Styleforum › Forums › Lifestyle › Social Life, Food & Drink, Travel › Buyers Remorse - School
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Buyers Remorse - School

post #1 of 22
11/17/07 at 9:22pm
Thread Starter 
The university/college debt load question made me think of this, combined with being a bit annoyed at school right now. Do you have "buyers remorse" related to the school(s) you've attended? If yes why?

I'll start, I am having a bit of buyers remorse with respect to where I am getting my MBA. It is a highly ranked school internationally but I feel the education and quality of profs in many instances is sub par. Here are a few examples:

1) Prof actively and repeatedly insulting a related profession. I just happen to be one of the people he insults. At the same time he misquotes law and calls things by the wrong name. The TA is even worse.

2) Another class, prof says something, asks for comments, I respond with an opinion, based on fact. He says I am clearly mistaken, I double check, I was right, bring this up to him privately and he still denies I was right (it was about a date of a specific federal governent policy). He then makes snide comments about it in front of the class.

3) Another prof, says the only thing that matters is the right answer. So I work and work on the questions from the text book that are assigned, he supplies the answers. Turns out that in about 30% of the time his answers are wrong. These questions can take 30 minutes each to do, so if you redo them you can have an hour into a question then get to class and find out he made an error.

If these are three I know of, what am I missing because I don't have a frame of reference? What would you do to respond to these types of things?
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 22
11/17/07 at 10:09pm
Well, this isn't really buyer's remorse, but my spanish prof is horrilble. I'd gotten all 90s in his class so far until my last in-class composition. I stopped going because the class is 3hrs once a week, boring as hell, and I learn absolutely nothing in it that i can't learn by reading the textbook and talking to my gf. The way it's taught in class is completely ineffectual. In 3 hours of class I might do 2 minutes of speaking with the way he does things.

Anyway, he takes attendance, and i'm sure he shafted me on the composition because i haven't been going to his stupid class and he's that type of guy. I've gotten over 90 on every single grammar test (1 a week) and the midterm. How i'm deserving a 60 all of a sudden is beyond me because i even went beyond the level of vocabulary and grammar that we were expected to know.

Some profs are just pricks for the sake of being pricks.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 22
11/17/07 at 10:57pm
I'm 80% sure I'll be transferring out of my current university. Buyer's remorse for a few reasons: 1.) The academics. I go to a barely-average SUNY university, and aside from a few professors it is not stimulating. 2.) Location. I'm stuck in the asshole of New York state, in a shitty town that is packed full of weird hicks. 3.) Happiness. Honestly, I'm not happy here, it sucks. I'm not going to "stick it out" and stay in a place that has me constantly stressed for another 3 years.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 22
11/17/07 at 11:35pm
I feel like I overpaid for my undergrad (Emory in Atlanta) and my biggest worry is going into debt for my JD/MBA program and feeling the same buyer's remorse at the end of it (especially if I can't get a job).

I've always been one of those mediocre students who never puts 100% of himself into his schoolwork and scrapes through with an A- or maybe a B+. After finishing my undergrad, I feel like it would be better for me to have worked harder in school and moved up to mostly all A's at a school that didn't cost almost $200,000.00 to finish than my current position in which I paid out the ass for a school with pretty decent reputation (which isn't even that great as it is) and only performed to a mediocre standard.

Just my .02. I'll conclude all this by just saying that I feel extremely privileged to receive my education and I don't mean to really downplay its importance...I might have just done things differently in retrospect.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 22
11/18/07 at 1:19am
I'm feeling a little frustrated with my current situation as well. I'm a philosophy major at a small liberal arts school in Texas. On the whole I've been happy here, but the philosophy department has certain biases that prevent it from teaching anything that I'm really interested in. I compensate by doing my own reading outside of class, but now it's come time to apply to grad schools. I'm applying to a bunch of very well-respected schools where I would definitely be intellectually stimulated and able to pursue the questions I find interesting and worthwhile. The only problem is that I worry that my current school's lack of reputation will significantly harm my chances of acceptance.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 22
11/18/07 at 8:26am
I had a fantastic education at some very rewarding institutions. However, as I look back -- and as I see the cost of education climb faster and faster -- I wonder whether these are anachronistic finishing schools for a world which, despite my better hopes, is at best a technocracy.
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 22
11/18/07 at 1:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by GQgeek View Post
Anyway, he takes attendance, and i'm sure he shafted me on the composition because i haven't been going to his stupid class and he's that type of guy.
Does the professor have an explicit attendance - or class participation - policy in his syllabus, or does the school have one in the student handbook? If so, you're probably hosed. If not, then you have may a case to plead to your dean.
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 22
11/18/07 at 2:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alistair View Post
Does the professor have an explicit attendance - or class participation - policy in his syllabus, or does the school have one in the student handbook? If so, you're probably hosed. If not, then you have may a case to plead to your dean.

No he does not. That's why I was irritated. The composition isn't that big of a deal in terms of my final grade so i'm not going to make an issue of it. If I get a poor mark on the composition portion of my final exam I will complain.

I'm going to give him a horrible student evaluation as well. It's a spanish class and he doesn't even speak spanish the whole time. How are we supposed to train our ears to process the language? I started to take a spanish class a couple of years ago wherein the prof constantly engaged the students in conversation and never spoke a word of english. That's how a language class should be taught, not by going around the class and having us complete single sentences on an overhead.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 22
11/18/07 at 2:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by doink View Post
I'll start, I am having a bit of buyers remorse with respect to where I am getting my MBA. It is a highly ranked school internationally but I feel the education and quality of profs in many instances is sub par.
I'm getting my MBA at a decent ranked school as well, and the things you've listed aren't uncommon. The one thing about academia is that it does tend to give safe harbor to people whose attitudes would otherwise get them fired (having also worked in academia for several years I've seen this many, many times).

Regarding 1) I have profs that do that too. Some think real estate is bullshit, some thing marketing is bullshit, some think consulting is bullshit, etc. Who cares? I know it's insulting, but swallow your pride as you've got nothing to gain by getting upset about it.

Regarding 2) Professors who are intent on being right aren't going to change their minds or their behavior. At least now you know you don't have to waste your time debating things in his class, and you can concentrate your efforts on a class with a more sensible Prof.

Regarding 3) The problems are from a textbook... is there a solutions manual or something you can buy? Is the professor consistently wrong about theory, or is he just making arithmetic mistakes, etc?

Knowing how academia tends to work I look at it like this: there are things you can change, and things you can't. Focus on the former to deal with the latter.
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 22
11/18/07 at 3:17pm
Oh absolutely. I went to a school well-known for my major, but one that has no current interest in maintaining its standing when they can rake in the just-under-$40k/year from business or arts & science students without the heavy overhead of Engineering. The number of faculty in my department is down to less than 50% of peak, Profs are teaching outside of their specialty, questions go unanswered and cheating is ubiquitous. I was constantly angry and really enjoyed only a class or two in my major. The few electives I had I loved and totally owned. As far as my major goes -- yes definitely remorse. Heaps and piles. For philosophy, completely worth it. For extracurricular activities, crap. ~ Huntsman
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 22
11/18/07 at 3:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Huntsman View Post
Oh absolutely. I went to a school well-known for my major, but one that has no current interest in maintaining its standing when they can rake in the just-under-$40k/year from business or arts & science students without the heavy overhead of Engineering. The number of faculty in my department is down to less than 50% of peak, Profs are teaching outside of their specialty, questions go unanswered and cheating is ubiquitous. I was constantly angry and really enjoyed only a class or two in my major. The few electives I had I loved and totally owned.

As far as my major goes -- yes definitely remorse. Heaps and piles. For philosophy, completely worth it. For extracurricular activities, crap.

~ Huntsman

I don't know any happy engineers. :P

I have a friend that went to the unversity of waterloo, the top engineering and CS school in canada, and he pursued a fine arts masters after he was done. This was the type of kid that was playing with oscillascopes when he was 16. I knew another brilliant guy that loved chemistry and went in to chemical engineering. He also switched. It seems every engineer I speak to has regrets.
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 22
11/18/07 at 6:35pm
(this is not a shot at the OP, I don't know your situation.)

Yeah, I had "buyer's remose" in that I accepted a position at a school that ended up having a lot of mediocre, lazy, self-righteous students. A couple of my colleagues exhibited the same characterists. Some of my students were wonderful, however.

There's nothing worse than a dumb student (and by that I mean a student who is dumb, not that students are dumb) thinking they know better than me how to teach my classes.

b
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 22
11/18/07 at 6:57pm
The important thing about b-school - and maybe all professional schools - is to understand that you are a product in a factory that turns incoming students into employees at graduation.

School is like a giant placement agency, trying to match the needs of employers with the pre-existing skills of students. When you graduate you will be hired based on the resume you had when you came in; the classes that you take are to entertain you/provide an opportunity to build esprit de corps/justify the expense.

Figure out whether you want to maximize your enjoyment by playing along with the recruiting game or ignoring it; but understand that ignoring it means swimming against the tide sweeping you from first semester to last.

And it's a sunk cost, too. Nothing you can do to recover it, especially since it might be easier to say you were in jail for a year rather than saying that you dropped out.

So in the end, the answer to 1, 2 and 3 is that it doesn't matter in the slightest. Graduate and get back to work.


Quote:
Originally Posted by doink View Post
The university/college debt load question made me think of this, combined with being a bit annoyed at school right now. Do you have "buyers remorse" related to the school(s) you've attended? If yes why?

I'll start, I am having a bit of buyers remorse with respect to where I am getting my MBA. It is a highly ranked school internationally but I feel the education and quality of profs in many instances is sub par. Here are a few examples:

1) Prof actively and repeatedly insulting a related profession. I just happen to be one of the people he insults. At the same time he misquotes law and calls things by the wrong name. The TA is even worse.

2) Another class, prof says something, asks for comments, I respond with an opinion, based on fact. He says I am clearly mistaken, I double check, I was right, bring this up to him privately and he still denies I was right (it was about a date of a specific federal governent policy). He then makes snide comments about it in front of the class.

3) Another prof, says the only thing that matters is the right answer. So I work and work on the questions from the text book that are assigned, he supplies the answers. Turns out that in about 30% of the time his answers are wrong. These questions can take 30 minutes each to do, so if you redo them you can have an hour into a question then get to class and find out he made an error.

If these are three I know of, what am I missing because I don't have a frame of reference? What would you do to respond to these types of things?
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 22
11/18/07 at 7:01pm
Well, you knew that coming in - as a nation of individuals, we're not getting any less special. Everyone's going to want the most reward for the least effort, and everyone's going to believe that their situation warrants special treatment.

But I will agree and commiserate with you - there's nothing worse than dumb people who won't shut up.

http://www.prosoundweb.com/fun/Photo...xthsense.shtml


Quote:
Originally Posted by rdawson808 View Post
(this is not a shot at the OP, I don't know your situation.)

Yeah, I had "buyer's remose" in that I accepted a position at a school that ended up having a lot of mediocre, lazy, self-righteous students. A couple of my colleagues exhibited the same characterists. Some of my students were wonderful, however.

There's nothing worse than a dumb student (and by that I mean a student who is dumb, not that students are dumb) thinking they know better than me how to teach my classes.

b
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 22
11/18/07 at 7:49pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the replies. I recently had the epiphany about many of the comments about business school made here, which is part of my buyers remorse. It is really not there to teach you much in terms of content, mostly in terms of how a specific group of people want you to think.

I just expected more and a fairer representation of the facts. The class described in #1 is based on a field I have an undergrad degree in, 10 years work experience and professional accreditation so I feel as a professional it is my responsibility to correct patently false comments and errors in what is said by someone with almost no work experience and a very "off" view of the topic.

As stated by others, the sunk cost is too much to walk from, but if they think they'll be getting money from me upon my graduation they have another thing coming.

Good news is that I will hopefully be going back to work in January, and continuing part time.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
Styleforum › Forums › Lifestyle › Social Life, Food & Drink, Travel › Buyers Remorse - School