You know how infants playing peek-a-boo haven't quite grasped that even though they can't see us with their hands in front of their faces, we can still see them?Tellingly, thousands of students at my institution haven't passed that particular developmental milestone yet, as evidenced by their online activities.
Don't believe me? Just search "bird courses" and "your school" on Google. Even better, search Facebook groups. (Fair warning - you may want to take some ibuprofen first, because all the banging off your desk your head is about to do could have some lingering side effects.)
While most of the posts boil down to "who is the easiest grader?" or "what course can I take where I am guaranteed to get an A without showing up or doing any work?" there are also some real gems like "it's really easy to find essays on the internet for this course" and "me and my buddy handed in the exact same paper but he got a B and I got a C because my prof was a bitch and a hard marker".
Do they not understand this is publicly searchable information? And that we didn't get to be at the front of the classroom without learning how to research? And that their motherfucking names and photographs are beside their little plagiarism confessions?
I mean, God forbid you might actually LEARN SOMETHING in university...or challenge yourself...or take a risk.
(And you know what, Flakey McFlakerson? If you're stupid enough to take advice from a dude who brags about cheating on Facebook, you deserve whatever you get...but I sure as hell don't deserve you.)
Ah, our fave-laze student has returned!
ReplyDelete"Do they not understand this is publicly searchable information?"
ReplyDeleteYeah but who cares if the only consequence is a bitchy post on CM? I've had professors basically say, to quote "you have to play GPA defense". In other words, cherry pick easy professors and drop ones that are too hard.
You don't get a job based on whether or not you learned something. You get a job based on GPA.
But you keep your job -- and get promoted -- based on whether or not you learned something -- and can keep learning new things.
DeleteSee the cautionary tale of the "Magna Carta" essay. I wouldn't want to be that person. A "bitchy post on CM" could someday have consequences for his career.
DeleteAnd don't be naive. No one in the real world gives a crap about your GPA. Hiring decisions are not based on your grades unless they're truly terrible--and even then, a phone call from dad or some other "connection" will trump. That's what's truly befuddling about students--they have no idea of how the job market operates. They place so much emphasis on this silly number, but when you ask them what they want to do, they say their eventual goal is a middle-management position at an insurance company.
I just went through the hiring process. So I can tell you that the "real world" indeed gives a massive crap about your GPA. You don't even get to the interview table if you're not > 3.0 and Sandia Labs was a 3.7 requirement. The "naive" students are the ones who thinks employers give a crap that they were part of some fraternity honor society and 30 different extracurricular clubs.
DeleteAfter the first job then your GPA doesn't matter. But we're talking about college here where first job is paramount.
I used to work in hiring for such a firm, and the "minimum GPA" thing is bullshit. We used cut-offs simply to deter more people from applying. But since everyone these days has a high GPA--3.7 is the new 3.0, and a 3.0 means you merely have a pulse--a high GPA means next to nothing. Not to mention the fact that it's much easier to get a high GPA at some schools than others.
DeleteYou would do better getting actual experience--assistantships in a lab, summer internships, etc. Experience is what's most important, as well as your ability to interview well. I was always shocked by the number of people who apply for a position who had done absolutely nothing relevant during the summer, or who couldn't even fill up a page-long resume.
Employers are rightly indifferent to grades.
Interestingly, when I ran that search for my school, nothing came up. Hm.
ReplyDeleteI think the term "bird course" is more commonly used with Canadian schools. I don't know the comparable term in the US, if there is one. Probably something vuglar.
DeleteP.S. I don't mean to assume that any school without "bird course" results is in the US; it's just that I've mostly seen it used with Canadian ones.
DeleteAt my uni, there was a well-moderated and regularly updated Facebook group on bird courses, with a master list of 'bird', 'not bird', and 'in transition, update pending' [e.g. instructor was different than previous term] categories. Numerous departments had their ENTIRE course list and instructor list specified. It clearly represented a huge database of contributed knowledge...
ReplyDeleteI'm not even going to look. Seriously. I just want to keep living in my little bubble of ignorance when it comes to stuff like this.
ReplyDelete