Ikiopiskelijoita

[enk]

I'm starting to understand why I'm still at the university trying to
graduate:

Today I get mail, telling me that a class we've been bothering
a certain teacher about the schedule for starts today at 4 p.m.
WTF? Do we students not have lives? The last time this teacher
did this, she called me at 10 a.m. on a Monday morning and said
me class started an hour ago, where was I. Uhh, like at work?
For that class, I'd asked her for a SEMESTER when it was going
to start as I needed to take my spring vacation to attend since
the hours were 9-16. &%%&"¤&/"¤/"¤&

And the government wonders why people can't graduate...
-enk

[kay30]

Ugh. Sounds familiar. A friend of mine is trying to gain enough undergrad credits to be accepted into a Master's program that is different than what he originally got a BA in (god forbid you *change* your mind about what interests you at some point in your life) and they won't tell him what he needs to study in order to gain acceptance.

"Oh, you know. Basic studies..."
'Which are..."
"Oh, you know. I can't really say for sure."

So a year from now, when he has wasted his time studying the wrong thing, and he is rejected from that program, he will not be a happy camper.


It is somehow incomprehensible to these people that people would actually want to *change* their careers sometime. Like, somehow everyone knows exactly what they want to do at 18 and never stray from that path until retirement.

Edited to add: And don't you love how when they make a mistake, it's all "Opps! Sorry! Oh well!" but if *you* were to make a mistake, like screw up your classwork or not show up, then of course, it's a major problem.

Phew. <end rant>

[enk]

Hehe that problem is familiar, too! I have a B.A. in Linguistics
(high honors, like it ever did any good ), but I studied Nuclear
Engineering for the first three years. This seems to completely
flabbergast the people at the universities here who in the 90s couldn't
figure out if I could just go straight to a Master's degree program
in Linguistics or Philology (of course they didn't have the Master's
programs in the 1990s yet again), because of the large number of
classes having to do with Nuclear Engineering (and Engineering in
general).

Plus I have regularly, twice a year, bothered the necessary people
to get my classes from my year in Barcelona accredited on this end.
8 years later, not a single one has ever bothered to answer my requests.
Not to mention that in the meantime, one of the teachers has
retired!

-enk

[kay30]

Jesus Christ. That is nuts.

I don't get it. It's like at any opportunity they have, they want to stuff you in some pre-determined mold. And if you don't fit that mold, they have no idea what to do with you. And you cease to exist.

It's especially frustrating, because they themselves must have been pushed in that mold (and I expect at least some didn't like it) and then here they are, perpetuating the problem. I realize they are bound by the "rules" but my god. There needs to be a certain degree of flexibility as people are not robots who never change their minds!

I encountered this when trying to apply to school here. Even though I had been working in my profession (same thing as I wanted to study for a Master's) for almost a decade, and the program was in English, it was an "issue" that I did not study it as an undergraduate. So my real life experience was worth nothing, but something I would have studied at 18 was more important. Insane.

[Hank W.]

but I studied Nuclear
Engineering for the first three years.

This explains your radiant disposition

[enk]

but I studied Nuclear
Engineering for the first three years.

This explains your radiant disposition

kay: I totally agree with you. It's so frustrating that
if I hear one more person talking about how students
are milking the system for all they can by being
in school forever, I might just blow my lid.

-enk

[RA]

I totally hear what you guys are saying. I came back fom holiday fully psyched up to really work on the gradu, but my enthusiasm is sloooooowly being stamped out. Any idea why it takes days and days for people (read-> lecturers, professors and supervisors) to reply to your e-mail? They're never in their offices either. And then when they answer you, whatever next you're supposed to do should be submitted 'tomorrow at the latest' Yes... we do not have our own lives at all.

And I didn't get the grant I applied for either

[RA]

Some total idiot went and lost my samples that I took last October, I haven't heard of the other samples that were supposed to have been shipped off at 10a.m and arrive here between 18 and 19 and I'm supposed to be working on them tomorrow. Now I'm assuming that all my work has been literally poured down the drain...How the hck's one supposed to write up a bleeding thesis on non-existant work done on non-existant samples and so graduate? I swear I'm doomed to be in uni for the rest of my life

[kay30]

Ughhhhhh. And they wonder why people don't graduate. That really sucks.

I was interviewing for a university program the other day and they told me "We don't normally accept people like you. There are tons of people like you out there. We can choose who we want." Well, why the f did you ask me for an interview AFTER you reviewed my application and AFTER tormenting me for an hour with impossible questions? Felt like wasting my time and your own?

[RA]

That's awful Kay.

I think they enjoy it when you have your hopes up and then they come at you, swatting. Then they crush you and then just to make sure they've done a great job of it, squeeze out every bit of juice you have, but they make sure they leave a teeny weeny lil' bit, so you're not completely dead but sort of just crawling there, yearning for something small to pull you out of the hole they call higher education.

[enk]

God, I forgot about this thread. To add to the idea that I'm never
going to graduate, my dept. is being shipped from Kouvola to
Helsinki and I can bet you money it gets lost on the way.

RA: That totally sucks rocks!

Kay: I'll keep my fingers crossed that they get a clue.

-enk

[interleukin]

Any idea why it takes days and days for people (read-> lecturers, professors and supervisors) to reply to your e-mail?

God, I remember that SO well from my own days (a few years ago) as a PhD student. My supervisor would never reply to any email, and in the end we the students started writing misleading subject lines in the emails to try to trick him into opening our emails. Eg. "new cool results" as subject when the real subject was "please, I REALLY need a meeting about that poster I have to present at that huge conference next week".

Also, a lot of us in the group had similar names, so our theory was that he only opened email from people he didnt know if he THOUGHT it was from someone already working for him.

I have always said I managed to defend my thesis despite my supervisor, not thanks to him.

/interleukin

[enk]

Umm, got a story for you guys

The guy I wrote my thesis with in the States was the top guy in his
field so people would send him their theses, dissertations, papers,
etc. People who didn't know him would send them by e-mail,
which was totally pointless since the guy didn't even know how to
turn on the computer The other people sent them to him
by post, which was, in the end, equally as pointless because he
would use the reserve side of them as scratch paper!

So if you're wondering where your stuff goes

-enk

[kay30]

Seriously. How do people like that even have jobs?! It is so unfair that there is a handful of totally incompetent people that have such complete power over anyone else's future.

[RA]

I have always said I managed to defend my thesis despite my supervisor, not thanks to him. /interleukin

Enk's story just confirms my suspiscions.... And I'm already cringing at the thought of how many copies of the thesis is asked to be printed and bound at my cost and then they just shove into a drawer. I've been wondering have you all noticed how much paper and files and books and publications etc, these people have in their offices? And how old some of these are? Now just imagine what happens when you take your pile there.

On a good note today, I found my samples from the matkahuolto early this morning, they'd arrived between 9 and 10 last night but they didn't call me. I was there hammering at the door at opening time. Luckily they'd been packed with loads of ice and I managed to get them into the cold room, safe and sound...it was gutted fish. The other batch of samples is still missing, but I was assured this morning that they will be found, nobody could have thrown them out and we'll e-mail you when we locate them. They have till September.

Enk, I have a cousin that was studying Russian in Kouvola a while back. She's very Helsinkiläinen and it was 'interesting' for her to be in Kouvola. She'll cringe in envy.

How often do you have to go to Kouvola?