Monday I had my first two graduate level courses. I was nervous going to class, because I was thinking two things: one, I've never been to a graduate course before, I'll have no idea what is expected of me!; two, Finally I'll be taking classes at UC Riverside that are challenging and will learn much about myself and the world!
Now my astute readers will note the huge, glaring cancerous tumor of a problem with the above sentence, and that tumor is commonly diagnosed as "Riverside" with side effects that include "false optimism" and "naive expectation".
Each class proceeded in exactly the same way: 35 students each introduce themselves, where they are in the program, and an interesting fact about themselves. This took about 40 minutes. Then the instructors read their respective syllabi to us (I was going to make a sarcastic joke about the necessity of this, being illiterate graduate students and all, but then I thought of the caliber of student enrolled here and decided it was a wise move by the instructors), and then in one class we watched clips of the Andy Griffith show (I'm not shitting you) and the other was dismissed.
As far as I can tell, these graduate level courses are no different than regular classes (at UC Riverside) with the exception of a lot of assigned reading of trade journals and such. One class requires two 2-page essays and a 5-page essay; the other requires two 2-page essays. I hate Riverside. Quickly: had a discussion two weeks ago with a professor who noticed how bored/angry/disgruntled I was in class. Turns out we were on the same page. His exact words: "the students here are fucking morons", and on the subject of the College of Education: "the whole place is awful, but don't let them wear you down!". I hate Riverside.
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1 comment:
Good luck in your classes, they sound super challenging. Have you been hired by a school yet?
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