CTYI versus... college?

Hobotastic

Any opinions here? I read a few pages of the last "ctyi vs school" thread, and after recently going to NUIG, I noticed a couple of similarities, and some differences, between college, and CTYI. Any college-going ex-CTYIers here care to share an opinion on this?

Piste

Nuig?


/envy

pretty*monster

Similarities I've found would be studying something I'm actually interested in, getting on well with my lecturers and tutors, meeting deadly people.

The main difference would be being a grown up and being able to do things like go on week long benders and skip lectures that you can't be bothered with.

Much as I loved ctyi back in the day, college is so much better.

Scarinae

I don't start lectures until Monday, but I'll come back to this thread in a few days! Main similarities I've really noticed so far are the way you can just be yourself and don't feel inhibited, the way there are people with the same crazy ideas and interests as me, and that there's a sense of fun and a great atmosphere. Though I had great friends in school and we're still really close, with the rest of my year I felt I couldn't act like myself. Main differences between college and CTYI that I've noticed are that in college you do have more freedom, you can do whatever you like really. And I'm guessing that the work will be harder when I start into it!
Also, I keep bumping into CTYI people everywhere in college, some of them I haven't seen in two or three years! This is in Trinity, is it the same in the other colleges like NUIG?

Crash

It'll wear off a bit after freshers week when everyone ends up in lectures at random hours. then you dont see em so much

pretty*monster

Yeah, I see a couple of CTYIers around ucd. Not loads, but it's nice.

the evil lime

Yeah, I've found a good few ex-CTYIers in UCD. I've also found the whole freedom thing too, if you don't need the lecture (or are tired, bored or not in the mood), you dont have to go. That's the major differnce between CTYI and college. Similarity being, as others have mentioned mostly studing things you want to be stuyding.

Raphael

Speaking of UCD, anyone want to tell me how horizons is working?

claire h

I think that CTYI tends to be where you *first* meet interesting/groovy/wonderful people that get you (at least, in any great quantity) and then you're more likely to be able to find them in places like school and college. College in general is more, um, normal and average than CTYI, more like school in that respect, but I suppose part of that is that because people tend to be older, there's going to be a different vibe anyway.

College is less intense - unless you're living in student accomodation with a bunch of people, being around the same people you're in lectures/tutorials/labs/whatever with 24/7 isn't the default option. (It might be what you end up doing, but you've also plenty of time to see other people too; at CTYI life tends to stop while you're there.) There tend to be fewer hours, though that depends on the course, and while tutorials and/or seminars have the same kind of discussion-y your-opinion-is-welcome-and-we-respect-the-students-and-everyone-here-is-reasonably-intelligent-and-we-don't-need-to-roll-our-eyes-if-they-start-talking thing going on, lectures can be very passive and tend to have too many people in them to get to know every single one.

And... hmm.... oh, yes, alcohol. That's there.

Hobotastic

I haven't run into any CTYI-ers, though I do know a guy who knows Dylan, if that counts. Wait, I've seen Angry Niall, the RA from 2004 around a lot. I said hi to him the first few times. He ignored me. That was fun. Anyway, I keep seeing this girl around, and she looks really familiar, and I'm not sure if she was at CTYI or something and I actually have met her before. It's odd.

Scarinae

Hobotastic wrote:

I keep seeing this girl around, and she looks really familiar, and I'm not sure if she was at CTYI or something and I actually have met her before. It's odd.

I hate when that happens... Especially when they smile and wave whenever they see you and you're thinking who the hell is that? I bumped into Niall the RA on the metaphysics stand in Trinity - so you must be in Trinity too?

elephamt king

Fishie wrote:

I hate when that happens... Especially when they smile and wave whenever they see you and you're thinking who the hell is that? I bumped into Niall the RA on the metaphysics stand in Trinity - so you must be in Trinity too?

no, i think hes NUIG(first post).if nialls in trinity itd explain why he hasnt waved at brendan.:)

Scarinae

Were there two RAs called Niall that year then? Cos if so that might explain it, he's never come across as angry when I've met him (I wasn't there in 2004, but he was my boyfriends RA that year)

HeyYou

Raphael wrote:

Speaking of UCD, anyone want to tell me how horizons is working?

Noone really knows how it "works" per se, but it does seem to be really popular as a concept; I'd love to have been able to take a module of English Literature but the mean ol' Medical School wouldn't let me.

Scarinae

Yeah, it does sound pretty cool to be able to take a random module not directly connected to your course. If I could take an Arts subject as part of my Science degree I'd take English Lit, Classics or Archaeology

Raphael

I know how it works in theory, I was asking how it's working in practice

pretty*monster

In practice it doesn't work.

Serously, what do you mean in practice. In practice it works just like it does in theory, only you can't really pick any modual you want because of numbers and timetabling issues.

Raphael

I was wondering if timetabling made it really restrictive, or if there were any catches that came into it or anything. Just like to be sure before I put UCD onto the auld CAO.

PurpleFistMixer

So I presume since UCD has formalised the system, it's not possible to randomly attend other, unrelated lectures any more?

Crash

<plug>In trinity you could do much the same, but you can replace one of your standard modules with it. for instance i'm doing computer science, with a film module

</plug>

pretty*monster

Raphael wrote:

I was wondering if timetabling made it really restrictive, or if there were any catches that came into it or anything. Just like to be sure before I put UCD onto the auld CAO.

Of course there are catches, and it's a timettabling nightmare.
But most people seem to have gotten the moduels they wanted, I don't know the ins and outs, being a second year and having mercifully dodged the nightmare that is ucds restructuring.

I'd advise you to check horizons website.

pretty*monster

PurpleFistMixer wrote:

So I presume since UCD has formalised the system, it's not possible to randomly attend other, unrelated lectures any more?

The system was always formal, it's just... different now.

You can still drop into any lectures in the Arts block.

elootonivek

Fishie wrote:

Were there two RAs called Niall that year then? Cos if so that might explain it, he's never come across as angry when I've met him (I wasn't there in 2004, but he was my boyfriends RA that year)

Yeah there was Smiley Nially and Cat Eyes (who, as far as I can remember, was attacked by Don when wearing all white with a bottle of coke, which might explain some of the anger). That's all the input I can... put into?... this conversation though...

Raphael

pretty*monster wrote:

Of course there are catches, and it's a timettabling nightmare.
But most people seem to have gotten the moduels they wanted, I don't know the ins and outs, being a second year and having mercifully dodged the nightmare that is ucds restructuring.

I'd advise you to check horizons website.

I have, just wanted to get some feedback from people who were going through it

StupidLikeAFox

Yeah college is a lot better

Awayindahils

college surpasses ctyi in a way in which i never thought possible, and no booze is not the only reason for this, infact i havtn been drinking in two weeks. anyway as was said before or i think was said before ctyi is hugely intense, far to intense for it to be possible to live like that the whole time. the thing baout college is that it can be just that intense if you want it to be, but whne you get bored or fed up you can just go and forget about it, well as a fresher at least, and you get to hang around more and theres less supervision and slightly better food.

on anther point, i am in tcd though so there are loads of ctyi flash backs, and one sees loads of people whom they know are ctyi'rs all the time. so there is that i suppose which menas one gets both college and ctyi exposure.

this may just be a personal thing, and actually im pretty sur eit is, but college has also cured me using liek all the time in under 3 weeks. i ahd gotten a really bad habit.

ph and the final great thing about colege and how it makes it better than ctyi, is you can ignore people who you didnt really like in school where as that was entirely possible in ctyi. as in you can completely avoid them and nto just have to pretend like you can't hear them.

anyway im runnign out of things ot say, and have already sounded liek a b*tch, but yeah colllege is better.

Crash

sure i ran into yourself at the TCD alternative freshers ball, aye?

Love

College is so much better than school... that said, I did like school. Not the academic side particularly, but other than that it was good. College is waaaay better though.:)

Awayindahils

crash_000 wrote:

sure i ran into yourself at the TCD alternative freshers ball, aye?

yes i was the random girl who knew who you were

his_dudeness

I know it's dragging up the past but i need to save face!

Hobotastic wrote:

I haven't run into any CTYI-ers, though I do know a guy who knows Dylan, if that counts. Wait, I've seen Angry Niall, the RA from 2004 around a lot. I said hi to him the first few times. He ignored me. That was fun.......

I didn't ignore you. Granted, couldn't place your face at first but knew i knew you somehow and did signal some form of recognition (or at least attempted to) But sorry if it came across badly.

And there are a fair few nevermores about here in NUIG, they're just a lot more subdued than most would've been back in the Larkfields and thus harder to spot.


On a purely irrelevant note, I don't think it's fair i got called angry Niall. If the other Niall hadn't been so excessively smiley there'd porbably have been no difference!!

Hobotastic

Hehe, don't worry about it, it's fine! I know the feeling, seeing someone and thinking "i know them... or do I?" and wondering where or how you know them...

And if there hadn't been another Niall there would've been no need for any sort of prefix to your name. Though I don't think Angry Niall was a widely used name. Just remember a couple of my more cynical friends using it, I think. The other Niall was excessively smiley.

In conclusion, I wasn't really pissed off or anything. There are a lot of people in the world, you can't be expected to know all of them. And it was only Angry Niall in relation to the other, Smiley Niall. It's all relative.