College

[Curiose]

[From what I gather... this section is where we can talk about universities and such in real life... if not, feel free to delete this thread.]

So, earlier this year I just graduated from High School. YAY. But, I've decided after long hard thoughts and from experience of other people that going straight to college would be a bad thing. A very.. very bad thing. Not that I have anything against it... just the way with my financial stability is, and with what I want to choose to do for college, I just thought it would be best.

I just wanted some thoughts on others about grants and scholarships; simply because I've heard mixed things, such as with some grants, you have to pay it back, and yeah... My mother doesn't think it's smart to do so [obviously because in this economy you need a stable education to get a job], but, as far as I see so, it would be.

What are your thoughts on it?

[Firsanthalas]

If I may. Oddly enough, going into education during a recession is probably a good thing. While right now things are bad, by the time you would be graduating things should have picked up and may be even in a high. Far better than to be graduating in a climate like the current one at least. So, while leaving it for a year may be a good choice (especially if you are unsure of what you want to do for instance), don't leave it too long.

[pamplemousse]

I wasn't ready for college after high school either, and I saw a lot of my friends get kicked out or fail because of the freedoms that college affords. I decided to take the summer after high school and the next several months to travel (which was amazing and afforded me a lot of the same freedoms as my friends without having to worry about a formal structure or blowing a scholarship).

Then when I came back from overseas, I learned a trade; went full time for 6 months and had skills that allowed me to work full time, make and save a bunch of money, then when I was 24, I went back to college. I should graduate this January or May (fingers crossed for January) with my Masters Degree.

Since I was older when I went to college, I was more serious, so I have scholarships that pay my tuition. I will have very little in student loans when I graduate, thankfully. You do not have to pay back grants from the gov't or other institutions, but loans you do, obviously, and it is easy to look at them as free money but that is a good way to wind up in seriously bad debt. Some people I know have $100, 000 or more in student loans.

There are plenty of ways to get an education that aren't so intense or stressful as higher education at the young age of 18. It's hard, hard work and requires a dedication that I think a lot of kids don't have. Don't feel pressure to do what everyone else is doing, if you don't think you are ready, or don't want to go to college right now, you are probably right.

Good luck.

[Curiose]

: 3 Thank you, Pample. I will certainly keep all of this in mind.

How did you get started with going overseas and such? It's pretty expensive, and I was wondering if you could give me some insight on that, because I'd rather get a stable job and such before going to College, which is what a friend of mine is doing now since his first college experience turned into a bust.

Oh, I didn't see your post, Firs.

While that may be true... my financial situation isn't look to hot at the moment. :c It just makes me worry about how I am going to get the money to even afford community college.

Edited August 21, 2010 by Curiose

[Mourn the Leper]

*edit...if you go, just make sure to attend class.

[i]random college factoids[/i]
-your college can hook you up with part time jobs to work around your class schedule and a list of scholarships...hit up their offices.
-talk to your guidance counselor often, sucks, but he/she'll keep you on track. (fyi - i didn't)
-summer classes are usually easier.
-don't take more than 12 credits per semester your first year, or a class before 9:30am...hmmm, the last one might just be me.

Edited August 22, 2010 by Mourn the Leper

[Curiose]

I wouldn't really say that was immaturity.. but rather, just ignorance of what you really wanted out of College.

If there was women, and drinking, and.. well.. other shenanigans involved, I'd certainly say so.

But yes, thank you for that insight. : 3 I have some ideas set on what I want to do already, but pinning one down as my major is kind of hard.

[Mourn the Leper]

my house had a bar, was across the street from the stadium, and i had two female roommates...and they had friends. i'm surprised i ever left.

[Curiose]

... Okay, yeah. I can see where you're coming from now.

[Burns]

My experience with college is slightly different, which may be the case because our college is paid for by the state, we need just about 5 g a year to live fairly good in college, easily made with a parttime job and summer jobs.
Therefore, almost nobody here goes to explore the world and find themselves before college, we do it during college, and it's great.

If you have any clue what you wish to do, start right away. Coming from school, you'll usually be highly motivated to take tons of courses at once, my friends and me started with 40 credits in the first semester and took another 30 in the second, and still had far more time to party than ever before, and the parties are... awesome.

By now, we reached the higher circles of our specific studies and take two-three exams (mind you, not courses, we hardly visit, let alone attend them anymore) each semester, which is a lot of work, but work you can schedule yourself, and therefore, we still have a lot of spare time for girlfriends, parties, and even binge-drinking every now and then.

If you have totally no clue what you want, take the first semester as orientation and just randomly step into classes and find out if it's interesting.
Over here, people mostly do economics or laws when they don't know where to turn, economies because it sheds a different light on the world for most, called utilitarism, and laws because the first semesters are like advanced rhetoric courses, and also strenghten your morals with scientific background. Psychology is fun, too, but only if you are interested in that, not so much because it's helpful for other courses of study^^

[Curiose]

Where I am, it's a little different than how your predicament was, sadly. :/

We have to fund ourselves for the college of choice, which can either end up in debt, or a long period of waiting to get the funds for said college. I understand that there is a lot of money out there to use it, but, there's still the issue of: I don't want to waste a single penny.

The college life I think [like highschool] I'll just stray away from, really. I'm not much of a partier, nor am I all that social when it comes to events like that. Bookworm, for the win.

Anywho. I do have a lot of interests, which make it really easy, but also REALLY hard to decide what exactly I want to/can do for college that will suit me for a career. I did a little bit of dabbling into Anthropology, but that is limited in itself... but the things that help contribute to the science, would be sociology, history, psychology.. etc. Things that I am especially interested in. I'd even go towards being a Biologist, or an Ecologist, Etymologist, anything. But I still have reservations towards that, too. : c It just makes me wonder which path would be best for myself, and what can get me to the best shape for my future.

[Chewett]

This is Not the section for talking about "universities" which i had hoped soemone like Firsen, pample or Burns would have pointed out.

This forum was for the old "university" that Calyx set up. It was here primarily to hold lectures about MD.

This has been moved to offtopic, where all non MD stuff should be posted.

[Kafuuka]

[quote name='Mourn the Leper' date='21 August 2010 - 03:39 AM' timestamp='1282354774' post='66687']
-don't take more than 12 credits per semester your first year, or a class before 9:30am...hmmm, the last one might just be me.
[/quote]
I suppose the system is different per country, but in Belgium and the rest of Europe, 30 credits per semester is the norm. We also have low tuition fees so the economical pressure put upon the students is low and I've seen many loiter around and try to stretch their fun times at the universities. It always starts with good intentions mixed with the intimidations of freshman year and then they decide to leave one course for second session so that they can fully focus on the other exams and then they fail another one and have to redo it in september too etc. Next year the guidance will persuade them to take a lower amount of credits and they will most likely fail some courses again until they're down to one course a semester...
If you had no problems keeping up in high school, don't be intimidated by university and don't be persuaded to take it slowly. I wouldn't rush in an take additional credits in the first year, but many people can easily go over the recommended number. Likewise, if you fear you don't understand anything about a course, don't panic. Most likely nobody of your classmates does. In my first year of physics there was one teacher who managed to confuse all people in the first week and a dozen just quit, but it became clearer afterwards. Being a mathematical person, I compared the number of people to show up for their exam to the average rate of people passing, which is very interesting: about 60% of those enlisted, showed up for all of their exams in the first year and about 50% of those enlisted, passed their first year.


Choices:
there's the old approach of listing strengths and weaknesses. I'm always baffled when people who avoided or failed maths in highschool ask if studying physics is a valid option...
the most economically sound choices in Belgium are civil engineering, law, economics and IT. The problem is mostly that studying something that does not really interest you for five years and then making a career out of it for the rest of your life is not fun. Out of the social sciences, sociology and psychology seem to get more opportunities because they get a large amount of statistics. In hard sciences biology is currently on the rise due to increased funds for health research and increased IT capacity. (Historically biology is around for ages, but it's only since 1960 that it really kicked of. Physics had it's big boost in early 1900s.)

[lepus]

i'm currently studying towards a Bsc (Honours) in Technolgy, at the moment anyway! have already changed my degree once. am studying part time through the OU (open university) this is my fourth year will have another few to do but am doing for myself and it's fun am enjoying it. it allows me to work full time and study

& i get grants from the OU too 'cause am "special" lol

but anyway, i couldn't have gone to university after i left school anyway, so i went to the local technical college, got what i needed & started working in admin (aged 17) and as i said only four years ago i decided to work towards a degree.

what i suppose i'm trying to say is that you can always find an excuse NOT to go to university, NOT to study further. if there is an area that you really like studying and can see yourself doing that for a lifetime then go for it

hope my ramblings helped

[dst]

Just one piece of advice: move to Europe. Imo it's much cheaper then studying in US. 2 of my cousins are studying for their PHDs in US so I think I have an idea of how things work there.

And now to share some of my experiences with college:
I went from high school straight to college. I ended up studying to become a telecom engineer although my first choice was to become a uhmm...math teacher. I changed my mind in a matter of seconds after my first exam at the second college (we had to take exams in order to be admitted to college). So after 2 years of studying math (I prepared myself for the exams for 2 years while in high school) day and night and running away from physics I ended up eating physics...5 loong years
Every time when we had finals I used to curse my choice until one day when I met a guy who graduated from the uni I wanted to apply first. He congratulated me for NOT choosing math.
After graduation I never regretted once the choice I made and even if I don't like to admit it I would choose the same if I were to start all over again.

[Curiose]

There actually was a point in time when I was seriously considering moving to Scotland to go to college... but that dream is over, so I'm planting myself here in the U.S. until something comes along, really.

What I am wondering now, is, would getting a trade and a stable job first before going to college be a good thing, such as getting a trade, or would getting one during college be the optimum choice?

[Chewett]

[quote name='Curiose' date='21 August 2010 - 05:14 PM' timestamp='1282407278' post='66718']
There actually was a point in time when I was seriously considering moving to Scotland to go to college... but that dream is over, so I'm planting myself here in the U.S. until something comes along, really.

What I am wondering now, is, would getting a trade and a stable job first before going to college be a good thing, such as getting a trade, or would getting one during college be the optimum choice?
[/quote]

if you stop and get a job before going back to colledge its much harder to then go back into full time education.

[Curiose]

Arg...

I do suppose that is true...