The Back to School Thread

Troll_sl said:

Anyone here have any experience in the field?

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Imo, try to find a forum with recent grads in this field (or any field you're considering), then see how the job market is going for them. The last thing you want is to waste a few years, build up a ton of debt, and end up with job prospects that aren't much better than your current situation. More formal education isn't always the answer.

Troll_sl said:

Any situation is better than working graveyard as an unarmed security officer.

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How about working graveyard as an unarmed security officer with lots of student loan debt (or with less savings if you pay for school out of pocket).

Or how about not being able to even get a security job because you're overqualified?

Not trying to be discouraging, just saying that you should make sure there's a real market for whatever education that you're going for. People who go to school only to find out that their newly available opportunities aren't nearly worth the cost of the education is almost a cliche now.

Troll_sl said:

This is the territory where the administration needs to step in and realize there's less something wrong with the students and more something wrong with the teacher.

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As a small aside...

I teach at a university and I've seen a fair share of shitty teachers. The ONLY way these teachers are ever disciplined/corrected/outright removed is if students go to the department office and complain. Anecodtally, last semester I was brought in to replace a teacher halfway through the semester. She had been teaching there for a while and apparently had a pretty bad reputation amongst students (which is what several students told me after I took over the class). However, she wasn't removed (fired, actually) until one student decided to go to the department office and complain. Her complaint prompted the department head to visit the class unannounced and observe some lessons, which allowed her to see first-hand how shitty the teacher was.

So, if you ever feel like your teacher is truly awful go to the department and file a formal complaint. If you just sit in the class and take it then nothing will change. Universities really don't give a shit if students fail because failing = retaking classes = more money. But they DO care if students start complaining because complaints = dropped classes = less money.

You just have to realize that teaching at many (and all the renowned) places is seen as a necessary evil. No professor ever got tenure because of their teaching skills -- there are incentives only for doing research. So, basically, don't do your undergrad at a research university unless you're looking to get into research early. Small liberal arts colleges (SLACs) is where it's at. They'll make you write a lot more (important) and the faculty is hired primarily to teach.

That said, failure rates in Calculus are going to be high no matter what a professor does. You learn this shit only by doing many, many examples. More than the assigned homework. But in an environment where many students don't even complete their homework, you're just not going to have a whole lot of students who will go beyond that. Some pick it up quickly and they'll pass, but many others won't and have apparently no interest in trying to do what's necessary to understand it. Instead, they'll just tell you how they "can't do math" and somehow still deserve an A 'cause they tried soooooo hard.

You'd be shocked how many students think their grades should be a function of how much time they (claim to have) put in, even if that time somehow wasn't applied to doing the homework. Which is still not as frustrating as students figuring out the morning of the final exam that they didn't get a concept from the beginning of class that was at the heart of the rest of the semester.

So for those getting ready to return to school: if you don't get something after a lecture, go to the next office hours. Don't be afraid of your professors... they'll like you more for showing up not just the day before the exam.

It's not impossible because it doesn't require a whole lot of critical thinking. If you memorize the rules, it's pretty easy.

Yeah. People get conditioned to think math is hard, it really isn't. You just have to practice it.

I think a lot of it was pop culture saying how hard calculus is. I'm assuming for a lot of people, it probably is very difficult. Personally, I had the same reaction in that I thought it was much easier than I was led to believe.

Some people just can't handle math. My brother (business major) can't handle the stuff that I can breeze through so easily, on the same token I wouldn't want to have to do all the things he does (profit margins, scheduling, lots of spread sheets) so it's all relative.

That said, if you have math problems (or anything) post them here. I enjoy math and I like to help with it when I can. There are a couple topics that don't make much sense.. like when you have to do series convergence/divergence/etc. Just don't make no fuckin sense.

Elurin_sl said:

I think a lot of it was pop culture saying how hard calculus is. I'm assuming for a lot of people, it probably is very difficult. Personally, I had the same reaction in that I thought it was much easier than I was led to believe.

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Calc I is the most failed college course -- from what I recall, more than 50% of students fail it. It's not that surprising as it is usually the first college-level math class and most students don't have the proper preparation in high school. So they don't understand basic algebra and thus can't do the manipulations needed for calculus. You also HAVE to practice in order to get it. But many high schools have to give students a passing grade as long as you show up to class reasonably often and turn inanything, even if everything is wrong or completely incomprehensible. So there's a huge culture shock for many.

Math/physics departments also tend to be fine with weed-out classes, so they don't have a problem failing 50% of students. If you talk to people in the English department, they'd usually also like to fail (at least) 50% of students because they can't write worth shit. However, they tend to be under more pressure to pass along students. So they just can't fail all the people who really would have to retake the course.

Attending college (and post grad) is like buying a really expensive key. You should make sure it unlocks something you care about before you pay for it. College is great, but don't go pay thousands of dollars without a plan. Plan your work. Work your plan.

Then, by all means, twerk your plan.

Calculus is extremely powerful, it is a foundation for almost everything in life.

I'm a computer engineer, and we take a blend of software engineering and electrical engineering classes - and I will never fully understand how a capacitor does what it does, might as well be magic in a tiny box for me.

I'm planning to get a bachelors in Math and maybe a Master's in statistics on a part time basis because it covers so much interesting territory. I tend to spend a good chunk of time at work looking at and working with statistical models (quantile regression, GAMLSS, monte carlo markov models, etc.) that I sort of understand, but a stronger math background would definitely help in that area. The fun part is that I'll get these degrees and then never use them in my work because by the time I graduate I should be in a more senior management position.

Ideally, I would just learn the math on my own, but I need some sort of forcing mechanism to make me do the studying. Plus I wouldn't mind getting another degree. I might as well collect them.