I think I've been wasting my time in college

My mother forced me into college...I understand she only wanted me to have a great life, but I was so scared I wouldn't be able to handle college and for a short while, I plotted to intentionally fail all my classes so I could go back home. But after spending a few semesters here, I could not for the life of me figure out what made so many people drop out (the work didn't seem all that challenging to me). But I do agree that college is not for everyone, and I know a lot of people enroll because they have no idea what to do.

I've really only ever had two instructors bring me down...one was a complete asshole who needed to die in a fire, and the other is the one I have for class currently. He's not a bad guy and has given me positive feedback in the past and he isn't really a hard-ass, but his style and my style are very different, which may be an issue.

I know a degree will allow me more choices, and especially if I have a master's. I was having a breakdown Friday, I think. I definitely don't want praise if I'm doing something wrong, but I was also concerned that my being wrong was not fixable. I guess I'm jut thinking too much into some of my work...it doesn't help when Friday's project was a book cover design for a book I have never read ...and I chose the book. Damn my instructor for not allowing me to choose a non-fiction title.

My whole pet peeve is working in groups. I realize that these "group projects" are supposed to prepare us for "real-life", and they do to a certain extent. But, I hate the whole group dynamic where either I am expected to carry the whole project or nothing will get done, or some other member is an egomaniac who has to do everything their way and everyone's grade depends on whether or not they fuck up. This, not to the exclusion of other factors such as difference in people's schedules, personality conflicts, and styles of presentation. I always get a sick feeling in my stomach when it comes time to pick partners for these projects, and I feel relieved if there is an odd number of people if there is a chance that I may work alone. I check the syllabus before signing up for a course (if it is optional or elective) to see if it has a group project in the requirements.

I had planned to take the Museum Studies program at the Extension School, but after taking a couple of the courses, I decided that the field is not for me. Yes, I'd enjoy the work with objects, but there would be too much contact and focus on people. And it seems like those who can't do art, teach; those who can't teach, enroll in the Museum Studies program at Harvard Extension School.

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"I have learned that pleasing everyone is impossible, but pissing everyone off is easy and fun as hell"

:eatu

Cambion, if you haven't seen it already, rent Art School Confidential. I have many friends who are artists, musicians, creative types, and they can be very competitive and critical of each other, especially if they feel threatened by another person's talent.

Oh Poofy, I totally hear you about group work. With me, though, the problem I always have is not some prick who needs everything done exactly to their liking, but people who work together based on who's in their cute little social circle. I only have one friend in my major and I am rarely in the same class as her...everyone else I am not friends with. And it always seems that in the groups in which I have trouble, I'm the odd one out who isn't part of the cliche, and I get ignored as a result. I have been in groups where I sat and listened intently with the group when the work was being discussed and the work was divided up among everyone else...but I got nothing to do. I got ignored entirely. What, do these ass muffins think I'm sitting there for my health? And them all giving me the stink eye when I speak to them is kinda cute. And then I have to consult with the group leader who basically will give me shit work...the last time this happened, he came right out and said, "Here's some stuff you can do. We don't really need any of this, but it'll keep you busy" - all the real work had been divided up already. In some instances, I was able to escape and either do my own work or be with a more competent group, but sometimes I was stuck with a bunch of morons. And of course it was always my fault for not trying to be a "team player" enough...bullshit.

When I had to be part of a group effort to work on an ad campaign, I begged my instructor to let me do my own campaign alone because my group was a bunch of fucktards. I've done entire campaigns alone and I know I could do it, but he refused, because he wanted us to all learn how to function in a group setting.

Group work makes me seethe in way I can't describe, but occasionally I am in a group where the people don't treat it like a coffee klatch.

Believe me, when I was in college I absolutely hated group work. As best as I could figure, it served three major purposes:

--To basically hinder over the creative people that could do the entire project solo, and complete it successfully, on time.

--To subsidize the lazy, uncreative, and utterly disorganized people that had no hope of being successful left to their own devices.

--To make the prof's job easier, because four or five people turning in one project substantially reduced the amount of work they had to grade.

But not all group work was bad. I found the peer reviews of articles I'd written or projects I'd worked on to be constructive and very useful. Students working under the same time constraints working in similar conditions, with very few exceptions, made insightful comments. What I found alternately funny and frustrating was that I already had worked in private industry for over ten years before I returned to school, and had much more practical knowledge of how the working world operated than someone who had only ever been in academia, but I digress.

Sweetie, that is ONE instructor's opinion. And seriously, they may be the instructor but what the fuck do they know? A lot of times these assholes will say that shit just to knock you down a few pegs, you're probably far more talented than your instructor can ever hope to be.

And you're right. Your grades kick ass, keep on it. You finish your degree in what you want to finish it in. Don't drop out or change majors just because of somebody's opinion. A lot of doors will open for you. Don't be intimidated or think you've wasted your time.

Do you have any idea who many famous people were laughed at and ridiculed in their beginnings?

you shouldnt do maths, you should be a patent clerk. see below

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I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

Avoid cute? Really? Oh...I'm totally screwed... : P

Who is to say that you aren't creative? Creativity is in everything we do,from figuring out how to lure your cat back in-doors with a jangley keychain or how to break into your own house when you've locked yourself outside.Your teachers sound like they are critisising you because maybe you think outside the box.Who knows?

Cambion, about the work group thing, I always felt myself in your same situation. I was never part of clickey groups either, I always preferred to work on my own no matter what I was doing. Work groups in college are WAY different than work groups at work in your professional life. In my field, we have to work as groups a lot on development projects at their inception. We have people of all different age groups at work and it plays to the benefit of the group, you don't have the same petty crap that you do in college. Don't get discouraged, stick it out. You're almost graduating!!

And as guest pointed out, keep thinking OUTSIDE that box! Employers love that, believe me.

That's good that group work will be different in a professional setting. I've been telling myself for a couple of years that if group work in a firm or studio is anything like group work in college, I will sooner work in retail and do freelance on the side than do professional group-oriented work. I'm glad that work environment may be opening to me again.

A couple nights ago, I got some pretty strong proof that my best work comes when I am not trying too hard. I was trying to think of a logo for a project at the beginning of the week and I could think of absolutely nothing. The one I had looked totally contrived and I trashed it. A day or so later, I was goofing around during a class lecture and only really half-paying-attention to my work...within a half an hour, I had ten ideas for that logo that just appeared one right after the other. I was thrilled, but on the other hand I wanted to scream since I spent so much time before trying to make something and here I wasn't trying and I got some really good ideas. So strange.

I'm not sure to what extent I think outside the box, really...unless drawing Nagel-esque androgynous cross-dressing men counts.

Well I agree with everyone here, education is never a waste. Bear in mind though that the competition for even the lousy 30K/yr. jobs is fierce. You'd be a fool to quit now after all your hard work - finish it up! I have two friends with masters; one's working as an asst. manager at a fast food restaurant making about 40K, the other is working as a receptionist. Hey, it's honest work and nothing to be embarrassed about, but dayum, certainly NOT where they saw themselves when they graduated with masters.

Go for it Cam...you'll regret it if you don't, you've come too far now and should be very proud of yourself!

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A couple nights ago, I got some pretty strong proof that my best work comes when I am not trying too hard.

I discovered this in junior college. I had a hard time thinking of ideas at first because school always makes me so nervous. But then I remembered how much I enjoyed just sitting down and relaxing with a piece of paper in front of me. It never took long for the doodles to start a-flowin'. They key word for me is relax. If I still can't relax, I walk away from it.

Oh, don't *remind* me about group work...blech. Such a drag. There's always gotta be a deadbeat who takes the credit for work he didn't do. And I'm another outsider, never got into the cliques in school either. They're just prides of Bitches roaming the school grounds.

The thing is, I DID work successfully in groups all the time in college, but these were self-inflicted groups, not part of the course syllabus. It wasn't, "Okay CLASS, we're going to divide up into groups now", it was, "Let's meet at the library later and work on this together because 2 (or 3 or 4) heads are better than one, and we can help each other stay motivated".

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"I have learned that pleasing everyone is impossible, but pissing everyone off is easy and fun as hell"

:eatu

Yea, the self-inflicted group thing wouldn't be so bad. I hated the group thing being forced on me by the instructors. I don't like being thrown into a group of people and forced to interact with them. LOL I like picking my own peeps.

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poofy_puff
The thing is, I DID work successfully in groups all the time in college, but these were self-inflicted groups, not part of the course syllabus. It wasn't, "Okay CLASS, we're going to divide up into groups now", it was, "Let's meet at the library later and work on this together because 2 (or 3 or 4) heads are better than one, and we can help each other stay motivated".