work with two brothers in the theatre department.
I really love my dorm, tho i hear its quite a different experiance in other dorms on campus…
 
I have a lot of regrets from my college years… not the regrets that others have mentioned above! One of my main motivations in college was to find myself a good, protestant, conservative husband… so I went to a good, protestant, conservative liberal arts college in the midwest. I thought that being a successful, 6 figure income was important, so I studied business instead of using my love of English and love of people.

Those 4 years were spent in boy/girl segregated dorms, abiding by silly rules, pretending like we were all happy and destined to be the future wives of future Focus on the Family executives and Willow Creek pastors. 🙂

But God is good, and 2 years out I sit here in the best city in the world, with no ring on my finger, preparing to enter the Catholic Church and the world as my classroom. If I had college to do over again, would I? You bet, I would have challenged myself by not seeking out such a conservative and comfortable eduation and surrounded myself with friends and professors who challenged me. Sure, there was the odd one or two folks who challenged me- and thank God for that!- but over all I was so ready to settle in to a easy life that I didn’t think deeply or seriously about why I believed what I believed. It was more a time of learning to defend the beliefs I held growing up rather than discovering what was true… no matter how it made me feel or how it conflicted with my upbringing.

I suppose that’s what I think a good college education should give a student- varried opinions and the opportunity to make educated choices… and also have some fun along the way, which I sort of missed out on for four years. All in the name of a Christian education! Baloney!! 😃

Please don’t think I am a man-hater now… I am so thankful I didn’t marry one of those guys I knew in college- I would have been completely stifled and miserable… especially now that I am planning on entering the Catholic church. Boy that would have gone over well! I just have faith that God’s going to bring a man into my life who loves international issues, is Catholic, is against contraception (wow, I never thought I’d say THAT!) 😉 , cares about the poor and oppressed, and loves the Lord even more than he loves me. Someday!

But in the meantime, I’ve got a whole lot of education to catch up on. Wish me luck!
 
I hated the first two years. That is the great thing about college, you get to transfer and start over with a new GPA.

It wasn’t just the grades, but the social life. I like to socialize but many of the students the first two years, had little direction and dropped out. I was one of them, only to apply to another state school that summer.

Co-ed dorms are horrible. No boundaries with the opposite sex. I don’t believe in curfews, but I don’t like walking back from the showers in my bathrobe in full view of men. Or a young man considering a date as coming to my room and lying down on my bed without permission.

Junior and Senior year was great though. Lots of fun and the classes were more focused.
 
I was in college while my daughter was in diapers, and, I was a single mom… She was always my highlight, but, needless to say it was pretty stressful. I graduated when she was three… she was quite the motivator though. 😃
 
40.png
AmyS:
I was in college while my daughter was in diapers, and, I was a single mom… She was always my highlight, but, needless to say it was pretty stressful. I graduated when she was three… she was quite the motivator though. 😃
Click to expand...
i salute you and the strength of single mothers… how you guys do it i will never know… may the good Lord love and keep you all the days of your life… and may God bless you… 👍

cdbaby.com

Music Distribution with No Recurring Fees | CD Baby

CD Baby - Independently distribute to Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, TikTok, Pandora & more. Make money from your songs worldwide on 150+ trusted platforms.
cdbaby.com cdbaby.com

yep, heck of an accomplishment… i couldn’t do it… :eek:
 
Classes are great…the rest…not so. The roommate experience is awful…i hate it with a passion. The rising cost of tuition is crappy…

My biggest pet peeve about college though has to be the students whose parents pay their way. They never seem to care that other people have to struggle to be there and want to be there. They talk through every class and make everything hard for everyone else. Good thing those people usually drop or fail the first year.
 
You’re right in many respects. But the cost issues is a sore subject. Ahem… my parents paid. Colleges up the costs, knowing fully well people with no money will get loans. And then there are the credit cards…

I can’t believe my parents paid 5,000 ten years ago so I could live in a cell of a dorm room. Most colleges it is about 10,000 plus just for room and board. Seen people drop up and have 15,000 in loans or more to pay.
 
Renee…I should’ve said most…but it’s my experience that the people who pay their own way are the one’s who are really serious about it. But that is just what I have seen to date.

It’s pretty expensive for a dorm here…about 10 000 a year then tuition. I’m married and have an apartment, but still have another roommate…erg. I wish I didn’t. It’s fine when you aren’t married, but it’s almost as if my husband and I have a 21 year old child. oh well.
 
The first two years of my college experience were at a community college(Schoolcraft, for you Michiganders)–which were actually more enjoyable than most of the schooling I had experienced up to that point. The next three years I went to Michigan, and struggled since there wasn’t as much personal attention from the professor.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top