Stupid things people have actually said to you.

[Mike Gloady]

I hate students who're just doing it because their parents bullied them into it despite all academic evidence to the contrary.  Hated them when I was at uni, hate them more now. 

Twats.

Oh, i've probably said this before but this cracker was overheard by a friend in a Swansea chip shop:

"Do you love me?"

"What do you mean "do you love me? - I fucks you, I buys you chips - OF COURSE I loves you."

Expect them on the Jeremy Kyle show tomorrow

[Jim_Campbell]

I hate students who're just doing it because their parents bullied them into it despite all academic evidence to the contrary.  Hated them when I was at uni, hate them more now. 

Twats.

What? Poor bastards who are doubtless utterly miserable having been forced into an environment to which they are completely unsuited because of {possibly) unreasonable parental expectation and a desire and the part of the child not to disappoint?

Oh, yeah, they're certainly deserving of your contempt, Mike. What total bastards.

Cheers

Jim

[Mike Gloady]

Point.  But they're bloody murder to be around.

[HdE]

We can't really generalise. Some students are hard-working guys and gals with a set of definite ideas about what they're trying to achieve.

It's the hippy-dippy, superior, know-it-all - know-sod-all types that infuriate me.

My little quote from earlier, at the student party, was just one of any number of howlers I heard that night. It was that type of crowd - young folks with heads full of facts and crazy concepts, but no common sense or wisdom to temper them with.

Some of those guys I knew grew out of that - and I do think it's a certain stage in young people's development - but others didn't.

[Daveycandlish]

"Do you love me?"

"What do you mean "do you love me? - I fucks you, I buys you chips - OF COURSE I loves you."

That's pretty much what Bill Sykes says to Nancy in Oliver Twist. Before he pans her head to a bloody pulp. And with less chips involved.

[Mike Gloady]

I wasn't intending to generalise to the degree it came across.  It's partly a maturity thing and, being a mature student at the time, I found the most immature ones were the ones who did it because it was "something to do/puts off deciding on a career" and who did the bare minimum work.  They'd invariably be your neighbours throwing parties every night until all hours and looking at you puzzled when you asked them if there'd be a chance of any quiet.  FOr them university = drinking and not being under your parents' thumbs.  Those folks would wind ANYONE up, happily they were rarer than I'd thought BEFORE I went to university.

[HdE]

Worth reciting a true story off the back of that, Mike.

When I signed on for college, to study art (or so I thought - they wanted me to do more geography and physical education than any actual artwork, it seemed) the guy who interviewed me before granting my place told me TO MY FACE how reluctant he was to take on art students, because 'they're the biggest bunch of bluffers'. He also asked me bluntly 'If we give you this place, are you going to turn up?'

I was appalled.

That's the sad thing. Certain type of student make it harder for others.

As it happens, I attended college on my first day, saw my timetable of studies, stood up, declared that it was a waste of my time, walked out and never looked back.

[House of Usher]

I hate students who're just doing it because their parents bullied them into it despite all academic evidence to the contrary.  Hated them when I was at uni, hate them more now.

What? Poor bastards who are doubtless utterly miserable having been forced into an environment to which they are completely unsuited because of {possibly) unreasonable parental expectation and a desire and the part of the child not to disappoint?

On the other hand, they have left home, they've got money in their pocket, and they've got the opportunity to do more or less anything they want. So they could stay at university and get in the way of people who are actually there to study, or they could go out into the world and start earning a living. There are always choices. I don't recognize the circumstances under which somebody aged 18 has to do what their parents tell them. I kept the peace at home only in order to keep a roof over my head until the day I had a university place to go to which meant I could leave. If I hadn't had to study to get to university I'd have got a job and moved out sooner.

[SuperSurfer]

…how reluctant he was to take on art students, because 'they're the biggest bunch of bluffers'.

As an art student many moons ago I would hear from non-art type friends about all the free time they would have in between lectures and that they would go in to uni/polytechnic on only so many days a week. As for us lot, most evenings we would carry on working on our projects until the caretakers would chuck us out.

[Jim_Campbell]

I don't recognize the circumstances under which somebody aged 18 has to do what their parents tell them.

I didn't ask you to. Wanting to please your parents is not the same thing as "[having] to do what their parents tell them."

It was absolutely expected that I would go to University, and I had no clue what else I would do if I didn't go, so, not wanting to disappoint my parents and lacking any viable alternative, I went. Hated pretty much every fucking minute of it and got a mediocre degree that has done me little or no good in the twenty years since.

I'm not saying there aren't some/a lot of waster scumbags, merely observing that ending up at university because of your parents' expectations of you doesn't automatically make you one.

Cheers

Jim

[TordelBack]

As an art student many moons ago I would hear from non-art type friends about all the free time they would have in between lectures and that they would go in to uni/polytechnic on only so many days a week.

That 'free time' was supposed to be spent in the library or the lab, exactly as you spent yours on projects.  When I still frequented such places, it was a huge problem with students that they believed that the courses with less class-time were 'easy' (by analogy with school, one assumes), when in fact those were the ones that required the most time spent on independent learning, and offered the least spoon-feeding.  Beware the course that only has one lecture a week!  

Unfortunately as the years go by there seem to be less and less consequences for doing no independent work whatsoever - gone are the days with half my classmates would have to drag themselves home from New York or London in the middle of the summer to re-sit failed exams, or face an extra year's 'qualifier' course to be allowed to do a post-grad degree because they only scraped a Pass way back in First Year when they didn't know they were interested.  Now it's online notes and transferrable credits and attendance records.

[uncle fester]

As an art student many moons ago I would hear from non-art type friends about all the free time they would have in between lectures and that they would go in to uni/polytechnic on only so many days a week. As for us lot, most evenings we would carry on working on our projects until the caretakers would chuck us out.

That's ringing some bells here too. I thought the concept of an 'all-nighter' meant work for years afterwards.

[Devons Daddy]

In alaska,whilst i was working on a criuse ship,
passenger asks, so the staff they all stay on board then after work or they go home?

you have to smile and walk away.

[Mike Gloady]

I wasn't an art student and did indeed have the fabled "DAYS OFF" and "LONG BREAKS".

Except they weren't.  I spent MANY long nights in the library or at my computer or reading in the living room (or if it was sunny in the park over the road) - there was a LOT of unsctructured time filled with work but because I enjoyed it (mostly - archaeological theory still gives me nightmares), it didn't always FEEL like work. 

I still ended up (with all that "free time"), adding together all that time AND my classes, pulling 50+ hour weeks for most weeks - often in AND out of term time.  And 16 hours work at a checkout on top so I could pay the rent.  The two or three visits to the pub for a pint with my mates each week was the most visible part of student life, but far from representative (for me at least).

[TordelBack]

Mmmm, similar story here.  I worked an average 20 hours a week in a restaurant, which when added to scheduled classes was already a full 'working week', and then the actual work started - despite the part-time work, I was very dependent on bursaries and scholarships to cover my fees (which were almost exactly my annual earnings), so needed to keep getting the marks.  I remember having to ditch one 'student' activity after another to make time until the only college-type events I was attending were specifically related to my courses (field trips, conferences), and then endure constant slagging from my kitchen workmates over my lazy student lifestyle.  These gibes continued for four years until my git of a thesis supervisor came into the restaurant one night and spotted me in my stripy apron and silly paper hat, and asked me none-too-quietly "Could you not find a more suitable job?", which earned me a temporary pass from angered staff.  Not to say I didn't enjoy the whole college thing hugely throughout, but it certainly wasn't a doddle (it was however nothing on the workload I experienced my first-and-only year as a lecturer, which was literally 18 hours a day 7 days a week, and the hardest job I have ever had).

Of course unless I have formed a completely mistaken impression of Mr. Gloady, both of us were pretty interested in what we were studying, so it probably makes a difference...