college suck

[Casino Jockey]

as i have been admitted to college for the 2014 start of year intake i was on campus doing the last of the paperwork i needed in the student centre when i heard the following:

S: Student

AA: Academic adviser

S: the system isn't letting me register for graduation. there's something wrong

AA: Ok give me a moment and i'll make sure you are eligible to graduate (checks computer). ok so you only have 200 credit points. you need 240 to graduate.

S: but I've been here 3 years. it's a 3 year degree

AA: Yes if you pass every unit it takes 3 years. you have failed some units and you need to repeat them before you can graduate

S: but it's been 3 years

AA: yes and as i said you have not passed all your units. you need another 40 credit points.

at this stage i had finished filling out my paperwork, but the last thing i heard when i left... "but it's been 3 years"

[ADeMartino]

And this chap is going to COLLEGE, huh? A future manager, ladies and gentlemen....

[smileyeagle1021]

I'm assuming credits work differently in Australian schools than American schools... because as impressive as his suck is, I'm sitting here going
HOLY SHIT AUSSIES ARE INSANE DOING 240 CREDIT HOURS IN 3 YEARS, THAT'S 40 A SEMESTER, I ALMOST DIED WITH 15
Also, I'm pretty sure my 4 year degree only required like 120 to 130 (I don't remember the exact amount, may have been as high as 140).

[Casino Jockey]

I'm assuming credits work differently in Australian schools than American schools... because as impressive as his suck is, I'm sitting here going
HOLY SHIT AUSSIES ARE INSANE DOING 240 CREDIT HOURS IN 3 YEARS, THAT'S 40 A SEMESTER, I ALMOST DIED WITH 15
Also, I'm pretty sure my 4 year degree only required like 120 to 130 (I don't remember the exact amount, may have been as high as 140).

it varies from college to college. my college gives 10 CP per subject per semester. you do 8 subjects per year, so 80 CP per year.

[smileyeagle1021]

it varies from college to college. my college gives 10 CP per subject per semester. you do 8 subjects per year, so 80 CP per year.

Yeah, that is a lot different... our system is 1 credit for each hour per week you spend in lecture or lab (so a class that meets 3 times a week for an hour each time would be a 3 credit class, which most classes were). So I saw the 40 credits a semester (80 a year) and was thinking that if it isn't a different system that would mean 40 hours a week of just lecture... I would die.

[Shalom]

Also, the assumption is that students will be doing 2 hours of outside work (homework, studying, research etc) for each credit hour in class, so 12 credits or higher is considered full time (=36 hours/week total work). The most that most colleges will let you take in one semester is 18.

(Remedial courses gave you fewer credits per hour; e.g. pre-calculus, which was considered a remedial course when I took it in college because the average student takes it in high school, was four hours a week, but only earned you 3 credits. Billing was based on class hours, though, not credits, so you still had to pay for 4...)

[fireheart]

I'm assuming credits work differently in Australian schools than American schools... because as impressive as his suck is, I'm sitting here going
.

It also varies between colleges. My university at the moment goes by units rather than by "credit" hours. One topic that goes for a semester is worth 4.5 units. You do four topics a semester max, so the max is 18 units. Over 3 years, you're required to do 108 units all up to graduate.
For double degrees and degrees that go for longer, the requirement is of course higher. For things like honours and other research degrees as well as the MD degree we offer here, the requirements are a little different.

The MD course runs over six years, with the first two in clinical sciences and the last four doing your MD. For the MD, you enrol in an "aggregate" which has a series of topics that make up the year. You have to pass ALL those topics in the same year before you can move on to the next "aggregate". You can't mix them either. (So you can't do half of one and half of another)

If you did a degree elsewhere and transfer over to another university, you did a TAFE course (closest equivalent to that in the US would be community college mixed with a trade school) or similar, then you can get units credited towards your degree, so the time period is shorter. Some unis will even let you do a TAFE course at their uni before going straight into second-third year of uni study.