My university screws 80% of us over…
Isn’t it delightful? I’m so in agreement with that notion, that I actually joined a like-minded Facebook group - I was warned against doing this by several lecturers at my Orientation yesterday (more on that later), but pfft. I’ll join it if I want to. And there are assloads of valid reasons as to why. A Quantity of Qualms, if you will. *clears throat*
- As a first-year student, they leave you to your own devices to enrol online, register for classes, and work out how everything works at UWS. Should you need help, you may proceed to call one of the three helplines that are available, but are not guaranteed a fair service without first waiting 20 minutes and then being answered by a swiftly-speaking girl who yells “HELLO?!” into the phone repeatedly, causing you to yell “I’M HERE!” back down the phone line until she inevitably hangs up even though she acknowledges that she heard you the seven millionth time you shouted. You then need to hang up yourself, and get a glass of water for your parched, aching throat.
- The website is one year out of date, and within three clicks anywhere on said site, you can find at least one mistake. The timetables for many units for Semester 1 are not finalised, even though online lecture/tutorial registration opened up on the 11th and students require finalised timetables in order to register for the classes they want. Several course and unit numbers are mistyped, and spelling mistakes are not precisely in abundance, but you can still spot them and squeak/growl/whatever.
- When you attend your Orientation at a particular campus and are greeted by a representative from the library, the aforementioned representative will proceed, in her five minutes of allocated presentation time, to take ten full minutes to show you one webpage on the university library’s website, pinpointing all the links and explaining their purpose, as well as demonstrating the use of a computer mouse. She does not explain anything about the library itself, nor does she indicate any possibility of a library tour, but merely idles on the website and squiggles the cursor around while at least four people in the theatre audibly yawn to express collective annoyance and boredom.
- You toddle off to the Student Centre to get your ID card. You fill out the application slip, and then ask one of the people behind the counter if you could get your card. People in the Centre on any given day can make you wait between five minutes and one. bloody. hour. while they slowly/quickly/efficiently enter all the mandatory data and go about fixing the camera that shouldn’t talke that long to fix. Once you sit down to have your photo taken, a minimum of three attempts must be initiated before they finally get the shot they need. Then you wait another ten minutes until your card is actually ready. On other days, at other times, things take all of two minutes to be done.
- Your textbooks cost twice as much as those that other people at other tertiary institutions purchase, even if they’re doing the same course as you. You look forward, with a little bit of acidic glee that can be misconstrued by lecturers as actual happiness and anticipation, to paying upwards of $835 per year for your books when other Arts students at other unis only pay around $450. You trawl over the noticeboards for second-hand textbooks, and the most you can reduce your prospective expenditures by is $200 for the whole year. Your lecturer for one of your core Arts units will then go on to admit that some units actually require more textbooks than usually needed, and as you walk away briskly, you can’t help but think: “What the fuck?! Why on Earth do you admit that?!”
- Your Orientation session, which is scheduled to go for two hours in the lecture theatre, goes for two and a half hours, and is almost completely pointless because anything they tell you can be found online, including academic honesty policies and whatever other shit they decide to vomit at you. Furthermore, online information suggests that during your Orientation session, you will meet and mingle with each of your lecturers and tutors, yet none of the tutors are present and half of the lecturers decided they wanted the day off. A fantastic Orientation process, really.
*sigh* Looking forward to four years here… really…
On the subject of Orientation, I had my session yesterday. Several of the friends I made on Facebook were there, and we all met up and stuck together in the very centre of the lecture seats. Two-thirds of the people undertaking the Bachelor of Arts didn’t bother turning up, so it was a fairly subdued atmosphere in the theatre, as the two point five hours passed slowly, to the point where I was slumped over the tiny table surface attached to my seat, almost asleep, until one of the lecturers cracked the most self-humiliating, lame, tragic Paris Hilton joke to try and teach us about the importance of avoiding ignorance. Moral lesson my ass. Just, please, never try to snap your fingers and exclaim “Oh no you didn’t, girlfriend!” if you’re female, extremely butch, in your fifties, speak thickly accented English, and remind me forcibly of my English teacher from last year. Please.
Socialising was the highlight of yesterday’s day on campus, and… that’s honestly about it. I didn’t actually digress away from the group and talk to other people (although I did run into a good friend from my primary school days - we’re doing the same course), but I figure that’ll be easy enough once lectures start up. And speaking of starting up, by now, all I want is uni to begin already — I’ve had fun these holidays, but now I feel like I’m ready enough to ease back into the routine of studying again. I’ve got three days off a week, 40 hours of study to do a week, and a relaxed but compact timetable. Good enough for me. :)
[#] Vera, on February 16, 2008:
Oh sounds like my first year at Economy. There were so many students, the dean had to rent a special conference room outside the University, only to drone on and on about the amazingly smart students having been accepted (I wonder why I got to meet so many idiots then).
Oh and subscribing to courses is HELL. There is at least one thing you didn’t fill out correctly, the queue to hand your subscription over is insanely long aaaand… the secretary will proceed to yell at you… well does she have a reason.
It’s not university: it’s bureaucracy. So rest assured there are others suffering just the same.
As for the books, do you have to buy them? Can’t you go to the library and make notes from them? That’s how I did, only bought books for the most important courses.
[#] Cherry, on February 16, 2008:
That doesn’t sound very good, can’t you complain to someone?
Reply: I could complain, but it would realistically do very little difference since the uni is spread across six or seven campuses and doesn’t exactly hold a reputation for being the most prestigious institution around. *shrug* I figure that it’ll just take some getting used to — it does have its good sides. :)
[#] Jen, on February 18, 2008:
UNSW had online enrollment too, and all my friends were complaining about how it was so confusing. On the other hand, they had to queue for 1-2 hours to get their student cards done. :)
I consider myself lucky — I didn’t have to wait in line for anything, whereas everyone else who went to USyd tell me they waited for ages and ages to get their ID cards and stuff done. Just my luck. :)
Hopefully uni itself turns out more organized for you!
[#] Sarai, on February 20, 2008:
It definitely sounds like Nightmare University. Glad you joined the group — maybe they’ll have hints on How Not To Get Fucked Over?
Reply: Ahah! I should bloody well hope so, considering it hasn’t even started yet and I’m on my next to last straw with it. *mutters*
[#] Rebecca, on February 23, 2008:
That sounds like great fun!! /sarcasm
Sort-of sounds like my orientation at University of Waterloo (ON, Canada) but not nearly as bad as yours. They did painfully explain each website page and link though, making sure all the noobs understood what was happening.
Don’t even speak to me about books. 4 books == $800. Canada’s prices are jacked up due to the small amount of schools.
First time here at your site, I will definitely be linking you. I love your writing style :)
[#] Destiny, on February 26, 2008:
That must be kind of frustrating… I understand as well, but that’s probably one reason why I chose not to continue to university or college… it’s just tooo much of everything, and you’re pushed straight from high school to university.
Best of luck to you though!
[#] Stephanie, on February 27, 2008:
yo. you have just destroyed a few years worth of culminating anticipation for uni. i was actually looking forward to it all despite the hellish application process, but now lol…
so, hows social life?
[#] Newton, on February 27, 2008:
Have you considered purchasing your textbooks online?
Reply: I did at one stage, but there was a shockingly small percentage of people who had theirs from the previous year on sale. Besides, the discount at the student bookstore took about $100 off the regular price — something I didn’t know until the day I bought them. :)