Experiences with College

[Soleil]

I attended 2 different community colleges and 3 universities (we moved a lot).

Of course it has been helpful. I wouldn't have my current job without it plus the fact that it forced me to have a social life (which I had been seriously lacking).

I am not currently enrolled, I graduated with my Bachelor's degree last May. I will be enrolling sometime soon to do an online Master's program through my alma mater.

How did i deal with college? To be entirely honest my parents helped more than they should have because they wanted me to actually be able to survive and not worry about needing money. I worked off and on for my parents on the weekends when I would come home and they provided me a steady paycheck, just enough for basic needs like food/clothes and such. My parents paid my car payment and phone bill. I was lucky and I took that for granted.

I never won scholarships. I never got grants. I have about $28,000 in student loans that I am paying back, but because of my career I am just fine with that. I make $43,000 a year teaching first grade and all I have is a house payment. All in all, house included, I pay about $1100 a month in payments. $650 to the house and about $500 or so in student loans. Could I be doing that had I not graduated and gotten a job 2 months out of college? Not in the slightest.

I don't condone loans, no because they are hard to pay off but I would rather have to pay them back than to be sitting here today uneducated and working just a job (opposed to the career I have). I mean no offense to anyone else, this is just me. I would not be able to live with myself had I chosen to not go to college. I was the first person in my entire family to have ever attended college, much less graduated. I had to do it, not just for personal satisfaction but for my family. So I am perfectly content with loans.

The biggest factor with loans is.... you need to know what your future salary is like before you go that route. If you know you're not going to pull more than X amount of dollars per year and your loans will cost Y amount, so you can't pay them.. then no. Don't get loans. But if you know you can pay them and that is your last resort, then you do what you have to do.

[Brynmala]

I went to university, twice... The first time (undergraduate) I did Geology at Derby (UK) - this was before it was even a university, so an alarmingly long time ago now. The experience was the same though, I was 19, away from home for the first time, and having to learn to live on my own. I spent the first year with two other students, as boarders in a family house (the family had 6 kids, so it was mayhem). When one of the other girls got us all kicked out we moved into a house ourselves and got on ok. For the 2nd and 3rd years I moved in with my boyfriend who was on the same course - we had a third person with us for a while. The experience was extremely valuable, but probably not typical... I mean most people usually don't come home from college with 5 cats! As far as the course goes I've never used what I learned, but it is there to prove a standard of education, and for that alone I wouldn't have done otherwise. Then, at least - now with the state of funding for students in the UK I would definitely think twice about it. I was lucky enough to get through the system in the days when students could get grants, and didn't end up with huge loan repayments - the money was tight, but enough if you didn't spend all your spare time drinking.

After that I went on to do an MA - library and information studies (go SilentPsyco - another librarian in our midst!) at Newcastle. This was a bit different as I was living at home as I really couldn't afford to go anywhere else. In actual fact I picked the course as it sounded interesting, and was very lucky to get on it. And it wasn't until I'd been there several weeks that I discovered that it was a professional qualification! Really it was the best thing I've ever done as until that point I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. It was also the most intense work I've ever done in my life - I had Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons off and the rest of the time I was doing college work, for the whole year.

So for me university has been a very positive experience, so much so that I now work in one myself.

[sorakaji]

I'm finishing college at the end of this month, and I really don't know what to do next. In this past year, I managed to get some really good work experience at the same time, so I am qualified for work, but I still have no idea what kind of job I can even get once I graduate. I have been job hunting since October and haven't found anything paid that I can still have once I am no longer a student.
The cost of college is seriously starting to outweigh its value, and not too many college graduates I know ended up actually doing what they went to college for at all.
However, college is also about the experience. I went to college not just for a degree but also for an opportunity to take classes in everything I wanted to learn about, to study abroad, and for my first experience of living away from home in a different state.

My parents both come from long lines of teachers and very educated people, and they would never have been ok with my sister and I not going to college. My mom is the worst, though. For her, "no degree" is practically synonymous with "homeless forever and going to die in a gutter." If she hears that a friend or relative of mine isn't in school, she goes on a long rant about how they are throwing away their futures.
But my opinion is that college isn't for everyone, and if someone doesn't want to go to college, they shouldn't feel the need to. One can always go to college later if they want to, and the worst thing you can do is spend money on college when you just aren't ready and aren't into it.

[Adrameleck]

Even though I started the topic, I haven't been posting for awhile - I had to stay off MS for a bit. I'm still glad to see everyone's thoughts on college.

I definitely agree with the thought that college may not be for everyone - I, myself, don't think university level is for me. Too much book learning can interfere with practical thinking, I believe, and in the field of architectural drafting, it looks like practical thinking would be needed. As such, I'm going for an associates.

WOW, I'm surprised at some of these stories though. I - like a naive American that I am - didn't think about other countries' college paying off more.

Unfortunately, my plan for college has changed a bit... either I have to go to college and rent an apartment alone, or find a boarder to go off to college with me. Or stay at home, but I wouldn't feel comfortable staying at home if I have the ability to move out on my own, and not fall into insurmountable debt 'just' to attend a second community college.

[TheStrangeWeirdo]

I'm not too sure about whether or not I actually need to go to college. Currently I'm thinking about being a writer (already started a novel). I believe it's a good choice for me because I love the English language and do very well in it (also in an extensive English class).

Having said that, I think I probably will go to college anyway for the experience, and to learn something useful, like carpentry, or something like that which I can fall back on when I've just started out writing (and thus in my adult life), or if I can't make it as a writer (I like manual labor, even though I'm not that physically strong).

[Adrameleck]

There's actually some REALLY good degrees for writers out there that can help qualify them. After all, publishers will be your employers. You want to impress them as much as you'd want to impress any other employer for any other career.

That being said, an example would be studies in Philology; The study of language from historical sources. Quite a few great, memorable authors have degrees in the field. That's just one example.

[TheStrangeWeirdo]

As well as English Literature, I assume.
I'm going to have to do a bit more research. If there's as many fields as you say then I might have less time on my hands than I thought when I go to college - or have to stay at college for longer.

[Adrameleck]

It's not 'necessary', really. And yeah, they had studies in multiple fields. That's just a field that a few really good fantasy authors have in common.

It's just an option! You may be able to do fine without the college degrees in english and such. Just do the research. The more you know....

[TheStrangeWeirdo]

Well, yes, but I believe in being prepared.
Taking classes like English Lit would certainly help me write, not to mention make publishers more interested in buying my books.

"The more you know..." is exactly my point. The more I know the better I am prepared as a writer, and thus the more successful I will be, in both making people happy and immersing them in the world I create and getting money which, as we all know, is important to live, and to live well. If I'm as successful as I'm aiming to be then I could donate a lot of money to charities and third-world countries while still living comfortably.

[Shizune0715]

I'm actually preparing to go to college straight after graduating high school.

I'm lucky to have passed what was labelled as 'the hardest entrance test in the whole country' and my parents are very proud of me for that. I'm not really sure if I'm prepared for it emotionally or psychologically but apparently I'm overly prepared for it in terms of my IQ. Psychometric tests showed that I could have gone to college and fit in by my third year in high school (when I was only around 15 when we took the test) and that I could take any course while still passing despite having a low interest in all of them. My grades; however, do not reflect this as I do not excel unless I find the subject interesting AND i feel challenged to work by my teachers and classmates.

I'm one of the many teens who are having problems with coming to terms that they're going to college despite not knowing what they want merely because of what our families want. I'm not the first in my family to go to college - I'm the third child of five kids and my family has a long line of college graduates with some who took second courses and even one who took up three majors at the same time - but I'm one of the most intellectually gifted. Mom - who took up a second course in SpEd - says I'm Gifted-Talented. My friends say I'm just really overly gifted. I have a natural knack for sciences and mathematics but I'm also pretty good with my hands and words. I love drawing and making things and I write as a hobby.

Sadly for me, my interests will get me next to no job here. Artists are a common thing here and they often aren't successful. The people also aren't into my type of writing and majority find the English language too troublesome to master or take it for granted. Anime and Manga will only drain my wallet too. We also have a surplus of graduates who don't find jobs for several more years. Schools here aren't exactly top quality too. Thankfully though, I managed to learn a bit of Japanese from my love for Anime and I can actually get a job as an ESL teacher while I'm in college.

My uncle is also offering me a chance to go to America for college ((I'm from the Philippines so its a pretty drastic change)) and I'm not sure if I'll need to take another two years like in other countries since we're currently using the K-10 system. He says my family can stay at his ranch house and the hospital he works at is offering my dad a job as one of their higher ranking doctors while I can apply for a scholarship.

But if I head there, I'll have to start from scratch whereas if I'm here, there are lots of people who are like me - unsure about college, Anime and Manga fans who listen to Korean music, and love the arts - and I'm pretty familiar with most of the area ((I've lived a pretty sheltered life...)). Not to mention my friends know a way to get jobs here that interest us while getting good pay despite being troublesome.

I have friends who are taking courses they love despite having no sure plans for the future and they're pretty happy. My sister also just shared that she took college for granted but she's pretty happy with her life now that she's working abroad. She didn't know what course to take and just took up a general course and graduated from it.

Overall, I'm at a loss for what to do for college and am currently just going with the flow. I'm heading towards college with next to no clue about it other than that my school is known for having high quality graduates who come from all walks of life.

Not going to college is also not an option here. I won't survive. Work is really hard to come by even for college graduates so its even worse for high school graduates.

Maybe I should take my uncle's offer or at least take my current college plans seriously... once I come up with one.