if i were to give up on St John's, where else could i go? the making-my-way-with-no-degree thing pretty clearly did not work out, so it looks like i'll need to get a BA somewhere, but i have no patience for the typical college structure. unfortunately, i also have no patience for the typical college student. what should i do?
posted by anne @ 6:24 PM
14 Comments:
Community College? Seriously. Older students who want to be there. Maybe not as booksmart or educated as the usual college folk, but perhaps a little more committed, on the whole.
Antioch LA was great for me - they are geared to an adult population and will accept all sorts of different transfer credits (including credits for learning experiences outside of the classroom). They accepted more of my SJC credits than any other college. Plus, they have somewhat Socratic format, so that you're sitting around a table discussing what you've read a la SJC. You can take some fluff classes there, but there are also some profs who really push challenging texts. I had a blast.
Plus, they totally rock the liberal diversity feminist radical etc. theme. The humanities are their thing, they do it well. Not so heavy on the science and math.
It might be worth trying SJCA, in case the problems are Fe-related? A
i thought the problems might be fe-related, and that seems to be the conclusion of the students fleeing fe in droves, but i'm not sure it's much better there, and it's so bad here that i'd have to win a transfer lottery spot to leave. housing and jobs would be a problem.
antioch might be an idea. are they in LA? are there other campuses?
i guess community college could be worth a try. i've had a lot of bad experiences with them, though, and i'd still have to find a four-year school in order to get a BA.
Maybe a public liberal arts college? Might have less of the kind of people who are giving you trouble in Fe.
If all you care about is getting a degree quickly and efficiently, you might try the University of Phoenix. My mother got her B.A. there while working full time and being a single parent. They do 5 week units, and you just commit to one night a week. There's minimal homework, but what they give is important to do for your grade (I remember editing her papers, which usually didn't have to be too long). I think the degrees are usually in business or the like, so not totally enriching intellectual brain fodder, but if all you want is a line on your resume, that's okay. My mother was doing it in order to be able to get a teaching credential later, and it worked out fine for her. But the real question is what do you ultimately want?
Antioch has campuses in L.A., Santa Barbara CA, Yellowsprings Ohio (here Coretta Scott King went to school back in the day), Seattle WA, and Keene NH (the New England Campus). Actually, I wouldn't go to Yellowsprings right now, they are having financial difficulties (actually, they might be closed). But the other campuses are financially healthy. I can only speak for the undergrad experience at Antioch L.A. though, so take it with a grain of salt.
the trouble's that i'm not really sure what i want. i thought this was what i wanted, but the Community of Learning doesn't really work when the Community part's so dysfunctional. i don't want a degree just for the sake of having a degree, but it's very true that my career prospects are bleak if i don't get one. and a career that i'm likely to want and to love (law or public policy) will need lots of schooling, and to get into the sorts of places i'd like to go, i'll probably have to get my BA from a place with name recognition. which is another reason to loathe academia. i am at least figuring out that i don't want to teach, though. so that's an important discovery.
antioch sounds interesting, but greg hates LA.
i took another look at College of Santa Fe. i thought they were only an art school, but for some reason they also appear to have a surprisingly good pre-law/politics program, with some courses taught by an ex-tutor who has adapted parts of the Program for his own use. which is an interesting option.
My ex-girlfriend graduated from College of Santa Fe with a degree in Music Performance and liked it quite a bit, as far as I know. For whatever that's worth.
...although, unfortunately, as i read more about them, it looks like they're just hanging on, financially, and that they are 'refocusing' themselves as primarily an arts college. this may involve axing the politics professors altogether. hm.
You should call the prof who teaches the part of the politics program you're interested in - maybe he will have ideas/recommendations.
In case your problems have to do with the political /ideological climate at St. John's, many good public or private universities might work for you. You just have to make sure that they have a strong department in the area you want to study. I'd recommend that you also pick a large department over a small one. If there are many professors to work with, you'll have a better chance at close cooperation. The quality of the classes also tends to be much higher in specialized departments than at St.John's, and classes will be less charged with conservative pseudo-academic nonsense. Also, costs at public universities can be low, and if you know what you want to study you can find one with a world-class department in your area of specialization.
Oops, anonymous comment was me. Something got mixed up with the buttons.
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