Why did I choose this school:
It was close to my place of residence and the tuition fee was small; I also had a DOST scholarship in college, one of the benefits of which was that they'd subsidize my tuition fees. Since it didn't cover the whole cost of my tuition, I was concerned about minimizing the cost my parents would still have to pay for me to go to school.
About UP Diliman:
Honestly, if I had to compare UP Diliman with the other two schools that I had to pick from (Ateneo De Manila University and De La Salle University), I'd have to admit that the other two schools were much cleaner. UP Diliman also had generally older facilities that had fallen into some degree of disrepair. You wouldn't expect most classrooms to be air conditioned, and you also learned to tune out the graffiti in many of the bathrooms and classrooms I frequented. To be fair, that's because UP is a state university that covers a huge area; the other two schools also have the benefit of having more money (from higher tuition fees charged to students) to use for miscellaneous expenses. UP was a very hair-down place where you met all sorts of people from different backgrounds, and religion isn't a big thing there. One could while away free hours just sitting down watching people, or hanging out with co-students from different backgrounds, just having fun or talking about whatever tickles your fancy or intellect. The campus grounds had a lot of green areas, which had leaf litter and branches and brown patches of mud and dry grass; there was hardly an area on campus where you couldn't find some sign of plant life or nature, but it wasn't manicured or deliberately landscaped the way gardens in Ateneo or La Salle would be. No uniforms; you could wear what you wanted, except if you were attending a PE class or an ROTC session. Basically, if you are very fussy and rely on formal rules and order to make your way around, or you're too sensitive to tolerate possibly controversial viewpoints from other students, and maybe even your instructors and professors, UP isn't for you.
Speaking of instructors and professors, I have to say I generally liked mine. They came in all sorts: there were green, newbie instructors; there were tenured professors who taught very demanding classes; there were distinguished national artists and scholars who were highly intelligent but believed in free discussion rather than rigid coursework. I don't know how it was in other schools, but during my time in UP, I studied under more female teachers in the life science, arts, and language courses, while male teachers were taking care of math, non-life science and philosophy subjects. Very rare was the subject where you'd have teachers who enjoyed power tripping, and such teachers would be referred to as "terrors" (though the term could also apply to teachers who were simply just too demanding of their students academically). I learned a lot from the instructors, who knew how to respect their students and gave leeway for those who deserved another chance. There are those who tended to spoil their classes, giving bonus points and lowering grading curves so the class as a whole could pass, but you had to really look for those professors and instructors. But also, there are those who would give no allowance, and you had to determine how they were right away if you were to decide on the best course of action--whether you could study your way to a passing grade or drop the course and take it in another semester, with hopefully a less demanding teacher. But whether or not they were demanding, I found all of the teachers in UP to be competent authorities in their respective fields.
My current job:
Right now, I'm a senior content editor for social media. I'm in charge of ensuring the quality of content that is published on selected social media campaigns for certain businesses, making sure that they are grammatically correct, in line with any marketing efforts and business strategies that the businesses have, and are targeted to pique the interest of the niche that the business hopes to attract or retain as customers.
How long did it take to find a job:
I was able to get my first job, which was as an assistant in an academic laboratory, within 3 months of my graduation. Saying that, it wasn't the best-paying job, and it was a lot more demanding and frustrating than I was able to deal with.
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