Maybe McPat should start a new poll. What are the chances of PJ going undefeated for his entire college career?
Casey’s summer email
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Yeah, going to a big building and wandering table to table to collect punchcards for classes, where some arbitrary factor set your window. Only to find no cards available and have to reselect classes on the fly.
One time through that fiasco of not getting the classes when I wanted, and I found people with early times to collect my classes and smuggle their punch cards out.
All this talk about credits is giving me PTSD. I’ll probably start having that nightmare again about finals coming up and I hadn’t gone to a single lecture all year.
So you're not married?All this talk about credits is giving me PTSD. I’ll probably start having that nightmare again about finals coming up and I hadn’t gone to a single lecture all year.
I only have that dream 2x per week at the age of 60.All this talk about credits is giving me PTSD. I’ll probably start having that nightmare again about finals coming up and I hadn’t gone to a single lecture all year.
The damn thing must be a more common dream that I ever realized. Every once in a while I will wake up from a similar dream. Mine is usually right before graduation I remember I forgot to hand in a 2 page paper for a freshman humanities class I never got around taking as a freshman and when I wake up I am sweating with a racing heart. It never happened and i have no idea why that dream, but damn.
You guys aren't very reassuring. I have it at least once a week at 40. I was hoping it would die off with time.
I also have "Hey, this is SFC Smith from Ranger Training Brigade. We had a fire and lost your graduation record. We're going to schedule you to attend Class 010-25, starting up on 03 AUG 2025." That one is also...unpleasant.
I remember those days going to the IM building. I believe seniors had first dibs and down to freshmen as last. People hoarding punch cards, trading punch cards, throwing away punch cards. It was a mess. I never thought about getting a senior to sneak one out though. Being in Engineering, our courses were very much set for the first three years until we picked our Engineering Electives. I remember getting to pick on Social Science and one Humanity elective, and then we had to later take an advanced course in that same field. Everything else was scripted. I took the Sociology Intro (I think everyone did) and the Philosophy 101 course (which was logic and super easy as an engineer). In Summer 83, I stayed on campus as there were no jobs in Allentown, so I took 9 credits, and the issues was finding an advanced Philosophy class, which ended up being Oriental Philosophy (they probably can't call it that anymore). I worked harder in that class than any other engineering class I ever took to get a C.
I also never met my advisor until I had to get his signature for graduation. Since I was the first in my family to go to college, and since my 4 years in Engineering were 95% scripted of the courses, I never saw the reason. Dr Reethof was my "Advisor", and also my instructor for Vibration of Mech Systems. It was an interesting conversation with him that day. I had a decent GPA and a very good Engineering GPA, and he tried to convince me to go to graduate school, but I was dirt poor, and had a great job lined up in Austin. This was the result of taking those 9 summer credits and having only 5 credits left in the spring, so I interviewed with every company that I could.
I did a lot better on the semester system versus the trimester system, but it was probably because the first two years are all the engineering weed out courses, plus there was a lot of beer in Stuart Hall. Crazy that this was 40+ years ago, and I'm guessing Stuart Hall improvements have only been 2 coats of paint.
PS: I still have those dreams of going to the final, and not having attended a class all semester. Maybe it has something to do with the male brain at 18-21 years old and the the first real stress, as I never had dreams like this about any of my work post PSU.
Just to throw another data point in there, I’m 77, my golf friend is 83. Both PS Engineers. We still have that dream of going the whole term without going to class or opening the book with finals approaching. I think it
stems from having a big decision coming and knowing we can’t have all the information needed to make a “perfect” choice.
stems from having a big decision coming and knowing we can’t have all the information needed to make a “perfect” choice.
Who had to go to the Natatorium, swim a few laps around the diving pool, and then tread water with like 50 other students at the same time, all to qualify out of swimming as a Phys Ed elective?
If they pulled you from a pool then they put your student punchcard, which they had pulled earlier, into the special 'must-take-swimming' pile.
I survived the thrashing waters, but I wish someone would've advised me to walk out some time after my student card was pulled and before ever getting into a pool.
If they pulled you from a pool then they put your student punchcard, which they had pulled earlier, into the special 'must-take-swimming' pile.
I survived the thrashing waters, but I wish someone would've advised me to walk out some time after my student card was pulled and before ever getting into a pool.
Wow! I have a very similar recurring dream too! It's always at Penn State and I'm getting close to the end of the semester where I skipped a ton of classes and didn't know the course material heading into the final. I actually graduated with something like a 3.83 GPA. Anyone have an idea what that crazy dream means?
What year did you graduate? I was finished in the fall term of 1976. That last term was actually a lot of fun. I had most of my hard work out of the way and was just taking filler courses so I had enough credits to graduate. I had a friend Mark Sherlock who was in a lot of my engineering classes. Anyone know him? We probably hit the bars about 5 days a week during that fall term and I still got close to a 4.0 GPA. For my very last final, we were in the same class so we went to the Lions Den about an hour before the final. I was a bit buzzed when I started the test. It took a few minutes to clear my head, but I aced it after that. Crazy times and good memories!
The dream is probably race memory from our ancestors. It suggests that Earth was a prison colony established by a superior race to hold their school dropouts and mental defectives. And we are their descendants.
I was there Fall 1980 to Spring 1984. So I spanned the Trimester to Semester cut-over after my Sophomore year I believe.
My last Spring semester, I golfed everyday there and hit the bars in the evening. Perfect timing
My hope was to get into the Bethlehem Steel or Mack Trucks, all close by my home, but there was nothing happening, so I made the migration to Austin in the summer of 84 and never looked back
Yeah. I am not so thrilled with my setting other worldly expectations on a high school kid. Better to just sit back and enjoy him do his thing whatever the results. That said, every time I watch him... Damn!!!
My goal was to find warmer weather. During my final term, I saw a notice posted somewhere in the engineering building that General Dynamics in San Diego was looking for recent college grads. I applied for a position and around October of that year I got a phone call from GD. They flew me to San Diego for an interview. It was around 80 in San Diego and raining back in State College. When I got back, I thought about it for about 5 minutes and decided that if I got a job offer, I would go for it. Bingo - I moved to San Diego in Jan 1977 and have lived in the Western states ever since.
Very similar. I had a job offer with the EPA for Diesel Emissions in Ann Arbor. Computer company in Austin asked me to come visit in Spring 84. My first time on an airplane and we got heavy snow in State College. Flight delayed a full day. I arrived in Austin and got off the plane and it was a beautiful 80F. I really haven't seen the sun in PA since November
and they made an offer on the spot and I accepted on the spot. Not certain what would have happened if it was July and 105F. Toughest was telling my parents, as the farthest anyone moved from the homestead in our family on both sides was about 50 miles away. But they were hugely supportive, and came down every December to April from 2001 to 2015 with their RV and stayed at our 50 acre ranch to avoid the PA wintersYou must be new to this forum.
In my 50s… mine is I’m in my senior year of college and I haven’t attended some English class all year but need the credit to graduate. Usually takes me a few minutes after it awakens me to figure out yes - I did graduate legitimately.All this talk about credits is giving me PTSD. I’ll probably start having that nightmare again about finals coming up and I hadn’t gone to a single lecture all year.
Are you sure? Sometimes we wonder…. Like who would uber to a closed brewery? Where is your pocket diploma?
FYI
No gif on this board of Happy Gilmore waiting on the 9th green at 9:00pm as the sprinklers turn on.
