College Orientation
Over the past week or so, many of my friends have been leaving for their new school's orientation. All of the people I know who have gone and come back return with more enthusiasm then I ever thought was possible to have about school. Siegal got back from Santa Barbra and wouldn't stop talking about all of the people he met and the great time he had. Molly got back from Davis with a sense of relief, since prior to the orientation she had reservations about going there.
I came back from orientation sobbing.
The first part of the orientation was nice, the usual "hey our school is great, you'll love it" coming from about 5 different high ranking administrators. As the day wore on however, the onslaught of information became too much to handle. No, it wasn't even an onslaught of information. It was an onslaught of notification. Notifications about credits and classes that made no sense to anyone who was unfamiliar with the Cal State system as, oh gee, ALL MOTHER FUCKING FRESHMAN ARE. They spent hours scaring us, telling us how we'd never graduate on time if we don't have the right amount of credits each semester, and how we have to take GEs, and of course we have to take pre-major classes as well, and of course you have to fill in all your prerequiste courses.... but heaven forbid we actually sit down and show you an example of these things, so that when you open up your catalouge to register for classes you don't find yourself staring at about 75 Humanities classes, not knowing which you can take, which fills your GE requirements, if you shouldn't even take that class because, oh, it might hold no credit for your major, and so on. They basically set us up by telling us horror stories of students who had screwed themselves over by not having enough information, and then making it virtually impossible for us to attain any of this apperantly invaluable information.
I wasn't the only one who had problems, though. Christa had just as hard a time as I did, since she doesn't know what she wants to major in, and the whole day was centered around what major you signed yourself up for. On the walk back to my mom's car, she was just as hysterical as I.
I haven't even stepped one foot inside an actual class, and already I think I made a irrevocable mistake.
I came back from orientation sobbing.
The first part of the orientation was nice, the usual "hey our school is great, you'll love it" coming from about 5 different high ranking administrators. As the day wore on however, the onslaught of information became too much to handle. No, it wasn't even an onslaught of information. It was an onslaught of notification. Notifications about credits and classes that made no sense to anyone who was unfamiliar with the Cal State system as, oh gee, ALL MOTHER FUCKING FRESHMAN ARE. They spent hours scaring us, telling us how we'd never graduate on time if we don't have the right amount of credits each semester, and how we have to take GEs, and of course we have to take pre-major classes as well, and of course you have to fill in all your prerequiste courses.... but heaven forbid we actually sit down and show you an example of these things, so that when you open up your catalouge to register for classes you don't find yourself staring at about 75 Humanities classes, not knowing which you can take, which fills your GE requirements, if you shouldn't even take that class because, oh, it might hold no credit for your major, and so on. They basically set us up by telling us horror stories of students who had screwed themselves over by not having enough information, and then making it virtually impossible for us to attain any of this apperantly invaluable information.
I wasn't the only one who had problems, though. Christa had just as hard a time as I did, since she doesn't know what she wants to major in, and the whole day was centered around what major you signed yourself up for. On the walk back to my mom's car, she was just as hysterical as I.
I haven't even stepped one foot inside an actual class, and already I think I made a irrevocable mistake.