I was having a conversation with szehong, one of my psych camp group mates.. and i think i'm damn funny? hahaha.
Ok so we were talking about first impressions and how people can click with each other and hence become good friends. So i asked:
Me- "So do you think we clicked?'
Szehong- "Er.. half click"
( we didn't exactly talk much during camp, i was just asking this for fun)
Me- "What's half click? mouse spoil ah. "
hahahah isn't that funny!! I thought it was.
ANYWAY. some of you may know that I am going for Arts O Week which is from 31st-6th. I mean, fresh out of Psych Camp, just found out about O week, sure go ma.
Right now there is some brouhaha (YES finally used the word since encountering it in secondary school and thinking lolwtfisthisfunnyword. if you don't believe there's such a word,
go here. about the whole registration issue-
Registration for O week was advertised as last Sat/Sun, and this coming Sat/Sun (have to go down to Heeren to personally hand in the form +money)
The thing is, after Saturday's registration, there were only 16 spots left for girls. And after Sunday's registration, ALL SPOTS for girls were filled, and the waiting list was FULL as well
"Vacancies for girls have been filled up. The waiting list for girls is already FULL. Therefore registration for girls is officially closed."
And the stupid thing is:
There are still 140 vacancies for guys.
lolololol. Like what?? The stupid thing is that there is obviously a larger ratio of girls:guys for FASS, so obviously there are much more girls wanting to go for this than guys. And i heard that they are trying to achieve a 1:1 ratio (or something similar) because SDU is a sponsor of the camp (That is the matchmaking agency btw) -_-
So right now there's an outrage on the tagboard of the
O Week blog, with all the girls complaining about how they're denied a place. All 103 of them (that's how long the waiting list is) and more (those who didn't get on the waiting list).
Though I agree that it is unfair that they are denied a spot because of the committee wanting to achieve some unrealistic ratio, I think they are being really retarded too.
Though I agree that it is unfair that they are denied a spot because of the committee wanting to achieve some unrealistic ratio, I think they are being really retarded too.
"cookiejar: hello. so are there other orientations for us to join? like a university orientation for the rest of us? if not how are we supposed to know about bidding and getting around school? oh no.. "
"yah im more worried abt nt knowing how to go rd the campus, and how modules work.. "
"oh wow. so prob more than half of the cohort can't have the freshie experience. awesome work, admin ppl. "
Firstly, if you are so worried about your university education, why are you waiting till JULY to start to find out about these stuff when school starts in AUGUST? Information about modules and CORS bidding has been up all the while on the official NUS/FASS website, all you had to do was do a little searching.
Heck, there are even
forums about this. (sorry lazy to link CORS official site, i think the forum link should contain the link)
Next, raging about how are you supposed to know how to get around school? Unless you do not open your mailbox for months, NUS did send a freshman package that included this thing called a MAP. Also, the NUS compound isn't a restricted area with guard dogs patrolling to keep out intruders. It is open to public ffs. You are free to go in and take a bus around school and walk around.
I mean sure, you won't be 'guided' as you may be at O week (i doubt they'll even have some sort of tour, probably incorporate it into a game like Amazing Race aroud school or like what Psych Camp did, some Photohunt thing) but with a map and a basic sense of direction, you should be able to orientate yourself right? And you have the whole 7 days of O week to go do this self -touring. So.. more than enough.
Lastly, what on earth is 'the freshie experience'? Guess what, the term 'freshman' refers to a student in his/her first year of school. You will be having the freshie experience for the next 365 days.
And if you're referring to 'a camp experience', there have been 21937 camps that have occurred such as Arts camp, psych camp, cac camp, hall camps, society camps, sports camp etc. If you really wanted to have 'a camp experience', you could have signed up for any of these.
So to sum it up, don't blame the camp admin for your lack of initiative. That basically summarizes everything. One point i do agree on, however, is the weak advertising. My only hint about any camps were from the freshman package that came in june.. and half the camps advertised in the included brochures were over already (including hall camp!! oh fmlll if i had gone maybe i'd have gotten in)
What is with the staggered mail anyway? My friends received the freshman package like 1 month before me, and I have friends who received it one month after me. Does it occur to them that this causes the advertising to be rendered ineffective?
And for the Psych camp, it was only because of a
moment of impulse that i decided to want to sign up for it and so I went to google for it. Otherwise I wouldn't have any idea when it was and when to register, etc
And of course for O week, I only first heard about it during Psych camp when my facils went 'are you going for o week?'. I didn't even know there was a camp!? I thought 2nd Aug I was supposed to go to school for idunnowhat reason. I never knew there was some camp or activities thing. The mail from NUS doesn't even mention it.
What can be done better is that NUS should work more closely with the different student groups in these, especially big camps like faculty camps. I mean, you can't expect the committees to have access to every single FASS' student's email/address, such info is only accessible by the school itself. So NUS should help them out with the advertising! I mean, you do want to have happy, 'orientated' students right?
Wow what a long post. I was really frustrated with those whiners on the tagboard of oweekblog, which was more or less the trigger for this long post. Welcome to the grownup world kiddos, no more spoonfeeding, noone to hold your hand. You want something, you go get it, or find out where to get it.
Truth is, I am worried about this too. Like, not knowing about anything unless you go find out about it. Like how university education is very independent, you have to approach professors on your own for your projects, you have to access information on your own.
I guess for those who didn't get into camp, this is a good wake-up call for them, the true immersion into university culture, the perfect orientation lesson.
Peace.
