I'm quitting uni!

That's it! I've had enough! I'm going to quit uni, it's got beyond a joke. I mean, why the hell should a 2000 word essay contain 500 words cited from other people, it's just stupid. I always thought academia was going to be about demonstrating how intelligent I was, not how well I could search through other peoples work to demonstrate my thoughts. It doesn't demonstrate anything. And the ironic thing is, it was reading Noam Chomsky's work on the troubles with academia which made me realise how futile it all is. And his work was part of my course! Back to the real world, with money I don't owe to others, and people who don't talk through their assholes all day, and then quote it to other assholes.

P.S. I know this is controversial, YAY!

curious... how far in did you go?

I just found out a few minutes ago that that refers to 'university'.

Not that it really matters, or anything, but the reason you are expected to demonstrate an understanding of other people's work is because the teachers don't want you to waste time re-discovering things that people have already figured out. Instead, you spend quite a lot of time understanding what has been done, so you are in a better position to contribute genuinely new ideas. Just about all "original" research in any field builds on what has been done before; for that to work, you have to know what has been done before. Hence all the tedious studying and quoting of other people's work.

I know it's a drag, believe me. But it's not completely pointless (even though it feels like it).

Maybe once you've worked for a while, you'll discover that there's some area of knowledge that you really need, then you'll go back to school to get it. That's kind of the way it should work, ideally.

Anyway, best of luck in future endeavours.

Disclaimer: I am kind of a university "lifer"... I've been in school for nearly 30 years. So I'm not exactly "objective".

6 weeks from the end of my 1st year

You were wrong. Oh so wrong. But seriously, it's about showing potential employers how great you are at jumping through hoops. It took me three years to come to that realization and only three more to actually get my degree, Just be thankful you aren't trying to get your real estate license in Canada - Possibly the most trivial exercise in textbook scouring I've ever experienced.

Yeah, I did get that, I understood why I have to do all the quotation/referencing, but I'm a very pro-active/impatient person. I have no doubt (or does my course tutor) that I have the ability to do well, as i've averaged around 70% on the work i've already done this year, but I just need to feel as if i'm getting somewhere, so I think i'm going to travel and maybe do some charity work for a while – I just feel as if my life would be better spent helping the world rather than just talking about it.

Well said. If only more people felt this way.

Well it's funny you should say that, because long-term i'm thinking of relocating to Canada, 'cos i've got relatives near Edmonton, and i've got enough points for residency, so i was thinking I should get some kind of skills training because immigration love people with practical skills, as opposed to people who can chat shit for a living (I am reading politics for christ'sake!!!).

Those people are called 'Management' and you'll find them everywhere.

DAMMIT! And I might have got away with it if it wasn't for those pesky . . . managers!!!

[Edited on Apr 07, 2005 by franklychris]

Academia is a game. I guess if you don't like the rules you shouldn't play. Just make sure it's what you really want to do. If so, good luck with whatever path you choose.

HA! HA HA HA! HA!

Sorry, no disrespect, 'cos there's gotta be a military, and a very good friend of mine is in the Navy, but i'm not too good with authority, and i'd spend most of my time in court martials, so I don't want to waste the taxpayers money more than I already do as a student!

First year is almost always bullshit, unless you test out of most requirements (yay).


Giving up is a bad idea, though. I'm now nearly 27, and still a year from my B.A. If I'd just gone through with it all at once, I'd be working on my doctorate right now.

Charity organizations value college degrees as much as anywhere else. Especially if you want to write grant proposals, help run a non-profit, etc. Most charity work for the uneducated is in the volunteer field. As in "unpaid."

dont quit school just cause Noam Chomsky told you too. thats fucking retarded.

From MIT's web site:
Noam Chomsky was born on December 7, 1928 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His undergraduate and graduate years were spent at the University of Pennsylvania where he received his PhD in linguistics in 1955. During the years 1951 to 1955, Chomsky was a Junior Fellow of the Harvard University Society of Fellows.

Give it 8 or 9 more years, get a PhD, and then tell us how futile academia is. Until then, you're just being a contrarian little twat with your "I know this is controversial, YAY!" Until then, you'll be serving me burgers, YAY!.

Seriously, get your ass back in school.

[Edited on Apr 07, 2005 by WildeInNO]

Okay, I've just gotta say that i have thought this through long and hard, and it just doesn't suit my style of doing things. I know that everywhere, including charities, think that having a degree is great, but i've worked for four years in the 'real' world before starting my degree, and I honestly just hate the whole style of academia. I understand it alll, I understand exactly what I need to do, but I think that it's all worthless in the whole run of things. I'd rather be working for free with a charity than pleasing some academic whilst drinking up the tax-payers money. In this horrible capitalist society paper qualifications might mean a lot, but wait until the oil runs out, and then the world will look very different. It will be about survival, and I intend to survive, and that's what matters to me. I don't care what others thinks of my opinion, but it's my opinion.

I'm a futurist!!!

There are people who need college, so I'm all for them going. Otherwise it stifles creativity and abstract thinking.

True

and yes, here I am

give it a second chance its an accustomed taste

I get pissed off with this because I more or less have already reinvented the wheel for the last three to five thousand years of western philosophy working from saturday morning cartoon's and pop culture. And while it's nice to know that Plato and Descarte and everyone the fuck else wreslted with the same problems that I wrestle with, it doesn't really help me, personally, to know that. It doesn't get me anywhere.

Actually... Philosophy in general doesn't seem to go anywhere. Maybe I should stop complaining.

I think that you're somewhere near where I am – I kinda knew that this thread would divide into those who finished uni and those who didn't, but I thought it might be an interesting social experiment anyway. And that's just to prove to the academics that non-academics are still interested in social experiments!!!

And at this point, i'd like to quote from last weeks new statesman magazine:

"One of the few recent high-quality pieces of research in the field, by David Blanchflower and Andrew Oswald, uses the US General Social Survey, with a sample size of 16, 000, to assess, for the first time, the relationship between sex and happiness. Their conclusion is that, "sexual activity enters strongly positively in an equation in which reported happiness is the dependent varialble". Say again? "The more sex, the happier the person." So this finding falls squarely into the "academics find facts blindingly obvious to everyone else" category.

Need I say more?????????