A letter to the underclassmen

Dear Underclassmen (including the “POed Mines Student”),

The CSM Campus has recently become riddled with criticism. As many might suspect, these grievances address the difficulty of the classes being offered. But they are not coming from the upperclassmen. They are made in vast numbers by the lower classes (freshmen and sophomores) who feel that Mines is unjustly challenging. Their work loads are too big, the material is too advanced, and their tests are HARD! I’m sure you’ve all heard it, I know I have. Well, my fellow upperclassmen and myself have a few words of advice.

You guys are the whiniest group of students that Mines has seen yet. You complain about lower level courses, which are the basis for all future classes of your degree. You are not going to get away from basic Physics and Chemistry, even if you reeeally don’t like them. Why? Because you’re getting a technical degree.

Yes Mines is more challenging then your high school, but just because you flew through your classes there and were “like, the smartest person in your class” does not mean you are going to get through Mines without a struggle. Mines is challenging and you can’t be afraid to work hard! It’s supposed to kick you in the Blaster sometimes! And I think you need a reminder that, just like you, everyone else at Mines was in the top of their class too. You can’t all be the best here.

That brings to light a valid point: Mines is not for everyone. Just because you got in does not mean that you will be able to succeed at Mines. As my fellow classmates like to say, “It’s a hell of a lot easier to get into Mines then it is to stay at Mines.” So shrink your egos, you’re not a BAMF just because you’re here.

Some helpful hints: To succeed at your classes, it requires work and effort. That means that you may have to go to that Academic Workshop or Tutoring session, you may have to spend more then 2 hours on your homework assignments, and the most ghastly part is, you may have to use those textbooks that you spent $400 on!

And stop trying to convince your professors that the material and classes are too hard. It does you absolutely no good for your classes to be made easier since they will only get harder. Upperclassmen professors will not “give you slack.” They will just fail you. And making your classes easier won’t help anyways, because your future boss won’t make your job easier. Mines is hard. That is how it has always been and always will be. If it wasn’t, our degrees would be worth as little as a degree from CU.

And if you do manage to have your teachers drop the levels of their classes, you end up lowering the standards of Mines. This means you are devaluing the degrees you are paying $20+ grand for a year. This not only harms you, but hurts future and past classes. So stop trying to degrade our degrees!

So if studying and putting a decent effort into your classes sounds like more effort then you’re willing to put in, then you do not belong at Mines. But remember, hard classes make you learn something! That is generally regarded as the point of going to college. We have all gone through what you are going through and survived, I am pretty sure you will too. Just remember, you can always transfer to CU, and if you do, we’ll send flowers.

Sincerely,
Concerned Upperclassmen