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Browsing tag: uni

  • March 2, 2009

    Whew, just finished my first day of uni and I’m drained. It’s going to be a heinous semester. 20ish hours of classes, plus 14ish of work, plus working on assignments in my own time. (Why so much class time? Shorthand in itself is almost another whole paper, plus Editing and Design and News Reporting have extra long tutes).

    Then we have something like 14 assignments – it’s all internal – plus the one article a week we have to write. And I’ve just found out we have to write another two for the student newspaper, and ANOTHER two separate ones for Public Affairs. There’s going to be so much extra work outside of class, some of it group stuff, and with my chocka schedule (it does not look unlike a typical M-F 40 hour week) that’s not going to fly very well. Along with six others I need to go meet the editor of our assigned community paper in the next few days, for example. That is already probably gonna require me taking time off work.

    Stress levels rising. Frazzled nerves. Better not think about it and just get on with it.

    But I think I could deal with all that if only BF could find work. His job situation (lack of) is what has me worried.

  • February 13, 2009

    I don’t get it

    I haven’t had the luxury of a summer off since high school. I doubt I’ll ever have another one, come to think of it, which is a bit sad, but c’est la vie. It got me thinking though. Why don’t more people work full summers? Do they just not get how large their student loans are gonna be and what a huge amount they’re saddled with? By the time they come out and start accruing interest – well. I make over 2k a month full time – one summer would easily pay for a year’s tuition (unless I was a med student. Still, all the more reason to work). Of course I have a relatively well paying job, so let’s go with minimum wage. Should be about $1500 take home a month. That’s $4500 in three months, and if you have exams early on you can have up to a four month summer. Again, that’s a hefty amount of money, and not something  to sniff at. It might not cover tuition for everyone, but would you rather owe $9000 or $4500? And if you don’t want to give up your ENTIRE holiday, then work half time, or for three quarters of the summer, you know, find an in between balance!

    I understand money really isn’t as important to most people my age. That’s cool. They’ll learn. But even stepping up and working a day or two a week could be put towards those monster loans – you have months of free time and if you’re sticking around close to home, why on earth not make some extra money to save or get started attacking your loans with?

    Engineering students also have to do a truckload of work exp to graduate – like 400 hours or so. My mum was asking me why my friends are bumming around, doing nothing and working at Countdown instead of doing time at an engineering firm? I didn’t have a suitable reply. Really. I still don’t.

  • February 11, 2009

    Not a democracy

    university is not a democracy.

    the one thing I despise about AUT is their policy on timetables. at least, within the communications faculty. they assign our classes. we take them. we can try and swap classes with other students of our own accord, sign forms, etc. it’s not always easy though, when you’re trying to pawn off an 8-10am media comm tutorial – people were resorting to monetarial bribes last year! Strangely, haven’t seen any such requests this year.

    i’m just waiting to hear back about my two shorthand classes to finalise my schedule. they run 8-10am, tuesday through friday. unfortunately, the only two days where i DON’T already have a class in that block, are wednesday and thursday. so unless that gets changed, my shorthand classes will be on wed/thur – only problem is I have a four hour class lined up from 10-2 on wednesdays. Making 6 hours straight, 8-2.

    please, kill me now!

    four hours of photography last year on friday afternoons was painful enough, despite my love of the subject, the 2pm short break and that we were allowed to leave early (it was very much self directed). so I can’t imagine how shorthand followed by news reporting is gonna be.

    i can’t wait to finish and be shot of their undemocratic scheduling. and to NEVER have to deal with studylink again. or have six hours straight of classes.

    i do, however, plan to write a lovely letter to the scholarships office thanking them for my fortune and allowing me to graduate debt free. see, i’m no pessimist. silver lining!

  • February 4, 2009

    Bureaucracy at its best

    Can anyone make sense of this, seriously?

    fees

    Just thought I’d check my timetable online again, and my “online transactions”. Behold, this numeral work of art.

    The exact same thing happened the last two years, they invoiced me, scholarship office couldn’t pay it for some reason, they sent out a new invoice, cancelled my papers, reissued them…..AHHHHHH.
    Why? Why all this faffing around, cancelling and reissuing my fees, for absolutely no reason and with no discernible change? At least I’m not paying late fees – it’s the university’s problem on this one.

    Thank the stars I won’t need to go through this again next year, or deal with Studylink. Woohoo!

  • January 30, 2009

    Sticker shock

    I have to admit, I really hate receiving mail.

    It rarely, if ever, brings good news.

    Some are perfectly innocuous and harmless, if a little annoying. Letters from my MP, trying to reach out to his ethnic electorate. Offers from DTR, hoping to suck me into an HP.

    Bank statements, insurance invoices, and other money-demanding correspondence. BF was foolish enough to take some people somewhere last year – IN THEIR POS CAR, driving four people because ALL OF THEM HAD LOST THEIR LICENCES.

    They got pulled over, he got the fine for carrying passengers, and for one of their car lights being broken.

    It would have been nice if they paid for both tickets, seeing as he was doing them a favour. Not that they are. In fact, it’s doubtful they’ll even pay for the fine for the broken light.

    Yesterday he was done for driving around another friend who has no licence.

    He has three months till getting his full, so I have begged him to please NOT drive anyone else around. Just because almost all his friends are dumbasses who’ve lost their licences, is no reason for him to lose his too (not to mention the heinous fines).

    ANYWAY. Yesterday I got my fees invoice. Uni fees this year are over $5100!!! First year, around 3900. Last year, $4200. So this is almost a grand more….
    All of my papers have outrageously high fees – I’m not really sure why. Instead of being under $600 each, some are $700 and $800. Hopefully my scholarship will cover it all – they should. Speaking of which, I must ring them and see what to do next.

    I’ll probably have to pay almost a grand out of pocket, for other costs and materials and the student association fees.

    Plus I plan to get contents insurance, and get a laptop and camera. I’ll be getting some money from mystery shopping, overtime and my first story assignment at work – which I haven’t even touched on yet! And if I ever get paid my $400 from December’s articles, that will cover the techy stuff.

    I’m glad this is my last year of studying. I can’t imagine how fast fees are going to increase from here on now.

  • January 15, 2009

    Self doubting

    writing_tablet

    Now I’m into journalism, I’m feeling conflicted. I know it’s the right choice, it’s what I want to do and there’s nothing else I’m interested in, in terms of major.

    It’s way easier to move into PR and marketing than vice versa, and I wouldn’t mind trying my hand at publicity at some point.

    But in terms of journalism, well I’m having major self doubts. How am I going to find stories every week? I mean, I know it’s possible – thousands of past students have done it. But without press releases landing on your desk, without a huge social network or connections, without involvement in tons of groups and the community, it’s really daunting. Let alone breaking important news…

    And in terms of actually working post grad, then what? I’m definitely into beauty, but by no means am I any sort of authority. I’ve come to enjoy hard news more, but I don’t think it’s where I want to stay. Especially since I’ve noticed a pattern: something happens, something bad, kneejerk reaction, go to authoritative sources to comment and report on subsequent ‘calls for action’ whether it’s tougher laws, smoke alarms, more lifeguards, more police, cracking down on drink driving, whatever. And it seems kinda of repetitive and lame to me. One negative event doesn’t warrant a full on banning of whatever is at fault, especially when it happens over and over.

    Being a columnist certainly looks fun, though I don’t know what on earth I’d ramble on about. Then again, look at stuff like the Listener (a mag I do enjoy!) and Bill Ralston’s Life column, the Inbox column, the Internaut…. My opinions aren’t strong enough on REAL issues, as yet, and I definitely couldn’t defend any of my views very well at all. And frankly, I hate conflict. Which is no good, and I’ll have to develop a much thicker skin, I know.

    I think I’d really like to get into features, especially music writing. Ever since I stopped playing guitar my love of music has waned. I used to religiously have the radio on, and listen to music on my computer 24/7. I haven’t had the radio on in months, and because I only just figured out how to make the new Windows Media Player sync with my music folder, I wasn’t listening to my songs. I’m hoping to get back into playing guitar later on, now that I’ve realised it really is okay to just putter around and play for the hell of it. I was getting too worked up, too focused on GETTING GOOD and it simply wasn’t fun or relaxing anymore. I wasn’t improving and I just couldn’t play standing up. Now I really don’t care whether I can play upright or not, or whether I can play Astronomy perfectly, I’d just like to get back in the zone of playing for hours, just because. And I think tying that in with writing would be amazing. I love being at gigs, I like the buzz of events. I would be keen as to do reviews and interviews and be part of the scene that way.

    I’ve almost convinced myself! But anyway, that’s still a far far distant dream; there’s lots to get through before that point. As time goes on though, I’ve realised it’s okay to not actually know what you want. So many people don’t. even ones much, much older than me. They don’t have all their shit together, and so I’m not gonna panic. Careers today are so much more dynamic, and it’s not that hard (at least in the media field, from what I can see) to move laterally, sideways, or even transition from sales to editorial. And with the web growing by the day, hopefully there will be lots of online opportunities come next year.

  • January 11, 2009

    Student allowance – for the last time ever!!!

    I’ve just finished the excruciating process of applying for my student allowance! YESSS!!!

    Honestly, if nothing else, the horror of dealing with Studylink is enough to deter me from ever undertaking further study. That, and the bloated fees charged for post grad.

    It might be worth it after the age of 25. I think that’s when the new limits kick in – they get over $300 per week, instead of less than $200. Why? I dunno. Maybe they think someone older will have more financial obligations. Still, isn’t that something for us to handle ourselves? It’s not Studylink’s job to cover our visa payments, car loans, HPs, etc.

    What bugs me is the sheer repetitiveness of the application process. I have to enter the same info every year. DOB, date I arrived here, date I became a citizen (I don’t know any of these dates; I just hazard a rough guess), etc. Thankfully I shouldn’t have to send in paperwork as they should have it on file from the last two years.

    I also have to enter how much I’ll be earning during the semester. Get this: I don’t even have my timetable yet. I don’t know what hours I’ll be working or how much I’ll earn. That will probably change from the $190 i entered and I’ll have to frantically call their 0800 number in the last week of Feb to recalculate my allowance entitlement. And get a letter signed by my boss to say I’m not lying.

    I really don’t have any faith in Studylink. Last year I didn’t get approved until the second week of uni (but they backpaid me, yay!). I never got the forms I needed despite calling week after week. I think it was the postman’s fault actually, but whatever. I still despise them; they’ve a govt. operated agency and the sheer bureaucracy is unbelievable!

    In 2007 about 2/3 through the year some smart alec staff member was poking around the system and noticed that I’d applied in 2006. Yes, at the END of 2006, for the 2007 year. So as to be ahead of the game.

    But they took no notice of that. No, they assumed that despite applying in December of 06, I must have been applying for the 2006 accdemic year, and therefore should not have been receiving payments for the whole of 2007. And they took it upon themselves to suspend me. The first I knew was when I checked my balance and had NOTHING in my account.

    Fuckwits.

  • December 2, 2008

    Another uni gripe

    First, their ridiculous method of handing back exams (cram in students from all three years on one level on WT, let three or four in at a time, hunt down their papers, wait for them to decide whether they want to appeal or not, let them out, let a new person in. Anyone who can’t come in during this three hour block, well shit outta luck).

    Today I walked up to uni at lunch (10-15 minute walk) to retrieve my photography portfolio off the walls of the art department. I got up to the seventh floor. I got no further. Construction zone signs and warnings were EVERYWHERE. Do not enter. Danger. Authorised personnel only (don’t you love that one?). Looked like they’d stripped the walls from where I could see. SO god knows where my prints are now, if they still exist. I’m pretty steamed about my wasted lunch break and not being able to get my work back! I was hoping to post my photos up here, but whatever.

    At least taking that paper didn’t bankrupt me like I thought it would. I would never have signed up if I didn’t still have my old SLR from school. As it is I think I only spent about $100, which yeah, is a lot, but not too bad considering I bought both black adn white and coloured paper plus 4-5 films.

    Speaking of money, the boy’s going to Work and Income to see if they can do anything for him tomorrow. The boss told him they have a small project and he’ll try and get him onto it. Not convinced. It’s in their best interests to keep stringing him out as long as they can and hope he stays with them till the new year.

  • November 25, 2008

    Ranting

    Marginally more composed now.

    B+ for journo. Can’t actually remember what my other two marks were; i’m thinking an A and A-. So hopefully an A- average overall. Pretty annoyed with myself for making a couple of stupid mistakes, and for having had my moment of clarity AFTER the exam in regards to one story, but oh well. I’m on tenterhooks now but we’ll just have to wait and see.

    Onto more pressing matters.

    Second full week of nonemployment for the boy. this disgusting cutback of hours is worse than being laid off. at least with redundancy good ol Key’s package would kick in (although it hasn’t been actually organised yet, as such) and unemployment would be available.

    God, sometimes i feel about twenty years older. with every new development i feel further and further removed from everyone i know, who mostly don’t REALLY know what it’s like to be dealing with all this and definitely not to this extent. of course most of these are joint problems and not really mine, but that’s what relationships are about, aren’t they?

    as it is we have to try and get an appointment with work and income, along with the presumably thousands of others struggling and wanting the exact same thing. then trying to show that an average income of 2-300 a week doesn’t cut it especially with two straight weeks of no work. it’s bad for the wallet and it’s bad for the soul. i can’t singlehandedly support the two of us. our assets are separate and should be counted as such. however the fact that i have any money in the bank probably precludes the boy from qualifying for emergency help.

    if nothing else, this experience has totally cemented my belief that we need to work to feel valued and have motivation. sitting on your ass all day simply stagnates you. i don’t know if i totally support making single parents go back to work, but i certainly believe in working for the plain old dole.

  • October 23, 2008

    College in America

    Online learning is certainly the more effective option for students, but it’s also better for the environment.The Open University in Britain have found that online courses equate to an average of 90% less energy and 85% fewer CO2 emissions per student than traditional in person courses.

    I’m really glad that I didn’t have to go to uni in America and I was educated by Trilogy Education services. The whole college selection/application process sounds so soul destroying. Being the high stress, low tolerance for rejection type of person I am I don’t think I could have handled it. Plus, it’s just so frickin competitive. I so couldn’t have matched up.

    Online schools have been set up to allow students to study and pursue their academic goals without having to be physical present in a campus. This mode of education is more convenient, affordable, and effective.

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