College, University, Gulag, what have you

As a senior in high school this coming year, I hear more and more and MORE people asking the inevitable, "So have you looked at colleges yet?" "Where would you like to go?" etc, etc. Some people tell me that it's the greatest time of their lives, some people tell me that it's years of hell. Some people say that undergraduate education is overrated and it doesn't really matter where you go for undergrad, and others say, "Harvard is KEY!"

I think my parents and friends are overreacting when they urge me to look at majors, application deadlines, information sessions and the like; I don't really care where I go as long as I get to study what I find interesting...and as long as I get to travel a lot...


What do you all think about the worldly experience known as COLLEGE? Like it? Hate it? Ambivalent? Indifferent? Please share your nuggets of wisdom here...

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by LaMenina

I think my parents and friends are overreacting when they urge me to look at majors, application deadlines, information sessions and the like; I don't really care where I go as long as I get to study what I find interesting...and as long as I get to travel a lot...

Um, probably you should give it some more thought instead of going 'yeah whatever, pfft, researching information on where i'm going to spend the next half a decade of my life is for pussies, i just want to do something AWESOME and TRAVEL'

I mean, maybe I'm misunderstanding, but your post is making it seem that you have no clue what you want to do.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Well, like anything, it's all situational. If you want to look at numbers, here's a comparison of annual salaries for people with different levels of education (All values in 1999 dollars):

Some High School: $23,400
High School Diploma: $30,400
Some College: $36,800
Associate's Degree: $38,200
Bachelor's Degree: $52,200
Master's Degree: $62,300
Doctoral Degree: $89,400
Professional Degree: $109,600

Source: http://www.career-wizard.com/index.c...=careers.worth

It also depends on what you want to do. As an example, if you're set on being an engineer, you're not going to get hired anywhere without a bachelor's and you can't legally practice until you get your professional engineering (PE) license. You can work under a PE, but you can't approve anything. You get this nifty little stamp as a PE that lets you consult and approve plans which equals more money.


As far as the college experience. The MOST IMPORTANT thing you can do is PICK A LOCATION YOU LIKE. I made the mistake of going to college out of state in the middle of nowhere with people that are completely different from me to the point that I get annoyed by them a majority of the time. I had a better time in high school than college, but like I said, it's all situational.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I'm headed into my Junior year at college and it's simply amazing. My parents pay for my schooling, which likely gives me some bias, but having everything taken care of for me is simply great. It's living in an entire community with people your age who - at least some - share your interests. There's little to no reason to not go to college and you miss out on a great experience. You get to experience independence, while at the same time having very few responsibilities.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

You might be able to get BOTH. Some colleges require a person to travel to some place for a semester or year as part of the degree. Perhaps you can find a place you can go, learn and help, that a college/university would be OK with you going to and that could count to your degree. It would also be good to put on your application.

There is also the prospect of studying abroad. Not easy to balance studying abroad while travelling all around the nearby area, but it is doable and you still get both.

How ya doing, buddy?

Study abroad is one option if you're up for it. I think it's best to stay in the states though, just personal preference. Time in college is great - it's one hell of a long party. When you enter the workforce you kind of wish you're back. You're so used to seeing everyone around you your age you kind of forget the rest of the world is not like that.

I'd say it doesn't really matter what you decide to major in as long as it isn't going to lead you to no jobs (like philosophy). I would recommend practical and interesting to you. And research the "culture" of the college: is it more like a transit/commute place or somewhere everyone kind of lingers around? Depends on what kind of college life you want to lead.

How ya doing, buddy?

You should definitely look at majors and app deadlines if you are at all serious about getting into a decent school. Personally, though, I think college is kind of gay. Granted I only have one year of experience, but from I can tell so far it's just a gathering of rich dumbasses who drink way too much and think they're really smart because they go to a well regarded school. I think it depends on which school you go to, and you should visit before you matriculate.

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College is always different for everyone, it's true, but I can assure you that if you pick a major you like (not what anyone else thinks you should do; studying what you love is key) you're off to a good start. Speaking from personal experience, college has been WAY better for me than high school. There's a huge boost of independence, of course, and because I go to a really large school there's tons of people that I share interests with.

Of course, college isn't for everybody. If you find that you'd rather do something else, or even take a few years off before going, it's all up to you.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

College is a sham. Try culinary school. It's practical and gets you a job. Everybody needs to eat.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Guru

College is a sham. Try culinary school. It's practical and gets you a job. Everybody needs to eat.

That actually sounds like a really sweet idea. Too bad I didn't think of it.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Quote:

College is a sham. Try culinary school. It's practical and gets you a job. Everybody needs to eat.

But isn't culinary school really really REALLY expensive? Much more so than college?

Quote:

Um, probably you should give it some more thought instead of going 'yeah whatever, pfft, researching information on where i'm going to spend the next half a decade of my life is for pussies, i just want to do something AWESOME and TRAVEL'

I mean, maybe I'm misunderstanding, but your post is making it seem that you have no clue what you want to do.

To Aardark, I guess I did sound a little cavalier about the whole process. I do have an idea about what I want to study, and I have looked at schools; I just think that college will be what you make of it, no matter where you go. I mean, I'm not going to settle for some crappy college, but I don't think obsessing about it is healthy either.

And I do want to do something awesome and travel.

How ya doing, buddy?

At 22 I still haven't even gotten a GED or anything so suddenly applying for a college out of nowhere for me isn't gonna happen for a while, majority to blame is a profession which I have no clue on what I want to pursue for a career (though leaning towards an office job, nothing spectacular, rather local and less likely for me getting killed/injured/ ect) though job security is a priority since in the unlikelyhood of me getting out of college, getting a job and getting laid off a short time after that; anythings possible in our economy.

then there is the $$$$ issue. My folks don't have any, I certainly don't have any and the inevitable denial from some financial institutions is sure to come (bad credit, ect). In the end is what sucks for me is that I'll probably be nearing my thirties and I'll be lucky if I have any educational background at the time (I guess I'll have to get used to working at BK for the time being )

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

College really are some great years. I've got one more to go before I'm out, and while I feel I'm soooo ready to leave, I know that once I get there, I wont want to go.

Dont feel pressured to decide on a major before you get there. So many colleges give you until end of Sophomore year to declare your major. Take the first couple years to finish general education requirements, and decide what you liked best.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Temari

Dont feel pressured to decide on a major before you get there. So many colleges give you until end of Sophomore year to declare your major. Take the first couple years to finish general education requirements, and decide what you liked best.

I completely disagree with this. That's what they told me and by the time I decided what I wanted to do (first semester sophomore year), I was one year behind. Some of the classes I was told were general courses didn't count. Switching into engineering that late has led to me having to stay an extra semester. It would've been a year if I didn't take summer school last year.

The "take your time in deciding" thing is a really bad idea unless you have a relatively easy major. Now I'm not saying you should jump into a random major since that'll be just as bad. I'm just saying you shouldn't take more than a semester. Two semesters might be okay, but definitely have a choice by the end of your first year.

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As another alternative, check into community colleges within your area and see if they have any special agreements with universities in your state.

There are some advantages and [possible] disadvantages.

For advantages, you can get your gen ed taken care of, and get an associates degree. That way, if you REALLY dislike it, you'll be done in two or two and a half years, tops. Furthermore, you'll have SOME sort of a degree out of it all.

More so, you'll have SOME of your education done with if you choose to move onto a university (especially if there is an agreement going on between the communicty college and your university). I was very lucky in that the university I wanted to go to had just made an agreement with my community colleges to 1) allow automatic entry to anyone with at least a 3.0 G.P.A. and 2) not have you pay the initial application fee.

some other advantages are, from my experience, the books are FAR cheaper, the classes are FAR easier and LESS time consuming, and you'll have FAR more time to work a part time (or perhaps full time) job, be with your friends, etc. You might even find some classes at night, or in your own town (my community college had local centers in which the class room as literally a five minute drive away).

Now, some of the disadvantages, or at least things to watch out for.

Most of it all resolves around the classes you take, and when you select your major. IT also resolves keeping in contact with the university (or universities) you wish to go to. If there is no agreement between the university and college you wish to go to, then some classes may not be counted, and/or you may have to retake some of the classes. Furthermore, realize that community colleges are easier because they have lower level classes. I had to take Statistcs and Calculus all over again because the level I took before was too low. They counted at my university, but as a lower level course (which would have actually be OK for me with respect to my major, but for my minor, they were just too low).

Realize that you may have to take an extra semester, or even an extra year, due to the classes you have to take (some you can only take once per year and are requirements before you can take higher level classes). You MIGHT be able to take a course that can be transfered in, but if not, you may have a semester or two where you are literally take two or three courses because you're not allowed to take the other courses yet. Case in point, there were two courses you HAD to take at my university to be a computer science major, and you HAD to take those two first BEFORE you could take any other courses. I was lucky in that I was able to take my minor courses in the meantime to finish my minor, but my third semester I was only able to take three courses (the three allowed once you two the two aforementioned courses) that semester. DUe to this, and other reasons (which I will mention) I had an extra year I had to go.

Now, the other main reason/disadvantage is that when you go to a university for four or even five years, your classes, including your major, minor and gen ed's are mixed together so you don't have TOO many heavy courses at one time. Some semesters may have a heavier work load, but it is a bit more evenly distributed. In my case though, I only focused on my CS courses and Math courses, resulting in the situation in once semester getting three super hard, heavy workload classes. In fact, I would have gotten four (in fact, the four heaviest workload classes in the major) all at once had the professor not decided to teach one of them again the following semester.

Now, while we all do want to graduate as quickly as possible, there comes a point where you have to realize that such a work load may be so huge that it would overall hurt the quality of your work, and grade in all those classes. So that may mean you have to divide the classes up more and stay an extra semester.

In my case, I found out I would have had to stay no matter what for an extra year. In fact, my final semester, I could have had only a SINGLE class (there seemed to be no real way to get around that), but it may be different for you.

Another thing to keep in mind, which is something else I had to do for my final semester. keep in mind that if you are gettn gstudent loans, they only work at half time at best. So, if you find (like me) that you're going to have a semester with ONLY one class, you would be wise to rearrange things a bit to at LEAST have two classes (6 hours) or whatever it is that represents half time at your college.

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Simply put, I love college. I spent my gen-ed years at a community college as mortis mentioned, and it really helped me with the financial part of it. But aside from the actual learning and paying for it bit, I have met some really awesome people from college. If anything, I would say go for the ability to see people from around the world and learn from them.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by LaMenina

As a senior in high school this coming year, I hear more and more and MORE people asking the inevitable, "So have you looked at colleges yet?" "Where would you like to go?" etc, etc. Some people tell me that it's the greatest time of their lives, some people tell me that it's years of hell. Some people say that undergraduate education is overrated and it doesn't really matter where you go for undergrad, and others say, "Harvard is KEY!"

I think my parents and friends are overreacting when they urge me to look at majors, application deadlines, information sessions and the like; I don't really care where I go as long as I get to study what I find interesting...and as long as I get to travel a lot...

What do you all think about the worldly experience known as COLLEGE? Like it? Hate it? Ambivalent? Indifferent? Please share your nuggets of wisdom here...

I thought like that when I was in high school. I just left it till last minute, bad idea. It's not as important to choose what major you'll stick with for the rest of your life; but it's important to research into what you'd like to go into and what would give you opportunities in the future. Leaving it last minute means you risk not getting into what you want where you want.

Many people change their majors multiple times in their undergraduate. Some even after the finish their graduate degrees. It'd be the perfect world if everyone went into what they wanted, but no one is ever sure. Usually what you wanted in high school isn't what you expect it to be in university.

And on top of that, travel a lot? I would LOVE to travel. This is where research comes in. If you want to travel a lot, you'll need to choose a major which suits that. For example, international business, political sciences, some specialized social sciences may give many opportunities to travel. But majors such as the sciences, math, etc; give you very little chances to travel far. Even if you apply for exchange programs or study abroad programs, it depends on the degree.

Undergraduate isn't overrated, but where you go isn't the important part. It's the marks and recommendations you get. Yes, marks are everything in some majors, other majors all you have to do is pass. Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Yale, UBC, all these prestigious colleges are known for their graduate programs. A bachelors from Harvard with an average mark is worthless.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by splur

A bachelors from Harvard with an average mark is worthless.

Gonna have to disagree strongly on that statement. Only people who couldn't get into Harvard would probably say that. A Fortune 500 company that is recruiting will definitely take an average Harvard person over someone else, especially if they send in a Harvard alumni to go to Harvard (which they usually would do). Buying your name definitely helps. A Harvard grad program will have bias towards their own graduates, like many other schools. Name really helps - it's like networking.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Not really. Any of the fields that would give preference to Harvard mostly require advanced degrees. And once you go to Grad/Professional, no one cares if your Bachelor's was from the University of eBay.com, they care where your professional degree was from. Fields that you can expect a decent career with just a bachelors' (say Engineering) from aren't the fields that Harvard is known for.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by LaMenina

But isn't culinary school really really REALLY expensive? Much more so than college?



To Aardark, I guess I did sound a little cavalier about the whole process. I do have an idea about what I want to study, and I have looked at schools; I just think that college will be what you make of it, no matter where you go. I mean, I'm not going to settle for some crappy college, but I don't think obsessing about it is healthy either.

And I do want to do something awesome and travel.

Core classes WILL suck, unless you 1: like the subject, or 2: like the teacher. But after that, if you don't like college, it IS your own fault because you're not studying something that interests you, and you haven't hooked up with similar people.

I agree with studying abroad. I want to go to Japan, but I'm poor, so that's out of the question. At least I can THINK about it when I go to college.

I'm still looking around too, but I'm seriously leaning to NYU. Anyone been there?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Spike

It also depends on what you want to do. As an example, if you're set on being an engineer, you're not going to get hired anywhere without a bachelor's and you can't legally practice until you get your professional engineering (PE) license. You can work under a PE, but you can't approve anything. You get this nifty little stamp as a PE that lets you consult and approve plans which equals more money.

I should mention a PE is only required in certain fields. I know it's a big thing in civil engineering, and I imagine some mechanical engineers get it, but if you're in other fields such as electrical, computer, or, like myself, materials, that kind of certification might not even exist.

Originally Posted by Arainach

Not really. Any of the fields that would give preference to Harvard mostly require advanced degrees. And once you go to Grad/Professional, no one cares if your Bachelor's was from the University of eBay.com, they care where your professional degree was from. Fields that you can expect a decent career with just a bachelors' (say Engineering) from aren't the fields that Harvard is known for.

Grad schools admissions care where you went to undergrad. It's only once you get your grad degree that nobody cares where you went to undergrad. And there's a lot of engineering fields out there where you can't expect to do a lot more than quality control and rubber stamping without a degree past a bachelor's.


Greatguy, I know kitty (old GFF member, not sure if they're still around) went to NYU and had a fairly mediocre experience. I think a lot of it might have just been to roommate conflicts and that kind of junk, though.



Anyway, I've found college to be the best part of my life so far. I just graduated last December and I'm going for my doctorate in the fall. I knew what I wanted to study even before I got here, and it was really a huge help since I could jump right in to the classes I was interested in and aim all of my studies towards that course. I've made some fantastic friends here, and contrary to what some people might say, you don't have to get completely hammered every night in order to do it. Just don't stay locked up in your room all of freshman year and you'll find plenty of people you can get along with.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I'm in materials science & engineering and pretty much love the field to death. I'm one of those people whose eyes go all shiny and and get super excited when they start talking about the kind of work they do, so if anyone is ever at all remotely interested in the field, feel free to talk to me. I'd be happy to type away for an hour or two about how materials is the best thing in the universe.

And, yeah, your grades () do matter in addition to where you go, but it's completely wrong to say that where you attend undergrad doesn't matter. I know there are some grad schools/fellowships that actually apply a weighting factor to your GPA when you apply for things with them since they know the school will tend to not inflate grades as much as others (some Ivy League schools are having real problems with grade inflation). Personally, when applying to grad school I'd rather have a name like Princeton, MIT, or one of them behind me than Wossamotta U..

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

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I'm still looking around too, but I'm seriously leaning to NYU. Anyone been there?

Oooh! I visited NYU last summer, and I really liked it! Of course, being New York, it is extremely pricey, but Tisch really interested me. The only thing is that they don't have a set campus; it's spread out all over Manhattan.

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