Archive for October, 2007
I was listening to one of my friends the other day complain about how hard his major is (he’s a biomedical sciences major). I then told him how this Accounting class I’m in is pretty difficult as well. He simply dismissed me and said, “A business major is so easy; don’t even get me started.” Aside from the fact that he was being an arrogant jerk for thinking so highly of his major, while looking down on mine, I wondered if he had a point.
Are some majors inherently easier than others? No doubt everyone can agree that taking an Organic Chemistry class is much more difficult than a Freshman English seminar, but what about taking a senior English Thesis class? What about high-level business courses, or even theatre classes where one has to read almost every play Shakespeare ever wrote. Does organic chemistry still trump those classes?
Upon considering it for a while and asking a few of my friends what they thought, I’ve determined that certain majors both are and are not inherently more difficult than others. You may be a bit confused, but keep reading. Consider the parity in how people learn, and what people are good at. English may come very natural to me because I love to read and feel that I’m fairly capable of presenting my thoughts on paper (or on the web) clearly and concisely. So, I may think that taking an English class is easy as pie (or so the saying goes). That being said, I am terrible at science, and therefore have the most extreme difficulty when I have to take a science course and listen to some teacher drawl on and on about covalent bonds. Does that mean Chemistry 101 is harder than English 101? Certainly not, it just is harder for me because it’s not what I’m good at. I’ve met plenty of students (many of them Engineers), who are fantastic at the physics, math, and science of everything, but wouldn’t know how to analyze a great work of literature if it smacked them in the face. Some people who think their major is fantastic may have difficulty in understanding marketing strategies or some other type of business discipline.
That being said, every major has both their tough classes and their “gimme” classes. The tough classes are designed to give the diploma added value, to challenge students, and make sure that only the most dedicated are worthy to graduate from the specific college. These same majors may have really easy classes that always seem to boost students’ GPAs and provide little challenge to a person of average intelligence and academic fortitude. Just as some science majors end up taking classes that destroy them, they may have classes that are simple.
However, to bring it back to the central debate, is, for sake of argument, an Organic Chemistry major more difficult than my Marketing major? Maybe, but it could be because it takes more credit hours to complete, or there’s a few more harder classes, some professors could be harder, or any other number of reasons. The bottom line is that when it comes to college majors, everything is relative. What may seem like a dumb easy major to some may be difficult for others. And hey, an education is an education, right? You should feel you can choose whatever major you want. Just consider career prospects and what truly interests you. So, learn from my friend, and don’t think you’re better than everyone simply based on your major. Wait until you’re making $500,000 a year to think that.
October 31 2007 | Majors | No Comments »
Our Earth is made up of about 71% of this (according to my favorite encyclopedia), and it’s very useful, as well as cheap. Unfortunately, too many people pay money for it, when in fact it can be obtained for free. Yes, you’ve guessed it; I’m talking about water. Drinking it can be a fantastic financial decision.
I know what you may be thinking. “Whoa, of course water is free, but how can it help me save money if I’m a broke college student.” Well, quite simply, if you drink water instead of the traditional Coke, Mountain Dew, Lemonade, Coffee, it can save you loads of money. I’ve been trying to drink more water this year to save money, since I’m now living off campus, and so I have to deal with many other financial burdens than before (namely, gasoline). So far, I feel that I’ve saved quite a bit of green. How? Think about it like this:
How much is the average Soda (or Pop, depending on where you’re from)? I’d say some can cost up to $1.50, but you can find the occasional can for less than $1.00. In any case, the way college students spend money on machines, it probably averages out to about $1.00 per drink. If you’re having beer with every meal than you could bring the price up. If you are actually paying for water, then it’ll be around the same. So, if you spent $1 on a drink, per meal, every day of the week (and you’re eating three meals a day), it would average out to about $21 a week, or $84 per month. That’s a lot of money (for me anyway)! Even if you only ate two meals a day, or drank plain old water for one of the three, you’re still spending quite a bit on flavored, carbonated water (which is all soda is). I can’t even begin to think about how much money I’ve saved so far this year by using drinking fountains instead of buying drinks with lunch. I even sometimes bring a bottle with me full of water from home. It’s nice to have with lunch, and feel the happy $1.50 that’s still in my pocket, safe and sound.
Why more college students aren’t constantly drinking water I’ll never know. But, I realize some hate tap water. Personally, I feel like it’s all the same (in fact I’ve read that tap is in fact better most of the time). However, if you are really stuck on having that “natural” spring water (by the way, some companies still bottle plain old tap water, suckers), then why not spend the money on a Brita Water Jug? All you really have to pay for after the initial investment are the filters. You can very easily pour that filtered water into a bottle and bring it with you to class, or lunch, or wherever you may be heading. I guarantee you that it’s more cost effective than buying huge boxes of bottled water.
So, that’s my brilliant financial tip of the day; drink water! I know it may not be as exciting as some of the other beverages out there, but your wallet will thank you for it. If you are on a meal plan that you’re parents pay for, and beverages aren’t a financial concern to you, than I envy you. However, you still shouldn’t waste money on bottled water.
October 21 2007 | Financial Advice | No Comments »
I was reading an ESPN article, which mentioned the fact that there are significantly more women in colleges, and applying to colleges, than men. I thought this was a pretty interesting fact. I was than led to a New York Times article entitled, To All The Girls I’ve Rejected. It was written by Jennifer Delahunty Britz, dean of admissions at Kenyon College. The fact is, that because colleges want to keep Male to Female ratios as close as possible, more women are getting rejection letters. This also means that it’s easier for a man to get into a highly selective university than for a woman.
There’s no real advice that can be associated with this. It just plain stinks. Women get the real short end of the stick because instead of competing against everyone equally for a spot, they are now competing against other women, and there are more of them. While it works out in the favor of men, it’s quite troubling that such a fewer number of men are going to college. In fact, if this situation continue, some experts think that college student bodies will be 60-40 female by 2010. So, the climate remains that men are getting left in the dust (academically), while women are now competing with each other.
One of the best things you can do is apply to a load of safety schools. If you have your heart set on one university, but don’t gain admission, you can always do well at a different college and apply for a transfer. For men, I wouldn’t be too excited about the prospect of having to work less to be accepted to colleges. I’d be concerned that the gender is lacking and being passed by women. It’s unfortunate that the crapshoot that is admissions seems to become cloudier every day.
People are just too good any more. Everyone has a million extra curricular activities, top grades, great service projects, and fantastic SAT or ACT scores. When everyone is lumped together, distinguishing the outstanding students from the bad students is one of the most challenging things. I used to be insanely bitter because I was rejected from ND while my friend, whom I got better grades than, but not better test scores was accepted. Thinking back, I’m almost positive our applications were very close (we both played varsity sports, I even held a job throughout High School), and they simply had to choose one and leave the other one be. So, some other advice is to try to distinguish yourself somehow. Start a web site, study abroad, live in Africa and help people with AIDS. No longer does captain of the soccer team and student body president with a 4.0 and 35 ACT score cut it, because there are loads of other students who have that. For women, the number is increased dramatically.
Also, if you don’t get into that dream college, don’t fret. Your school could crush them in a bowl game sometime.
October 19 2007 | Admissions | No Comments »
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