College Life

Stabshauptmann

Have been having quite a few chats with final year students buckling fown for their exams and lamenting the fact that they will have to leave college.
As well as first years and whether college has lived up to their expectations.

Has college lived up to your expectations, what were they?

Left wing student activism!
Learning usless intelectual stuff
Weed and lots of it
Random nights out / parties
"Unique" dress senses - rebels
Short lived romances (to dress it up for the more conservative crowd )
Weird stuff - like the mystery tour or Ultimate frisbee
Nerds and jocks
Alcohol and being drunk at all hours of the day
Traveling
CRAMMING
Repeating exams

By and large yeah Im happy but I feel like I could be doing *more*. How do you feel, what was your list?

scop

Well UCD is a mixed big, it begins slowly, burns like a wick till you are almost sure its best to drop out.

Suddenly you get involved in something silly, the wind scoops you up and all manner of fun is had, you think this is what I have been missing all these days and lonesome nights.

But that wick blown along like the wind fizzles out and all the memories are mere mirror images to the mundane re-attempts to capture ze magic as it werent.

Yet I have been to protests, smoked weed, drank at 10 in the morning, been to the odd random party, made many interesting friend but not nearly in the abundance to which it is possible.

Stabshauptmann

Hm, Im sorry to hear that you havent been enjoying college.
But what were your expectations?

scop

Kaptain Redeye wrote:

Hm, Im sorry to hear that you havent been enjoying college.
But what were your expectations?

Ah Im long since past needing to enjoy college as such, I had enough good times to be content, my problem is that UCD has huge untapped potential.

My expectations were fairly non existant, I was lucky to get in in the first place and I had never been outside of my rather insulated, dodgy area. I never expected having to integrate somewhat into a new class (clothes, speech, even body language are all fairly upper middle class in UCD comparitively).

I expected to meet more crazy, open minded, generally up for anything kind of people but alas that is only the case in a very limited, controlled manner in UCD.

I expected to gain new experiences, new places to visit perhaps but there is only really the same with better conversation.

I expected hot women however and on this front I was not disappoint,ed I have fallen in love in UCD more times than I have won an argument

Stabshauptmann

scop wrote:

I expected to meet more crazy, open minded, generally up for anything kind of people but alas that is only the case in a very limited, controlled manner in UCD.

CraicSoc
DutchSoc
Ultimate Frisbee

Definitly alto of people like that out there

scop

Kaptain Redeye wrote:

CraicSoc
DutchSoc
Ultimate Frisbee

Definitly alto of people like that out there

Meh, okay lads and good craic but too small, what my beef is is the sheer lack of this kind of behavioru spreading, for example check out the Student bar on a weds night for example, no student bar should be that restrained.

Mr.Nice Guy

Been a major disappointment for me this year but I've no one to blame but myself. I've already resigned myself to the likelihood I'll be repeating 2nd year next year.

Oh well. I won't depress you any further with my woes...:o

The_Minister

Kaptain Redeye wrote:

Has college lived up to your expectations, what were they?

Left wing student activism!
Learning usless intelectual stuff
Weed and lots of it
Random nights out / parties
"Unique" dress senses - rebels
Short lived romances (to dress it up for the more conservative crowd )
Weird stuff - like the mystery tour or Ultimate frisbee
Nerds and jocks
Alcohol and being drunk at all hours of the day
Traveling
CRAMMING
Repeating exams

By and large yeah Im happy but I feel like I could be doing *more*. How do you feel, what was your list?

Ok lets do yer points - first arts fyi
1.Left wing student activism!-pathetically weak and facile (see my thread on this http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054886761)
2.Learning usless intelectual stuff. Learnt plenty cool stuff.
3.Weed and lots of it. No but ive had my fair share before.
4.Random nights out / parties - Not really
5."Unique" dress senses - rebels Whats with that brightly coloured guy? not too many of these though
6.Short lived romances. Nope. What society is this? Never was a fan of speed dating:D
7.Weird stuff. Seemed crap (Mystery tour)
8.Nerds and jocks. Jocks yeh but not really nerds.
9.Alcohol and being drunk at all hours of the day. Nope
10.Traveling. Nope haven't left Dublin since i started.
11.CRAMMING. Little
12.Repeating exams. I'm relatively smart


I expected there to be loads of sluts but afraid their famed wesley days are over......

rainbow kirby

Well... I suppose I had a rather strange expectation of UCD... I was an incredibly nerdy 18 year old when I started here, and really I expected people to be more academic than quite a lot of them are here. Though as time went on, I relaxed quite a lot myself, and I'm probably better off for it. I expected that I'd love my course when I started, that I'd finish in 4 years, and then I'd go on and do a postgrad and that it'd all be wonderful. Sunshine, lollipops and rainbows everywhere.
Somewhere along the line, things didn't quite work out for me though. I started to hate what I was doing somewhere around 2nd year, and that year I failed all my summer exams. I passed the repeats though, so that's the repeating exams thing out of the way. It's a pretty nasty experience... try and pass your exams first time, people! Then 3rd year was just a disaster. College really isn't good when you can barely drag yourself in the door of your lectures. Stupidly enough, I stuck things out until April, and then I pretty much dropped out just before the exams. Now I'm in a different course (2nd CS) and I'm enjoying it so far
In terms of social life... I expected it to be really easy to make friends straight away, and that I'd be out every night of the week. That kinda didn't happen either, but I've met some amazing people in my time here, be it through classes, TKD, or other things. Also, I've realised that being out every night of the week really isn't for me!
Of the other things on Kaptain Redeye's list.. well there's been no weed, I was one of the little lefties when I was in 1st year but I've calmed down a lot since then, no short-term romances (sometimes it's like I'm carrying man repellant, but don't know about it!), I didn't expect quite so many really snobby D4 types, I've met plenty of crazy people, I've been one of the nerds myself, I never expected to accept 3 hours a day on buses as normality...
In short... no, college hasn't been what I expected it to be. But being honest, there's very little about the last (almost) 4 years I would have changed.

Vic Mackey

Im really enjoying college. Im staying on griffith college campus and me and my flatmates (one goes to griff, one to nci, one to ucd) have the benefits of two colleges social life!!

also, ucd is full of fit girls, i love it!!

Stabshauptmann

The main motivation behind the thread was to see what other people expected. My list was supposed to be an example, not the main discussion

boneless

As an older (I refuse to class meself as mature) student I did not have many expectations starting in UCD. However, it has been a great experience so far. I really enjoyed the breaking of the barrier of the age gap, but the fact that I refused to grow up did help there.

You young folk are not such a bad lot... but I did all the left-wing/activism and weed'n'stuff a long time ago. Fun watching another generation finding out stuff though. It is one cycle of life that has never changed.

I love yis all....

Jonny Arson

UCD has been nothing but a complete and utter damp squib for me over the last year and a half. I'm very concerned that when I finish here the only positive I'll take from it is that I'll have a degree..... I know quite a few ex-students who have said this.

The college social life has been the major let down. If you're in Arts forget about getting to know sound people or having a decent time in your course.
Education wise it's mixed. I do like my course to an extent despite f**king up in one of my exams and thus repeating the year. I have an idea for what I want to get out of it but at times with all the lectures and essays it does feel like a glorified leaving cert course i.e. it's not very challenging and I don't feel I'm learning much that will help me in a future career.

TBH UCD is either going to somewhere you'll absolutely love every minute of or somewhere you'll hate every minute of. It if wasn't for the course and not being another course out there that suits me I'd be gone.

Vic Mackey

yea i know basically nobody in any of my courses! if i didnt live with aloada sound people and already have a good few mates in dublin, itd be crap!

if you were coming from galway, cork or somewhere like that, with no mates in dublin, then ucd could be a very lonely place!

humbert

Learning usless intelectual stuff.
Weed and lots of it
Random nights out / parties
Short lived romances (to dress it up for the more conservative crowd )
Weird stuff - like the mystery tour or Ultimate frisbee
Alcohol and being drunk at all hours of the day
Traveling
Some of these but not as much as I'd like, still got time though:D'
Too much of these:mad:
CRAMMING
Repeating exams

boneless

Ever since I gave up drinking, college life has taken on a whole new meaning for me...

arbeitsscheuer

A shock to the system, innit?

Honestly, getting thru the day without a hit from my hipflask is nigh-on impossible, I tell ya.

I just don't know what kinda person I'd be without hitting myself in the face with a drinking recepticle tbh...

blondie83

I've had a great time in college - I know everyone always says it but I'll say it again, go for the clubs and socs to meet new ppl! I'm just back from Andorra with friends from my class in DCU and UCD and the DCU snowboarding club. Next weekend I'm off to Belfast with the DCU fencing club for the intervarsities (I don't actually know any of their names as such, have only been to two training sessions, and haven't fenced competitively in 10 years - but apparently thats not a bother, and they seem like nice people!). Am hopefully hitting Japan this August with ppl from the UCD Ninjutsu club...just need the nice ppl at the bank to give me a loan now and I'll be sorted! Funny thing was I didn't enjoy first year in college that much, but as you grow older you get more confidence in yourself and start having a ball. As an effective "5th" year thats the case for myself - I'm nearly ready to leave college at this stage though which is probably good.

As for the given list:

Left wing student activism! - irritated me greatly
Learning usless intelectual stuff - learning is never useless!
Weed and lots of it - didn't bother too much, a lot of my friends did though
Random nights out / parties - oh yes, the random/unexpected ones are the best
"Unique" dress senses - saw a bit of this, not too much of it in Ireland though
Short lived romance - does this mean drunkenly scoring randomers? Did a lot of that in first year but then toned it down a bit
Weird stuff - like the mystery tour or Ultimate frisbee - didnt do as much wierd stuff as I would have liked to
Nerds and jocks - not really, not as much of a distinction as in Americia - they have proper nerds there! I did a difficult course that required a high grade in honours maths, but the ppl in my class all did sports and got involved in clubs, so weren't overly nerdy as might have been expected
Alcohol and being drunk at all hours of the day
Traveling - see above comments about joining clubs! Andorra, Belfast and hopefully Japan this year with college clubs/classmates. Then will prob go somewhere with my family, and maybe abroad again with my friends. Had a few 21st's in random places around Ireland last year which were fun
CRAMMING - oh God yes, every year, every exam, without fail. You get used to it after a while though...
Repeating exams - Unfortunately yes for 2 out of the four years - not a nice experience but fairly unavoidable in my course (Only 3% of my class (2 ppl) got through the 4 years without failing something )

Stabshauptmann

Im dissappointed nobody has posted their own list. That was an example, I really honest to god want to know what other people expected, more than what they've experienced