A product of my environment
Jul. 31st, 2005 05:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
morslaI've just come home from an afternoon at Deakin's open day - a campus I've never been to, filled with people I've never met before. It's the first time I've been on a uni campus for anything vaguely study-related this year. For all it's newness, it still felt like home.
I've spent a lot of my life in or around universities. In high school I turned up at Monash to try learning university chemistry at high speed (two 12-hour lecture and prac days, and the rest self-taught by correspondence) alongside a packed final year at high school. That didn't work out (not enough support for the distance-Ed students to make it worth continuing), but the campus has always felt familiar. I worked at RMIT in their Key Centre for Applied and Nutritional Toxicology for a few summer holidays, learning how to be a Generally Useful Person in a postgrad research lab. Sure, RMIT still feels like a rabbit warren, but there are a few familiar places amongst the mass of tunnels and corridors.
At Melbourne, of course, I spent a lot of time. I've studied full time and part time, been an Arts student and a Science one. I sat in a chemistry lab learning how to be a scientist; I followed scientists around writing about the social context of their research. Somewhere amongst years of martial arts, science fiction books and long lunches at the pub I managed to take measurements of fossils in cliff faces, jogged for six hours in the desert to catalogue rock outcrops, and explored a gold mine a few hundred metres underground. I often discount how much actual "study" happened amongst the million-and-one other things I got up to, but I'm starting to realise just how much there really was.
Today went well. I didn't get the information I'd hoped to hear from a few course co-ordinators, but I slipped through the crowds and chatted to staff about all sorts of things. I quickly sifted out the presenters-who-read-speeches-written-as-adverts, and the people who just want more postgrads to join them in academia. If you prune away the PR, there are some nice honest people who have good information about the state of their field, and their standing amongst other universities.
I'm also apparently an Industry Professional now. I think I fit into the demographic because I'm already working in a field (even if it's not exactly where I intend to stay), and because I ask direct enough questions to intimidate people who were expecting me to be Highschool Student #384 for the day. Mind you, I was impressed by a lecturer who gave on-the-spot explanations of post-structuralism and gender studies to a boy who explained that he really wanted to be a graphic designer, but wanted to know more about Arts...
In proper student style, I lived out of my pockets for the entire day :-) I bought lunch at the Vic Market for less than a dollar, and walked home at my own pace through the park. If I get more days like today, I'll be quite happy with whatever comes.
I've spent a lot of my life in or around universities. In high school I turned up at Monash to try learning university chemistry at high speed (two 12-hour lecture and prac days, and the rest self-taught by correspondence) alongside a packed final year at high school. That didn't work out (not enough support for the distance-Ed students to make it worth continuing), but the campus has always felt familiar. I worked at RMIT in their Key Centre for Applied and Nutritional Toxicology for a few summer holidays, learning how to be a Generally Useful Person in a postgrad research lab. Sure, RMIT still feels like a rabbit warren, but there are a few familiar places amongst the mass of tunnels and corridors.
At Melbourne, of course, I spent a lot of time. I've studied full time and part time, been an Arts student and a Science one. I sat in a chemistry lab learning how to be a scientist; I followed scientists around writing about the social context of their research. Somewhere amongst years of martial arts, science fiction books and long lunches at the pub I managed to take measurements of fossils in cliff faces, jogged for six hours in the desert to catalogue rock outcrops, and explored a gold mine a few hundred metres underground. I often discount how much actual "study" happened amongst the million-and-one other things I got up to, but I'm starting to realise just how much there really was.
Today went well. I didn't get the information I'd hoped to hear from a few course co-ordinators, but I slipped through the crowds and chatted to staff about all sorts of things. I quickly sifted out the presenters-who-read-speeches-written-as-adverts, and the people who just want more postgrads to join them in academia. If you prune away the PR, there are some nice honest people who have good information about the state of their field, and their standing amongst other universities.
I'm also apparently an Industry Professional now. I think I fit into the demographic because I'm already working in a field (even if it's not exactly where I intend to stay), and because I ask direct enough questions to intimidate people who were expecting me to be Highschool Student #384 for the day. Mind you, I was impressed by a lecturer who gave on-the-spot explanations of post-structuralism and gender studies to a boy who explained that he really wanted to be a graphic designer, but wanted to know more about Arts...
In proper student style, I lived out of my pockets for the entire day :-) I bought lunch at the Vic Market for less than a dollar, and walked home at my own pace through the park. If I get more days like today, I'll be quite happy with whatever comes.
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no subject
Date: 2005-07-31 07:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-31 11:24 am (UTC)It took two tries (I only had a $1 coin on me, and the first collection of fruit was out of my price range) but I managed it on my second attempt.
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Date: 2005-07-31 10:49 am (UTC)I've spent the better part of my life at Universities too (I lived in a college until I was seven), and always felt at a bit of a loss as to what to do with the world outside them.
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Date: 2005-07-31 11:29 am (UTC)They all have their differences, too... Deakin has a really nice performing arts/film facility, whereas ANU has an intimidating number of people doing science research (two earth science areas, the larger of which is at least five times the size of the Melb school).
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Date: 2005-07-31 11:28 am (UTC)yeah, I like walkin through unimelb when I'm in town. for good and bad, it feels like home.
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Date: 2005-07-31 11:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-31 02:29 pm (UTC)Good for you. Hope it turns out ok.