I got a B in a class I attended twice.

[snowden719]

this is standard for me, I almost never go to class, except when I find it incredibley interesting. The fact that I have a sleep disorder makes it almost impossible to wake up before 2 unless I go to bed absurdly early. You should strive for better, I've gotten A's in classes I'v never been to, although to be fair, I am a philosophy major.

[bump]

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I've pulled an A in two courses in which I couldnt identify the professors until I saw them at exams.

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Two classes. ~$22,000 a semester. So you spent roughly $4,250 to learn absolutely nothing from some of the most brilliant minds in the world.

Well Played. At least you will leave with a sweet piece of paper that says "Cornell" on it.

[gumpzilla]

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Two classes. ~$22,000 a semester. So you spent roughly $4,250 to learn absolutely nothing from some of the most brilliant minds in the world.

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So you think he's taking nine classes or so? Yikes. Doubtful. Furthermore, before you get all sanctimonious, there is a WORLD of difference between not attending a class and not learning. Reading, thinking and talking are frequently more effective than getting lectured at for a wide range of people.

I'm curious what subject this was in. My last semester as an undergrad I turned nocturnal about halfway through in an effort to lead something resembling my normal social life while also working on my thesis. I gave up on my classes other than the one physics class I had that had one meeting for an hour a week with me and one other guy. In particular, I stopped going to topology immediately after the midterm, eight weeks or so before the end of the semester.

After my thesis was handed in, I decided to go back to topology. The professor for that course, who I hadn't spoken to about this move at all, acted as if nothing was out of the ordinary and conversed with me when I came in and sat down (it was a seven person course or so, so my absence was super conspicuous.) I talked to him afterward about whether he'd be available to talk to me about homework for the course, of which I'd handed in nothing, as I tried to feverishly learn two-thirds of a semester in topology in two days before the final. Over the next two days I did basically two-thirds of the homework for that class and then took the final, and got out of the class having never handed in any of the homework which was 30% of the grade with a B.

Stunts like this make good stories in some ways, but it's a mixed bag. I was back at my college recently for a reunion and was talking to a current senior in the physics department. A professor that I had for one course apparently told a story about me doing five problem sets for his classical mechanics course overnight at the end of the semester (the structure of the course made it so that these were five heavily worked-on problem sets, so this was mostly tying up loose ends but still involved a lot of work). I know the story was about me because he apparently MENTIONED ME BY NAME to a crowd of people, none of whom had been at the college at the same time as me, so there wasn't any reason for him to think that they would have any clue who he was talking about. I reiterate that I had this professor for one course almost five years ago. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I heard that.

[fluff]

One of my professors pointed out to me once that "Students are the only consumer group that want less for their money".

[jgorham]

I am taking a class this quarter titled The History of the Indian Ocean. My professor posts detailed notes online, as well as posting our exact tests on the web about a week before we take them (2 map quizzes, a midterm, and final for the class). I have been to class more than you - more tests - but have put in a lot less effort as the tests are exactly what he puts online.

I currently have 100%

[Supersetoy]

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FWIW, this class didn't sound easy when I signed up for it. This happens pretty frequently, where a class just turns out to be a cake class that isn't worth my time. If I didn't have other things I consider more important, obviously I could have pulled an A by, you know, reading. Or showing up to class. But if I can essentially take a B in a class for doing virtually nothing, it lightens my load and allows me to do better in classes that I might actually learn something from.

I find it fascinating. I'm not at some Ivy League school, but UW is a pretty damn good school and I cannot believe how often I end up in classes that require little to no effort. It happens almost every semester.

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What's your major?

At UW (probably at many schools...and I just graduated last year as an Information Systems major) it's easy to pass classes without attending them. As long as you can easily grasp concepts and test well, college is a piece of cake.

How I miss it... [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[CallMeIshmael]

[ QUOTE ]
Two classes. ~$22,000 a semester. So you spent roughly $4,250 to learn absolutely nothing from some of the most brilliant minds in the world.

Well Played. At least you will leave with a sweet piece of paper that says "Cornell" on it.

[/ QUOTE ]

You arent looking at the whole picture though...

If you don't attend classes, you get to add other things to your life:

1. Sleeping in
2. Poker. ($$$)
3. Free time with friends who dont have class at that time
4. Volunteer work (this looks good on the med/grad school app)

But... I have to point out that, its not like Im not learning from these minds.

You can get the lecture slides off of the internet. Some even have audio recordings.

Also, you can purchase the notes from this thing called TakeNote for like $50/class.


Just because I dont see the teacher doesnt mean I didnt learn.

[sam h]

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OOT's ability to pick up on sarcasm and jokes has gone downhill in the last few months.

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Looked like bragging to me.

[CallMeIshmael]

Also...

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~$22,000 a semester.

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WOW... no. Way too high.

[edtost]

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a GPA around 3.5 is either good or average.

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really?

I am not american, so I dont have any friends who attend an american school outside of mine... which means I have no idea what is good/average at other schools.

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From my experience, 3.0 is average, 3.5 is good, 4.0 is awesome.

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for some reason, my school has decided to rank students into 'quintiles' .... the cutoff for the 5th was something like a 3.1