Hamline vs. Century

Tuesday, 18 December 2012

I turned in my final paper for class this afternoon. I went to the professor’s office, knocked and, when there was no answer, I slip the paper underneath the door. I’m done with school for the semester. Another four credits in the can – a total of 12 credits for the year. Yay for me. Oh, also: beginning next semester I will officially be a senior. And, at my age, that’s starting to feel about right.

I’ve alluded to this in other posts, but now I’m gonna talk about it more… I am dumbfounded at the lack of effort other students put into their work. Last week, we had to deliver panel presentations on our final paper. At least one student didn’t show up. Either day. So she got a zero. And since you can’t pass that class without doing every assignment, I’m not even sure she’ll get credit for the class, even if she aced everything else.

The presentations were to last 8-10 minutes, and at least three of them were under 5 minutes. One of them was closer to 3 minutes, I’d guess. Each panel was supposed to have a leader who provided an introduction and tied the presentations together in a theme. At least two of the four panelists didn’t seem to know this, as they both kicked off their panels by saying “Well, I didn’t know we were supposed to give an intro…so…I’ll just start, I guess…and then we’ll go from there.” As for the presentations themselves, a few of the students verbalized their scatter-brained approach to the assignment, flipping through their papers willy-nilly and assenting that they only had a rough idea of what their final paper would be about. This, I remind you, was several days after our rough drafts were due. And, even on that day, only about a quarter of the students turned in anything.

It occured to me that this didn’t happen when I was at Century College.

Well, okay, it happened, it just didn’t happen as regularly. In every class, there was always a student here or there who griped that they didn’t have time to finish an assignment or who showed up on test day completely clueless that there was a test scheduled. But, for the most part, the students I worked with took the assignments seriously, and were prepared for class. I graduated from Century with a 4.0 GPA, but in every class I took, there were always other students who received A’s, too. In fact, when I look back at several classes, I know that I was not the highest scorer. In a biology class I took, the teacher told us the high score for every test (“Someone scored 48 out of 50!”) and only once was the high score mine. Another time, a student whined that he didn’t think anyone in the class could possibly get an A, and the teacher divulged that a few students were, in fact, exceeding 100% at the moment. In another class, I ended up with a 91% (just barely an A), while the students who sat to my left and right both said they were doing better.

So, what’s the deal? Was Century easier and, therefore, easier to score A’s, and easier to get the work done on time?

From what I’ve seen…no. If I was to list the college classes I’ve taken from most difficult to easiest, the top five would consist of four classes from Century, and only one from Hamline. Of course, I took ~20 classes at Century, and have only completed 7 at Hamline (this includes the so-easy-I-didn’t-even-know-it-happened internship)…but, still. Maybe English is easier than Chemistry (yep) and maybe Chemistry majors are more diligent and nerdy than their English counterparts (again, yep). And maybe Chemistry is just more interesting than English (oh my god, yep!).

But here’s another thought: Maybe, just maybe, getting a degree from Hamline – even if you recieved all D’s – is more prestigious than a degree from Century – even if you received all A’s.

Century was populated with students who were gunning for that certification, award, or Associate’s degree that they’d need to get a better job. Many of them were adults who were already in the job market, and either didn’t like their job, or wanted to get an even better job. That described me. I worked in retail: shitty hours, incompetent managers, lousy dress code, mediocre pay, and – worst of all – dealing with the public. I yearned for the opportunity to use my brain at work, to be managed by and work alongside non-idiots, to have better pay, better hours, to not have to dress like a stooge every day, and to not have to deal with other people as much. I knew that, one day, I would show up for a job interview, and my Associate’s degree would be pitted against someone’s Bachelor’s, and I wanted to be able to say, “Yes, it’s justa two-year degree, but – goddammit -I paid for it myself and I kicked ass. Notice I graduated with high honors!”

And I had to hope that that would work, because the next candidate would walk in and say, “Yeah, my GPA was 2.3, and I missed four or five classes every semester, and I turned in half-assed work, if I turned it in at all. But notice I graduated from Hamline!”