Apathy

Anything beats studying.

In this week's Imprint (UW's student newspaper) there was an excellent editorial regarding apathy at the University of Waterloo. The writer discusses the possibility that the problem with student life at UW is not a general apathy of the student body, but is instead the misguided efforts of FEDS and student organizations. His point rang true for me at least.

In MacLean's Magazine's university ranking issue, the University of Waterloo floats around the top of the charts perenially in almost all categories except for student atmosphere (and financial aid - methinks these are not independent phenomena). Why doesn't the student body enjoy the atmosphere at school? Is it a lack of fun events? Maybe, but student societies are constantly organizing concerts, pub crawls, and intramural sports which always have a sub-par turnout...wait...is sub-par a bad thing? Below par is good in golf...this doesn't make sense. Anyways, the nightlife isn't the problem; we have a good variety of options in nearby uptown Waterloo. Yet, night after night, these bars would stay empty were it not for our party school neighbours down the street. So what are students doing in their spare time at Waterloo? Walk into one of the 2 major libraries on campus at any time of day, any day of the week and you will easily find out. Try getting a seat in the Davis Centre library - no wonder it's called Club DC. Not only will you not be able to find a table, you will be hard-pressed to find a seat, terminal, or one of those weird cube cell things.

The author of this Imprint editorial speculates that the problem is a misguided attempt by the Federation of students to force students into doing things they don't care about or don't have time to care about. When my dad was in college, they were throwing entry-level jobs at students, they didn't even need to earn their degree to be offered the job. Nowadays, post-secondary education is required for almost all entry-level positions and if you aspire towards a good job at a prestigious company or a start-up with some serious potential you need more than just a degree. The degree has to come from a reputed school and if it isn't a post-graduate degree, you better have top marks. This pressure has forced students into the library on a saturday night, and it also means they have less room to care about those "less important" things in life.

Now, I'm not sure these students are entirely righteous in their behaviour but it is what they believe is right. What I believe is you need to develop a sort of balance.

When I entered my program I was in the middle of the pack marks-wise and stayed there until the end of first year when half of my class failed out. Now, if the bottom half falls out and I was right in the middle, where does that leave me afterwards? Yep, I've been uncomfortably holding that bottom position for the last 2 years and I'm not ashamed of it. I'm not proud of it but I'm certainly not ashamed. The reason is that despite my classmate's prettier transcripts I have managed to attain excellent co-op positions. I volunteer my marks when I apply to jobs and most employers are not deterred by my consistently average average - to ballpark it, I think my overall average is somewhere around 70%.

If the difference between 70% and 80% means I lose all aspects of my questionable social life, I'm happy with my decision. By not spending every waking minute on school work and computer programming I have developed a superior set of social skills when compared to the majority of my classmates (to those that are reading this, I'm not talking about you). This means that I can confidently participate during interviews and I think at the end of the day, as long as you are technically competent, employers would rather hire someone that they can throw down with at the watercooler than some robot. And if things continue on this robotic trend at UW, that's about all that we will be able to produce as a graduating class.

Remember, as my friend Deaf Frat Guy says: "If you're not wasted, the day is."