Now that we've covered the basics, let's skip ahead to the interesting parts, namely when you're about halfway through your degree program. By now, you're no longer a meek little newcomer, cowering under seniors and running away from attention. In fact, if you've learned anything by now, it's that the more people you know, the less effort you have to put into studying.

It's all about compromise, baby. There was a time when you were a squeaky clean youngster with ideals and dreams of accomplishment and towering over others without college degrees. You burned like the very fires of hell themselves to do what the teacher told you to and that little extra, just to stand out and you beamed with pride when the teacher noticed your efforts and singled you out. Good little teacher's pet you were. Now, though, you're semi-disillusioned. You've spend a lot of terms watching others who barely apply themselves and copy off others' test papers get ahead of you. You've also stopped showing off how good you are at a cerain subject because you've had the dubious pleasure of watching your hard work circulated amongst "friends" so they can copy off it, many times not even changing small details so that your original work is dumped in the same category as the copies. You now realise that it's every man for himself and if you work hard, you must reap the benefits.

Learn from your mistakes. You made your mistakes and you chose some people who did nothing but watch you work. You could not say no to people asking you for favours and ended up paying for it. Now is the time to sit back and look towards the future with a critical eye. Your buddy B may do great impressions of teachers, but is he really the best choice for a group leader? There are many catfights, even more phaddas and many broken hearts, but in the end, you'll emerge with a new found knowledge of human beings.

Teachers don't really give a shit. You know it's true. Most teachers do not care about you as an individual. They don't give a flying rat's ass about your personal development, your personal crises or how much you slaved to submit work on time. Here's a little secret: if your teacher's on the permanent faculty, they're probably working on a master's degree, or even working on a thesis for their Pd.D. If you should get one of these teachers chances are you, the lucky students, are an unwitting research assistant and those reports you slaved over and submitted are being used in their thesises so they don't have to waste time doing the research themselves. If, however, you are being taught by adjunct faculty (the freelancers of the teaching world), chances are that they're cursing you inside for approaching them after class hours because all they can think of is how much traffic they'll have to face on their way to the next university.

Originality and hard work don't count for much. By now, if you're smart, you really apply yourself to the work that catches your fancy. Myself, for example, I quite enjoyed putting together my English Writing Skills portfolio at the expense of studying at all for my calculus final. The point being, by the time you're midway through your degree, you'll have a feel for the place you're studying and know how to go about coasting through uninteresting subjects while still getting a decent grade and leaving enough time for the things that matter in life, like sundaes.

Since trilogies seem to be in vogue these days, the concluding part will be up next, just as soon as I get about fifteen minutes to spare. Ranting is such fun. :)