These questions are deceptively simple, and yet they have such important rammifications. I hope in answering them I'll be able to help others with my own experience so that they don't make the same mistakes that I did.
1. How much pressure does school give off to you within your everyday
lifestyle?
In university, how much pressure academics gives you is dependant not only on the school, represented by its professors and their individual courses, but also on yourself. By not having foresight in scheduling or allocating time for studying, doing readings, or completing assignments, the amount of pressure and stress can escalate far beyond what is inherent in individual assignments or courses themselves. Sure, a major CS project or economics problem set may prove to be particularly sticky, but it becomes much more so if you leave it until the last minute, or if you realize too late that you have other assignments or papers due at the same time.
For me, there is a lot of pressure right now, because I had missed two weeks of classes in order to organize and run a model United Nations conference here at Cornell. As a result, I've dropped a class, lightening my courseload significantly, but I'm still doing make-up work, and that, combined with the amount of new material being covered, is making life a tad stressful. Everything really hinges now upon final exams and final papers.
Do you take your education in school seriously at all?
If asked that question, I would say yes on the spot. If I were to stop and reflect for a few minutes before answering, I would say that my practice does not echo my principle, because if I were more serious in my studies, my grades would be significantly better than they are. The courses that I take are not walks in the park, but they are not so difficult as for me not to do well in them. It's just that I get distracted, sometimes by games, sometimes by anime, and therefore start falling behind a bit in readings. Thus readings that should be done on time are held to do for later, and therefore the backlog grows, slowly but surely, until it reaches a point where it is nigh impossible to completely catch up.
Do you necessarily think that school is adding a little too much stress within your own
life, at times?
Even including the comic stress of my social life, which adds depth and dimension to my life, academics are by far the primary sources of stress in my life. My many extracurricular commitments, such as my presidency of the Cornell International Affairs Society and therefore my position as head of the model United Nations program, my position as supervisor at the university IT HelpDesk, and my position as consultant to the university IT Security Office are all sources of pleasure and escape for me. Stress comes with coursework and things I left until the last minute because of my trying to escape through extracurriculars or from pastimes such as watching anime or lingering here on Minitokyo.
And would you necessarily sacrifice good grades for a little more fun,
actually?
Not anymore. Whoever believes that grades are not important, I must dispel your misconception right now. Unless you meet a certain level in your grades (generally 3.5 on a 4.0 scale, though sometimes significantly higher), doors are closed to you with no means of opening them. For example, top-tier graduate schools simply won't look at your application no matter how strong a candidate you are unless you have a good average grade point average. The same is true with good jobs; grades are the initial sorting factor by which they narrow their candidate pool. True, some very qualified candidates are lost, but in general its the most effective and efficient way for them to find the most solid candidates.
You may bring a lot to the table, but whatever your strengths or weaknesses, whatever your intangible qualities are, your grades are a tangible asset or liability that will follow you for the rest of your life. Do not shoot yourself in the foot because you give into the folly of instant gratification at the expense of your academics. I know I have been for the past three years, and therefore my last year of undergraduate study will not be a fun one as I work to balance the lack of studiousness and lack of foresight I excercised in the past.
And. . . those are my two cents. I hope many of you will come across my post and find some use of it, though it is
buried farther into this thread than can catch the attention of most. By all means, feel free to PM me or leave a note
in my guestbook if you have any comments or would like to discuss this subject. As always, thanks to Celessa for
creating an engaging topic for me to set words onto metaphorical paper upon.
