My indifference to the current football coach should just be taken as a sign of my overall indifference to the program. My core argument is this: Athletics budgets keep going up, our academic budgets keep plummeting, our standards are too lax, and all of this is wrong.
Realize that while what you learn in high school and college is important, it is just building blocks. Especially in college, you will learn tons of stuff that you will never use again, but the real reason you learned it was as an exercise in how to learn things.
College has less hand-holding, so you won't get an A unless you take matters into your own hands sometimes and get your learn on. This gives you this skill of learning, which is more important than what you may have actually learned in that class.
Above all else, realize that when you graduate, high school and college will not have given you all of the skills you need to kick ass in your given career field. You need to figure out something (or a few things) you want to be really good at, and start learning them on your own, as early as possible.
Use your skills and your grades to get an internship at a great company. Put this as priority #1 for your college summers, even if it means having to relocate for a bit and shaking up the rest of your life. Once you have a internship at an awesome company, nobody is going to give a crap where you got your degree from as long as you graduated with decent grades. Therefore, consider going somewhere that you can get scholarship money, rather than choosing the most prestigious (expensive) institution.
Never get an unpaid internship. If you work, you get paid. Never ever work for free. When you work for free, that's called volunteering. When you do work for a company, they pay you. Almost all unpaid internships are illegal. You are a chump if you fall for that line about working for "the experience." When you are unpaid the company doesn't really care if you do bullshit work like getting coffee. When you are paid, then they need to extract actual value from you, and you will be given real live work to do.
At RIT you are required to get co-ops in order to graduate. A co-op is a real job in your field of study that lasts 10 weeks. It must be a paid job. All my co-ops I did real work. It was like I graduated early and went into the world, and then went back to school. Even if you don't go to RIT, you should get real jobs instead of internships. I wish I knew then what I know now that most internships are illegal. If I ever see unpaid illegal interns these days, I blow that whistle so hard.
Yes, what Scott said. The more in-demand your field is, the less likely you are to encounter the unpaid internship trap. Hopefully you are smart and have chosen an in-demand field. I personally never saw any unpaid engineering internships, but my wife who works in television production (the king of "who you know" industries flooded with too many workers and too few jobs) was constantly offered this sort of garbage.
On the other hand, we've had unpaid interns in the lab - well, they were doing work to get class credit, so it wasn't entirely unpaid - that we hired after the internship was over.
I would say that you shouldn't work for nothing. At least get class credit.
It's probably rare to see an unpaid internship that is actually worthwhile.
If you are in one of those industries where unpaid internships are the norm, here is a good strategy. Get the unpaid internship. Then file an anonymous complaint with the state. Maybe make the complaint about not just your company, but also a competitor. Hopefully they will come and crack down, but the blame won't be on you. Yet, you will reap the benefit.
I never got an internship. Sunk all of my summers into working in healthcare settings because I was pretty sure I wanted to be a doctor. Now, I'm pretty sure I want to be a PhD, or perhaps an MD/PhD. Whatever the case, my academic years won't end with undergrad.
From this, I'd say two things:
1) Realize that no matter what you think you'll end up doing, you'll probably change your mind. 2) Don't stay limited to internships. Seek all possible experiences that will add to your resume: volunteering, study abroad, shadowing, actual jobs, etc. I've learned huge amounts about US healthcare from the work I've done in hospitals and clinics.
Also, network constantly. I have a letter of recommendation secured from the head of Biomedical Sciences here at Newcastle, and possibly one from someone quite high up in MCB back at U of I. Networking is essential and a really good way to make things happen that otherwise wouldn't.
At RIT, while "substance-free" can be totally chill, do NOT live on a "study," "honors," or "quiet" floor (or whatever they call them now). The repressed mommy-missing boring complainey babies live there. It was like a concentration of "high-school high rollers" rapidly approaching the inevitable mental breakdowns that come with not being prepared for the real world.
(I didn't live in one, but I knew people who did and on occasion had to visit them for group project meetings).
At RIT, while "substance-free" can be totally chill, do NOT live on a "study," "honors," or "quiet" floor (or whatever they call them now). The repressed mommy-missing boring complainey babies live there. It was like a concentration of "high-school high rollers" rapidly approaching the inevitable mental breakdowns that come with not being prepared for the real world.
(I didn't live in one, but I knew people who did and on occasion had to visit them for group project meetings).
What was the deal with those? Just no loud noises, or shit like curfews and that kinda shit?
Also, my only real advice: Remember that High School doesn't really matter once you get in to college, and college doesn't really matter once you get your first job. Work hard so you can get a good first job, but don't stress thinking that the entirety of the rest of your life sits on the shoulders of passing one class with a B instead of an A.
Back in college I would go to the library, mostly for awesomeness. I found game theory books, giant X11 manuals, etc. I would see all these people studying in there like crazy. I always wondered what the heck they were doing because I never had to study like that. Then I realized some of those people were in the same classes I was in. Classes I got As in without doing any extra work at all. Those are the people you will find living on those weird study/quiet floors.
At RIT, while "substance-free" can be totally chill, do NOT live on a "study," "honors," or "quiet" floor (or whatever they call them now). The repressed mommy-missing boring complainey babies live there. It was like a concentration of "high-school high rollers" rapidly approaching the inevitable mental breakdowns that come with not being prepared for the real world.
My core argument is this: Athletics budgets keep going up, our academic budgets keep plummeting, our standards are too lax, and all of this is wrong.
Say you live in a college apartment, and you have two options.
Door #1: No xbox. This house is a no fun zone.
Door #2: You decide to purchase an xbox. Actually, you won a contest, so this xbox is free. Not only that, it pays you 25 million dollars a year just to keep it around. Also, all the roommates that wanted to live with you before still can, now reaping the benefits associated with the xbox.
Except the XBox also takes. It turns out that the students and alumni all spend 100+million dollars a year buying XBLA games and avatar clothing. Also, the XBox has a TV deal that gives it even more millions per year. The 25 a year it pays you in rent is chump change compared to what it brings in. Also, it would not be able to bring in anything without being able to be in your apartment. You are a landlord charging that XBox a very low rent.
Except the XBox also takes. It turns out that the students and alumni all spend 100+million dollars a year buying XBLA games and avatar clothing. Also, the XBox has a TV deal that gives it even more millions per year. The 25 a year it pays you in rent is chump change compared to what it brings in. Also, it would not be able to bring in anything without being able to be in your apartment. You are a landlord charging that XBox a very low rent.
Except the XBox also takes. It turns out that the students and alumni all spend 100+million dollars a year buying XBLA games and avatar clothing. Also, the XBox has a TV deal that gives it even more millions per year. The 25 a year it pays you in rent is chump change compared to what it brings in. Also, it would not be able to bring in anything without being able to be in your apartment. You are a landlord charging that XBox a very low rent.
The rent is too damn low!
This.
Playing devil's advocate a bit here, what if the 25 million it brings in is all it makes on top of what it costs to operate -- i.e., it pays its share of the electric, phone, etc., bill on your apartment and gives you all the money it has left over, which is the 25 million.
But it clearly isn't, because it's sold the dishwasher and the sink to buy more XBLA games.
Is that actually the case, or is it the case that it brought in more money on top of the 25 million it did last year and used some of that money to buy itself a big new big screen TV, an investment that it thinks may let it bring in even more money next year?
Again, this is devil's advocate, and it's only valid if the athletic and academic budgets are completely separate from each other outside of the athletic department funneling its profits over to the academic side (which it should do at the very least).
To my knowledge, the UIUC budget draws from one pool. Misallocation of funds to the athletics department to increase our Big Ten standing directly hurts our academic bottom line.
To my knowledge, the UIUC budget draws from one pool. Misallocation of funds to the athletics department to increase our Big Ten standing directly hurts our academic bottom line.
If that is indeed the case, then yes, it is a severe problem. I'm mentioning the whole "separate budget" thing as that's apparently the situation with the University of Florida, who just cut their CS department while increasing their athletic budget.
Now I can certainly see increasing the budget of the athletic department as a form of investment to increase the overall amount of money coming into the school if there is a good reason to believe that more athletic spending = more athletic profit to be funneled back to the academic budget. However, that increased profit had better be higher than the increased athletic spending and it had better not come from cutting academic spending as that entirely defeats the entire purpose of using athletic profits to benefit the entire school as a whole.
But it clearly isn't, because it's sold the dishwasher and the sink to buy more XBLA games.
To be fair, this isn't necessarily the case. They didn't sell the dishwasher and the sink TO buy more XBLA games. They sold the dishwasher and the sink AND bought more XBLA games.
But it clearly isn't, because it's sold the dishwasher and the sink to buy more XBLA games.
To be fair, this isn't necessarily the case. They didn't sell the dishwasher and the sink TO buy more XBLA games. They sold the dishwasher and the sink AND bought more XBLA games.
But it clearly isn't, because it's sold the dishwasher and the sink to buy more XBLA games.
To be fair, this isn't necessarily the case. They didn't sell the dishwasher and the sink TO buy more XBLA games. They sold the dishwasher and the sink AND bought more XBLA games.
That's a fair estimation, yeah.
Yeah... if instead they broke the "spare change cookie jar" instead of selling the dishwasher and sink under the expectation that they'll bring in more than enough to cover what they took from the cookie jar, then it wouldn't be so bad. It's the selling of the dishwasher and sink that's the bad thing.
The UF Atheletic's program makes a $6-8 million profit which is returned to the university directly. The whole argument regarding funding for them is fallacious and a non-sequitor. You may have an argument if they actively drained money from the school, but that's just not the case. This stems from the state government budget issue and poor department management. The 30% budget cut in 2006 did infinitely more damage than any athletics program will ever do to the university. Oh yeah, one more thing; one of the reasons WHY the state budget is having to spread the money so thin is because they just created a 12th State University...
Now stop getting your nerd panties in a bundle and learn to think rationally.
What information I've gleaned is that Florida is just not the state you want to go to for College right now at-all anyway, even without this attention-getting situation.
What information I've gleaned is that Florida is just not the state you want to go to for College right now at-all anyway, even without this attention-getting situation.
As far as I'm concerned, the only thing Florida is good for these days if you're college-aged is a spring break vacation.
The other day NPR ran a story about a school that offered ownership scholarships. Ownership in that rather than charging you upfront for your education they would either lay claim to 5% of your earnings for 20 years or be given a stake in your business. Of those who have already graduated do you think this deal would have been good or bad for you?
My quick thought is that it is a great idea. Because the school only gets paid if you do well it has an incentive to help you after graduation.
Comments
College has less hand-holding, so you won't get an A unless you take matters into your own hands sometimes and get your learn on. This gives you this skill of learning, which is more important than what you may have actually learned in that class.
Above all else, realize that when you graduate, high school and college will not have given you all of the skills you need to kick ass in your given career field. You need to figure out something (or a few things) you want to be really good at, and start learning them on your own, as early as possible.
Use your skills and your grades to get an internship at a great company. Put this as priority #1 for your college summers, even if it means having to relocate for a bit and shaking up the rest of your life. Once you have a internship at an awesome company, nobody is going to give a crap where you got your degree from as long as you graduated with decent grades. Therefore, consider going somewhere that you can get scholarship money, rather than choosing the most prestigious (expensive) institution.
Never get an unpaid internship. If you work, you get paid. Never ever work for free. When you work for free, that's called volunteering. When you do work for a company, they pay you. Almost all unpaid internships are illegal. You are a chump if you fall for that line about working for "the experience." When you are unpaid the company doesn't really care if you do bullshit work like getting coffee. When you are paid, then they need to extract actual value from you, and you will be given real live work to do.
At RIT you are required to get co-ops in order to graduate. A co-op is a real job in your field of study that lasts 10 weeks. It must be a paid job. All my co-ops I did real work. It was like I graduated early and went into the world, and then went back to school. Even if you don't go to RIT, you should get real jobs instead of internships. I wish I knew then what I know now that most internships are illegal. If I ever see unpaid illegal interns these days, I blow that whistle so hard.
I would say that you shouldn't work for nothing. At least get class credit.
It's probably rare to see an unpaid internship that is actually worthwhile.
If you are in one of those industries where unpaid internships are the norm, here is a good strategy. Get the unpaid internship. Then file an anonymous complaint with the state. Maybe make the complaint about not just your company, but also a competitor. Hopefully they will come and crack down, but the blame won't be on you. Yet, you will reap the benefit.
From this, I'd say two things:
1) Realize that no matter what you think you'll end up doing, you'll probably change your mind.
2) Don't stay limited to internships. Seek all possible experiences that will add to your resume: volunteering, study abroad, shadowing, actual jobs, etc. I've learned huge amounts about US healthcare from the work I've done in hospitals and clinics.
Also, network constantly. I have a letter of recommendation secured from the head of Biomedical Sciences here at Newcastle, and possibly one from someone quite high up in MCB back at U of I. Networking is essential and a really good way to make things happen that otherwise wouldn't.
(I didn't live in one, but I knew people who did and on occasion had to visit them for group project meetings).
Also, my only real advice: Remember that High School doesn't really matter once you get in to college, and college doesn't really matter once you get your first job. Work hard so you can get a good first job, but don't stress thinking that the entirety of the rest of your life sits on the shoulders of passing one class with a B instead of an A.
Door #1: No xbox. This house is a no fun zone.
Door #2: You decide to purchase an xbox. Actually, you won a contest, so this xbox is free. Not only that, it pays you 25 million dollars a year just to keep it around. Also, all the roommates that wanted to live with you before still can, now reaping the benefits associated with the xbox.
Sounds insane not to take the second one, huh?
The rent is too damn low!
Again, this is devil's advocate, and it's only valid if the athletic and academic budgets are completely separate from each other outside of the athletic department funneling its profits over to the academic side (which it should do at the very least).
Now I can certainly see increasing the budget of the athletic department as a form of investment to increase the overall amount of money coming into the school if there is a good reason to believe that more athletic spending = more athletic profit to be funneled back to the academic budget. However, that increased profit had better be higher than the increased athletic spending and it had better not come from cutting academic spending as that entirely defeats the entire purpose of using athletic profits to benefit the entire school as a whole.
Now stop getting your nerd panties in a bundle and learn to think rationally.
My quick thought is that it is a great idea. Because the school only gets paid if you do well it has an incentive to help you after graduation.