University

[Solaris]

Tomorrow, I move into my halls of residence at Queen's University of Belfast. I will be studying for a masters in physics. I hope to have some crazy drunken adventures but will not be able to recount them early in the mornings becuase I cannot afford a computer. Perhaps this is for the best.

Anyone else starting now/soon?

 

[kineaesth]

Beginning of next year, even. That reminds me. I should enrol...

 

[jimbo118]

Belfast? Self-Ownage

j/kn

 

[Gray Fox]

I'm joining the marines.

 

[Dekstar]

My best friend's in his second year doing a Masters of Physics course.
apparently it's really difficult . Good luck.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Started uni on Tuesday actually, took 2 years out now back to education! I'm at Queen Mary, in London, studying Forensic Science and biochemistry. Woooo

 

[Insano]

I'm starting uni on Tuesday as well. It's my second year of Civil Engineering. I'm choosing my major and minor now, and I've decided they'll be Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

 

[No Limit]

No computer labs at your university? Where do you live, the 3rd world?

I think physics is a great subject, too bad I'm too lazy for all that math. Good luck.

 

[Gray Fox]

If you graduate you better get me a tour of CERN some day Solaris.

 

[Ennui]

I've been back (second year) at uni for more than a month now. It's been great! And laptops are required here, sucks that you don't have a PC.

 

[Ren.182]

Starting my second year on Monday at Staffordshire University. Computer Games Design.

 

[Solaris]

We have computer labs.

I might buy a laptop on credit with some kind of payment plan, but don't really want too.

 

[Septih]

I finished uni last year Moving to newcastle this week as my gf is doing a masters and phd there. Hmm *checks guestmap* not many people to stalk there

 

[AJ Rimmer]

Doing my second year at Gothenburg Uni. English last year, now Literature.

 

[ríomhaire]

Registered yesterday but haven't started lectures yet.

 

[dfc05]

Ah, physics... makes me think of this:
http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~kovar/hall.html


On a serious note, it seems like a pretty cool major, but not one that I would ever choose.

 

[Ennui]

Post your schedules for this semester/term!

Yours truly's:
ITAL 102 - Elementary Italian II
RUSS 270 - Russian Literature of 19th Century
GERM 280 - 20th Century German Philosophy and Youth Culture (Sex, Drugs, Rock&Roll)
ANTH 101 - General Anthropology
CLAR 245 - Archaeology of Italy

 

[The Monkey]

I started a month ago. What I'm studying is pretty much European history ATM, but it's really complicated. We have at most 8 hours of class time per week, what about you guys?

EDIT:

Doing my second year at Gothenburg Uni. English last year, now Literature.

:O

I got a friend who's studying literature at Gothenburg (first semester)...

 

[Jintor]

I start first year Uni next year... but gotta do Uni entrance exams first.

 

[dfc05]

Here's my schedule:

CHE 360 - Process Dynamics and Control
CHE 264 - Senior Lab
CE 342 - Water and Wastewater Treatment Design
CE 369L - Air Pollution Engineering
AST 307 - Introductory Astronomy
AST 103L - Astronomy Lab
CHE 377K - Undergrad Research

 

[ríomhaire]

PY1052 Introduction to Physics I
PY1053 Introduction to Physics II
MA1054 Calculus and Analysis
MA1058 Introduction to Linear Algebra
AM1052 Introduction to Mechanics
AM1053 Introduction to Mathematical Modelling
CM1000 Introduction to Chemistry

 

[Kula Meenur]

Good luck Sol

Started uni on Tuesday actually, took 2 years out now back to education! I'm at Queen Mary, in London, studying Forensic Science and biochemistry. Woooo

I thought you were running a business D: Reckon you'll enjoy Forensic Science though mate, have done a few units of that through a Criminology course and they're incredibly interesting.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

I started a month ago. What I'm studying is pretty much European history ATM, but it's really complicated. We have at most 8 hours of class time per week, what about you guys?

EDIT:

:O

I got a friend who's studying literature at Gothenburg (first semester)...

Name?

 

[Madagascar]

I'm on my last year of uni, majoring in electrical engineering. Then I start my fabulous job as a Software Engineer 1.

 

[Dekstar]

I haven't got my schedule yet. As soon as I do it's going up here.

 

[Pulse]

Second year at UWE starts a week monday, doing Computing & Audio Technology.

 

[staticprimer]

Started graduate school a couple of weeks ago, and so far it is really great.

HIS 5000 Varieties and Methodologies of History
HIS 5106 European Imperialism
HIS 5307 Indigenous Resistance

 

[Madagascar]

Started graduate school a couple of weeks ago, and so far it is really great.

HIS 5000 Varieties and Methodologies of History
HIS 5106 European Imperialism
HIS 5307 Indigenous Resistance

Yeah but what do you hope to do with that after?

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Post your schedules for this semester/term!

Yours truly's:
ITAL 102 - Elementary Italian II
RUSS 270 - Russian Literature of 19th Century
GERM 280 - 20th Century German Philosophy and Youth Culture (Sex, Drugs, Rock&Roll)
ANTH 101 - General Anthropology
CLAR 245 - Archaeology of Italy

Goddamn, kickass schedule man.

What what? In my butt?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
ANTHRO 102 - Intro to Culture Studies
TuTh 12:00PM - 12:50PM

ANTHRO 102 (discussion)
Th 10:00AM - 10:50AM

ENGLISH 263 - The Gothic Novel
TuTh 2:00PM - 3:15PM

ENGLISH 417 - Satire (Swift / Rochester)
MoWe 3:30PM - 4:45PM

ENGLISH 461 - Beat Writers of the 50's/60's (Kerouc, Ginsberg, Bukowski, Burroughs, etc etc... )
MoWe 12:30PM - 1:45PM

 

[Eejit]

Going into 4th year of Molecular and Cell Biology degree, Glasgow.

AMAGAD Solaris you muppet, why would you inflict constant Belfast accents upon yourself? Are you insane?

 

[Adrien C]

First year of international trade in Le Mans, France.

 

[Ravioli]

Il probably go to Hogskolan I Jonkoping in sweden starting fall 2009. Most likely to take the engineer, computer, design, animation classes.

EDIT: lol adjusting the swedish letters to english makes it sound like that "god domnot frod" meme.

 

[knut]

All of my friends are all off this weekend to places like Loughborough, Lancaster, Brighton... I'm crazy jealous. Another year here in the grimey Midlands doing this Foundation before I can *hopefully* start at Falmouth for Illustration.

I went to ASDA 24 with some friends last night for a crunch and the amount of students milling about the carpark at 2am singing, dancing or throwing up was crazy. Seems Freshers has started here, then.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

Il probably go to Hogskolan I Jonkoping in sweden starting fall 2009. Most likely to take the engineer, computer, design, animation classes.

EDIT: lol adjusting the swedish letters to english makes it sound like that "god domnot frod" meme.

You'll have to say hello to some friends of mine then.

 

[Ravioli]

I will, once i figure out the freaking requirements. I have yet to find any school that lists the specific requirements you need to enter. Are there no requirements in sweden anymore?

Also, whats the difference between Hogskola and University? or is there none? My exile from sweden has hurt my knowledge of the fatherlands education system.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

I will, once i figure out the freaking requirements. I have yet to find any school that lists the specific requirements you need to enter. Are there no requirements in sweden anymore?

Also, whats the difference between Hogskola and University? or is there none? My exile from sweden has hurt my knowledge of the fatherlands education system.

Universities provide Ph.D-level education in one or several fields.

 

[kirovman]

Physics is a great course to do, I did a Batchelor's in Physics at Nottingham. It's really intellectually challenging but you'll have lots of time to have many good drinks.

 

[staticprimer]

Yeah but what do you hope to do with that after?

Well, going for PhD is still on the table for me right now. I would like to focus on Russian history with a social and political view, so maybe an analyst job related to that, or a professor.

 

[Minister]

I start at Exeter next Saturday (27th) to study Civil Engineering.

Should be fun?

 

[Sulkdodds]

Physics is a great course to do, I did a Batchelor's in Physics at Nottingham. It's really intellectually challenging but you'll have lots of time to have many good drinks.

I almost wish I'd gone a physicsy route - it was my favourite of the sciences at school.

Instead, however, I am happy where I am:
At Oxford University,
Mansfield College, doing English Literature.

Last year:
- Old English Literature, 600-1066
- Victorian Literature, 1832-1900
- Modern Literature, 1901-2000 (my choice)
- Introduction to Literary Studies, a theory unit (what is an author? what IS reading? woooo)

This coming term is Reinaissance and medieval literature at the same time in seperate classes.

Let me see, what happened in my first year?

Here is what I wrote a while ago about my first term:

Spoiler

Oxford, 1st December 2007.

My pyjamas were soiled, I was full of strange liquor and the quad was covered in parking cones arranged in concentric rings like crop circles. Earlier, post-bar-crawl, I'd been thrown out of a club twice, then let back in for Christmas spirit; now we were sat in the JCR, dog-tired. But the highlight of the night was yet to come.

As we turned out the lights to leave, Laurence McGivern jumped up from his chair where we'd left him. Seeing us leaving through the main entrance, he shouted "You idiots! That's the fire door!" Then he turned and walked confidently out of the fire exit, setting off the alarm at 6am.

Nice one.

So, lying in bed with commotion outside and knowing I won't sleep because in one hour I have to start packing, I reflected on this my first term at Oxford University. VERDICT: I guess it was okay.

The work is wonderful and challenging. I've been thrown out of any comfort zone I might have had and forced to think on my feet, which has been great. Three sperate classes have entailed a panoramic view of Victorian literature, plunges into baroque critical theory, and learning the beginnings of Old English. Feedback has been quality, uncompromising but not unkind. My report contained the phrase "eratic genius." I leave you to decide whether it was preceded by "not at all an".

Mansfield College is lovely. It was built in the 1890s, a noncomformist establishment, and only became a proper college in 1992. As a result, it's new, friendly, casual and absolutely not posh or poncey at all. Still weird. You can walk into the chapel and find people playing beautifully on the piano. There are hilarious paintings of old blokes along the wall (one of the founders looks like Joey Deacon, and has a truly massive right hand). They have Sega's The Lost World lightgun cabinet, one of the first arcade games I remember playing. You can tell it's noncomformist because we had a jazz band and then a DJ in the chapel, which is not actually consecrated ground apparently (which means having sex there is not such an alluring concept).

My accomodation, however, is utter shit. Room 12A was once upon a time Room 13, but changing the number hasn't made it any less unlucky. It's the smallest room in the block, right at the end of the corridor - so nobody ever walks past. The door doesn't shut properly and the doostop won't stop. When you open the door to the bathroom, it blocks off your access to the toilet, and even if you can get to it, it doesn't flush properly. The only advantage is that I'm right next to the fire exit, which I suppose I should be glad for since we have about 8 fire alarms every day.

As for the people they are, by and large, pretty normal. There is one guy who introduced himself by way of "hi! My dad owns Marks and Spencers" - my arse he does - and I have seen strange-looking kids playing with rubics cubes (I'd be disappointed if I hadn't) and there's a complement of hardcore workycrazypeople who get really obsessive about things and are too humourless to have fun with. Most, however, including my tutors, are nice. I can't think of anyone I even dislike.

When we first arrived, a third year named Paul Fleming gave us a tour of the town. He is genuinely hilarious, a hardcore Catholic with a major chip on his shoulder towards all other religions, and the Pope only knows how he manages to have so many random facts about Oxford at his command (he would wave his umbrella in the air to get us to follow him, and put on a very silly but utterly convincing posh accent). The city is increasingly surreal the more one hears about it. The university was founded when the King of France and the King of England had a disagreement, so English academics had to come back over from France. Riding into Oxford (once Oxnaforda) they decided to start a university there. The founding of the institution was actually an act of colonisation; tensions between 'town and gown' stem from these origins and that's why many of the colleges are built like actual fortresses, some with holes for pouring burning oil on people - there are records of riots and attacks by townsfolk on the invading university.

The place has an almost hetairian obsession with cocks (hardly surprising when you think about it). For example, there is a tradition at All Souls' college of taking a dead duck on a pole and parading it down the grand staircase while singing a song about its endowments, so substantial the lyrics describe them as "a flip-flap-flapping, a -flip-flop-flapping, around." Christchurch has a statue of a unicorn with a huge penis on it, but the penis is very small now because the Victorians shaved it down for modesty, and indeed it is removeable for when the Queen comes round. Incidentallly, the Christchurch dining room there was used as the banquet hall in the Harry Potter films while the main quad has been used as a zepellin field in The Golden Compass - the statue in the middle has only ever been knocked off its pedestall four times, and three of the men who did it went on to be Prime Ministers.

The town itself isn't too lively, with few very interesting alternative clubs, but there are very good kebab vendors, it's extremely beautiful, and of course it's full of uni buildings that you can get into for free, like the Bodleian Library - which has a legal right to a copy of any book published within the UK ever - and the Natural History Museum, which is like the one in London, but, er, smaller. There are loads of pubs and bars too. The one second-nearest our college, the King's Arms, was used to print money in when, during the English Civil War, King Charles made the town his capital. Finally, a story about a house on our road: it was once owned by two Puritan merchants, who stole the great brass nose from the front of Brasenose College and put it on their own front door. This being Oxford University, the College didn't bother taking the nose back; it simply bought the house and has retained it to this day.

Follow personal details and grumblings/anxieties about the social life, which I need not inflict on you.

It's a fucking bizarre place.

Other things that happened:

- After blabbing to a fair few people that I really wanted to get involved in the uni-wide Assassins game, I was phoned up and interrogated about some suspicious letters which had been left in the Porter's Lodge and which were being called in as a terrorist threat. I turned the tables on my over the phone interrogator, found out all the information about the case, and wrote a story about it for one of the student newspapers. They took my story and mangled it, with absurd journalistic cliches bordering on untruth, so I defected to the other newspaper (whose film editor headhunted me to do reviews) and got a lot of cool opportunities to meet bands, interview actors, and preview films in London.

- There was a house party in Fresher's week which had a spit roast, albeit not the sexual kind. Someone had to eat the pig's eye for a bet.

- I attended on an antifascist protest so that I could see what was going on and write about it, wherein I was crushed in crowds, forced to accept a sign from a crazy lady, and while the chant went "I don't pay my union fee / to support the BNP" I had to trail off at "I don't pay my union fee". Later, we narrowly avoided getting caught between Black Bloc anarchists and a police horse charge, and then we sat in a pub and ordered a round of drinks when we saw our friends were being interviewed on the BBC news.

- I met many posh people. First there was the exceedingly posh gay couple at the kebab van who, I kid you not, said "Oh Golliwog" in surprise, just as you or I might say "Oh good god" or "Oh cuntberries". Then there was the Viscount in his top hat at a ball. And of course there was the aristocrats club, which Mansfield's only landed student kept trying to convince me to join deceptively (ie, I would pretend to be an aristocrat) and kept similarly trying to convince my friend, whose family are old Polish aristocracy, not that that means anything anymore (the guy grew up in the seediest area of my home town).

- I saw a play written and directed by a friend of mine, whose father's production of Les Miserables I would later see quite by chance. The friend in question did have a speaking part, but as a frightening woman on a phone sex line. One of the characters calls up because he is lonely, and then goes "I don't think I know how to do this, I feel really awkward, I'm sorry" while the woman breathes heavily. Then he goes "oh, I'm being stupid. Let's get started!" But the woman interupts him going "OH GOD DON'T STOP."

- I went to a rent protest because things are getting really expensive. You might think that wouldn't be an issue for all these viscounts and sons of playwrights but most of the rest of us are normal people who are going to be in trouble when the cost of university actually rises well above the maximum possible student loan, as is happening now.

- Walked around Magdalen College, which is so big that it has its very own deer park and enormous gardens. I and my companions spent the entire time bitterly stomping around loudly coming up with reasons why I bet it's not really that great going here, we're better off where we are. Little did we know we'd be getting tutorials there this coming term.

- Arranged a student house, joined a gym, visited other colleges, left with relief but anticipation of returning.