The thing is, I always get here on board when I have to rant. I could as well call this customizing-rants instead of customizing-thoughts. Anyhow, back with another complaining post. Some people can never be happy - contentful - satisfied with their lives. They are grouchy and repel others away, I am slowly inching towards that category. Sigh. Period.
The issue with quarter system is that it gets over in a jiffy. According to my university rules, classes are taken for a period of 10 weeks. This particular span of ten weeks is, mark my words, SO eventful. The more number of courses you take and the part-time job (paid/ unpaid) workload that you have, the higher the release of epinephrine. Multiple reasons attribute to this slow poison kind of damage to the brain: regular homework - quiz - research papers to read, discuss, comment upon, actual research (an understanding Principle Investigator of the lab will make a lot of difference in letting you breathe a little through the quarter). You can model it as a Gaussian curve -- start off slowly, the peak during the midterm, slack a little after the mid). And then comes the grand finale, the anomalous impulse response shot during the one and only 11th -- the craziest of all Finals week. Do a sneak peak during this last week of the quarter and you will have a compelling urge to admit most of the students in an insane asylum. Such is the mood swing, the pendulum attitude (it exists throughout the quarter, but worse at this time). Or you could administer anti-depression drugs. Not that it might help. But still, worth a try.
One of the most regrettable impacts of this kind of a system is that there is minimal scope for true learning. There is not enough time to understand, let things sink in, munch and think about it deeply. Applying concepts can happen mostly when we have that sweet little gap to absorb, not merely read and work on assignments. The second, extremely regrettable issue is the lack of freedom to select courses of one's choice. This arresting rule is restricted to very few departments to be specific. When it is hard to see the usefulness of the course to what one actually wants to do, it is difficult to cope up. In addition considering the time frame (time crunch) one cannot take all the courses that they want to specialize in. Again, like undergrad, it's all spread out and vague and muddy and blurred for good. There is absolute time crunch, this being a two-year program. On top of that, if one is "required" to take such random courses, then what is the point of doing a "Masters"? What am I mastering? I can't specialize in what I want to specialize!!! (Boohoo!) Being force-fed is one of the worst things that can happen to anyone. It's intoxicating! It's all the more sad when you have to pay truckloads to get yourself sick. All that I truly wanted grad school to be like, is missing. I find a big gaping hole between my expectations and reality. A gap that seems unbridgeable.
You may wonder and strongly condemn me for what all I've said so far. Because nobody forced me into pursuing this stream or study further at all. I understand I have made some serious mistakes of not researching deeply, imagining the situation ahead. But still, may be this is worth a try. It's teaching me some lessons the hard way. Which is good, as I will never forget these all through my life. (until I get Alzheimer's)
The best-est lesson I've learnt so far: people here take their time to decide their career path. They never see what they do as the next logical step (unlike most of us back home). And, they are so passionate about what they do, which is influentially inspiring. By observing them, it feels like I have a lot of time to decide and do anything later! :-D Such is their thought process. A deep calm understanding of what they want to be.
There...I see a beacon of hope.
Looking forward to more positively eventful quarters. And writing (less) rant-ful posts.
--Peace--
