f13.net

On the 28th of June my CoH account is going to expire and I'm not going to reactivate it.

Main reasons why?

1) I've started Summer college full time.  Why didn't anyone warn me that these crazy instructors would try to compress entire courses down to 8 weeks during Summer quarter?  Suffice to say, not the best quarter to start forging ahead on a four year degree: my evenings are rife with homework.    (But apparently I've enough time to spam this board.   Seriously, you'll probably notice a marked decrease of that going on in the near future too.)

2) I'm feeling a lack of overall purpose to grind in CoH right now.   I wrote up an article about it (http://www.grimwell.com/index.php?action=fullnews&id=128) over on Grimwell.com.     Basically it's me saying that games need both a) fun and b) long term purpose.    A number of people reminding me that if you're having a) fun why should b) particularly matter?   Perhaps I'm nuts, or perhaps I have a point about there needing to be an overall purpose to a grind.

I admit my timing's relatively bad considering they're about to introduce (http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/item257.html) the first major content update.  

Ironically, I'll probably be resubscribing to SWG for reasons having to do with my gripes against CoH.    I had a chance to play the 14 day free trial prior to my classes starting, and I even wrote up an article about SWG, but I've yet to "publish" it so no need to go looking yet.    

However, I'm probably wasting my money, as ultimately I don't expect to be be able to play too much as long as issue #1 has manifested.

Ech, I wasted enough time.   Time to dive into that homework grind.

You have it all wrong Geld:

In your university years you will have more time for this stuff than at any other point in your life hehe.  God, I think my first 2 years of undergrad I majored in Dungeons and Dragons.  My peers reveled in beer, while I was introduced to D20 world creation lol.

What level are you currently?  At level 21 (not very high I know) I find the play entertaining.  How are you using "grind"?  Are you doing street fights over and over to level - or doing missions?  I know the missions lack some variety, but for me are big step away from traditional "grinding".

I have not had a chance to do TF missions yet - and instanced outdoor missions with further twists on indoor missions sound very cool.  I can respect the school priority, but find it hard to see the view this game is boring.

No doubt, with no economy to speak of it has room for "development", and I think that can only add to the game (naked optimism).

Maybe it was my choice of classes... Eng 101, Phil 170 (Intro to Modern Logic), and Math 103 (Trig).   However, I can tell you that since I started college every night has been 100% homework.   I'm ultimately spending sleep time to make posts.     Hopefully the situation will improve, I haven't yet hit my first weekend since I started re-attending college.  Here's looking forward to my University years - I wouldn't mind taking a minor in D&D.

My main character in City of Heroes is lvl 21 as well.     Real fun character.    In CoH I pretty much just do missions because they have a more meaning than just random mob hunting, but I still feel a lack of overall purpose to grind.   More on that later...

My character's a Scrapper, about as good as solo character come.    That soloing might be part of my problem - no real incentive to group, means no connecting with the community, which could have created a more meaningful interaction with the game for me.  

However, at the same time I don't really want to be tied down to a group, so my lvl 17 Mind Control/Weather Controller (who inflicts such lousy damage I'm just not patient enough to solo him) is mostly retired.

Sure, CoH's combat's fun, I just don't see a long term purpose to commit to the grinding.    Sounds like the same problem Planetside has always had, really - good depth of gameplay, but no overall lasting consiquences.    Personal Level/Battle Rank just isn't enough.

I don't really have the time to elaborate right now (I should really be reading a chapter on Philosophy right now), but I have already elaborated at length in to reply thread to that article I wrote I mentioned at the head of this thread.

You're taking three classes in the summer session?  Crazy.

If this is your first year Geld, it may be a good idea to give up games for a bit.  I have been at the college thing longer than most MD students now, so I learned how to balance things out over time.  I am currently taking 2 classes over the summer and working my usual 50+ hours a week and still find a bit of time for online games and time with the gf.  

On a side note, Thermodynamics is evil over the summer, a test once a week for 6 weeks.  Still not sure why I have to take it though, I haven't seen a use for it yet in 10 years+ of work on the municipal side of Civil Engineering.  I guess if I ever decided to go into power plants it may have a use, but it is a bit unfair that we have to take both an EE course, Circuit Design, and an ME course, Thermodynamics, while EE/ME students do not take a single CE course.

Or, you can go the opposite route. Be happy with a B+/A- average like me, take 18 credits a summer, graduate in 3.5 years and play games ALL THE TIME. Oh and drink a lot.

What? Did I do something wrong?

You drank too little. Think in terms of the word "copious."

I think the first mistake you are making is likely going to the classes...There is 3 hours per day of extra gaming.

My GPA the first half of my undergrad was so bad I coasted on probation.  But unless you're applying to medical school, graduate school at least looks at your senior years.  So for most career paths, you're allowed to fuck-up the first few years of undergrad without lasting reprecussions.

First year is a write-off.  And it should be.  Have fun :)

English 101 you'll figure out very quickly you can fake.  Crap a couple of thousand words out the morning a paper is due and as long as you use Word and get rid of the red and green lines you will probably get an A+.

Trig is mostly rote memorization of formulas (sin^2+cos^2=1 etc...), the stuff you actually need from there you will see again in physics I (statics and mechanics).  The actual trig part of it isn't that hard and doesn't involve anything more complicated than multiplication.

Is your psych intro to logic class an actual Intro to Logic or just an intro psych class?  By real Logic I mean tautologies like  not (a or b) <=> (not a and not b), .

If the former, I'm sure you can sleepwalk through it to a B or an A and for the later, you really shouldn't be in there until you've had A LOT more math than trig.  Though I can't imagine a 100 level course that tries to teach rigorous logic.

I've found, that as long as you are doing something you enjoy in college, it will neither take long or be hard. You'll breeze through it and the four years will go by a lot faster than you had hoped. I had a pretty damn good time in school, but I don't even remember arriving before I had to start sending out résumés.

Sounds to me like you've nailed my classes, Murgos, and Schild: my envy for your college adaptation skills holds no bounds.

Since we're on the topic, I'll let loose with some details in the life of Geldonyetich Goes To College:

My Philosophy/Logic class so far is just deductive logic, and for the first three chapters at least it's mostly been establishing formulas.    We'll work on predicate stuff later.   The good news for me here is that the pace of the class is considerably more relaxed.   The bad news is that between my other two classes I've had next to zero time for this class.

Eng 101 has a teacher with an unusual teaching style.   I'm used to, "Here are some facts!  Remember them!  Test later!".    My first week of Eng 101 so far is, "Read this chapter, comment on it in a journal, write an essay on it, we'll go over your essay in focus groups."    So far she hasn't actually told me how to write an essay, so I'm winging it from what I remember from High School and perhaps consulting this Writers Reference when neccessary.    I may have to get my hands on a copy of Word, which I know I've around the house somewhere.   Right now I'm using Abiword which is a GNU word processor which is pretty well featured but has crashing issues and is a bigger to get headers and footers to work exactly how I'd like.

Trig is the bugger.   Memorization is indeed seeming the key to this, but I haven't taken Math095 in over a year so I've been putting my brain through a sieve every evening in order to get the homework done and hopefully stay aware enough on the material that I can pass tests.   It's not too unusual for me to spend 6-8 hours a night on Trig, which is about three times more than I should be for an hour long class.

I think the real issue is just that I've been grinding away at Tech Support for the past 3 3/4th years prior to getting my ass canned from Help Desk from what's basically typical Help Desk burnout (http://www.deadtroll.com/index2.html?/video/livehelldesk.html~content).    Now I need to get those wheels spinning again, and College is proving harder than my job ever was.  

Ah, listen to me, bitch bitch bitch.   The nice (?) thing about Summer Classes is they just run four days out of the week, so I should have a three day weekend coming up.   Though half of it will likely be consumed by homework, it'll give me a much needed oppertunity to rest my tired synapses.    I'm theorizing that once those wheels in my head start spinning I'll be able to make much better management of my homework time.

Always answer "C"

If it's not multiple choice, and an English final, deconstruct Three's Company.  Seriously.  Jack Tripper is rife with subetext.

Otherwise, just realize that undergrad is a fucking joke and you should put minimal effort forth to be sure you pass.

Ignore the anal-retentive douchebags and do your learnin on your time.

Also, transfer to day schedule....there's more uh, scenerey

I have seen just the opposite with my old gf's struggle to get into grad school.  She got A's in most of her Bio/Anthro classes, Anthro/Evolutionary Bio major, and did fairly well on her GED, but her overall gpa was around 3.0.  I can't recall the number of grad schools she was rejected from, but it was more than 15 before she finally got in.  She was even rejected for grad school at the same school she did her undergrad work.

I'm getting the feeling this thread is rife with Liberal Arts majors. (English, Literal Arts, etc). If you're getting a real degree your GPA matters. Your first job will be much harder to get without a good GPA and that does include your first year.

GPA does matter. It matters a lot depending on how technical your program is.  My roommate throughout college had a sub 3 GPA and just recently, nearly a year or so after his graduation, got a real job working in as an engineer and a very low totem pole position at that. Before that he was working at a movie theatre.  

I really fucked up my first semester.  I managed to get a D and C that I never GRO'd (can do grade replacement as an undergrad if you retake the course) mainly because I was playing Ultima Online around 10+ hours a day.  I did much better second semester but was unable to pull above a 3.5 cumulative in order to keep my scholarships.  I lost free tuition + 3k a year due to my own abject stupidity.  

I'd advise to take this shit very seriously your first year (well, have fun to, drink tons on the weekend also) until you can feel out just how much gaming you can get away with and not fuck up your grades too badly.  Just don't fall into the "OMG I HAVE SO MUCH FREE TIME TO GOOF OFF ONLINE" trap and end up not going to classes, oversleeping, not studying for tests, forgetting to do homework, etc etc.

Well, I guess that's what I took away from undergrad. Don't fuck up your first year and you'll be fine.  Keep around a 3.5 gpa if you're serious about ever attending a decent grad school.

Lack of a 3.5 cost me my scholarship, too.

Bruce

Righ made a character on Sunrunner or a name like that if you want a friendly face.  I don't do much with SWG right now... though I might fiddle more with it when the space expansion is released.

Good luck with college!  Hope you have better luck with it then I did.  I floated through university stoned, unfortunately.  I may have even received a degree... I just don't remember.

If you do get back into SWG sign up on Bloodfin. Were all havin a ball.

I have a master merchant/master smugger/pistoleer on Bloodfin. Tell me when they fix the first 2 of those classes and I might, might, might, sign up for a month. Til then. NO.

Merchant is pretty much set. Smuggler update is being worked with BH to allow not only Jedi to be hunted but smugglers as well. Thier revamp should coinside with the BH fixes. :P Looking at patch 10 or 11 for that. I have to admit I saw them do something this week that renewed my faith. They used board input and chose not to push the current patch in and gave it an extra weeks work to make sure it was good to go. I liked that.

First, I applaud your resolve at focusing on school.  Good grades will never hurt in your attempts at attaining the future you wish.  If you wish to graduate and attend a top 10 graduate program in your field, a high gpa coupled to some relevent work experience and glowing letters of recommendation are the norm.

The reason for my quote above is to state that grades are only one part of the equation.  If graduate/professional school is a goal beyond your undergrad education, keep in mind that there are other factors that carry almost equal weight when accepting people into more competitive programs.  

1. Where you attended college.  Sad but true, where you went to school matters.  A 3.2 from MIT will get you accepted into more graduate/professional programs than a 3.9 from Bob's College.

2. Perceived difficulty of your program.  Having a BS in chemistry or Physics with a 3.2 GPA will help you attain entrance into a graduate program in biology when a 3.5 in biology couldn't.

3. Experience.  A low GPA can often be offset by strong background experience.  A 3.0 gpa with 2-3 publications in peer reviewed journals will often be very competitive for entrance into many graduate programs.

4. Strong letters of reference from well respected authorities in your field of interest are also important.  I'm talking about letters from professors you've worked for or with and not just someone that you took a class from.  See also #3.

5. Know the statement "It's who you know and not what you know that counts"? Well, it's true in the academic community as well.  See #4.

6. Strong standardized test scores.  Subject GRE scores in the 80+ percentile (coupled to high standard GRE scores) can overcome gpa shortcomings as well.  

7. A strong finish in college.  If your poor grades were from you faltering early in college rather than a consistent trend throughout all of college, then some deficiencies may be overlooked.  This is situational of course.  

THE BOTTOM LINE: The best graduate programs get hundreds more applicants than they have positions available and will often reject people for the smallest reason.  Why? Because they can!  This doesn't mean that graduate school isn't an option, it just means that you will need to cast a wider net with your applications.  I think that a graduate education is much more available to many people than they realize... they often just give up too soon or aren't persistent enough in continuing to improve the quality of their application.  Getting an MS at a weaker school in glorious fashion will often get you accepted into a strong PhD program.

My 2 cents.

Zephyr,

My heart goes out to the troubles your girlfriend has had entering grad school given her hhigh GPA.

Grades are not everything, and sometimes people miss this.  While disciplines do vary (biologist here turned investment banker turned pharma insider) in applying to grad school you need more than book smarts - you need to secure:

1. Vision what you plan to do an why you will look like hot shit when you achieve it.
2.  The support / adoration of a laboratory lead by a key opinion leader.

Anthropology will differ from the sciences somewhat but some things folk omit is having the buy-in of the prosepective laboratory / supervisor they want to work with so that person will go to bat for them.

Also - publications - in the sciences and adjacent areas - these help in entering grad school from undergraduate.

Context - My GPA sucked ass.  But did not bar me from the bsc/msc/phd/mba that followed with top publications in record time out of my phd.

Grades help, but there are other tools you must use for grad shool.  If you don't have these - you are at comparatie disadvantage.

There are many other factors - but I just don't think this is really the forum to drone on about it.  But supervisor buy - in and publications are a factor that may be missing from your girlfriend's case.  Did she get a scholarship for grad school?  If not, that is another strike against her.

Send me an personal email if you would like more advice on this matter.

EDIT:  my writing is lacking here but I have just finished a 16 hour stroke conference and after much wine, have diminished mental faculties :)

Well, I merely focused on my roommate because he's the best example of how to make a great degree into a wonderful coaster. If you want to work a joe job with your wonderful degree; be sure to play lots of Everquest, DAoC, don't get any real good internships, and graduate with a sub 3.0 gpa from a somewhat weak Engineering program.  Also be sure to fail core classes, wear bad outfits to interviews, and have the drive of a slug.  I'm just happy the guy got his job now; because he's a great guy and a good friend; he just did everything wrong in college and paid for it.

My getting into grad school wasn't really all grades.  I still had a sub 3.5 applying for the #4 ranked MIS school in the country (hey, stop that snickering).  But I got recommendations from two highly published professors (one is a database God), destroyed the GRE test, and had a BS in Computer Science from a decently respected school.  Plus I'm hispanic and local (hello shoe in).  

One thing I'd recommend for both grad school or getting a job, get good at selling yourself.  Have a project, job, or real life example for any question they ask you.  Memorize your greatest triumphs but more importantly your most spectacular failures and how you dealt with them.  Know how to leverage these in interviews.  Memorize the answers to the really shitty HR questions (GOD THEY SUCK).  You need to have a real life answer to any question they ask you. If you don't have a situation where you dealt with something they're asking you about, get good about making one up.  

The better you can make your resume look and the better you can pimp yourself the better off you'll be.

One last bit of advice: find something else you're interested in and make it your minor.  Be it English lit, Classics (my minor), Chemistry, or Art, it's good to have a minor that shows off your intellectual flexibility.  Anything to distinguish yourself from the other code monkeys.

As for me, I'm going for a Computer Science major.   It's a move that's playing my element of computers but will involve plowing through a lot of math.   I may end up refocusing my efforts should I "find myself", but when one has been using computers as a hobby nearly non stop since they were 6 years old it would seem one's path is somewhat established.

So far I haven't put much throught towards graduate school - perhaps the State Univerity.    However, we'll see how my GPA pans out.

Good luck, Geldon. I'd give you advice about school if I could, but I'm a dropout. :)

Anyways, I just wanted to ask about SWG real quick.

Bloodfin

Didn't know some of you were from there. So how's the server now? I have a Novice BH there (Hopefully it's still there. It's been about almost year since I played). Heh, equipped with "Enott's" weapons (which probably doesn't mean shit these days). Those TR guys still there? They pretty much borked the economy from what I recall (which was one of the reasons why I quit).

Maybe I'll come back for Lightspeed, I dunno. How useful is Squad Leader now? Or maybe just a simple pistoleer for PvP? The BH tree proved too much for me.

It was my previous gf.  Either way she finally got accepted, but it took alot of work visiting each professor/dept. head and trying to make her case.  She already had 4 summers worth of field work to top it off and did very well on her honors thesis.  Anyways I was just trying to offer a counterpoint is all.  :P