Disenchantment
My previous post expressing grief and hopeless pessimism regarding college and life most definitely warrants explanation. This past semester presented extraordinary roommate, financial, and extracurricular problems. I will not go into too much detail here, but these external issues made me realize how much of college is a waste.
I feel that I am wasting my time and money at college. I know that I have learned more, more rapidly, more cost effectively on my own than in classes. Emerson College is consistently ranked in the top three for new media studies in higher education. I know that if I were to transfer, the experience would not be any better and many of my credits would not transfer. Emerson’s high regard in Hollywood and New York City is truly unexplainable, but worth factoring into my equation of whether to stay or transfer.
The primary reason I stayed at Emerson (The EVVY Awards) attacked my integrity, unjustifiably attacked one of my very good friends who is easily one of the most talented people at Emerson, and caused the first and only argument between me and a significant someone. I guess my relationship with The EVVY Awards is now mostly healed, though the passion I once devoted to it is gone and will never return. The ordeal with the Executive Producers of The 24th Annual EVVY Awards just made me realize how petty and pointless the college experience is in the grand scheme of things.
I just want to get over with this portion of my life. I want to stop delaying my entrance into the real world. I want to make a real difference in the world. I don’t want to be killing myself from a consistent lack of sleep just to deal with insane and pointless workloads. I know that I am a dreamer. I know that there is a bit of idealism in my desires. But these let me know that there is something more to life than what I’m being offered right now. They keep me going. They are what prevent me from being truly pessimistic.
Pending approval by my grandparents, I am going to take a full class load over the summer to jump a semester ahead. I will repeat this again in the following summer, but with my internship and one class in Emerson’s Los Angeles program. This plan allows me to graduate a year early.
This entry was posted on Monday, December 27th, 2004 at 0:15 and is tagged life. 
January 1st, 2005 at 8:42
I cannot give much advise in this area, simply because almost everyone knows my opinion.. college is a horrible shell game where they educate you very poorly and then suggest that if you want to continue to succeed you need to “come back” for that Masters or even Doctorate which usually means doing lots of work for them in “research” while you pay them tons of your or your employer’s money.
This, and the increase in “online learning” (not just Pheonix online but even Harvard!) has made the idea of a college education, especially at an ivory league school, even more laughable. Harvard, MIT, Purdue and the rest who have made degrees available online has shown themselves to be institutions who care more about money than about their image or the lamp of knowledge which they (supposedly) had bestowed previously to the masses who were kind enough to show up on their campus.
I do not attach any signifigance to a degree, even in executive and financial positions. The best people I have hired either for myself or the MegaCorps I’ve worked for have been those with passion and have been self taught. This is especially true in the arts: programming, graphic design, ect. In fact one cannot get a job in computer science using the course work taught at a college, it is too far out of date.
I know many Generation Y people like us aren’t finishing college like Gen X did and people are realizing the emperor has no clothing. College was a way to teach the higher classes particular skills that the middle class could not access. They had the books, so to speak. However, with Barnes & Noble and the internet; people not institutions determine their education level and that is brilliant.
There are still areas where degrees are required for advancement.. lawyers, doctors, etc., but these are topics that have had universities since Greece.
January 2nd, 2005 at 13:51
Sorry to hear that you’re not enjoying the “best years of your life.” Purdue has been great to me, pointless/endless homework projects and all. Most people I know who have graduated feel kind of jaded by the whole “real world” notion to begin with. Jobs are filled with pointless/endless projects. Clients are as disagreeable as ever. Ignorant people abound. There is still rent, still a cell bill, still cable, just add insurance, healthcare, etc. So, my advice is to make the best of it now, because it really isn’t a whole lot different from the “real world.” There are always incompetent people, always work, always bills, everywhere. But, if you find a place where those things don’t exist PLEASE LET ME KNOW TOO!
Oh yeah, little introduction. I’m am undergrad Psych student at Purdue studying Human Factors and User Interface Design, hoping to get a Masters in Industrial Engineering in a year or two. I’m a senior this year, and been a long road. Reading your blog silently has been entertaining and insightful since we seem pretty different. Keep it up!
January 2nd, 2005 at 14:14
Bruce: Truth!
Drew: First, welcome!
I hate the concept of “real world” too but I cannot deny the bubble that is college. During my gap year in San Diego, I worked 40 (sometimes more) hours a week. I used my time off to learn some piano, Java programming, and read great amounts of 3D & compositing magazines. School has got in the way of my education and I am really frustrated. I hope the frustration will fade… I know it will. Life just kinda sucks in the mean time.