Changes over time

My daughter is BS and MS in Accounting from UF/CPA and her fiance has his BSME from UF and working on MS in Aerospace Engineering from Johns Hopkins. They are each 4 years out of college with good jobs and collectively make $240,000. Lot more than I was making. Seems like they are having a harder time getting by with the cost of rent, expenses, … than I did at their age. I remember my grandfather had a beach house/2nd home not making much. Seems like the cost of housing, cars, home/car/medical insurance, and college have outpaced earnings making it difficult for young adults to find their way.

 

BSME ‘94 here! I too, did a 2 year stint at a CC and got kicked in the mouth my first semester at UF. Turned it around and got it done. Dr Gater was the best with his “No Communication” take home tests.

 

A shame for you – most are trimmed or shaved these days

 

I took Thermo 1 with Gater annd thankfully he went on sabbatical to write a book so got Thermo 2 with a diff prof. Back to Thermo 1, I always remember Gater’s first day intro. At the end, he went into a diatribe about how the class was difficult but not to do anything drastic if we didn’t pass it. I’m like ‘wtf’ and after class, overheard some people talking that a student needed to pass that class to graduate and had committed suicide when he didn’t pass it the third time. Oof

 

Gater was a fun prof. Glad he was still around almost 20 years after I graduated. He was young though so no real surprise

 

Thermo was Dr. Richard K Irey — ME360 and ME361 (quarters back then). He was writing a textbook so all our notes were on 8x10 pages typed on one side that we had to keep in 3-ring binders. Insane volume of paper and binders. First day of class his grad student wheels in a cart and each desk got about an 8” high pile of notes dropped on it and he said something like ‘this is your first month’s worth of notes.’ The next day of class half the students were gone.

For me Gater was Fluid Mechanics — ME450 I think I recall

 

That’s funny. Dr Gater was writing his own Thermo book and we had to buy it at University Copy Center. Just a modernized version of your binders.

 

Good grief. I guess Civil Engineering wasn’t that student’s 2nd choice.
I forgot about his sabbatical! I had Dr Gaiter for T1!! How about that naming convention?? Dr Gater was T2 and T3. I still have his take home tests. Fun times. I think I was treated for GERD around about that time.

 

I went back tto school in my early 30's to be an engineer . After cal 2 , i decided i didnt want any more education . That, and the part where i have to live wherever to chase money.

 

Nobody graduated with an engineering degree without passing Thermo

 

I recall the kid was either an EE or ChemE. Apparently jumped to his death. No idea if that was real or not, just what I heard.

 

Summer 1977, geared up to go to West Point but dad died in a car crash that damn near killed my mom. Had a 4-year ROTC scholly and admission from UF as my back-up plan too so took that to stay closer to mom to see what was needed there. History major (engineering/math would have been a hard climb for me at WP had I gone), but really majored in Army ROTC and fraternity. UF's AROTC was #1 in US 3 of my 4 years and #2 the year we weren't the best. Had a big pow-wow with family at end of soph year: Stay at UF or start all over as a plebe at WP? Decided UF was a great route to get a precious RA commission so stayed the course. No regrets there.

UF was so different then, as many have noted in this thread and elsewhere. I consider myself fortunate to go to UF when little was "done" for incoming frosh. We had to figure it out. Our parents dropped us off, gave a hug and said "See you at Christmas." Registration in Alligator Alley or Tigert Hall was pretty overwhelming for this guy. Watched what others were doing and tried to follow along. The learning curve was steep and there was no internet / social media or other sources of insight other than what we learned from talking to students older than we were. That applied to just about everything we did in 1978-82: "Figure it out." Have a problem? Go see someone and have a face:face conversation. Get told something bad - deal with it - and figure it out. Example: I had orders from the Army and the bus was was on the MOVE to graduate in May - I thought. Last meeting with my academic "advisor" (grad student) - Can't graduate - lacking 6 hours in non-European history. Screech! the bus came to a halt. Had to hastily sign up for 6 hours correspondence courses (from a prof at FSU no less) and cram 6 hours of work into about 4 weeks. Air Mail the blue books to the prof and call to ask him to expedite the grades. He did and was very helpful. UF notified the Army I was a graduate on Thursday and I took the train to NY for my commissioning on Saturday and reported to Ft Knox on Monday. "Figure it out."

I don't see much of that from what I have noted of my kids college experience here in Tennessee but Mrs G8rRanger and I tried really hard to avoid meddling and let them "figure it out."

 

Great post