The University Thread

[Beeblebrox237]

I figure that since we have a thread for high school, we need a thread for those of us attending university/college/whatever you call it.

I'll be starting in about a month at the University of Leeds, studying automotive engineering. I'm so excited! What can I expect from my professors? Lots of homework? Relaxed or serious? And how much time will I be spending in classes per day?

 

[Omnis]

How are we supposed to tell you? Lectures ought to be for the period specified. Generally an hour, but I finished summer term where I was doing a 4 hour grind per class.

From my own experience [at a huge university]: You'll spend most of your time out of class, where you'll have to figure out how to study, how to pass your tests without knowing your prof.'s expectations and without cheating, how to keep money in your pockets, and how to get the funk out of your clothing. You'll know how to do all of these after the first week, but you'll probably have to make compromises. Not enough time in the day, and, remember, you might have productivity-killing, alcoholic frat bro roommates. They need to use common resources and disturb you too. You may also find that none of your classmates want to study with you. They either (a) think they know it themselves and don't want to give you an advantage (you might wreck the curve), or (b) they just don't care and are already busy with their friends doing whatever. There could be 300-500 people in your class, so everyone will be a stranger and you'll most likely never again see or interact with the person you just met today. If you're in a rigorous major, you'll likely not have time to socialize or do anything fun, so you probably should have just stayed at home and gone to school locally. At least your uncle will take you out for a beer.

 

[Beeblebrox237]

Sounds like a great time I was just asking, to see if anyone could tell me more about the UK university experience. Fortuantley, I get my own room and only share a bathroom with one other person, so that should make life easier.

Sadly, my uncle won't take me out for a beer because he's crazy, and he's muslim. Fortunately I've got Danny to hang out with, and he's awesome.

 

[Omnis]

Well, you're going all the way to Leeds, so make the most of it. Don't mean to be a buzzkill, but I thought going to a big school would be great. They really pulled the wool over my eyes, lol. I found it was awful, came back, transferred to a smaller school, and am doing great now. Better to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond, I suppose. (Bosmina only live a couple days-- do they even survive in the ocean?)

It'll probably be better for you since you're going as a freshman. Everyone will be in the same boat. Don't know how big a school Leeds is, but if it's small enough to recognize classmates, etc., then that should be great. You'll develop some continuity with those you're acquainted with, and that should lead to some nice friendships. And you always have Danny.

I took a lot of comfort in reading some things that danoff and others have posted about college. It'll be hard, but work you freaking ass off in the hope that it's the hardest thing you'll have to do in your life. This attitude really strengthened my resolve when I was up against a wall. (Thanks guys) I learned that everything passes, and you just have to give it your Best Shot and leave your other BS at the door.

edit: By the way, try to get on an F1 team while you're in England. Do a lot of extra curricular stuff and then apply for an internship later on.

 

[phillgt2002]

Wish I could contribute to this thread properly. I'm going to a community college before Uni. It's a smart move, but man... I won't get that freshman experience. Guess it's for the best.

 

[PeterJB]

As somebody who has already done their first year at a UK university, I can tell you it will be a very different experience from high school. The relationship between lecturer and student is far more casual than teacher and student, their is virtually no discipline involved and they'll to you like a equal. In lectures it's more about note-taking than a dialogue between you and the lecturer, they won't normally single you out at random like in a classroom. You're also expected to do all of your research yourself. Essays (though I'm not sure how many you'll be doing on an engineering degree) will be expected be fully sourced and citated, with a bibliography, otherwise you can be accused of plagiarism.

Most of your time will be spent outside of lectures, you're unlikely to have more than four per week, usually at least 2-3 hours in length. I found also that the difficulty of my assignments was offset by the fact that it is something I love doing, which makes it feel less like 'work'.

You're fortunate that over here your first year doesn't count towards your grade, you only need to pass, so that's the time to have fun and party! Your nightlife experience will probably be very different from mine, Leeds is much larger than Chichester, the uni has a much bigger student body (Chichester is one of the smallest in the country at 5,500 students, compared to 33,500 at Leeds), and Leeds is full of clubs too, which Chi isn't, so I can't really help you out there.

Everything feels really weird at first, but once fresher's week is over and you start getting into a routine with lectures and stuff then you'll start to really enjoy yourself, even when you're far from your home and family (though you'll be a lot further away than I am).

These will be the best years of your life, so embrace them!

 

[Danny]

What can I expect from my professors?

I've found that you get what you put in with professors (you'll be referring to them as Lecturers while you're here). If you turn up to all your lectures, participate, ask questions and generally get involved, you'll get a lot more input from them. You'll by and large have the same lecturers over concurrent years and they'll usually learn names and address you more informally. The best lecturers are the ones who teach you how to think, not teach you what to think.

Lots of homework?

Yes. There's usually mini-assignments through the year but it's nothing too taxing, they know you have other work in. The coursework is the main problem, if and when you get it. There will be points where you want to pull all your hair out and rock backwards and forwards in the corner. The key is time management. Learn to prioritise and you'll be A-OK. There's no getting around the fact that you're expected to do a lot of work but it's all useful to your learning.

Relaxed or serious?

Much more relaxed than you might be used to. You'll have lectures where you sit in a room, and the lecturer stands at the front funnelling information into your brain, and there will also be seminars where you're able to talk and discuss ideas with your lecturer and your peers. With your course I would imagine this is the more practical side, where the lectures are likely to be more theoretical. What's nice is that it's very relaxed because everyone is there because they want to be there.

And how much time will I be spending in classes per day?

In your first year I'd expect around 14-16 hours per week. You're also expected to do between 12-14 additional hours of study per week, but ain't nobody got time for that. The chances are that there'll be at least one day in the week that you're not in for any lectures. This day will become hallowed.

 

[Liquid]

Hated university. Rubbish curriculum and more than a few unfriendly people. Just not the sort of environment where I thrive and do well.

But I stuck at it through some of my lowest lows and came out and graduated. I'm proud of that.

But hey, this is just one guy's opinion. Plenty of people adore university. Get yourself out there, get talking, go visit everything and just make the most of it. You'll do fine.

 

[Beeblebrox237]

...give it your Best Shot and leave your other BS at the door.

edit: By the way, try to get on an F1 team while you're in England. Do a lot of extra curricular stuff and then apply for an internship later on.

I understand now why you didn't seem very enthusiastic. I'm used to a big high school, and I probably didn't know at least 10 % of my graduating class of 463. I think I'll be okay in a big school (33,500) once I get used to living on my own. I supose I'll have to get used to working really hard sometimes, and not at all at other times. Btu that shoudln't be hard either, because my schedule last year lent itself to that.

...
Everything feels really weird at first, but once fresher's week is over and you start getting into a routine with lectures and stuff then you'll start to really enjoy yourself, even when you're far from your home and family (though you'll be a lot further away than I am).

These will be the best years of your life, so embrace them!

I like informal teachers, so I should enjoy having lecturers who treat students as equals. I can't wait to get studying, because I really enjoy the subject, which should make the work less tedious for me.

I didn't know that the first year doesn't count, but that's really nice to know. Not that I'll be slacking off, mind. But I'll certainly be doing some exploring of both the city and the UK.

Fresher's week sounds nice, but really, really busy. Especially for me, as I'll still be sorting out how to live on my own. However, as you said, it'll calm down and all will be well.

I will!

I've found that you get what you put in with professors (you'll be referring to them as Lecturers while you're here). If you turn up to all your lectures, participate, ask questions and generally get involved, you'll get a lot more input from them. You'll by and large have the same lecturers over concurrent years and they'll usually learn names and address you more informally. The best lecturers are the ones who teach you how to think, not teach you what to think.

Ah, lecturers. Any other terms that I may not know? It soudnslike it's basically the smae situation as you would have in an AMerican school: go visit your lecturers, participate in calss, an dthey'll start to recognise and like (no guarantees here) you.

Also, the lecture/seminar thing, now that you mention it, was soemthing that I read about, but had forgotten.

Yes. There's usually mini-assignments through the year but it's nothing too taxing, they know you have other work in. The coursework is the main problem, if and when you get it. There will be points where you want to pull all your hair out and rock backwards and forwards in the corner. The key is time management. Learn to prioritise and you'll be A-OK. There's no getting around the fact that you're expected to do a lot of work but it's all useful to your learning.

When you say coursework, do you mean exams, essays, or something else? It doesn't sound too terrible, I learned a lot about time management last year.

In your first year I'd expect around 14-16 hours per week. You're also expected to do between 12-14 additional hours of study per week, but ain't nobody got time for that. The chances are that there'll be at least one day in the week that you're not in for any lectures. This day will become hallowed.

This day will indeed I guess that will become the sleep/work day, whichever is needed more. Sounds like there will be plenty of time to fit work in and to relax, save for when exams come around.


Thanks, everyone!

 

[Lizard]

I am also going to university. I hope (15th August )
Leeds is an established university. From what I have read the more traditional universities expect more from your own time and less in class. I am only going by the internet on that though.

It is very relaxed. Even college here is relaxed. I mean on the open day I went to half the time in the taster lecture we had was spent with the lecturer telling us how he got arrested and then released without charge in Jordan. And how he went to advise the government in 2011 and came out with the impression they didn't listen to anything he said.

If you put the effort in lecturers will treat you more like a friend that they teach than a student. But 1 thing is you will not be constantly hassled for assignments. If you don't turn it in on time the accepted practice is to take a few marks off the final score for each day it is late by.

 

[Joel]

Guess I'll chime in as I was in your situation a year ago (moving thousands of km's from home to go to school, granted I stayed within the country and went to a city I was familiar with). Hard for me to necessarily talk about a school that size with 30k+ students, as my school has 6000 undergrads and the campus is contained within 2 city blocks. Still, there are some experiences that I don't think change no matter which school you go to. Assuming you're going to stay on campus (which I highly recommend for at least your first year), the first week will be very busy and it'll probably be full of drinking and noisy parties. That's fine, the first week is generally a write off and you don't have much in the way of real work until the 2nd week of class, so let loose, have fun, and meet people. Just be mindful that frosh/fresher's week is exactly that, a week, and after that time you need to settle into a more productive routine as the classes tend to get involved pretty quick.

Since you said you won't have a room mate, that makes things a lot easier. I'd recommend you try to set up your room in a way that minimizes distractions, and try not to accumulate much clutter. You're living in a tiny room that's roughly the size of a prison cell, so you need to prioritize and cull things that just take up useless space. This was my issue last year, I just had too much useless crap and that compounded with having a roommate made my room fairly cramped and it hampered productivity when I was tripping over empty ramen noodle packets every time I tried to do some work. It can be easy to fall into the stereotypical college student routine of waking up at noon and going to bed at 4AM, but I'd recommend trying your best to keep a somewhat normal sleep schedule. Of course, you might be more of a night owl and do your best work at night (that's generally my routine as well), but don't let that be your excuse to rationalize staying up until 4AM. Also, shower, get properly dressed, and go outside every day. Dress as you normally would even if you're spending the day in your room writing an essay, you're not in the right frame of mind if you're in your pajamas trying to work, as you internalize your appearance.

As for the actual academics part of school, I'll pretty much echo what everyone else said. You'll likely have pretty big first year courses with hundreds of people in your program. The most important thing is to go to class and be engaged. I know a lot of people bring their laptops and iPads to class and allegedly take notes that way, but I found if I took my laptop to class I just ended up just browsing GTP and facebook if the lecture took a bit of a dry turn. For some, using the laptop works, but for me I prefer to hand write my notes in my own style of short hand. You might prefer to type them though, but you are in engineering which is probably graph and equation heavy, so a bit tough to type. One thing a lot of professors do is upload their powerpoint slides to the course page on the school website, so you can print them out and jot down any extra info or hints the professor gives. Biggest thing is to find a way that works for you so you can just focus on what the prof says, I recommend that no matter how you choose to take notes, use shorthand and summarize. The act of summarizing a sentence into a few words is a powerful memory tool as you are actively thinking about the words and their meaning to shrink it down.

You'll probably have somewhere between 14-20 hours of classes a week, and you're expected to spend probably 10-15 outside of class on your homework. In practice this isn't really the way it works, some classes you don't need much more than a half hour here and there to go over your notes and keep it fresh in your mind, while other classes will require that you do assignments and a lot of homework. Try to balance, don't spend 3 hours going over notes that you're confident you know, use that time on something you don't fully understand. The biggest thing is taking responsibility for your education. Ultimately, you'll get out of your school what you put it. This encompasses everything from your lifestyle, to time management, to your study habits. Try to schedule out your days and have regular "work hours" every day regardless of what times you have lectures. If you don't have structure, every day will be subject to the momentary whims you have, and rarely will your fleeting desire to do homework be more powerful than the one to party, play games, or watch a movie.

I'm sure you can do it, from your posts on here it's clear you're a clever guy with good writing skills, and those are two things that will make your university experience a lot better. Manage your time and prioritize, don't dick around all day and then do your homework at 2AM, but don't be a shut in and read your notes for hours on end every day. University is hard work, but you should have ample time to do it. Just think that in high school you were in class or on the bus for 7 to 8 hours a day, while in university and living on campus you'll be in class for 16 hours or so at most a week. That leaves a lot of time to either be productive, or fritter away. Try to make sure it's more of the former 👍

 

[Danny]

Ah, lecturers. Any other terms that I may not know? It soudnslike it's basically the smae situation as you would have in an AMerican school: go visit your lecturers, participate in calss, an dthey'll start to recognise and like (no guarantees here) you.

Also, the lecture/seminar thing, now that you mention it, was soemthing that I read about, but had forgotten.

Just highlighting this for you.

 

[Lizard]

I had a chat with my Sociology A level teacher who also taught for the university and it seems although the general rule is the first year doesn't count it sometimes can. At the end they will try and get you the best score they can out of all the work you put in including first year. The second and third years work most often overrules the first year though and thus it doesn't count.


Unless I heard wrong.

 

[Danny]

First year grades don't count towards your final grade after third year.

There are two ways Universities can work out your final grade, the year I finished was a transition year so I'm not 100% on which Universities use which system.

1) Your final grade and degree level is dictated by your average mark across the entire 2nd and 3rd year.

2) Your final grade and degree level is dictated by the 6 highest marks you got across both second and third year combined, then averaged.

 

[F1GTR]

Re: First year doesn't count
It depends on your uni and the department your course is in. Mine counted, the whole year was equivalent to 1/4th of your total credits in final year. I wish my uni did method 2, I would have had a First overall.

I just graduated, generally had a fun time. Had the most amazing professors in my final year. Do your work, but take part in various events around campus, join societies that really interest you (since you have to pay for membership). Take part in student media over there. Take advantage of student discounts, get into the habit of asking cashiers if they do a student discount before you hand them your money. Don't be shy during fresher's week, keep your door open when you're in your room so people can pop in and say hi. Since you're from America, expect a lot of attention. Participate in lectures/seminars. Show up to your lecturer's office hours - even if you don't need much help, it's good to get to know them.

 

[Beeblebrox237]

Just highlighting this for you.

👍 I'm a really bad typist. Really, really bad. It's not that I don't have the ability, it's that I type too fast.

Thanks again for the words of wisdom, guys, I appreciate it! I've read through it all, but at the moment I don't have the ime to quote it and reply individually with my thoughts.

 

[dxm8975]

I figure that since we have a thread for high school, we need a thread for those of us attending university/college/whatever you call it.

I'll be starting in about a month at the University of Leeds, studying automotive engineering. I'm so excited! What can I expect from my professors? Lots of homework? Relaxed or serious? And how much time will I be spending in classes per day?

I don't know about the exact scholastic system of your country, but what we can unanimously say with dead certainty is that unlike in high school we've got a lot more of leisure to fritter away to do something apart from academic things - mainly about taking parts in social activity such as doing some part(spare) time-jobs and other sorts of volunteers.

But having read about your university and in american(and in most of foreign countries as well) schools generally I hear that the lecturers yield tons of assignments to students to hassle for in aim for taking the grades for graduation, so I guess you'll have to give it a boost to deal with schoolworks following up the classes successfully every week, particularly in early few years of your studies of uni.

 

[Crash]

Perhaps you should bump this thread also and let everyone know where you're going. It's not the same, but there is a little bit of overlap.

--

Oh man, I'm going to try and give you a little bit of my perspective and my experience from going to college. I graduated about a year ago with an engineering degree here in America. Since you're going to the UK for college, YMMV, but hopefully, some of the engineering things will translate over to across the pond.

Everything others have said are true.

Be prepared to work hard if you want to do engineering successfully and meaningfully. This is not meant to scare you at all, but if you are serious about going into engineering and doing better than just skating along, work hard (and smart). Throughout my college career, I've found the adage that you should expect 3 hours of homework and studying per hour of class time to be true. On top of what others have said already, there will be lots of homework and problem sets, many of which will leave you wanting to tear your hair out. You WILL experience homework and problems where you sit there staring at it for an hour and you still don't know how to begin, or being two hours into a problem before getting the answer wrong. As discouraging and frustrating as that will be, especially when it's 1 am and your non-engineering friends will just be about stumbling back from the pub drunk, don't let it stop you. Try to start and do the homework early, and take advantage of professor's office hours. As others have said, you get as much out of college as you put into it.

With that said, participate in extracurricular activities that interests you. I don't know whether and what extracurriculars you participated in in high school, but when in college, pick one or two, and be really involved in it. Start as soon as you can. Since you are going into automotive engineering, join the Formula Student team at your school. It is an amazing experience and a fantastic opportunity to learn and apply engineering to a real problem, learn project management, and the teamwork and the "soft" sciences and business side of being an engineer. That program will teach you so much about how automotive engineering actually works. Oh yeah, you ever want to go work in F1? Do Formula Student. Remember, often times in engineering classes, you are limited to the theory on the board and in homework assignments, with a limited application through labs and a senior capstone project. Don't rest on your laurels, go and actually apply it in real, complex problems. That's going to give you a significant advantage over others when you go and apply for jobs.

With that said, time management will be a huge part. You're in college because you want to be there. Beyond a few very introductory classes, there's no hand-holding. You sink or you swim. If you don't go to class, no one is going to say anything, and I'll admit to having my share of class-skipping. But be careful and don't make it into a habit, you can fall behind very very quickly, and it doesn't endear you well to the professors. Go to class unless you absolutely need to skip it.

Another part to time management is that you'll be responsible for figuring out when to cook and eat, when you'll be doing homework, when you'll be going to class, when you'll be doing chores (laundry/basic dorm clean up/etc.), when you'll be socializing and when you will be sleeping. You're going to have to figure out what's most important to you at any given time, and prioritize and figure out something that works for you.

For freshman year, before you are 100% focused on your degree of choice, go figure out how many "extraneous" classes you can take, and take the classes that purely interest you. There are so many classes and interesting subjects that you may find something else that you want to major or minor in. At my university, I've seen classes as general as "20th Century world history" to classes as specific as "Exploring sub-Saharan African women diaspora through literature", or from engineering statics to mechanical vibrations. Try to find out who the good professors are, and if you can, take classes with them. Don't lose sight of your goal, but it's ok to take a detour here and there to learn and gain additional experiences in other subjects.

I wrote a fairly long post about a year ago on going into engineering and what it really entails, if you are interested, I can dig that up for you.

Best of luck in college over in the UK. Everyone freshmen there will be new, and it's the time now to make those bonds. Work hard, don't drink too much, be open and make plenty of new friends and connections and have fun.



Oh also, for the love of God, while you're in the UK, please drop the "I'm not American, I'm British!" bit. Being American is going to get you laid a lot more often.

 

[Omnis]

Oh! They're starting a mechanical vibrations class at my school. It has created a lot of buzz around campus.

 

[trackripper123]

Waiting for results... The disasters that could come on the day after tomorrow will make the film look pathetic.

If all goes well though, I'm off to Oxford.

 

[PeterJB]

Oxford Oxford or Oxford Brookes?

 

[trackripper123]

I was waiting for someone to ask that.
Oxford Oxford.

 

[Lizard]

One word of warning for those going to top universities.

My history A level teacher studied at Cambridge and said the teaching was awful. That is just his view of course but just thought I would warn you.

 

[PeterJB]

Apparently doing Medicine at Oxbridge is a death wish. They actually give students suicide therapy.

 

[trackripper123]

Good thing I'm not doing Medicine then. The course with the highest suicide rate is apparently Physics and Philosophy at Oxford.

 

[F1GTR]

One word of warning for those going to top universities.

My history A level teacher studied at Cambridge and said the teaching was awful. That is just his view of course but just thought I would warn you.

Highly dependent on the supervisor you have though, I wish more unis did the tutorial system they have over there as I really liked going in depth with my lecturers and other people at the department who helped me with my dissertation. While I was fortunate enough to have people who weren't afraid to talk at length in seminars and tutors who were very engaging, talking one on one (or two on one) with someone who really knows their stuff is incredibly rewarding since you're put on the spot. Most of my friends at Oxbridge really enjoyed the time they had there too, plus their May balls are just amazing. Although my medic friends have Saturday morning lectures which should be illegal. I'm considering applying for a Masters at Cambridge right now.

@trackripper: what will you be studying at Oxford? And good luck with results!

 

[trackripper123]

@trackripper: what will you be studying at Oxford? And good luck with results!

Music, hopefully. Thanks!

 

[trackripper123]

Forgive the double post, but for anyone waiting for A-Level results in the UK, the grade boundaries are out.

AQA: http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/over/stat_pdf/AQA-A-LEVEL-GDE-BDY-JUNE-2013.PDF

OCR: http://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/142071-unit-level-raw-mark-grade-boundaries-june-2013.pdf

Edexcel: http://www.edexcel.com/iwantto/Documents/GCE Composite 1306 v2.pdf

 

[Lizard]

Well I got a confirmation email this morning so I know I am in before I get my results even.

Today is a good day.

 

[Danny]

Well done! 👍