ever since i got my associate's degree from community college & transferred to a university, i've felt kind of.. behind. in total, i'm going to spend 6 years in college just to get my bachelor's degree. my family (mostly my parents) & my friends don't understand why & every time i try to explain it, i think it just gets lost on them
basically, i did all of my basics & MORE at community college bc i got my associate's. to get it, you have to take everything that the community college requires, not just the basics that you will transfer over to university. i did this bc i figured since my parents want me to be at community college for 2 years anyways, i might as well finish off that degree. i took every class that i needed to transfer over to the school of art at the University of Houston & i expected to go straight into the design program after that
what they didn't tell me was that at the University of Houston, you have this thing called block. block is basically block design classes, like back to back of just that class. you have to get into junior & senior block by going through a block review which is a portfolio review of all of your design projects from the design classes you take before getting into block. the design professors look at everyone's projects & they decide the limited amount of students that get in. the classes you have to take before block are fundamentals of graphic design, introduction to typography, colors, materials + methods, & intermediate graphic design
when i transferred to UH, i realized i wasn't going to be there for 2 years (community college: 2 + university: 2 = 4 years for a bachelor's). when you're at the community college, they don't really tell you that you should transfer just basics or that you have to take these classes or that there's a thing called block. i already had been in college for 2 years but block is also 2 years & i wasn't in it yet. i had to take the 4 design classes first but i couldn't take color & type until i took fundamentals. so it set me back a few semesters but on top of that, block classes are only in the fall so i had to take all of these classes & get into block by fall which wasn't possible. so i had to split it up & i became a part- time student bc i wasn't going to spend extra money on classes i didn't need
so i stressed a lot about being so behind- 2 years!!!!- but i realized that i would be able to take my time w design & have time to do my projects really well so that i can ensure that i get into block (well, not exactly ensure bc you can never be sure). my parents don't understand that & keep telling me to try to finish college faster, when i literally cannot. it's not like i WANT to be in college longer, i am the type of girl who is always on top of things & on track & now i am off track & they're not helping by stressing me out
& block really really stresses me out. i try really hard to do everything so perfectly bc i know that graphic design is really nit-picky & the word "perfect" is all i can ever think of when i do my projects. it's so different than "art" bc in art, you can paint a little outside of whatever you're painting & it's fine but in design, that's bad craft. i think that people don't understand the difference btwn art & design & that's why they always think it's so easy for us. don't get me wrong, art can be hard too but i've always done art & design is me challenging myself
maybe if i went straight to the university when i graduated, i would be on track but my parents really wanted me to go to lonestar & i wanted to save money (which i did, don't get me wrong- 5 classes at lonestar cost me about $1000 something while 5 classes at UH cost me $5000 something). but it's kind of too late to dwell on it bc you can't go back in time but at least now i know so i can warn my friends that wanna do graphic design at UH!
this explanation got a little word-y but yeah, that's why i'm gonna take 6 years to graduate from college & why i need everyone to stop assuming it's easy & acting like i don't wanna finish faster!
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