The College Compendium: my attention whore thread

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Your experiences are a lot like mine, and I probably go to one of the more conservative universities in Canada.

What I find at Queen's is we've got a lot of young students who are a lot like Mitt Romney, but who are the most liberal people in the world because they've never actually had to spend or earn money of their own. There is a visible group of exceptionally rich students who just make you feel horrible about yourself, yet they talk about these leftist causes that they hardly understand. I hate it.

I also felt that "small fish in a big pond" syndrome when I first came to university. I used to go to an arts school where I was that one vocal conservative. And I have to say, by virtue of what arts schools are, the people are extremely tolerant folks. I had a place there, I could be loud, and I was sort of like the SNL guy who kept everyone grounded. I could say the most conservative things in the world and people would love me for it. Just so you get the idea, these people actually voted me valedictorian. I was at the top. And even if I hadn't been, it was still a great place to be: Each person at this school was hand-chosen because he or she had a creative spark.

Let's just say... university doesn't have a very high concentration of these creative people. I've instead found myself in an atmosphere of boring academics. This is a place where people either party really hard (I don't) or study all the time (I don't). There are a lot of snobs and a lot of handshakers, and being friendly or having a good personality hardly gets you anywhere. I've decided that creativity is sent to university to die. I legitimately feel like I am a lesser person since going to university.

The worst part is, I really feel like I'm not learning anything. For most of these classes, the professor could be replaced with a syllabus. It's all self-directed, which makes me really wonder what I'm paying for, and most of the time I can get away with not doing the readings and still excel. I did all of zero readings last term, and I managed A, A, A, A, B. At best, the marking is inconsistent. In another term, I went to lecture for this one class every single day and really thought I had an excellent grasp of the material, even after taking the final exam. I got a C. Meanwhile, I literally went to 5 out of 24 lectures for another class, figured I learned nothing, and got an A+. Where are the "hard knocks" that are supposed to teach me a lesson if marking seems like a coin flip?

I don't drink myself into oblivion, and all the clubs I've thought about joining are full of the most elitist people you'll ever meet. So I have very few friends here. The only point I see of university is getting that degree at the end, even though a history/geography degree will mean little. I'm really more of a family person, so I legit feel like I'm missing out when I'm at school, which luckily is only three hours away from home. All-in-all, I am not a fan of university... I know it's something that I kind of have to be doing, but I don't like it.

This is a very bitter-sounding post, so I apologize. But now that we've started a bitch-sesh, I might as well be open, honest, and comprehensive.