College Schmollege
January 31st, 2007
the past couple of weeks have been a right headache for me. okay lah biarlah aku berkongsi my dilemma with you. here’s the thing : i want to quit college.
why? because college is boring. it’s mentally unstimulating. and i have to wake up at 9am every other day, to travel 30 minutes to Subang (which, btw, is not even with wai min anymore coz we have different schedules and i’m too incorrigibly anti-morning to wake up at 6.30am [i mean, wtf, who wakes up at 6.30am? i did, for my 1st and 2nd semester, but never again will i] to carpool with her), only to have my brains bored out of me for 3 hours before life resumes properly again.
for the past 6 months, i’ve been trying to combat this problem by taking 3 subjects per semester when everyone is taking like 4 or 5. then, i sneakily pick the subjects that are back-to-back, and only on mondays, wednesdays and fridays. ahh, clever me!, thought i. now my tuesdays and thursdays will be college-free!
BUT NO. ITS NOT ENOUGH. I WANT MY MONDAYS TUESDAYS WEDNESDAYS THURSDAYS FRIDAYS SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS COLLEGE-FREE!!!!!!!!
this semester is exceptionally bad because even though i thought i was soooo clever in picking Macroeconomics as one of my subjects, it turns out that this total Attendance Nazi is my lecturer instead of the previous econs lecturer who actually accepted medical certs with ‘period pains’ stated as reason for absence. so get this : she actually deducts 1% for each day you’re not in her class. and guess what? i was late for two days this month, and apparently that’s considered being absent, so i already got 2% deducted from my final percentage.
WTF!!! the kiasu nerd in me wants to hurl herself off the twin towers!!! how now?? i’m 8% away from losing my A in macroeconomics, you know anot?!
the other issue is that because of Attendance Nazi, i cant travel anymore. how am i supposed to not go anywhere for the next 4 months??? i wanna go for concerts in singapore! i wanna go scuba diving in koh samui! i wanna have siew long pau in shanghai with pauly! i wanna go to melbourne to see johanny, lynn, xiang, ben, karina, rudy, shu shen, jess, will, fark lah why is the whole world in melbourne. i wanna camwhore in singapore’s max brenner with tim and eat geylang dim sum with vicnan! i wanna go to bangkok’s chatuchak market with gook! i wanna go to taiwan to learn chinese! i wanna climb mt kinabalu (wtf tak jadi oredi)! i wanna go to amsterdam with azlan and eat space cakes till we die! i wanna go to brisbane to meet up with kev! i wanna go back to bali and have the best pasta in the world! i wanna climb volcanoes with chi! i wanna go backpacking in india!
and lastly, i wanna go to hongkong and be with Martian.
(yes lah we got back together lah shut up everybody)
i havent seen Martian in one whole month. that is a disgustingly long time for me to be apart from him, because i’m so used to seeing him every 2 weeks. ok im going to stop here before i emo about how sucky LDRs are. and how i may not even be spending valentines day with him!!! *EMO!!!!!!!!!*
back to talking about college. right. right. college. college. so.. why i SHOULD stay in college. well, got lah the reasons. they’re weighty enough to make me take a step back and tell myself to be levelheaded about this, and not be carried away by my love for travel, my love for Martian, and my love for sleeping in till 2pm in the afternoon.
sigh! but.. it’s just college. now before you nag me about how important my education is, you think i dont know izzit? i planned already wan ok. the plan is to take my SATs or ACTs, then apply to schools in the US. i’m not going to transfer credits. so technically, until then, i can do absolutely shit if i want.
aiyoh i dont know lah. why dont YOU tell me what to do??? :( i already delayed paying my fees for a whole month.
*sits in a corner and eats cake*
edit : i just realized that my blog doesnt have a Rant category! wow! do i really not rant at all on my blog?? i shall create one, specially for this post.
Entry Filed under: Rants
32 Comments Add your own
1. Cla | January 31st, 2007 at 3:02 am
You rarely rant =d
2. Kevin | January 31st, 2007 at 3:12 am
I really hope there’s another Kev in Brisbane, if not I’ll kill you.. but then again even if there is another Kev in Brisbane.. U DUN WANNA COME US VISIT ME IZZIT MCH? :(
3. MichelleSY | January 31st, 2007 at 3:41 am
Sweetie, by the sounds of it (and if Andrew’s advice is reliable, which I think it is) - you’d probably ace your SATs/ ACTs, college or no college.
Yeah, I know, I know, it sounds like I’m playing devil’s advocate here…
But correct me if I’m wrong in assuming that
1. the SATs/ ACTs emphasise learning/ application as opposed to mere regurgitation of facts (ok lah, it’s MCQ and all, but nothing could be worse than the farce that’s called SPM)
2. the application process for US colleges (application essays etc etc) go a long way in ensuring you get into your college of choice.
And of course, your choice of college/ what they term ‘fit’ is a major factor as well.
Btw, what is your college of choice? Cos I can totally see you at Columbia U or somewhere like that, not so much so at a single sex college =) Close? Or no smoking gun? =P
4. Jay | January 31st, 2007 at 4:40 am
Hm, I don’t know where to start and I don’t want to leave a blog post of a comment.
“why dont YOU tell me what to do?”
Answer: Pay your bill and go to class! Now, I know you don’t want to transfer your credits and such, but look at it from the admission’s POV. They will see your application and it will have a 1.5 year gap. They WILL ask what you did during that gap and if you saw you went to a local college, they WILL ask for the details. I know, it sucks. And like I said, if you state what college you go to, you can skip the SATs if you like.
5. mrbherng | January 31st, 2007 at 7:00 am
Tell you what to do? Just follow your instinct on what is best for you and as long as you will not regret in the future, it’s all cool. Anyway, I do understand your urge to travel, I do have a BIG one too….
6. randomkaypohblogreader | January 31st, 2007 at 9:33 am
why not mon-wed compared to mon wed fri ?
7. Confused Neanderthal Male | January 31st, 2007 at 9:45 am
Advice? Comments perhaps. I assume that you are living with you parents. I think that…
Knowledge is everything. Nothing is more important than education at this time of your life. It’s not so much of the education that matters but the EXPERIENCE of LEARNING, studying, going to college, meeting new friends.
Things in life that you’ll never learn and experience if you stay at home sleeping until 2pm everyday. Think carefully. You can always travel later when you are done in college with your peers. It will be different if you do it the other way around. You cannot backtrack time.
I am 25 this year. It’s been 4 years since I’ve quit college. At times I wish I could turn back time and go to college again, just to have that experience again, to re-learn things that I’d never learn in working life and maybe re-do things correctly, but then that’s another thing altogether.
At some point in your life you’d need to work too. You can’t depend on your parents forever. Don’t disappoint them.
8. reallybites | January 31st, 2007 at 11:27 am
i also dont like college laa……but i’ve been going for so many years di hahaha. 17 more months - 3 months hols!
wheee not.
9. Kelvin | January 31st, 2007 at 12:55 pm
We all have to come back to reality at the end of the day. Nobody likes to study (OK there ARE exceptions), neither do I. And I share your love to travel.
I took time off after my SPM and thought what I wanted to do. I’ve always seen myself as an engineering guy (I know, boring). I prayed hard to get to Germany and guess where I am? In the heart of Europe.
Yeah, studying like shit here but there are perks as I travel a lot.
I can’t preach you on what to do as I always say to everyone (including my children in the future) to follow your heart and don’t regret what you did. As long as you don’t harm another person and don’t take drugs (unless you’re in Amsterdam but that’s forgiven), oh yeah, and don’t eat yellow snow.
Cheers,
Kelvin
10. Tiara | January 31st, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Your education is important.
Important enough to consider whether or not this college, or even college in general, is best for you.
Education does not always come from school. Sometimes school is the last place you’ll get any education from. CNM at #7 had one thing right when he said that it’s the experience of learning that counts. However, that doesn’t mean you have to go to college. The experience of learning comes from many more places than the 4 walls of your classroom.
Why do you want to go to college? Is it genuinely to learn? Is it because you think you have to, to get ahead in life? Is it for the perks? The socialization? The experience? The degree?
Do you have to go to college now? Do you have to stay where you are to move on? Can you defer, explore the world?
They may ask what you did on that gap. But that is not a bad thing. In many unis nowadays, especially in the US and UK, they consider gaps to be a GOOD thing. Harvard even encourages its acceptees to take a year off. It shows independence, it shows that you’ve taken the time to think about your options carefully, it shows your willingness to explore, and they will be more impressed with someone who took the time to explore themselves and gain maturity and self-awareness, than someone who’s only applying because they felt they need too, without knowing who they are.
I’ve jumped around so many times; a year’s gap after SPM, followed by 1 1/2 years in LKW, then half a year travelling the world with UWP, then a few month’s work with Channel [V], then starting my degree again in Australia late last year - I was accepted on the spot. Yesterday I found out I had been awarded a Dean’s Merit scholarship - thanks to my academics, but also to all the experiences I gained on my breaks. Not to mention all the positive things in life I gained from the time I took off!
If you want to, take the time off, and explore your heart’s desire to travel. You will learn tons more things by travelling that you will not get in school. Trust me on this. Go on a round-the-world trip! Eat as much as you want! See what you want to see! Understand yourself, then see what you want to do with your life.
Better to take this time off to explore your options, and go back in with a renewed sense of purpose, then to jump into uni not knowing what you want, and wasting more time and money as you keep changing around because you’re dissatisfied.
People will tell you to do this, don’t do that, maintain a status quo. Don’t be afraid to be different. Don’t be afraid to be yourself.
And good luck.
11. CHris | January 31st, 2007 at 3:08 pm
Lil Sis. Trust me don’t even think about quitting. I been trying to FINISH my bachelor degree at 28 to get the opportunties to have advancements and make a better living right now. The money I make right now could easy increase by 50% if I have my BA. I know it sucks big time but if I have a chance I want to turn back time. Stick it through and I know you will succeed.
Cheers,
CHris
*ruffles hair*
PS I am back blogging hehe
12. vvens | January 31st, 2007 at 5:16 pm
that’s good enough already. :(
i wake up at 6am every weekday, then, mum will send me to sri petaling to join carpool with cindy then to PJ taylors. classes start at 8am.
and if my classes end at 3pm i’ll only get to reach home at 4+ because i take lrt.
hahaha. i haven been seeing dexter for a month already. no valentines too. hahaha.
SO SAD RIGHT!
13. ArtificiallyVerbose | January 31st, 2007 at 5:40 pm
hmmm… all i hear about geylang is the many fruit stores and well… the redder parts of it. I shall go have dim sum there then!
14. Chapree Da Grande | January 31st, 2007 at 10:12 pm
If I could quit college, I would.
15. tze | January 31st, 2007 at 11:34 pm
yea you rarely rant. you usually type quite maturely that it’s weird to read about you being in college and all. but when i connect quaintly.net to su ann i of course understand la!
anyway erm. if you already wanna go to US and u got it all planned out why on earth would you wanna suffer college somemore!
16. Tiara | February 1st, 2007 at 12:36 am
Looking at the comment below mine, I find it sad that nowadays the only thing people care about when it comes to university and college is the money they’ll earn. Because salaries are the only point of a degree, apparently.
17. alea | February 1st, 2007 at 12:40 am
college is fun.. isnt it? @.@ well, its way better than high school
18. bs | February 1st, 2007 at 12:58 am
i know i tak layak to give any advice, so i’ll ask a question instead:
eh, u n martian broke up meh?? when?
19. Fadzrul | February 1st, 2007 at 6:28 am
Honestly, colleges are overrated. An absolute waste of time, I didnt even bother going, just went straight for a diploma after SPM.
Though wouldn’t agree w/ Tiara, most people went to colleges and unis just to get that flimsy roll of paper rather than getting themselves educated.
20. Vicnan | February 1st, 2007 at 8:04 am
I know I should be all geekay-me and preach the good illumination the torch of knowledge would bring to your life..
BUT HOW COME I ONLY GET TO GO GEYLANG I WANT TO CAM WHORE AT BRENNERS ALSO CAN?!
-sulks-
21. Tiara | February 1st, 2007 at 8:59 am
Just because “most people” do, doesn’t mean you have to be “most people”.
(you can tell this is a topic dear to my heart…)
22. Baron Von Overback | February 1st, 2007 at 10:27 am
well,su ann…..to tell the truth,u have great potential and destined to be a great spoke ,u even score straight 12A’s in SPM….there is nothing harder than that….for me, i think that it is vital for u to get ur phychology degree first, then only u travel as much as you want…would’t it be better? at least, u can travel wit no worries….your life is secured already
23. Waifon | February 1st, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Yah! I agree with BVO.I’m a college student myself and as much as i hate dragging myself out of bed every single morning, I enjoy college life as well. A levels’ a major bitch but it’s not the difficulty of the syllabus that counts, it’s the experiences that I get in this transition from a spoon fed education to one’s that independant and self- learnt. I don’t know about you butI’ve certainly learn to adapt to college life and I’m pretty sure uni wouldn’t be that bad.
As for travelling, I forego lots of chances to go travelling as well but isn’t tht part and parcel of this studying in college thing? It’s good enough tht ADP has semester breaks. Alevels have none unless the college lets us off. So yeah, your situation is not that bad lah. Eh ur lecturer so mean okay. I’m alwayssss late but my lecturer tutup sebelah mata cos I still score hehehe. Thanks for ur help yesterday!
24. prawn | February 1st, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Heyas, its been so long since i last left a comment =D
Drop out ke? wah.. so brave of u but do u think its a good idea? I mean, u see others graduating and u find urself being left being left behind. College life its not that long (unless u menggatal nak cuba do masters, pHd or soemthing higher =P )
Anyways, hope u make the right choice ;)
25. theo | February 1st, 2007 at 1:15 pm
quit. before its too late. =)
doing something that you only like so-so leaves you half-hearted and bored rather quickly.
don’t stick to it for the sake of sticking to it. otherwise you fast-forward into the future, and thinking “omg. i should have chosen something else to do. what a waste of XX-years. Damnit.”
heh. =P or just beg la. i’ll be the first to drop notes in your cup.
26. GAMBs | February 1st, 2007 at 1:21 pm
what abt my part of the world? wont u come visit?
27. pinkpau | February 1st, 2007 at 4:45 pm
cla : with the birth of this new Rant category, i now have a new avenue to rant freely :D
kevin : u think ur the only kevin in the world izzit! i know like 8 kevins in KL alone ok -___- and aiyah going to study in US is like visiting u.. even though er wichita issssssss a bit out of the way ..
michellesy : andrew gave me advice? where? as for spm, hehe that’s behind me now. in college (cos im doing ADP) they pretty much adher to the american system. and i dont know where i want to go yet, i mean i have my dream schools, but lets be realistic :P single sex schools are SO out of the question
jay : exactly!! i went to our msian american comission on edu exchange, and they were like you dont want that gap there unless you can tell them u went on a year long exchange programme or u worked or something. so .. argh! oh but i wont skip the sats :)
mrbherng : dont we all :P nevermind lah ive temporarily satisfied myself.. just booked flights to singapore in march and going to HK in two weeks time.
randomkaypoh : dont have, classes come in blocks of MWF or TuesThurs. most people go all 5 days
confused neanderthal male : i completely agree with u abt the experience of learning, but i’d be more inclined to stay if my college environ were more stimulating. it’s kinda actually really boring there, cos nothing happens, and the schedule prohibits me from doing a lot of things i could do, such as internships and the like. sorry to hear about ur situation :( u could go do ur masters..? :D
reallybites : faster finish then u can be my lawyer if i piss off any huge newspaper conglomerates :P
kelvin : man, i wanna be like u! studying in europe. doesnt get any better than that. okay lah but language barrier would be a huge problem for me. so would yellow snow..
tiara : ahh :D i should have come to you directly instead! i’ve got a few reasons for sticking around in college, one of them is so that i have a backup (transfer credits) in the event that my SAT scores and application arent good enough for US schools. another reason is that because there’s nothing to do as of yet that would require me to quit college (exchange progs, volunteer progs like raleigh, etc). so if i took that gap i really have no good excuse for it. but i SO badly want to do that gap, the 6 months after spm just wasnt enough. i gotta meditate upon ur advice :) thanks tiara.
chris : *HUGS* glad to see u back alive and blogging! hope all is good on the career front.
vvens : is dexter in the US? haha ya ur schedule worse than mine @_@;;
artificially : go :D very nice wan. hey i booked my flights oredi. jaga jazzist, here comes pinkpau!
chapree : u can live vicariously thru me :D
tze : but what if those schools dont accept me! then i mai die lor, right! :(
alea : hehe not so, my friend!
bs : abt a month ago :)
fadzrul : that’s true. i guess some folks just havent been exposed enough to know what’s different is not necessarily what’s bad
vicnan : okay lahhhh we can go to chjimes oso ok?? and holland village!! and max brenner! and clarke quay.. haha ok im getting excited. 12th march, baby!
tiara : teehee yes i can :P
baron : but by the time i get my degree i’ll be old :( and i cant do a lot of things that i can and should be doing now! *cries*
waifon : the diff between u and me is that my college is sorta boring and urs isnt :P there’s really not much that my college offers. it’s like ppl come in, study, then leave. not much campus life to speak of. and i want ur lecturer!!
prawn : no no not drop out :P just quit college in msia. cos im starting college in the US only a year from now. question is what do i do in the meantime?
theo : that is SO what i am afraid of! :( going “what a waste of xx years!” in the future. arghghhg but what if i quit and then its even more a waste of time! okay lah i just busk. teach me how to play guitar!
gambs : i’ll be there in july.. :D wtf Beach put me on waiting list!! looks like i gotta stay at ur place, haha
28. Adrian C | February 1st, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Enjoy your college years lah. When u enter the working world, u will NOT have time to do all the travelling and activities u ranted about. My advice is stay in college, get your education sorted out .. then take 1 year off to do all the things u wanna do. QED.
29. Tiara | February 1st, 2007 at 7:36 pm
If you find college uninspiring, stifling, and restricting, then staying will do you a lot worse than moving out. Perhaps the solution is to take time off and move to another college - you don’t HAVE to eschew college completely if you don’t want to. But staying won’t do you much good, trust me.
(I stayed in LKW for 1 1/2 years even though by the middle of year I was itching to get out, same sort of thing you are feeling! Eventually they royally screwed me over, a week before I left for my UWP tour, and that’s when I knew leaving was the best option. I’m in Australia right now and am quite happy :D)
If you’re looking for something to do within a 5 month’s span, here are two options to check out:
Up With People - 6 months ish. Travel around the world, do community service, exchange cultures, perform, and do all sorts of cool stuff
World Campus - similar to above, except it takes 3 months and you spend that in Japan. Professional development, community work, and some cultural performance (but not as much as UWP).
disclaimer: I travelled with one and am volunteering as a contact with the other. Do let me know if you have questions :)
30. ront | February 1st, 2007 at 10:00 pm
you sure got enough time and finance and energy for all those travelling plans…
if there’s a LDR Anonymous meeting, I’ll be there…hello, I am ront, I was in a 7yrs long LDR….now pls put your hands together for me
31. MichelleSY | February 2nd, 2007 at 1:07 am
Hey Pinkpau!
Hmm….yes, I think I got the impression that (Kiasu) Andrew gave you advice of some sort.
Possibly in the comments section of his/ your blog? Argh, it’s all a blur now! XD
And WHY NOT DREAM BIG? You can do it, I am sure you can. I can see you going Ivy babe =)
32. vvens | February 2nd, 2007 at 10:36 pm
haha yalar.
you must always remember that some other people are more kesian than you. hahahahaha.
oh yeah, he’s in US :)
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed