Senior year is always a mixture of fun and stress, more so stress anymore. You worry constantly about getting accepted into the college your parents want/you want, paying for all sorts of fees, juggling classes all while trying to stay sane. I've been in that position so I definitely know how hard it can be.
You never really think much of it till you're close to a mental breakdown. Schools force college on students and so do parents. It is every parents dream to see their child go on to college and graduate with a degree and likewise that is some of their child's dreams as well. HOWEVER, college does not have to come right after high school. I really feel like parents fail to realize that.
My parents pushed college so hard on me so I attended community college, I was not happy and...
Education
To Whom it May Concern:
It has come to my attention recently that the Theatre and Cinema Arts Department at the University of Missouri - St. Louis (UMSL) has been recommended for “inactivation.” As a graduating senior in the department, this news came as great shock to me and led me to investigate why this was happening.
The official reason given in the March 22nd, 2018 “University of Missouri - St. Louis Program Prioritization Committee” report is that the program is losing too much money per credit hour; poor margin data. There are at least seven other departments with a greater reported loss of money and poor margin data, but the decision recommended for those programs is “Further Review.”
Interestingly, some of the programs being proposed for review are basic core programs...
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Now that the dust has settled and a committee is being formed to implement our new Collective Agreement (CA), this open letter is being circulated in order to recognize the CUPE3902 Unit 1 Bargaining Team and their time and work to negotiate a collective agreement with significant and wide-reaching benefits. This agreement contains funding increases and healthcare benefits to communities on campus that have borne significant hardships, this includes students who are parents, students in the unfunded years, and students with mental health concerns. These benefits are invaluable and will change the way many graduate students experience their time at the University of Toronto. This CA provides a better future for graduate students at UofT.
Please sign below to acknowledge the work of our...
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I have to start by saying that my story is not that sad. By all regular standards, I live a good life. I understand that when looking at things from an outside perspective, I may come off as whiny and ungrateful. Maybe even lazy and entitled. However, I just got off the phone with my private student loan provider, and I am filled with both rage and a feeling of defeat. Which is pretty much how I feel every time I get off the phone with them.
I have a both an undergraduate and graduate degree with a mountain of student loan debt (ringing in at about $150k.) I am in the field of social work and I don’t make a lot of money. I started my college career 12 years ago. While I was still in high school, my parents sought out as much federal financial aid as they could get for me. They didn’...
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Dear Mr Kinnock,
As you did not respond to my email of 12 March inviting you to join our picket, my colleagues and I are now writing to you collectively, as staff and students of the University of Kent.
We were surprised and disappointed to learn that you are due to visit our School this coming Thursday 14 March to deliver a talk to our students as part of our public speaker programme.
Under ordinary circumstances the visit by an elected representative to the School would be a highly welcome and exciting event. However the circumstances are far from ordinary.
This week is the final week of a 14-day long cycle of industrial action currently being undertaken by the University College Union (UCU) in a dispute with our employers over a drastic attack on our pensions. The...
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Dear Deans of Admissions,
My future is based on a number. My intelligence is calculated based on a multiple choice exam. An exam that has been averaged across all demographics and academic capabilities to fit the baseline testing abilities for students, an exam that determines my future path as an educated individual. I am not a test taker. My academic abilities cannot be portrayed through a scantron. I have a creative mind, one that is eager to think beyond the answer - to investigate, research, and persevere until I am satisfied with my newfound knowledge. My ability to showcase my work ethic, my devotion to studies, my academic capabilities, my perseverance and my focus cannot simply be bubbled in on a scantron. Yet, this scantron and its score will be among the highest factors...
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I do not know if you remember me, we were in the same class in sixth grade. I don’t know why I am doing this, but I guess I just want you to know everything that you added to what I considered the worst year of my life. This isn’t to make you feel bad about what you did, but mostly so that I have peace of mind that I told you how you made me feel all does days we sat across each other in Mrs. C’s class. Middle school was a very hard time for me, and you made it even harder for me. I guess the best way to tell you about it is from the beginning.
When I started middle school I was in 5th grade. Some bullshit about not having enough space in the Elementary school for everyone. Anyway, apart from going to a new school, I was placed out of ESL (English as Second Language) classes for the...
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Respected Professor Durkheim,
I came to know of you and your work through my social anthropology teachers at the Department of Anthropology, University of Calcutta, which happened to be the oldest Anthropology Department in India established in the year 1920, seven years after the publication of your last major and one of the most influential books The Elementary Forms of Religious Life.(1913). Despite the fact that our British colonial masters founded the oldest Anthropology Department and we were taught to learn more of A.R.Radcliffe-Brown and his British structural-functional school, our teachers did not forget to remind us that Brown was largely influenced by you. As a corollary, we were also taught that you the French master was the source of Brown and you undoubtedly enjoyed more...
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An Open Letter To The Rye Neck School District
I am writing this around the same time of the two year anniversary in which I lost a good friend of mine to abuse of prescription drugs. Brandon was a true “friend to everybody”, he was an active member of the Mamaroneck community and was widely loved. This love did not only extend from Mamaroneck and their school district, the school in which he attended, he was loved by dozens of Rye Neck Students as well, I was one of them. His funeral was packed with Rye Neck Students, I was there. Mamaroneck High School kids, as well as Rye Neck Kids, all recognized a sort of tacit agreement. This could never happen again. We understood that. However, the reality of agreements like this is that pretty simple. Without pairing them with...
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To Dr. Michael Kirst,
Hello, I’m Carl Valdes from Redwood High school in the Tamalpais School district. Although both my school and district are in the top 35 in their rankings, I’m not here to praise them, I’m here to do the opposite. I’m writing to give you to give what my teachers call some friendly constructive criticism. I believe that for this to be effective though, one must throw out the rigid attitudes that come with formality, so if you’ll excuse my colloquial style, I’d like to share with you some of my concerns about today's education in California.
As a seasoned,seventeen year-old I’ve seen my fair share of tests, grades, and teachers. While being from some of the best schools in the state, I’ve got probably some of the best teaching there is in California, for public...
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