So if you somehow missed the thread title, I plan on going to college. Yay! But I've never been to college... which means I don't really know anything about college life... so... help?
If anyone remembers, like 3 years ago I made a thread asking advice for high school. This is basically the same thing, except with college. Give me college advice!
If what I'm askimg for isn't specific enough to answer, here's a few questions you could answer: How is the food? If the college I'm planning on going to is about an hour away, should I live at home or at a dorm? What are some ways I can study? Should I go to a city college or a more rural college? What should I watch out for? If I'm planning on taking a programming class, would it be recommended that I buy my own laptop or whatever? What should I look for when choosing a college? etc.
So please help your favorite R2. He wants to get educated.
I don't know if American colleges are similar to Canadian ones but It's been a long time for me.
What I can tell you is that once you're in college, it's pretty much up to you to manage your schedule.
What I mean by that is if you decide not to show up for class, nobody will force you to but you'll get behind pretty fast. You are in control of your destiny.
I think you should avoid the dorm because many idiots like to party more than to study and since some of them can afford to fail and try again and again, they know they'll graduate eventually.
Anyway, congratulation, good luck and I wish you success.
1) Live in a dorm for at least one or two semesters and figure if you like it. It could be a great experience and opportunity to soak up college life.
2) Yes buy your own laptop. No one can survive college and any future job without his own laptop. Everyone has moved on to studying from their laptops. Much easier to copy notes down too.
3) Don't plan your college choices based on location; look at rankings, subject specialisation, which professors teach at the college (Look at their CVs, some colleges down on the rankings might have hired great professors. ), employability (Some employers favour certain colleges for their reputation. The University of Manchester doesn't have fabulous rankings but they punch above their weight for hire rate and job marketability). Look at everything in general, but the big picture should be your future employability. Make your college choice based on that, that's the stark reality. College is for education, job opportunities first and foremost. Only after that, then choose based on location. party scene, etcetc. Personally, I would prefer a city based college since everything is in easy reach.
4) Take up an extra-curricular activity you enjoy to break up the monotony of studying. Helps you connect around to college with students AND professors which is highly important since networking can land you jobs and opportunities.
5) Look at each college's exchange programs beforehand if you're into that kind of thing.
6) Buy second hand textbooks.
7) Never skip more than one class in a row.
8) Make friends! LOTS of them. They help in the study process and make college much more fun.
1) Go to University of Arizona so we can hang out because I totally will not be busy 24/7.
OK time for the serious ones though:
1) Find a college that is right for you. Sure the school might be amazing and well known but if it doesn't feel like a good fit for you and somewhere else seems like you would like it a lot more don't be afraid to transfer. At the end of the day college should not be miserable, thought it shouldn't be a party all the time either.
2) The food at colleges are pretty different. The college I went to, Purdue, is always ranked near the top for food. Even with that though after a year of dorm food if you are like me or most of my friends you will get sick of it so I was happy when I moved to an apartment and could make my own food.
3) I wouldn't live at home unless you need to in order to save money. Living on campus or close to campus is best because you will easily be able to do activities on campus, hang with friends, get to class faster, etc.
4) Everyone has different ways of studying. As long as you go to class, take good notes, and go to office hours if you need it then you should have everything you need to do well. Also finding a friend to study with is always good because you can bounce ideas off of each other, help each other out, and just have that extra motivation to study.
5) City/Rural college? Just go where you feel comfortable again. I prefer the college town atmosphere but that is just me. Visiting different colleges that you are thinking about going to will help you decide what is right.
6) Watch out for yourself. I know lots of kids that complained how they were 4.0 students in high school and that college is so much harder and they could barely pass their classes. Sure college is a bit harder yes but honestly I feel it comes down to work ethic. If you are willing to go to class and study hard you will do fine. So just don't be too lazy.
7) Yes have your own laptop. It will make your life 100 times easier.
Some followup questions I have for you:
1) Do you know what you are going to major in? Knowing that, or at least having an idea is very helpful for choosing colleges.
2) Do you have questions about which schools should you even apply to and how many?
That question is very hard for me to have a single definitive answer. I want to go into programming, informatics, or computer science, but I'm also heavily considering to go into something like creative writing or journalism or something similar. I'm also really looking into doing advertising. Obviously I don't need to decide right now as I am still a Junior in highschool.
Do you have questions about which schools should you even apply to and how many?
Well, I guess I'm not too certain of what I'm looking for in a college. So far I only have 3 colleges that I've visited and are heavily considering, which are Indiana University, University of Cincinnati, and Indiana University East. However, I think I should look at more colleges considering those three might not accept me for whatever reason. I am considering other colleges, such as Purdue, but nothing is really screaming at me.
I cannot speak much about writing or advertising but I know quite a bit about computer science, especially at Purdue so if you had any specific questions in that area I could probably give you a good answer.
