Why?
So here are the main reasons why I decided it’s time to quit the university. First of all the environment was very stressful. I remember my hair was falling 3 times the ratio it falls from an ordinary humans’ head. I have a completely white desk and set up in my home office and I could clearly see all that fallen hair on it. The other thing was that I witnessed a lot of cheating from many colleagues on the exams and different outcomes from their decision. This kinda took away from my motivation to continue my hard grinding and competing with them but I get it. I know why people were cheating. In my opinion, the criteria of the university compared to what it offers you as education was crazy high like 10 to 4. By that, I mean that some lectors were unable to explain their own methods of solving problems but insist on using those methods. During the teaching process, most lectors didn’t even intend to teach you the matter of the subject, they were there to sing the same song over and over again for every different department. I and some of my fellow students caught up teachers profess the wrong information, on several occasions. Please don’t get me wrong, there I met wonderful teachers but I am speaking for the rest 80%. So as crazy as it sounds the cheating was understandable. Students were trying to match the criteria and the university expectations from them. Some, of course, invested their time learning, some cheated, some did both. What for? That little piece of paper they give you at the end? I am sorry I really couldn’t cheat. I also tried a few times but it’s just not me. I’m really bad at cheating and unhappy doing it. I know how the world works, it’s just not my choice to encourage that vicious cycle. So I decided it’s time to break it.
I remember the first year I was a hard learning student, the one that always takes the first seats, pays attention to the lecture and asks related questions. I even remember several times when the group I was in were very unhappy I am asking so many questions. They just wanted the lecture to end faster in order to go home. I swear I was there for the knowledge and the grade meant nothing to me! It’s been like this since first grade. Yeah, I know the grade you get from a qualified person who actually put effort and tries his best to teach you is a way to help you understand how good is your performance but I consider myself not a stupid individual and I also value my own judgment high (based on the fact I’m statistically predicting the exact outcome of a situation more often than most of the people who also let their feelings and ego speak) so whenever I receive a weak grade it won’t be something that will affect me in a negative way. It never was something I fought against even if I didn’t agree I deserve it.
So time goes by and my second year I’ve already seen a bunch of injustice, a bunch of crazy high criteria teachers that can’t solve or explain their own statements and I decided to switch my strategy in order to feel better. So what I did next was paying attention only to the courses I was interested in. I was interested in every subject where the teacher actually wanted to teach us and respected his/her efforts to do so.
Specific situations that tilted the scales
Most of these may look unbelievable to you but I stay behind what I’m telling you here with my name.
I received an F grade with 18/20 correct problems solved
Yes, I know. It sounds unbelievable, right? This was my year final physics exam and I solved eighteen out of twenty practical problems on paper and I expected at least a “B” grade, unfortunately, turns out I got an “F”. When I saw the results in the web view at first, I was laughing. I was way over-prepared for this exam because I had all the problems given and solved at previous exams in the last 5 years. Some of my problems were very similar (with different values) or exactly the same as those I’ve already solved weeks ago so it was a piece of cake. I never asked what happened or went to argue with the appraiser. Please keep in mind on the preliminary which if you, by the way, fail you are not allowed to the actual exam, I was rated with “B” grade. An important clarification is that both exams are evaluated by different teachers. The one I had “B” on, was rated by a professor who broke down two of Einstein’s works, both world-renowned.
I took this as a great insult and never went to the same exam in the next 2 years. Two years later when I was about to quit I went to it but this time well drunk. There were problems to solve and only three problems to fence the answers. I solved those three problems out of twenty and left the room swearing. This resulted in an “E” grade. Enough of this university for me.
Later after I quit some guys told me there was another guy that cheated and somehow got all the right answers from his smartwatch, he also got a “C” grade but they never caught him cheating, then he went again and they gave him an “E” so I assume there is a possibility that they took me for a cheater. (Which is unexplainable cheaters had been marked a specific way in the final report and I was not). If that’s so it’s a pity because at that time I was so broke I could dream of a smartwatch or an android phone with a decent camera.
My best friend paid his due and got dispelled
Another thing I was frustrated with was this particular case. Long story short my mate paid his semestrial fee, had the documents, went through the university administration to ask if there is anything else to do. They told him “No, everything is fine” and in the middle of the year, teachers told him he is not part of the student’s list anymore. It turned out that there was a misunderstanding between the administration and the cashier. He only needed a single seal on his documents to continue but when he contacted the decan he refused him the seal. My friend asked for a refund, but the refund was refused too. That’s how it was. I am a witness to the whole situation. There were no other reasons, he is a smart individual and that’s how he lost a year of his life working in a local supermarket.
You only pass if you bought a handbook written by the teacher
I know it’s sad but it’s the truth. I guess after the first story you suspected me in not being honest, right? Why would I come up with such an entertaining, goofy scenario…
They give you the exam if you bought the handbook of which the teacher is the author. Then you automatically receive an “E” grade. All who printed the book or didn’t have it were torn at the exam. I’ve solved 4 tasks out of 8 super hard tasks (wrote down 4 full papers) , but I also know people with 2 left-hands who just wrote some cock-and-bull story over a single problem and somehow magically passed the exam because they had bought the textbook. As I already said at that time I was so broke… I couldn’t even afford to print that handbook but I had a perfectly detailed personal notebook where I’ve written all the lectures. I was not allowed to use it. Those with the handbook were allowed to put it wide open in front of them while doing the exam.
There were many other
There were many other stories but I get sick just from writing this so I’ll end here for now. What’s your opinion about the higher education in Bulgaria? Please share it with me in the comments below.
What are people going to say now? What reactions I got.
Well, I honestly don’t define my actions based on others’ opinions unless those “others” aren’t a figure I look up to. Someone with way more personal experience than me, who’s competent in the field in which he gives opinions, whose words and actions are in perfect sync and who admits his own failures and week spots in his thesis. In that case, I’ll definitely consider reviewing my position over and over again but even then I might disagree because of differences in our value systems. Anyways here is what happened so far.
My parents:
Both my parents were disappointed. Of course, they were. They were born in a different time where the ones who had a diploma were worth and the rest were just working-class ordinaries. Well, to be honest even those with a diploma are working-class ordinaries if that’s the highest goal they set themselves. Also nowadays a high diploma is still a big advantage when you apply for a job although this wasn’t my goal. I don’t see myself as a 40-50-year-old, working for a big corporation or a medium-sized company in the IT, doing the same boring tasks over and over again without creativity and personal attention, because let’s be honest it’s always going to be like that when you are not creating content for yourself. These companies ain’t loyal and I am here to change the world, develop myself further, get more skills and that’s why I started my own company.
My closest friend at the moment (who by the way got interrupted at university):
He begged me to continue my education in the same university even though they made fun of him. I understood him too. His parents were pressuring him to finish what he’d already started and he wasn’t able to fight them. He didn’t want to continue with this madness but he was financially dependent on them so the moment he leaves he won’t have a roof over his head and will be fighting live alone.
My classmates:
LOL, this one is actually funny. My classmates were actually encouraging me to live the university and there may be a lot of reasons but looking at the big picture now there is one specific I can clearly see behind that attitude. They were simply eliminating the competition for workplaces. It’s a very possible reason because Bulgaria is not that big of a country and there are few well-payed job positions, especially in Sofia, which are worth the hassle. Those positions are in companies like IBM, HP, VM ware and others I can count on the fingers of my hand.
Quit with that whining, You Unique Snowflake!
Hey, I failed. I get it, I admit my fails and this was surely one of them. In the end, I had a total of eight exams, most of which I didn’t even go to. I already gave in the battle. This was just my personal experience and I encourage you to take it with a grain of salt. It’s just that my expectations were equally high to the reputation of the university and its criteria and maybe even higher. I really have high standards but I am also always willing to offer my best in return. If I get a crappy deal don’t expect me to take it, I know my capabilities and my price and I value myself because I am as harsh as I can be especially when I rate my own actions.
What I’ve learned?
In the University? Well, not much. I don’t want to be arrogant and I’m sorry I have to say this but that’s the truth. Most of what I’ve learned during that period was information from other sources rather than the one I was delivered inside the environment. The most information I got from the university was so outdated or useless for my field I probably won’t ever use it. I clearly remember some assembler projects I did, some properties, and qualities of metals (totally not applicable) , electric measurements, working with databases (something I already knew), very little programming knowledge C, C++ (I constantly felt like I suck at it even though we started from zero) and finally physics. Physics I loved the most. We had very decent teachers in some of those courses.