College Experience?

[Matrix Agent]

I know there are a lot of people on the boards who are still in HS, so I figure this will interest you too.

I want to state from the start that I'm not talking about partying here, I'm talking about the overall college experience. Since I'm a Junior in HS I'm beginning to look around at where I want to go. I've been looking through the course listings, and its just so exciting. To be able to go any study things that interest you, to do something that opens the world for you, to live on a campus, free of rules, free to make your own decisions, living with people with the same interests, and working as a team to do new and fascinating things. In other words, this is going to be the best time ever.

Everyone out there? How was your college XPerience?

Anyone know of soem good places for CS, which possibly allow double majoring, a good reputation, and somewhere around the northeast.

Thanks tons. And admiral, if you don't respond to this thread, I'm not going to let you DJ my birthday party at the bar.

[rinse]

On topic, but not the geographic region you were looking for.

I graduated from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois in 1999. I went there intially because I was offered a full scholarship becuase I managed to be a National Merit Scholar.

I have a major in Graphic Design, a Minor in Art history and Multimedia and also took some CS courses while there.

The multimedia program is fantastic, with stellar Quicktime and Authoring / DV labs to boot. The business college there is also top notch and there is a national champion forensic team as well.

Beyond that, the social scene is largely Greek, however as an art major I had loads of fun. Sure, Peoria is not as hip as LA, NYC or Chicago, but it's not like being in Utah, either.... the bars close at 4 AM, there are plenty of parties and it's not hard to do naughty things (if you know what i mean ).

P.S. the women there are prety nice too, i married one of 'em.

[chemistry_geek]

Go to a school that has a good reputation for your intended major. I'm not talking about Ivy League schools; it would be nice to go there, but then there's reality. You have to score VERY well on your SAT's. Take as many practive tests as you can to get comfortable with the test format. Studying is useless, these tests (such as the GRE) are now administered on computers that are ADAPTIVE, i.e. You answer correctly, the next question is more difficult. Answer incorrectly, the next question is easier, and believe me, you will know when you get the wrong answer.

I came from a middle class background in which education was not stressed. No one told me how to pick a good school as I was the first person in my immediate family to go to college. I started out at the University of Toledo where I had a HORRIBLE experience with the instructors there (could NOT speak English), the parking was a freakin' joke. The Parking Services Department sold more parking permits than there were parking places. The administration literally treated everyone as a number, more so than the usual treatment everyone hears about. Word has gotten out about these bad experiences not just from me but other students as well. When I finally transferred to Bowling Green State University where life was MUCH BETTER, people were flocking out of UT in droves to other schools and continue to do so today. UT has some serious issues that the Ohio Board of Reagents are actively investigating. I think UT is one of the few schools in OH that has a continuly declining trend in student enrollment.

THIS IS IMPORTANT: there are books available at the library that have all sorts of stats on schools, such as national ranking, what percentage of entering freshman move to sophomore status, what percentage of students graduate, how long it takes them to graduate, how many of them find jobs after graduating, whether or not the schools assists in job placement, etc... Then there is U.S. News & World Report's Annual College ranking.

I'm currently getting my masters degree, but if all goes well very soon, I'll be going to a very reputable private school in the fall that does NOT have a football team! If I get the good news, I'll share it with everyone. If I get the bad news, I'll cower in embarrassment for even thinking I had a snowball's chance in hell in getting in there, and will promptly start looking for a job at Walmart stocking shelves. But I'll "working in my field" as I'll be stocking shelves with detergents, paints, and other "chemicals". This is getting funny (wierd).

Just make sure you do the research for the schools you really want to go to. Regarding your new found FREEDOM, I hope you are focused and well disciplined, you will need this to survive in college. Don't eat a lot of junk food, you are what you eat. Don't go out drinkin' with the boys, you'll get in trouble, believe me, THIS WILL HAPPEN.

A general truth: The reputation of the school you graduate from will determine to a degree, your future jobs.

The best advice my advisor at BGSU gave me was that it does not matter from which university one gets a masters degree, but IT MATTERS A GREAT DEAL FROM WHICH UNIVERSITY ONE GETS A PH.D. If you plan on getting an advanced degree, go to the best schools you can get into. Beg, borrow, and steal money to get there if you have to. It will be worth it. Example: In the back of "Chemical and Engineering News" there are job listings available to chemists from all the big chemical and drug companies. The Ivy League schools graduate more than enough chemists every year to fill those positions. If I were to get a Ph.D. from my current school which will remain nameless, I would be competing for the same jobs as those Ph.D.'s from the Ivy Leagues, and we all know who's going to get the job. I would be there to make the other candidates look better.

Good luck

[simX]

After being at college for 1.5 quarters now, I have to say that it is infinitely better than being at high school. I have to say that I'm kind of a special case, because I was particularly unhappy at my high school -- very limiting in math classes and flexibility, which really made it not fun. I have to admit that junior/senior year was much better than freshman and sophomore year, but even then I wasn't completely satisfied. I actually graduated a year early because of this -- I thought that college would be a much better experience because I was not limited to the selection of classes offered at high school.

And my expectations were not at all let down; I'm going to Stanford University, and while it is hella expensive, it's definitely worth it to go to a school with such resources as a very extensive library system, great teachers, intelligent people and peers, as well as an excellent support system and a broad range of classes. I am much happier because it's not nearly as much work as I did in my last year of high school, mainly because I lumped my last 2 years of high school into one, but even more because I get to live with the people I go to class with, which allows you to get to know them much better. It makes so much of a difference. You can study with people at any time of the night, and you can just chat to someone or talk to who you feel comfortable with about any problems you might have. It's a much more personable environment, and it's a much better living experience.

I really enjoy, as well, that I have so much flexibility in my classes. Before I basically had to go to school from 8 AM to 3 PM (in my last year, from _7_ AM to 3 PM). Now I can choose what time I want my classes to be, and I can choose what kind of classes I want to go with much greater flexibility. Whereas my last math class in high school (Statistics AP -- nothing was offered after Calculus BC besides this) was really boring and unchallenging, my new math class is so damned hard I wouldn't believe that I actually placed in the class. I love the challenge of understanding all of these new concepts, even if it does mean staying up until 2 PM on Thursday nights to complete the problem set. I also have a much better choice of languages -- instead of being limited to French, Latin, German, Spanish and Japanese in high school, you can fulfill your language requirement here at Stanford with Italian, Russian, and many other languages, including sign language! I'm taking Italian because my father's Italian, and while I can understand most of the language, I can hardly speak or write it -- and the class is so much fun because I'm doing a language that I'm genuinely interested in. Instead of kind of being forced to take French (I got disenchanted with it after about 3 years), I am able to take what I want. And even though there are some required classes, I even get a choice in those! The humanities and writing classes that you are required to take actually offer about 10 different classes per quarter, because there is no standard reading list or anything like that. And I got to take a fun geology/biology class during the first quarter that was so incredibly specific (Early Life on Earth -- dealing with the origin of life and the solar system and all that fun stuff), I would never have learned so much in-depth at high school, even if I studied on my own. College has really been a godsend for me.

One thing that I have to say though is what my parents always say. Education does not exist to prepare you for a job. Education exists to make you a good citizen; to become an informed person who loves to explore his own interests; to become someone who is fairly well-versed in many areas, including math, biology, writing, and foreign languages. Job training prepares you for your job, not education. And if you think of it in that way, you open yourself up to a world of possibilities; instead of pursuing something that you think will land you a good job, you can pursue something you are genuinely interested in, and it is much more rewarding, even after 1.5 quarters of college, let me tell you. And there is always a job in no matter what field you decide to study; the world is a huge place.

Matrix Agent: The best thing I can advise you in your college search is to find a college that:

• is generally well-balanced in all fields of study. It's much better to get a balanced education than one where you get an awesome education in a specific subject and lackluster education in other areas, like the humanities. After all, there is graduate school.

• has good education in where you think you might be interested. Remember, though, that your interests can totally change; I thought I was going to be a math major -- after taking math last and this quarter (even though I love the challenge), I'm kind of thinking I don't think that would be the place for me; I'm thinking more in geology/biology, after taking that class the first quarter. So again, the first point is probably more important.

• is going to make you happy to be a student there. Stanford has sure done this for me. Visit the campus many times (in my case it was nice because I lived right near the campus and basically knew it) in order to get a feel for the place and see if you could imagine yourself living there for 4 years. In the end, it doesn't really matter whether you're far from home or close to home, on the East coast of the United States or on the West coast of Europe; just make sure you like the place!

I hope this helps.

Oh, and let me say this: I would LOVE to slap the person who said that the high school years are the best years of your life. Anybody want to come out and admit their mistake?

[Matrix Agent]

SimX, when you find this person, tell me where he/she is, I want to say a few words too. Whoever said that was focusing a little too hard on the social aspect of high school, and problably couldn't rememberwriting any essays.

[AdmiralAK]

Well... I can only speak from my XPerience at my university (UMass @ Boston).

The Math department is weak. Some good people in terms of character but instruction wise I have had my share of problems. Some professors are also some foreign (mostly from india) math professors which makes it kinda hard to understand sometimes.

Math is a part of CS so you need to do it. The CS department is tough and demanding but good. There are some guys that I dont like (or got off on the wrong foot -- like my current CS professor) but all in all there are some great people in the department that I admire because they know their stuff and they are able to communicate their knowledge effectivelly.

As for double majoring. This uni doesnt offer something in terms of graphic arts (I dont think) -- I am minoring in Italian and German (also taking some Russian on the side), so I have had a lot of interaction with the Modern Languages department and I can say for a fact that all the professors that I have dealt with are just great.

Being close to the end of my BA (one more year) I have rethought where I want to go with my education. I like computer science, but I also like graphic/audio arts (playing around with photoshop, FCP,so music software and so on) and foreign languages so doing a strict CS Masters might not be what I want to do. Something to look forward sorting out lol.


All in all my university is not bad, but it is a commuter school, so no dorms here, better find an appartment he he he

Admiral

[tagliatelle]

I own a graduate informatics.

[BlingBling 3k12]

I'm a Freshman in HS and have a question...

When I go to college, do I have to take Math, English, History, etc. or do I just take classes that interest me like Graphic Design, Computers, Multimedia, etc.

Or do I just go to tech school to do that (sorta like Ivy Tech or Art Institute of San Francisco)

This is a question that has been bothering me for some time!