Here Today... Gone To Hell!

I got to applying to University (a week past the deadline and a year late, I may add) and I also got to thinking...

I know we've had this thread before. I'm sure of it,

but I think that it was on the last board, the one that we lost everything from. I couldn't find anything in the two searches that I did at least.

Anyway, I'm probably going to end up studying Film (and Media or Television if I have to...) at University, maybe on the south coast (of England), maybe even up in Scotland, which is as far away from where I live in in Britain as is pretty much possible. Truth is, I didn't know where the hell Stirling (I thought it was a brand of cigarettes) was when I applied there. Even more truthfully, I didn't know much about any of my universities when I applied. I just knew that I had to at least apply, even if I end up not going. I did the whole bastard thing in one day, personal statement and all, and as a result I guess I haven't chosen the best places...

I just wondered what you all here studied...Or are studying...and where abouts...Or, if you're just an uneducated bum.

Or! A tale of how you dropped out of school, and are now king of the company, but without the student debt. Students love those one in a million tales shoved in their face,

at least I do.

But seriously...I don't.

I did my GCSE's in England and did very well in them.. then finished high schooling here in Australia and passed but my grades were terrible simply because I lost all willpower and self discipline to study. I quite enjoyed some of the subjects especially Modern History and English but when I got home was more interested in jumping online and chatting (just got the net back then and ICQ was the thing) etc.

I stupidly then went to a private college and spent around $10,000 to $15,000 doing an IT course that I really didn't want to do but was pressured into doing something after I finished high school. I finished and passed it but then decided I hated it and didn't want a job in IT so never pursued it.

So went to work for a few years, nothing special and poor money but I wish I had just done that out of school looking back at it now instead of making rushed decisions.

Things have really fallen into place this year as I now am a manager (not a high senior manager or anything yet) at Coca Cola here in Australia and after many years now feel ready to sit down and study again. Luckily CC will pay for 80% of my course fees. I'm in the process of applying for University second semester start this year, doing Business Management. I'll be doing my degree through distance learning while working full time. I'm just going to start with one (maybe two) subject to get my feet wet again and see how I go. It's eally daunting after being away from any of this for so long and not knowing anything about how uni, subjects and the system works. The application process is also quite difficult and I'm really hoping I get accepted through mature age entry and life experiece etc. But yeah I really feel ready again and I'm glad I've waited all these years until I knew the time was right and I had the right frame of mind to take it seriously and have the willpower for it. I guess that comes when you actually are doing something you want to do.. which I've never experienced before.

I have a drama school commended diploma from a London school that's affiliated to Middlesex University and South Bank University, so i have a 3 year university affiliation through this and furthered into something else in Environment Office for Windows.

Currently doing my final semester of Computer Science Engineering. (Thank goodness  ::))

I'm studying layout designing and that kind of stuff in Helsinki. Maybe Axl'll ask me to design a new logo for Gn'R :hihi:

Nah, I'm an educated fool :P

Well during my 6th form days i studied, English Language, Psychology, Sociology & Media Studies.

Not that they meant much to me i spent most days drinking in the pub and getting stoned, one of my teachers even forgot my name. ?Media Studies was the only one i actually enjoyed. ?I always did well in that no matter how stoned i was so that was a bonus. ?I thought about doing something along those lines at University like your doing, but decided against it just because i could not see too many job prospects in it.

I decided Law would be a good idea or at least by folks and there friends thought i'd be good at it and i just thought, fuck it, why not. ?The university i applied for (UCLAN - Preston - North West England....) i choose because they only wanted a B & 2 C's and most other places wanted A's. ?Another factor was the place was quite local and the final thing that made me choose the place was my tutor saying 'James if you don't pick somewhere in the next 5 minutes you won't be able to go anywhere....' so it was kind of a lucky dip thing to.

I found the course ok to start with, fairly easy and partying did not get in the way i managed to do both without a problem. ?This was for the first month or so before things really started to get going. ?Then i just skipped more and more lectures and spent the rest of the year stoned in my flat with my mates or down the nearest pubs with them. ?I barely attended and only passed 2 of my 6 modules. ?I had to therefore go back for resits in August as did one of my very good friends there Ben (nicknamed Pot.....go figure ;)). ?Well i managed to get stoned instead of actualy preparing for my exams and ended up only passing another one so that left me with the option to repeat the year. ?It was only part time though (since i passed half of it...). ?This year i had been doing better, not attending much but still doing most of what was needed, getting stoned but not as often. ?Being part time i was not entitled to the ?3000 student loan so i could not afford to live over there so i was travelling in each day, i only had to attend 2 days a week anyway, some weeks only 1. ?Normally i would sleep on one of my mate's sofa's for a few days, do the usual going out getting stoned thing. ?Christmas came though and i had spent all my money and my folks were wondering why i seemed down. ?I told them the course wasn't for me, i had finally realised and admitted to myself that it wasn't my thing.

So i never went back after Christmas, i quit smoking and all drugs (last stoner session was early January....). ?I have been jobhunting since, being a picky bastard though. ?During this time i have been improving more and more at the Gym before i used it twice a week pushing weights but being a stoner my diet wasn't that good (munchies...) and my cardio vascular was shit. ?Now i have a healthy diet, i go out running and use the Gym more and more (not too much there is such a thing as over training ;)). ?I enjoy it so much and have become really passionate about it so much so i decided to apply for a fitness/gym management course (get into being a personal trainer and stuff....). ?I had to do one of those bollocks personal statements again (God they suck....). ?Good news is i got a letter yesterday saying i have an appointment with the dude running the course a week today, so if that goes well i will start all over again in September. ?2 years at Burnley College and then for the 3rd i go back to Preston.

And i do have the student debt but i need to start earning a decent amount of money before i pay it back ;D

Oh and here is my new idol

(http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d161/TheStonedMaids/SimonDean.gif)

That's good news. Well done for getting off the weed and getting healthy.

I think you deserve that letter about your course for the choices you made. When I had my last badly paid job, I decided to stop complaining about it and get a second job.. then I ended up getting just one quite well paid job.. I just believe you make your own luck.. and you get luck when it's deserved  : ok:

Now speaking about will power and personal training.. those two don't go together for me  :hihi:  I spent a couple of months with a personal trainer at the gym and was going quite well but then totally lost it!

I'm in my first year of Uni, studying English and Media. ?I'd recommend it to anyone really, I find the topics we're studying pretty interesting and it's not been all that hard work (although this is just the first year, and it will get harder).

The way I see it, I have better things to do with my life than just spending all my time chasing after the best jobs and sucking up to employers. ?After Uni I will travel, and hopefully not stop travelling for a long time after. ?These three years are all about preparing myself for the future - getting myself in the right shape of mind and learning how to work hard when I have to. ?At the end of it i'll have a nice, shiny degree that I can use as a safety net if my dreams end up crashing down around me.

Go to Uni. ?You might as well - it's a lot of fun, you get to meet new people, you get a pretty easy lifestyle and you get a degree at the end of it all.

i miss school. i was done with it last november
2000-2004 - graduate in computer science (with one year abroad - usa)
2004-2005 - master of information management and change driven management in Sciences Po Paris

now working in advertising, cause video games dont pay as much as i ask :) - damn sciences po -

and i REALLY miss school. i miss exams, classes, being a jackass in class .... :(

i wish i went to film school, cause i wanna be a director, hey Jim, care to shoot a short film with me ?

:)

Yeah i would change my username but people would probably just get confused :hihi:

When i get over to Aus (if i ever do....). ?I'll kick you into shape :P

Haha I had many lazy techniques when doing training.. I'd start making the 'ahhh' its hurting noises a few reps before I knew it would REALLY hurt cos he would then make he do like 5 more! I'm a terrible terrible student.. I need to go on one of those bootcamps or TV shows for lazy people.. but not cos im fat, im too skinny and need to bulk up!

Should make your nickname Formerly Stoned  :D

Or StonedNoMore :P

As for the training, you can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

It's only useful having a personal trainer if you want to learn and get fit ;)

I do I do.. I just wish there was an easier way  :hihi: I guess in time just like with studying as Im finally ready, someday I'll actually be happy to put in the hard effort.

I've studied three years (this is the fourth) in the Tampere university of technology. They educate Masters of Science. I'll graduate in 2008. ?I'm majoring in signal processing (speech and audio). My minor studies will most propably be electronics (long), biomedical engineering and industrial engineeering.

Well I already graduated and I'm Engenieer and I am finishing studying the CCNA courses which consist in desing networks and CISCO Routers  ;D

In my final semester at University of Delaware, USA....
Im studying Accounting and Finance.

anyone want to hire me??

I went to The University of Birmingham (the good one in Birmingham)

The course was 2 hrs a week, everyone else had a 9-5 course, leaving me stuck on my own all day - i managed 6000 posts on HTGTH in 1 year as a result of trying to pass the time.....

I finished uni and the degree hasn't helped me get a job

The moral of the story

....loose lips sink ships


no wait.......thats not right,

...the moral is - do a vocational degree, don't do stupid subjects like history, philosopy, political science, media studies etc - save urself while u can!

I studied psychology--basic, child and abnormal, for two years. It was an eight year program, but after two years I decided that it wasn't something that I wanted to do. So I dropped that major and pursued my minor in literature and creative writing. Probably not a smart move, but we'll see.

Couldn't agree with that more, even the ships bit.

I did really well at GCSE's and so I carried on and did Maths, Physics and Chemistry at A-level and fucking hated it. So much so that I didn't bother doing any revision at all and managed to scrape some pretty crappy marks. My plan was to just get a job, which worked at first as I had enough money to buy an Uno Turbo  :drool: . However, after 2 years of having two very bad jobs with shit pay and the worst managers possible, I finally relented to the pressure from my parents and went to Uni, studying mechanical engineering for four years! Yay.

Uni life was really cool, the only draw back was the cost and living like a tramp. All you have to do is learn how to pass the exams and keep on top of course work and everything is cool. Oh, and despite what anyone says, the first year counts for shit so enjoy it while you can.

I left Uni last year and am now working for a Water company as a graduate engineer. Oh and everyone down South (in England) is getting a hosepipe ban very soon! You've been warned  :hihi:

If I had ambition to be something, then I would take law, or accounting, or one of the sciences. But I don't.

Most people that I know who are studying something like accounting are only doing it because they have a

view to earn more money.

I'm not like that. Yeah, I do want to do well. But not down a road that would lead to something that I can't engage with. I don't plan to go straight into work after my degree any way, like Danny. I'm only going to get a degree so that I have one. A little something just in case. I don't know what I'll do immediatly after university, I might try writing, or comedy. That's something that I've always been into.

The Universities that I applied to were,

Kent
UEA (Norwich)
Stirling
Sussex
Sunderland (Ha! Though, they do want a piece me pretty badly. They lowered the entry points for me so that I only need 40 more UCAS points this summer to get in...(that's like, one E))
Portsmouth

I don't know if anybody was, or is, at any of them...I've only every been to UEA. I liked it, somebody who I studied Film at sixth form with goes there, he says it's a cool place.


My original plan was to try and become a screen writer, but I fucked up English last year. My final exams are this summer, but I'll be lucky to get a C. So if I don't go into television (I've thought about trying to write comedy for a while) then definatly, see you there.  8)


As far as A-levels go, I studied Maths, Computing, History and Philosophy to begin with.

I dropped History in the first week and took Film Studies.

I dropped Computing and Maths after my first year (I stopped going, I turned up to the exams for no real reason. I declined my grades in the end) and picked up Enlglish Literature and Classical Civilization.

So now, in my third year, I've finished Philosphy and Film, and am still in sixth form to finish Literature and Classics. It's part time, so I only have to be in college for about an hour and a half a day.

I agree too. My advice to all those people about to take up a course is this: Do something that is interesting and at the same time guarantees that you WILL get a job. Courses on history, phil etc. might seem to offer great depth and might be different from "the courses everybody else is taking" and might even be interesting. But if after completing the course and u don't land a job, u'll end up on ur ass in addition to having fucked away 4-5 years of your life.

P.S: Ignore if u're filthy rich.  ;)

Fucked away 4-5 years of your life?

University isn't only about getting a job at the end of it...

All about the end product, eh?

You don't read a book to see how it ends, do you?

Well,

you might.

Really now... What's it about then? Gaining knowledge? I could gain more knowledge going throught the Internet for 4 years than from some course prescribed for me by a bunch of ninny profs...

I dropped out of school. but now I am the king of the company, without the student debt of course!

Well, at least for me my education, and the school in general has given me, a lot more than just book knowledge and an opportunity to get a job when I graduate. But I guess that depends on what school you go to.

I was always told i was stupid.

I was always compared to my oh so clever brother.

When i got my audition for that school, i was like " OMG !!! i MAY be good at something !!!!"

Then, when i remembred not being able to remember my math lessons from one day to the next, i discovered i could remember a whole play in a night ( thanks to my then boyfriend).

What education did to me was to almost play a role my parents hadn't played, and it gave me confidence i was NOT stupid, that i could be good at something, that i was unique and if i was uniquely weird, fuck it, some people would see through the weird and like me for me.

You don't have to DO " something" with a diploma, but at the end of the day, i quit school at 15, i had a hard tough time with myself and i fought a battle too many.

BUT when i got there at my drama school, i was told by the headmistress " you are the first foreigner we have in 80 years, it is going to be hard for you, hang on"

After three years, the same woman came up to me and said " well, jessica, i am proud of you. I didn't know if you could, especially after missing so much in your second year and some in your third ( kidney infection, i was in st thomas hospital london i nthe dialise ward in june 1994), but you did it. You pulled through.

We were 6000 auditionning, 17 got in, after three years, 6 of us remained.

So if some of you think education is something that will not bring anything good for you, i think you should relook at it, or at yourselves and rethink how you see things, because you have reasons to be proud of yous, and you don't even see them. :(

No matter what college u go to, if u don't supplement ur knowledge from outside u're not going to survive in the industry. After all, many graduates study the same course as you do. What makes u different? It's not just about scoring good grades, atleast not over here...

I know that..  Of course you need to supplement your knowledge from the outside. We don't usually have just one book in course (though some of the books might be from for example professors from our own school). We're not told to study these, and these pages in order to pass. We're told what are the areas we should know and study in order to pass. So if you're smart you always find the info from multiple sources. And the main point is not alone the fact that you have to learn the coursematerial, but that you learn to learn.. After all. Some of the stuff you learn in the first year here will be dated by the time one graduates. 

But what I was referring to, was when you questioned Jim's reply on how education is about more than just getting a job. And for me this university has been. It's given me a whole lot more. So even if was one of the unfortunate ones who didn't have a job already when I graduate (though 90% of students are already employed when they graduate), I don't think that the 6 years I spent here have been for nothing.

Good for you. I seriously feel my course sucks. When I chose to join Comp Sci, I didn't know they had sem papers on subjects ranging from Eng. Mechanics to Professional Ethics and unless u clear all papers on the first attempt, u don't get a good grade point average! I don't know how the system abroad works but here it's just out of tune...

...Life experience, or something like that, the chance to not have to go straight into full time work...I will gladly stay in education for as long as I can if it means that I don't have to work full time.

If your education (I don't know how far you went, maybe you dropped out of high school, maybe you graduated from Harvard as king of the world) was all about being educated, then that's good for you.

If I hadn't gone to college, not only would I not know half the things that I do now, but I also wouldn't know half the people. Sometimes I wonder if choosing to stay in education after school was the right choice for me...

and then I think of what my life would be like had I not. And I feel certain that I made the right decision.

What am I expecting from my degree in Film at the end of it all? Not a lot in all honesty. If I do get into the film or television industry, then great. If I don't, well then at least I can say that I tried.

And if it all goes fucked up? Well. At least I can rest assured that I, with my degree, will be chosen ahead of anybody that never went to university, without a second thought, for pretty much any job that something along those lines falls under.

I'm gonna take my GCSEs in May this year. My subjects are; Biology, Chemistry, Physics, English Language, English literature, History, Maths, ICT, RE, PE and Business Studies. I can't wait to go to college because you only do what you choose. I've chosen for A-Levels; Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Psychology though i have to do OCN maths if i want to do physics because i dont want to do maths A-Levels.

I felt right fucked over with my GCSE's.

I took the exact same ones that you are, Sakib, except I had to do German and Resistant Materials instead of PE and Business.

I was predicted everything from an A (History) to an E (Tec, German), and I ended up with all B's, apart from my A in ICT.

I would happily have traded in a couple of those B's for A's in things I actually liked, and thought that I was good at...History, Maths.

For me, German is a perfect exaple of how fucked the grading system is in this country. It must have been taken by all the fuckwits, because I did nothing in that subject. Not a thing outside of class. I hated the fucking language, my teacher had to stop the tape during my oral exam. I guess my way through the written papers. History on the other hand is usually taken by those who actually want to learn something (fair enough, I guess that didn't always include me, but you get what I mean...). So I ended up with a B in both. And yet, both are worth the same as each other at the end of the day. Go figure.

I went to a small DII uni in Minnesota to play football and baseball and graduated with a double major in business management and sport and recreation management. ?That got me a job but if you want to get into the business world seriously you need 'ins' and you need a masters and 5 years of experience. ?So I said fuck that and am getting my teaching license to teach little rugrats. ?The fact of only working 9 months a year appeals to me plus having every weekend and holiday off. ?

For those that question the value of education: ?The piece of paper might mean a little bit towards your future but the main thing will be the social skills that you develop and knowing students and professors that can help you out down the road. ?Because it goes with the age old saying of "It's not WHAT you know but WHO you know". ?

Who you know, eh? Well, some of my teachers at A-Level alone have been a great help to me, they've really helped me appreciate the subject. I seriously wonder if it wasn't for them, whether I would still be taking the subject. Last year I had two teachers for Classics; had I just had one of them, who was a woman, I would have been bored to tears throughout the year. Thankfully I also had a great teacher, and this year he's the only one that we have.

Social skills you say? Good, because I ain't got too many of them at the moment.

Jim, dude, I take it all back.  Don't go to uni.  I've got two essays and some group work to do, all by the end of the month.

I've just recieved episodes 1-175 of Naruto, and I have Counter Strike on it's way to me in the post.  There's no way i'll get this all done on time. :'(

Education.  As of right now, it's all I have going for me.

$50,000 sunk into private elementary and middle school.
$24,000 put into private high school, not including financial aid received.
$70,000 put into college, not including loans and grants.

Total: US$144,000 of my parents money spent, a broadcast journalism degree, and all I do is operate the board for an AM radio station in Texas, work an unpaid gig doing play-by-play for a junior hockey team, $3500 in credit card debt, $5000 in student loans needing repayment, and i'm going bald from stress at only 21.

I should have studied music, like I had considered.

Same here. My subjects are: Maths, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Art (I surely know I'm gonna fail, should've chosen Business), Product Design, ICT, Physics, English Language, English Literature, RS, Spanish, History (used to do Music instead, but I dropped it).


And I'm thinking about Business, Spanish, English Literature, Maths and History for A levels.

Good luck there Mandy, that's quite a few GCSE's, especialy if your Science is a double or a triple...

As I said before, I'm sure that you'll do a lot better in your exams than you think you will. At least, that's how it worked out for most people I know. Thankfully the youth of England are going to the shitter, so the grade boundries are pretty low at the moment. There are a ton of stupid pricks about that have to take these exams, and their low scores will help bring the averages down; that and the stupid pricks from last year. As long you turn up to the exam, I'm sure you'll be fine.

As for failing? Ha! It's pretty hard to actually fail (U) a GCSE.

Considering you're doing 11 subjects, and I thought that around 9 was the norm, you must be a pretty smart girl. So good luck, but I'm sure you won't need it.


That's all the fun of it though, isn't it?

I love staying up until, like, 4 in the morning with some coursework that I haven't done, telling myself how much of a prick I am, and almost breaking down. I assume that it would be even better at uni...............


Edit: Mandy! You included Physics twice! I guess you're not as clever as I thought, and you're probably going to fail all your exams.

I've done that for years, i never learn.

'tis even better at uni, 24/7 library helped me out a fair few times.......

....one time i did break down at like 2 in the morning, my mate who wasn't living at uni after talking to me on msn actually drove over and helped me do it (well he did it really.....) :D

I felt like doing that with my English coursework the other day.

Three fucking months, and I was sitting in front of my laptop at 3am the day it was due in with something that was embarrasing to hand in (I just left it on her desk, I didn't want to look her in the eye when I gave it to her).

I'm not sure why I'm such a fucking prick...

:hihi: 1st year at university i handed in some coursework in october, marks were out early december, i knew it was shit so i waited 'til June to find out my mark ;D

Oh, I won't be picking up my coursework grade any time soon.

I want to feel that I still have a chance of getting a decent grade in the summer...........

Though, coursework is worth about 5%...


...bollocks to it.

Yeah i work on the ignorance is bliss perspective, it works for everything......

.....think about it, for all you know you could have that 5% you may of suprised yourself

.....now don't go wrecking that dream ;)

literally in the shadow of wallace monument...you are a brave man :P

Why, would they eat me alive?

They're actually the only uni apart from Kent that haven't given me a conditional offer so far. If they do though, and ask for an interview, they can get tae fuck!

"Alive if possible, dead... just as good."

i know is shouldnt generalise but kent is flat and full of arrogant knobs...enjoy :hihi:

Aye, I only applied because I have a good friend that goes there.

Which highlights my dedication to making sure that I choose the right places...

if i had to offer any advice it would be, choose the place which offers the chance of most relevant work experience and watch out for false promises made in the prospectuses...for me that was the killer, i chose the wrong place in this respect when i did my maths degree which made it near impossible to find relevant work after leaving uni...study long and prosper!

If common perception is to be believed, I won't be able to do anything with my degree in film anyway. So I guess that only applies to clever degrees.

I plan to just go to London and start writing after I graduate.

'Go to London, I guarantee that you'll either be...or not appreciated.' Damn, I can't remember the quote. Anyone who can wins the day.

"Go to London, I guarantee you'll be mugged or not appreciated."

why not start writing now?...with more experience you will definitely learn more and get more out of the degree...anyone can hit on a good idea so you shouldnt put yourself down...if you have faith then faith will reward you...(bummer, i think im losing my cynical side lol) 

Christ.

You win everything, ever.

I might go and put on some Partridge now actually.

Well, I would like to. I've discussed it with a friend of mine a lot.

I'd like to write while at university as well. I may not even plan to finish there, you know, but I just feel like I need to be doing something, at least so it looks like I'm going somewhere.

I guess I'll see what happens before September though.

Cool.

The Partridge Family?  :hihi:

Writing as a career would be great. It's also my ambition. But like any creative market, it's hard to break into. Dealing with that part is the hardest.

I finished high school here in Australia in 2002 with a high Enter score, since I worked my butt of. I applied to study Law and got accepted, however after doing it for a year and a half realised it wasn't me, and therefore transferred into Business with a major in Marketing. I enjoy it a hell of a lot more and I've got a job lined up for when I graduate at the end of this year, however I want to travel for two years around the world before I settle into the working life  ::)