I HATE college, and its so-called "students"

Post Reply New Topic

And so I find myself here at the Haven, demoralized and just plain irritated and ready to get the hell out of this purgatory. I am out in merely months, but I still think it will be worthwhile to vent out this frustration that has bottled and undeniably has spilt over countless times in other subforums. I feel obliged to warn that this is a rant. I don't know what to expect from it, or if it will even deserve any responses, but I need to get this chip off of my shoulder before I begin to boil in my own built-up acid of cynicism.

I...HATE college. This college in particular is no worse than any other of its type, but I hate what it represents, and I am angry to have no other option than to have thrown myself into it.

I was cynical in high school. My fellow students were lazy, they were boring, and they were, by and large, stupid. But it's high school. One would expect that from people barely out of the world, and it's unfair to not separate those with absolutely no intelligent prospects whatsoever from those bound for college. There existed a misguided sliver of optimism. College, I told myself, would be different. Not all walks of life would be able to prepare themselves for college, but only those willing to put forth the time to engage in the accumulation of knowledge and the development of skill. Who would pay such ridiculous tuition fees for anything but to learn from the masters of trade and learning?

Well, then came...summer orientation. Not even before my freshman year. I remember it distinctively, and it still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth to this day. These prospective...students, as they would come to be called, seemed no different from the scourge who scoffed at my pursuits of knowledge in high school. They seemed just as boring, just as stupid and just as directionless. But...there was something else, something that enrages me to this day. Entitlement. These souls gave off the aura of superiority, flaunted their wealth and fancy clothes, and acted like the world owed them the $200,000 for them to...do absolutely nothing but do the same goddamn things they did in high school. I shouldn't be enraged by it, as it is widespread (though probably doesn't define everyone, or maybe not even a majority) and I have no influence over ever eradicating it, but I am. Disgust is an emotion, and I cannot deny the existence of that emotion. I felt crushed, and I still feel crushed. My shot at FINALLY making some friends who can engage me, who I can grow and who can help me grow, intellectually and emotionally, was and is dead in the water. I can only think "greatest years of my life" my ass.

I live in a sh***y dormitory that is a palace by normal dormitory standards, but it costs about the same as a real urban apartment despite being nothing but four people cramped in a place hardly bigger than a studio. I walk out of this dormitory to go to class. I'll admit it; some classes are pretty damn good. Many professors are nice and obviously have tons of experience, and it is great to engage them, but I'd hardly call it worth $40,000 per year (even with financial aid to cut it down somewhat, it's still pretty damn high). Then there's the f*****g students.

Most of these idiots go to a business school because mommy and daddy told them to. It's more pragmatic, I suppose, and I could hardly imagine going to another college and experiencing sociology and art history majors who feel entitled to easy career prospects. I came to this place to learn the trade, to be engaged, and to interact with people with a thirst for both professional and intellectual development. I find no such people. What I find are self-righteous upper middle class preppies and future alcoholics pissing away their parents' high hopes and misplaced generosities to vandalize public property, play culturally degrading and building-shaking music that throbs throughout the dorms, and disturb my desire for peace and order with drunken frolicking through the corridors. I then have to remember that the professors and staff must put me in the same category as these degenerates, simply by nature of my being an undergraduate student.

And here I sit, getting out in three years just to ease away this living hell. I met some decent people along the way, but have obtained no intellectual or emotional development from any of them. Any development I made I can attribute to the on-campus counseling center and to some of my professors. I feel like I am whining now, and I probably am, but I yearned for quality, life-lasting friendships complete with reciprocated intellectual, professional and emotional development, and got nothing but deeper cynicism toward the average supposedly-intelligent human and a superficial meeting of my social needs with pointless small talk and sitting around watching movies and playing video games.

I worked my ass to accelerate my schoolwork and secure a job, despite my social shortcomings due to my Asperger's and the emotional impact it has had, and all I see around me are entitled and/or boring children who will probably sit at home upon graduation and continue to piss away their parents' hard-earned money on unsustainable student loans and their newfound alcohol addictions. If this is suppose to be the best place of intellectual development, and the place where life-long friendships are formed, then I must clearly be completely insane.
______

I spent a minute reading this emotional deluge over. I'm surprised this has elicited such a strong reaction from me, but it clearly has. I know I needed this damn degree to get into the line of work I am entering (business-level IT), but absent this benefit I really do regret every dollar and minute spent for college in of itself. Some might somehow derive some sort of value from this place, but I am clearly not one of them.

I guess my purpose for continuing to post this, especially in the Haven rather than in the college-focused board, is to see if anyone can relate or if anyone can help me come to terms with this anger. My biggest fear is to look back at the money and time spent and have nothing in this 18-21 age period to show for it except a job. Any development I have had in this period has been in spite of college, which has merely distracted me and irritated me. I need to confront this fear now, or it is going to haunt me down the road.

Yeah. I can't say I was too enamored with college myself. I have a question, though. In your first line you say "I am out in merely months" then several lines down you write "getting out in three years." I'm confused.

I keep wanting to hope that when I swap to a 4 year from my 2 year that things will get better.. I get so sick of the people at my 2 year who never show up for class and never do their work and drop classes and carry on about how C's get degrees..

I hate people.


I wanna go into the mountains and never come out.

If you were to stick around for graduate school, it would get better...but not by much.
That's just people.

Personally, I know that it will be worth it to stick it out and complete your degree.
I quit high school - I was an honor's student and liked learning, but I just got tired and frustrated with the games and the people.

So as an intelligent person, but without even a high school diploma (only my GED), I tried to get a job. I was able to find work, but it was always low-paid work that never amounted to anything.
Finally, I went back to school and graduated college, then went back and started graduate school.

I have to work, but I also have to be happy doing the work, and school is the best way for me to have the best chance at finding work that makes me happy.

Less school = less chances at finding work you like

Also, be careful about saying "just a job."

Do you realize how much time we spend at our work? Many people spend much more time at work than they do with their friends or family.

If you're not happy with your job, you're probably not going to be happy with your life.

Unfortunately, that's just how it is.

I was disappointed with the drunken revelry in college, but there were a few serious students in undergrad. grad school, though, was where we were all in it together to learn. best four years of my life. surprising how much kids grow up in those four years of college.

Rarely had a job he liked. His main job, nursing, makes him suicidal but it pays the rent. No work? No roof.

College is necessary if you can't find peace in scraping the bottom of the societal ladder. Get your little piece of paper and blaze the trail you feel you're capable of. Though I must warn you, the current attitude you're displaying will lead you into a steep decline faster than Icarus plummeting to Earth. I recommend taking things a little less seriously.

Wow... My experience at university is completely different, but then I'm an old man...

I really love my classes and I get along with and have made friends with many of my professors...

I'm lucky in that being so old I feel no obligation to interact with my fellow students outside of class. Therefore, I don't have to deal with all the extra nonsense that comes with college life.

Although... It is nice to go have the occasional beer with my old soci teacher. She's awful pretty...

I go to one of the top 20 party schools in U.S. and its worked out great for me.I joined a club and made friends that were more like me.I think the key in college is that you have to search for people like yourself, they dont just appear.Yes,I have had roommates that treat college like an excuse to get blackout drunk(I mean this literally) every night but I have also met people that share my odd interests and they became friends.
But The fact is that must college kids like to drink,hell I like to drink I was even in a mob yesterday.It part of the dicotomy that is college.Intense intellectual effort followed by intense partying.Most people cant just study all of the time so drinking, smoking pot and lighting off fireworks in the middle of a main road after basketball games are alternatives.
my 2 cents