Being a TOA student that has never failed any subject nor semester, I can vouch that it's not that lifeless in TOA after your first two horrible semesters in your foundation year.

The worst part is the Figure Studies class - you have to hand up 2 portraits of people per week, spending roughly 4-6 hours per piece to get the optimum results. After a few classes the quality deteriorates because you ultimately sacrifice this subject for other major presentations you have to finish up at the end of the semester.

I won't deny that several young women are often seen acting flirtatiously with and showing boobage and ass-cracks to every breathing male organism in college - the lecturers/tutors to gain favour and to ultimately get higher marks despite the low quality of their work, or to get them to help them with their work, and the young male students to get them to finish their assignments for them.

[ Seriously! You come into class and the first thing you hear is some hiao girl saying "Omg sirrrr, you look so handsome today!" ... Wtf? ]

Work hard, play hard, get your results. If you know how to juggle your time effectively instead of stoning away without getting anything done, you'll be fine. I've classmates who club on a regular basis every week or so but still pass up their assignments and get relatively high marks because of their quality work. A lot of us also work part-time AND have fun outside of college while getting good marks.

There will be those who seem to retake countless semesters... but then again, that's because they don't even bother giving any form of work that's up to par, nor do they even bother putting in any proper effort in the first place. For TOA, you can't complete a final project that you were given 5 weeks to plan, design and execute within an hour and expect decent results if you don't have the skills to back it up.

In short, those who fail usually deserve it. They fail, blame the lecturers and say that the lecturers are picky and overly detail-oriented, choosing to favour everyone else but seem to have some sort of vendetta against them, and then whine continuously until the end of the semester they retook, and... fail again. See a pattern?

At the end of the day, a lot of these ARE the rich b-stards who are really spoilt and can afford to waste their parents' money. But not all of us are like that, and we do have a lot of fun while completing our assignments on the side.

Don't stereotype TOA students into a) Rich/spoiled kids and b) Zombies simply because that seems to be the majority that make their obnoxious views known. There're all kinds.

That aside, you're better off choosing another college for Interior Design. Just sayin'.

[From several pages back] Yeah, I've heard of the legendary 8+++ Figures submissions Really salute you Illus and AD majors, man. There was a lot more conceptual stuff for us in the recent semesters, so maybe that's why? For some reason now that we've cut down on figures the creative flow feels less... stuck.

Minto-chan, the Foundation's there because they're trying to cram all the basics into a few months. How're you coping so far, and what's your course?

Anything after high school's a shock. A-Levels (exams-wise), SAM (presentations-wise), and thus art colleges are no exception. You'd just have to really learn how to manage your time.

It's fun to still be able to game and work while juggling my assignments. Not complaining.