School etc.

[Cyndadile]

I figured it might be interesting to have a place to let off some steam about school and life, or just talk about what's on your mind.
Basically, just talk about
Life, the Universe(-ity/school), and Everything.
(This is different from the No Topic Thread)
I'll start.
My english class is terrible. I had always thought English was supposed to be about reading, writing, and speech, but apparently it's just meant for my teacher to tell us her opinions about everything.
My robotics team is failing this year.
On the bright side, I'm getting good grades, and my fencing team is quite fun.

[ImmunityBow]

What are the unit names in your English class?

[Reliability]

I just submitted an essay proposal for which my entire Annotated Bibliography is YouTube videos. On the flip side, I had to stalk a girl for a half hour for the same course.
You should all go into writing studies. We don't make sense for a living.

[Cyndadile]

I don't know the unit names, we never got a syllabus. Our current unit is Marketing and Advertising.


You should all go into writing studies. We don't make sense for a living.

Could you elaborate?
Also, I feel like stalking someone should not be an assignment in a course. People tend to frown upon it for some reason.

[Reliability]

Well, we had to 'capture a writing process' (all of the things that one does while writing), so that meant that I had to watch this girl write an essay in the library for a half hour.

Essentially, genre studies looks at the way in which texts (herein meaning anything written, said, or done) are formed and the implications that these methods of formation have on the individual and their surroundings. It's kind of the next step outside of English: English analyzes content, Genre analyzes how the content comes to be. For example, I just read 44 pages on Speech Genres, which are the way in which speech happens in order to create a meaningful dialogue between individuals.

[Cyndadile]

That sounds interesting. Is that your major, or are you just taking a class this year?

[Reliability]

I'm a creative writing minor, but there are some writing studies classes that I can use for it.

[NyteFyre]

Well, though I'm still only in High School, we have a Creative Writing-esque class, that I am currently in. At the moment, we are writing group plays.

[ImmunityBow]

I'm actually taking an arts studies course where we're learning about genre theory and the like.

[NyteFyre]

Heh, I'm learning a bit about that myself. Our Genre is Supernatural, so it more or less encompasses all genres if you want it to. Ours alone involves Drama, Action, Romance, Supernatural as stated, a little comedy, etc...

[ImmunityBow]

That's not what's meant by genre. Genre are different forms of communication, so to speak. Like "forum post" or "shopping list". Traditional genres like Romance, Adventure etc. are actually just subcategories, and identifying how those come to be gives you different information from identifying why people text in shorthand and such.

[Cyndadile]

Sounds like you have fun classes. I might minor in something like that.

[Cyndadile]

I've been having trouble deciding where I want to go to college. I know that some people here have made that decision, could any of you give me some insight about what to consider while making my decision?

[ImmunityBow]

What kind of program are you looking to get into?

[Cyndadile]

Computer science, part of the engineering section of most colleges.

[ImmunityBow]

Is there anything specific about computer science that you enjoy? Software? Hardware? Design?

[Cyndadile]

Programming.

[ImmunityBow]

So either you're looking for a Software Engineering program or a hard Computer Sciences program.

Take a look at these?
http://education-portal.com/articles/Top_Schools_for_Software_Engineering.html
http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2011/subject-rankings/engineering/computer-science

That's for academics. You might also want to research the professors to see how inspiring they are as actual people, as well as campus life etc. And how far away from home you want to go.

[Reliability]

Unless one school has something specific academically that draws you to it, I would base most of your decision on comfort. There aren't many differences in the way History is taught, so I had a lot of leeway to choose based on the school itself. I made my decision based mostly on the campus environment. When I visited the three schools I was considering, I went with the one that was
A) The prettiest (actually a legitimate criteria for me)
B) The best tour/information provided
C) The best interaction I had with current students.

A lot of the decision can be boiled down to feeling. Pick some criteria to use to help, but if one institution feels right to you, don't ignore that. That's probably the best advice I can give.

[Cyndadile]

Thanks. I think I've almost made my decision, but I'm going to wait before I finalize it.