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University, expectations? Dissapointment?

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YorkshireBear

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Does anyone on here go to/been to university and regret it. Or nt neccesarily regret it, but it just didn't live up to your standards ( i am referring to course not social aspects!)

The first two years of my course have left me completely dissolutional about why i chose the course, and where it is going to take me!?

My only hope is next year will bring more enjoyment.

Anyone else feel like this?
 
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Yew

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My course wasnt what I hoped

- No enginerring workshops, and any practicals seem to be simply us watching people do experiments, and recording the results.
- Too much maths, sometimes it feels like we are doing a maths degree. It would be better if it was taught by an engineer instead of a mathematician
- Teaching standards are quite poor, with some lecturers being inexperienced at lecturing for the first time
- A peculiar 'block' system, instead of a timetable, I'll do a week of thermo, then maths, then statics. the problem is by the time the next thermo block has came round, everything has been forgotten
- Poor planning, lots of coursework these last few weeks, that was supposed to be set earlier in the year.
- a Module with 70% of the marks using matlab, despite only one afternoon of matlab training
 

YorkshireBear

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My course wasnt what I hoped

- No enginerring workshops, and any practicals seem to be simply us watching people do experiments, and recording the results.
- Too much maths, sometimes it feels like we are doing a maths degree. It would be better if it was taught by an engineer instead of a mathematician
- Teaching standards are quite poor, with some lecturers being inexperienced at lecturing for the first time
- A peculiar 'block' system, instead of a timetable, I'll do a week of thermo, then maths, then statics. the problem is by the time the next thermo block has came round, everything has been forgotten
- Poor planning, lots of coursework these last few weeks, that was supposed to be set earlier in the year.
- a Module with 70% of the marks using matlab, despite only one afternoon of matlab training

Ditto to most of them... :) Except labs, our labs are good to be honest.
 

yorksrob

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Personally, I didn't find it as - er - socially progressive as I was hoping (but then again, it was fifteen years ago). Other than that, I do rather miss it.
 

Nym

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My course wasnt what I hoped

- No enginerring workshops, and any practicals seem to be simply us watching people do experiments, and recording the results.
What? You don't actually do anything on an Engineering course?
- Too much maths, sometimes it feels like we are doing a maths degree. It would be better if it was taught by an engineer instead of a mathematician
Maths is to be expected, especially if you're doing anything with signals, transmission or control systems, I'm sure I do more mathematics than mathematicians sometimes. Partly thanks to the fact we don't do too much classical control theory and do a lot of State Space realisations.
- Teaching standards are quite poor, with some lecturers being inexperienced at lecturing for the first time
- A peculiar 'block' system, instead of a timetable, I'll do a week of thermo, then maths, then statics. the problem is by the time the next thermo block has came round, everything has been forgotten
- Poor planning, lots of coursework these last few weeks, that was supposed to be set earlier in the year.
- a Module with 70% of the marks using matlab, despite only one afternoon of matlab training

Teaching can be poor anywhere, but tbh, you can always complain about it to higher powers at the university, and if you're in your first year vote with your feet and leave.
Block systems can work if the're handled properly, but it doesn't sound like this is the case.
70% on Matlab? Is this course IET/IMechE accredited? If so, how?
 

Yew

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What? You don't actually do anything on an Engineering course?
We had a small manufacturing project last year, but nothing to the extent my friends at nottingham had, and nothing involving manufacturing this year

Teaching can be poor anywhere, but tbh, you can always complain about it to higher powers at the university, and if you're in your first year vote with your feet and leave.
Block systems can work if the're handled properly, but it doesn't sound like this is the case.
70% on Matlab? Is this course IET/IMechE accredited? If so, how?
One of our maths modules is entirely coursework based, Most of those assignments have been involving matlab
 

WelshBluebird

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Currently in my last few weeks of my Computer Science degree at Bath.

In terms of the course, its pretty much as I expected. Its been allright, but not great.
The teaching has been shocking at times, and it is pretty obvious to us undergrads that we are way down at the bottom of the priority list.
And some of the support for assignments has been just as bad, with tutors and lecturers not even knowing how to use the systems / software we are supposed to be using .

Socially, its been mixed. I've always been quite shy and certainly not a party animal, so in one aspect it has been pretty much as I expected. But I have made a lot of friends (only a couple of good ones though - most probably won't last after everyone finishes the degree and moves away), and I certainly have developed into a much more confident person.

I can't wait to finish though. I wouldn't say I have lost interest, but I think I am at the point where I want to actually do something with the skills I have learned and developed. It may also have something to do with the fact I already have a graduate job sorted in software development.
 

NY Yankee

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In America, I originally wanted to be a civil engineering major since I like trains, bridges, and tunnels. However, it seemed like all of the math, science, and engineering professors came from Eastern Europe and the Mideast. They could neither teach nor speak clear English. I eventually left engineering. Now I'm in law school, which I do not enjoy.
 

table38

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In my day, we had no modules, project work or continuous assessment. Basically we had to cram three years revision into 5 exams, held one a morning for a week.

Needless to say, by the Wednesday I had started to freak out, too tired to revise but too wound up to sleep. I failed Thursday's exam, and scraped through Friday's.

The much awaited Friday night post-exams drinkies was a complete let down as we were all too tired and probably in a state of mild shock! My most vivid recollection of that night was sitting in the Mark Addy in Salford watching a dead cat float past.

Would I do it again? No way. Am I glad I did it? Yes, absolutely; a degree opened a lot of doors, even with a "Desmond".
 

MattRobinson

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I agree on the point of too much maths and that it would be nice to be taught by an engineer. In actual fact, I regret taking electrical/electronic engineering- I was led towards that by careers people at school, but I wish I'd taken mechanical engineering instead. I also wish I'd taken a gap year.
 

Heinz57

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I have enjoyed my time at university, don't get me wrong.

Although I am very dissapointed with my course.

When we were told about out course, it was basicaly made out to be loads of fun practical and getting to do loads of gigs. We were also said there doors of opertunity would open up and because its one of the best courses of its type in the country (sic) there would be plenty of job opertunities.

I'm now coming to the end of my third year. The realy fun practical and getting to do these events didn't come until the final year, stagecraft related practical in the first two years was basicaly a two hour session on alternate weeks. We are all struggleing to find work, those fun jobs we were promised at the start are non-existant.

Having said that, would I recomend this course to others? Yes I deffinatly would (seriously) because aside from those factors above, it is still a good course
 

Mojo

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For me, it has achieved something good in that I have been able to get the job that I've always wanted; something I wouldn't be able to do without a degree (although probably would have been able to 20 years ago).

However I'd say that less than 15% of the modules I have studied will be of any use to me when I actually start work. I can barely think of any knowledge I've gained since being at University that I'll be able to apply in the job I'll be taking up later in the year.

What it has done however is developed my skills, in particular be able to prepare concise reports which draw on various sources of data and critically evaluate them, before reaching a conclusion. Producing a business case, for example, is no good unless you can show you have thought of everything, and appraised all possibilities.
 

Ivo

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It's not been great for me to be honest. Having ended up at a pretty poor institution (with unusually high access requirements for a New University) certainly hasn't helped. Most of what we have done has been too easy or too sparse, reducing the motivation when it comes to coursework (and causing results to flounder in the process). Even worse, it wouldn't be unreasonable for me to say that I have done more for the University this year than they have for me!

(Note: You may remember me stating that our bus times changed at the start of April, and that I influenced some of the new times. Some of the new runs are working; some are not. No prizes for guessing which ones have failed <D Yes, you are correct. The ones I did not influence.)

They have been very good with supporting disability though, to the point that come September myself and a few others have even volunteered to help at Freshers' Week (:?) in case new students should need said help. (It wasn't my idea - honest! I don't mind doing days, but the guy who came up with the idea suggested evenings :x)
 

Drsatan

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I've enjoyed my time at Uni, although I nonetheless have a few reservations.

I'm a final year History student at Exeter University and while the course itself is pretty good, this year I've had very few contact hours. Last term I only had three contact hours a week at most, which leaves you wondering whether you're getting value for money <D . I'm also worried about being able to find employment when I'm graduating, since a History degree doesn't lead you into a specific profession.

I've just collected my 10,000 word dissertation on the collapse of British Leyland from a printing shop in Exeter where it's been bound. I was fairly fortunate to have a pretty good supervisor who gave me some guidance on how to write it. However, I've heard from a few final year students that their supervisors have been absent on research leave for the year, which isn't ideal if you're emailing your supervisor constantly. Writing the dissertation was a struggle at times, but I'm glad it's over.

By the way, this building is being opened on campus today by the Queen. Hats off to the University for opening it the day before dissertation hand in day! <(

Finally, one aspect of Uni I'd definitely recommend is the social life. I've made quite a few friends at Uni (not always easy since I never used to be particularly outgoing), whom I'll hopefully keep in touch with when I graduate. I also joined the University's orchestra which persuaded me to carry on playing the violin.
 

CC 72100

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Re Drsatan, I was at the opening today, very good carnival atmosphere created, although we all commented how unlucky it most have been to be a final year student with a dissertation/ exam in the next couple of days. Was a very enjoyable day though, and I've had a good time here so far :)
 

Drsatan

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Re Drsatan, I was at the opening today, very good carnival atmosphere created, although we all commented how unlucky it most have been to be a final year student with a dissertation/ exam in the next couple of days. Was a very enjoyable day though, and I've had a good time here so far :)

Unfortunately I missed it! I was up until silly o'clock finishing it, then took it to a printing shop on Sidwell Street to get it bound since I knew there'd be long queues to enter the print shop on campus (which is moving to the Forum overnight, chances are something will go wrong). By the time I'd done that the Queen had gone.
 

YorkshireBear

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Thanks for the replies, so im not the only one :) but at least some enjoy allows me to keep faith.
Right now im just finishing off (well im half way through) a 30 pagereport on construction site procedure for a design done earlier in the year. Uncludes Health and safety and various other crap, as you can imagine, im sooo happy right now :)
 

Chapeltom

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I'm in first year at Liverpool Hope University doing History and Politics. So far its been pretty much how I expected, some weeks have been fun others have dragged. My attendance has gone from missing one session in the first 12 weeks to regularly missing 2 a week. Interest has faltered but my marks haven't. I've not missed a 9am history lecture though. Usually I skip a skills class in Politics that lasts an hour but is a 6 hour round-trip to get in for. Waste of time most weeks.

Work hasn't been too difficult and I've put effort in on my coursework. Looking forward to 2nd year. Contact time goes from 12 to 8 hours, hopefully that doesn't mean 4 sessions over 4 days and I'm in on 2/3 instead!!
 

emorris

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I'm a final year engineering student, and I think overall my course has been good, however I would say I benefited most from the industrial placement - if anyone has the opportunity to do one, I would highly recommend it.

I have just about had enough of education though! People ask whether I'd want to do a masters, but at the moment I think I'd rather get a job, and maybe continue education at a later date.
 

Nym

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Done, finished finito...

Finished my final project report that is submitted in the form of a dissertation...

160 pages, 28,500 words :)

Printed, just need to go get it bound tomorrow, three copies, saved myself a significant amount of money on printing...

Would have been £106+VAT for printing and a £4.56 surcharge for my nice paper, cost me £11.90 for the paper and £70 for the printer, but I'm left with a perfectly good printer and half a ream of very nice paper :)

(Xerox Colourtech+ iGen3, DocuColour 120gsm)

Binding it is gonna come out at less than a tenner, same price if I print it or they print it :)
 

Drsatan

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Done, finished finito...

Finished my final project report that is submitted in the form of a dissertation...

160 pages, 28,500 words :)


Congratulations! :D That makes my 10,000 word dissertation pale into comparison! What was yours on?
 

Nym

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Congratulations! :D That makes my 10,000 word dissertation pale into comparison! What was yours on?

Mobile Phone Application for an Audience Response System.

Just have a personal reflective report to write now, and a PI controller to design.

Then it's just 3 exams and a group feedback thing.
 

Nym

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It's a 50 page body page limit, but that doesn't include pre and post face, with appendixes that takes it up to 160 pages.

Then there's the supplementary CD that makes it about another 300 odd with all my source code and data.

Add on many diagrams...

Two things to be happy about, someone doing a purely theoretical piece for their MEng only has 11 references, someone else on the BEng section only has four on the equivalent report. I have 43; including three interviews.

There was also four other people working on similar projects for the same software suite, and I'm the only one who got it working. Ego Boost :D

Will scare the hell out of them when they see the printed report, it's about as thick as some PhD Thesis I have seen on the External Examiner's shelf... (Supervisor doesn't supervise anything above BEng and MEng projects, no MSc or PhD, although he is able to supervise MSc, he doesn't)

Partly because it's 80 pages thick (160 sides) and partly because it's on 120gsm paper :D

Anyways, what's this 10,000 words for, BEng, BA, BSc, MEng, MA, MSc, BSci, BMath, MSci, MMath?

EDIT:

Make you feel slightly better...

Body Text: 15,005 words, 79,077/93,570 Chars in 776 paragraphs.
Full Report: 28,560 words 160,624/187,962 Chars in 3,040 paragraphs (Excluding Appendix 1)

Appendix 1 is my progress report at:
5,372 words, 31,590/37,053 Chars in 539 Paragraphs...

So the whole thing in total is actually...

33,932 Words...

PS: This is longer than most EngD Theses...
 
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ainsworth74

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Anyways, what's this 10,000 words for, BEng, BA, BSc, MEng, MA, MSc, BSci, BMath, MSci, MMath?

BA History, I'm thinking about doing an MA next in which case my next dissertation would be 15,000.

Make you feel slightly better...

33,932 Words...

That's supposed to make us feel better :lol:

My total count excluding the title page, contents, acknowledgments and bibliography is: 10,620.
 

Nym

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Well, like I said, the body text excluding progress report is 15,000 words... That make you feel better??

If you wanna feel worse again, I wrote a report that is worth 10% of a 10 credit unit that was 14,011 words... :s (Feasibility study for a robotics system)
 

IanXC

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That make you feel better??

What makes me feel better is that the efficiency of an Economics Department meant the longest piece I wrote in my entire course was 5,000 words :D
 

Nym

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I've been to business school Ian, the peices I've done for them have been foating between 2,000 and 10,000 words...

One COULD claim that it's because economics don't do much, so there's not much to write about? heh

Or was it just a lot of short ones? (This 33,000 thing is worth 21 credits)
 

IanXC

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I've been to business school Ian, the peices I've done for them have been foating between 2,000 and 10,000 words...

One COULD claim that it's because economics don't do much, so there's not much to write about? heh

Or was it just a lot of short ones? (This 33,000 thing is worth 21 credits)

Oh our Business School were terrible. A mate of mine was always writing massive great long essays on how to market a toothbrush or something.

We Economists are interested in efficient allocation of resources. Its hardly efficient for our departmental staff to spend hours and hours wading through our undergraduate drivel, much better for us to distil our work right down... Side effect was learning how to be succinct, which has proved rather useful over the years.

That essay was 70% of a 20 credit module (at 120 credits per year).
 
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