"Students"....

[sproggy]

[Still Not George]

That said I do hate it when people call post-uni life "The Real World"- I find it horribly patronising, because uni never felt easy to me and my time there certainly wasn't carefree and relaxed, mainly because I was worried about paying the rent and bills, just like anyone who works.

What gets me is that people who say things like "Uni students have no idea of what the real world is like" and make cracks about lazy students have a definite tendency to be people in cushy fucking jobs where they get paid over the odds for not doing very much. Y'know, middle managers and consultants and the like.

[23 Daves]

I don't think being a middle manager is an especially easy job, though.  It involves shit from your employees and shit from the directors. I'm not sure I'd especially want to swap places with some of the middle managers I've had in the past.

[Still Not George]

Yeah, but middle management is one of the few places in employment where you can easily get away with doing absolutely nothing, just so long as you've got a good line in bullshit. (Consultants being the other big one, of course.)

Admittedly it's not quite the same as being an MD with an army of middle managers to do your "managing" job for you. I do occasionally wonder what the fuck MDs and CEOs actually do for a living.

[wheatgod]

Lunch.

[nw83]

At Leeds Met. University, I was amazed at how much it resembled a Club 18-30 resort. It was full of morons - genuine morons - being stereotypically laddish and tedious, while wearing the latest Topman fashions.

I was also surprised that all of the student nightclubs only seemed to play 'the latest bangin' hiphop and RnB tunzes' - my ideas of student life seemed to have been influenced by the 1980s culture, so I expected everyone to be listening to The Smiths and talking about Betty Blue and saying unknowingly stupid things about Kafka (whom they'd never read). In a way, I expected, and wanted, the old fashioned, slightly pretentious, socially awkward kind of students (who, if they still exist, probably goto less shit universities). I left after a few months.

I don't think the majority of students get cushy middle-management jobs, etc, anymore (unless they've got a 1st from a really good university, in which case, they usually deserve a cushy job). Degress have been devalued ever since universities had to be run like businesses, and let almost anyone in. Surely the most accurate cliché is that all students get degrees and then work at Tescos for the rest of their lifes?

[SOTS]

In a way, I expected, and wanted, the old fashioned, slightly pretentious, socially awkward kind of students (who, if they still exist, probably goto less shit universities). I left after a few months.

Hmm, that sounds a bit like myself.

And the clothing description from earlier does too. I'm currently wearing a knitted sweatervest and some tight (ish) jeans. I'm only wearing them because I like them though. I have no-one to impress, in fact i'd probably be laughed at if I wore them out and about normally in this town.

[Sam]

I think most of the stereotypes about students aren't really true. Most students are a hardworking bunch who, far from being spongers, are actually paying a lot of money for their degrees. I know there are some students who let the side down, but they are in the minority.

I love being a student. Having access to a vast library is brilliant and cheap beer in the student union pub is a bonus too. I'm in my third and final year at the moment, and I'm thinking of doing a masters so that I can continue having access to the Library.

[Utter Shit]

There isn't half a lot of bollocks being spoken about students in here. Then again, I'm a student, which means I'm talking shite apparently.

[Sheriff John Indolent]

hobbledehoys

Now there is a word I'd love to hear used more often. Most amusing post all round, sir!

[Ghost of Troubled Joe]

Having just finished being a student, and, contrary to stereotype, having got off my arse and got myself a proper job, I can say that the uni life is something worth going through. 99% of the people I met there were great, wonderful people, with vast delusions of grandeur (as all young people have) but acres, acres of talent. Maybe I had an easy ride of it, but there weren't that many people there I disliked; most of them became really good friends who I still see to this day. And I disagree that students nowadays are all "career, career, career"- everyone I met was, to some degree or another, almost entirely clueless about what they wanted to do when it was all over.

Abiding memories of uni? The drink obviously, the drugs obviously, but also some of the best people I've ever met, great times and conversations, learning to live in a house with people who weren't my family, reading and watching stuff that I'd have never read or watched otherwise, and also having access to the best library in the world.

That said, I think 3 years was long enough for me. Now uni's over and I've got a job and all, it's given me perspective. It's good that I'm not drinking/taking drugs as much as I used to. It's good that I don't have any deadlines to meet. It's good that I don't have to pay rent or pay bills.

Also, it's complete rubbish that work teaches you more than uni. Bollocks does it. I've been working in an office since August and I've learnt nothing more than how to file things away in alphabetical or numerical order, how to write letters according to pre-set Macro files, and how to work the coffee machine. So let's have no more of this reductionist "university of hard knocks" crap please. Okay?

[Al Tha Funkee Homosapien]

I think you'll find that the School of Hard Knocks is a part of the University of Life.

[Carlos Tevez]

I dunno, I'm doing a Masters at Uni of Manchester and they're all a bit diligent for my liking.

[sproggy]

It's good that I don't have any deadlines to meet. It's good that I don't have to pay rent or pay bills.

Fucking hell, what world did you leave university for, sounds great.

I've been working in an office since August and I've learnt nothing more than how to file things away in alphabetical or numerical order, how to write letters according to pre-set Macro files, and how to work the coffee machine.

I agree, you're going learn jack shit in that job.  Best put that lovely degree to some use and get a better one Eh?

[hencole]

Students in general are naive idiots. Not quite adult in their thinking they take a blindingly simplistic view of life, in part due to having little responsibilities.  Not that this is a bad thing, it's just that they really don't realise how stupid they come across until they're a few years older.

What sort of opinions are you referring to?

As 23Daves says, they only hangout with people of the same age, who all have very similar outlooks on life. When you get older you realise that people are different ages, have different aspirations, different self interests and different intelects.
Politics is the obvious one. You can't change the world over night, it's slightly more complex than that. Whilst a lot of people still hold on their views on where they would like the world to go they realise the limits to idealism.
Snobbery is a big problem too with students, which gerenally declines over time when they realise that those who didn't go to university are their equals.
Ironic stupid fashions and pastimes. Sure they can be fun, but only if you've got nothing better to do with your time.
A lot of this applies to middleclass kids whether they go to uni or not, just more so with students.

[Beagle 2]

I don't really get how crap student irony seems to have remained stuck in the same era since I was in my first year in 2000, it still all seems button moon eighties nights and fucking Hasslehoff. Surely 18 year olds now didn't grow up with that?

[Mister Cairo]

Anyway, the point is I happen to think that the first year at university is the worst. Weather that and you're away. Everyone is away from home for the first time, possibly away from their controlling parents (if this applies) and goes a tiny bit "Mental!" But it gets a lot better after that. And trust me, it's a whole lot better than what preceeded it or what is to follow.

I found the second year the worst myself, it was strange not having loads of students around all the time to bump into, I actually had to make a real effort to meet people. In the first year I found people more friendly, maybe because they had less work. And the iditios who thought "I only need to get 40% to pass! Easy! I'll just drink for the first term!". I got 60% and that took a great deal of effort.

What university did you go to, Duck Man? Wasn't involved with these people was it?

http://www.margaretthatcher.org/

[The Duck Man]

I wouldn't put it past them.

I'm at - to give it's full title - The University of Wales, Aberystwyth. One of the Tories, incidentally, was Welsh. Now there's something you don't see very often.

Re: years. I'm starting my second year and rate my semesters thus far: Semester 2, 1st Year > Semester 1, 2nd year > Semester 1, 1st year. Not that I didn't enjoy the first semester of my first year, just that I didn't really do anything.

[Mister Cairo]

You only have two semesters a year? How long is each semester?

My best term was Christmas 2005, everything went downhill that summer though and things are still pretty crap, I'll be glad when I move on. First year wasn't bad apart from my loony friend and the number of cockroaches.

[columbay]

I don't really get how crap student irony seems to have remained stuck in the same era since I was in my first year in 2000, it still all seems button moon eighties nights and fucking Hasslehoff. Surely 18 year olds now didn't grow up with that?

No, they didn't. It doesn't stop a lot of them pretending that they did though.

Ghastly.

[Mister Cairo]

The number of students who buy Che t-shirts purely because he looks cool or were "Drinking is good for you" T-Shirts makes me want to give in and cry.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Surely this thread should be called "Cunts who happen to be students...."

The first year is pretty ridiculous to be honest- I didn't do enough and ended up with an incredibly stressful 2nd year financially, and with Uni work. This 3rd year for me just seems like I'm back level again. I wish I'd done things a lot differently but then I've got some pretty super memories from the 1st year, and I remember them a lot more vividly than I remember the depressing parts.

If I hadn't gone to Uni I wouldn't have met some really clever and funny people, and I'd be stuck in the same town seeing the same people I hated from school. So it's a no-brainer- there are twats but at least they leave you alone to do your own thing if that's what you want. It's nice to have a proper, genuine conversation with someone on your level.

I don't really get how crap student irony seems to have remained stuck in the same era since I was in my first year in 2000, it still all seems button moon eighties nights and fucking Hasslehoff. Surely 18 year olds now didn't grow up with that

I'd be quite depressed if they started 90's nights and suddenely the music I enjoyed and still enjoy is suddenely 'So-crap-it's-ace!'.

[lankinpark]

I don't really get how crap student irony seems to have remained stuck in the same era since I was in my first year in 2000, it still all seems button moon eighties nights and fucking Hasslehoff. Surely 18 year olds now didn't grow up with that?

My first year was in 2001, and I was amazed by the number of people my own age who had grown up watching Bagpuss and The Clangers, neither of which I noticed on TV when I was a kid (1982 - ).

[Captain Crunch]

I don't work with students directly (thank god) but I did recently help out with an Open Day.  My overriding impression of the prospective students was SLUTS!  I'm not joking, the male attendees looked just like all teenage boys - silly hair, either tracksuits ten sizes too big or jeans three sizes too small - but the females, seriously it was like last orders in the local meat market.  I haven't seen that much flesh on show since the fire alarm went off at the private sauna on Compton Street.

What's the deal with that?

[phes]

zip it, grandaddyo

[Captain Crunch]

Shame some of them didn't, bruv.

[phes]

really

I wasn't there, obviously. But I'm pretty sure that any healthy old colossal pervert would have thoroughly enjoyed the day.

[Captain Crunch]

Except of course the ones who enjoy letting their eyes roam quietly over well-clad curves and their imagination wander a little.

[Gazeuse]

I didn't get any at university.

[Still Not George]

Ha, yes, Aber Conservative Future. (Do they still call it that or has someone finally pointed out the joke to them?) It's perhaps the only place in the entire University where there's no divide between the English and Welsh - both sides unite in their overpriveleged, shortsighted closet racism.

The main problem with them is that, as you say, they creep their way into the Uni's structure and get control of things that way, since they never, ever get elected for anything.