University/College Thread

[Zeta]

Well, there's been one for teenagers, so I figured I'd take the next step up.

Anyways, here I am at a university in Tennessee with my boyfriend. I'm not quite SURE what I'll major in. I wanted to major in Computer Science to become a programmer, but the CS professors here seem to sneer at programming and prefer to teach/think of software in terms of pure theoretical mathematics. The thing is, I suck at math. I'm good with code, because for some reason I can easily grasp computer commands and concepts like a fish to water. But when it comes to the more mathematical aspects of thinking, I'm bad. Not impossibly bad, more like "C+ student if he really tries" bad. Still, I don't know if I want to major in an area where math is played up as such a vital component.

Aside from computer science, I'm also taking Japanese and loving it. I'm very good at it, but whenever the teacher calls on me I freeze up. It's kind of funny. I'm also having a surprisingly good time in chemical botany.

Finally, I'm in Basic College Algebra. Which is sort of the training wheels I need to understand the basic math courses here. I tried to take calculus on my first day and was totally blown away. Even the biggest idiots in the class knew more than I did.

It was really shocking to see how awful my high school and community college was. I was an above average student, but not spectacular. Generally a "B" kind of guy (except for math which was my achillees heel). The thing is, the required courses at my high school and community college were just awful, apparently. I wasn't required to take chemistry, physics, a foreign language, or anything above pre-Algebra at both my CC and my highschool. Apparently, everyone everywhere else took these things in highschool here. So even though I've got a three year associates degree, most of the time I feel like an old idiot around these tiny little teenagers who took hoardes of AP classes in highschool.

I'm just nervous about not knowing what to do. I come from a ridiculously poor family - I get made fun of for being "trailer trash" around here. My family isn't stupid or lower class. In fact, they were quite wealthy before I was born - but a series of problems (alcoholism and embezzlement) drained my grandparent's small fortune over the last 20 years. So I certainly FEEL middle-class, but I don't really have much in the way of money. I'm paying for this exhorbant tuition with nearly 100K in loans. It's crazy.

I just don't know what I'm capable of or what I would really enjoy doing in a practical sense. But I don't want to waste too much time and money trying to find out.


Anyone else have any advice from past experiences at a university? Anyone going to one right now? Anyone going to one in Tenessee? :p Share, peoples.

[i_mmmchocolate]

I just graduated, but I work at a university in Westchester NY. I might attend graduate school in Massachusetts.

[acagle7]

Well tomorrow will be my third day in College. I am going to Mississippi College in Clinton, Mississippi. So far all I have learned and been told about college is to study, try to have as little absences as possible, and get involved in activities.

[foxfire]

I'm just starting out at Columbia... can't wait til I get to NYC :)

[Sanagi]

Music major, classes start next week. Totally unprepared.

[Jeff Brady]

I'm just starting out at Columbia... can't wait til I get to NYC :)

We can't wait for you to get here, either!

[RickThunderclees]

Social Studies Education here...with History and Poli Sci minor. At Ohio University..which I think was just recently rated the Number 2 party school in the U.S....don't know why though.... :cool:

Movin into an apartment next week, start school after Labor Day

[i_mmmchocolate]

I'm just starting out at Columbia... can't wait til I get to NYC :)

Are you new to the area? Their semester begins the week of September 6, if I remember correctly.

[The Defenestrator]

Alls I'm taking right now is Intermediate Algebra. It's been five years since I gradumatated high school and I only just started with college over the summer. I don't like college, it's mean and scary and the kids are poopy and they make fun of you and the parking is teh suxxors and my math teacher is so uncomfortable that it breaks my heart to see him stand there and get blank stares. :(

[Eliot Johnson]

I move in at Emory tomorrow...

(and i get the hell out and go to UGA, hopefully after one semester)

[foxfire]

Are you new to the area? Their semester begins the week of September 6, if I remember correctly.

Yeah school doesn't start until the 6th but freshmen have to get there this Monday because they have basically a week of orientation programs and stuff. Hey I don't mind, if it means I get away from my parents AND have a week in one of the best cities in the world :)

Do you go there? Just wondering.

[i_mmmchocolate]

Yeah school doesn't start until the 6th but freshmen have to get there this Monday because they have basically a week of orientation programs and stuff. Hey I don't mind, if it means I get away from my parents AND have a week in one of the best cities in the world :)

Do you go there? Just wondering.

Nope. But I frequent the area often.

We should have a CBRNY sometime!

[Typo Lad]

Nope. But I frequent the area often.

We should have a CBRNY sometime!

yeah! We can break in the new guy!

[Rabid Trekkie]

I start college this Monday and I'm really not looking forward to it. I've gotten used to home study where I wake up, eat breakfast, put on a movie and start my school work without having to worry about another soul in the room. Now I'm getting thrown into a building with a bunch of other people I have no desire to talk with and am being told by everyone "Oh you'll love it!"
No I won't! I talk on message boards because I don't like being around people!

Then I get the joy of learning I'm practically brain dead and have to take a reading and algebra remidial course. The algebra thing, okay that I can understand as anything beyond basic multiplication and division gives me a headache. But reading! All because I missed three points on the placement test! I wanted to tear out the guy's throat when he told me that, or to use a word that they'll probably ask me the meaning of when I get into the class, I wanted to eviserate him!

If I don't post again after Monday it'll probably be because I died from drowning in people and boredom.

[macul]

I move in at Emory tomorrow...

(and i get the hell out and go to UGA, hopefully after one semester)

Yes. Go to UGA. woooo!! Go, DAWGS!!

ok. On with the thread. Ignore my worthless contribution.

[TheLewisShow]

Indiana U by way of Liberty U and Rappahannock Community College.

My wife started yesterday at Virginia Commonwealth University for fashion design. *wishes her luck*

[Sir Tim Drake]

I just graduated from Brown. I'm starting a one-year M.A. program at Dartmouth next month. I'm also going to apply to a bunch of grad schools for my Ph.D. (in comparative literature or some other related field).

[Shades0077]

When I finish my stat final on Wednesday, I'll have completed my third year of my chemical engineering degree at Drexel University.

Now only two more years to go! Woo!

[Michael P]

I move in at Emory tomorrow...

(and i get the hell out and go to UGA, hopefully after one semester)
The hell? Why would you leave Emory for UGA?

[JTLauder]

I feel like an ol' fogie here as college was years behind me...but allow me to pass on some time-old words of advice and encouragement.

It's not unusal to have been really successful academically in high school to suddenly find yourself afraid that every one else seems smarter than you are, or worse, that you are just "average". Remember, college is where they've accepted the upper tier of high school students from around the country and world. Coming from the typical teenager mindset of feeling invulnerable and that you know more than anyone else (particularly your parent), at some point after being exposed in this setting, you will realize how much you really don't know. At first this realization will seem frightening. But take this as a sign that you are growing and maturing. It is at this point when you become more receptive and willing to learn. And once that happens, you really have the whole world open to you to pursue whatever it is you want to do.

Rabid Trekkie, you've got a tough situation. The whole point of the college experience (and it really is an experience, not just a course of study for a degree), is to expose yourself to different people and a different setting from the first 18 years of your life. I'm not going to tell you that you'll love it because everyone has a different temperament and it's not easy being in an evironment totally different than what you are used to. But the whole point of college is the opportunity experience new things. Then you can decide how you want to live--by choice and not by default because it's the only way you've ever known.

[Sir Tim Drake]

The hell? Why would you leave Emory for UGA?

Especially when Emory has a better debate team!

[Archyduke]

I just started at Ursinus yesterday; in fact, my computer's only been hooked up for about five minues. Now, off to make some mangled attempts at socializing!

[Puma]

starting the final year of graduate work at the University of North Texas via the internet this coming Monday; gotta love online classes. By this time next year I should have my Masters in Library and Information Sciences.

[Eliot Johnson]

The hell? Why would you leave Emory for UGA?

I can go to UGA for free. Emory, even with the $12,000+ i have in scholarships, is ridiculously expensive. I really couldn't go to Emory for four years, anyway, but...

Emory is a school with the pretention and snobbery of an Ivy League school, without the academic strength (UGA is actually rated higher than Emory on a purely academic basis in many college books). Most people who go to Emory are spoiled rich kids who didn't get into an Ivy League school.

I can't stay at Emory...it's a horrible atmosphere. Polo shirts and khakis everywhere you look. I don't know if I'm going to go to UGA though...I'm going to look around at other schools, but...it's looking most likely for UGA.

Add in to that the fact that I'm having horrible moral conflicts that I'm going to a private school (not a fan of private schools)...and I just have to leave Emory. ASAP.

[i_mmmchocolate]

I just graduated from Brown. I'm starting a one-year M.A. program at Dartmouth next month. I'm also going to apply to a bunch of grad schools for my Ph.D. (in comparative literature or some other related field).

Any preferences on a Ph.D. program yet?

[Sir Tim Drake]

Any preferences on a Ph.D. program yet?

From what little investigation I've done, I like Columbia and Yale.

However, right now I'm more worried about whether I'll get accepted anywhere. :eek: I know I probably shouldn't worry...

[i_mmmchocolate]

From what little investigation I've done, I like Columbia and Yale.

However, right now I'm more worried about whether I'll get accepted anywhere. :eek: I know I probably shouldn't worry...


Good picks so far. You shouldn't worry; I suspect you'll get accepted to one of your top choices.

[Gaz]

I'm biting my nails constantly because I had to resit two of my final exams and resubmit coursework for a third class at law school this semester... wish me luck and passing-ness?

[BlairH]

I'm biting my nails constantly because I had to resit two of my final exams and resubmit coursework for a third class at law school this semester... wish me luck and passing-ness?

Best of luck.


I also had to resit some of the same classes Gaz failed.

[Zeta]

Right now, after some intense thought, I've pretty much narrowed it down to Psychology, Sociology, or History. I'll problably still minor in CompSci, simply because I find the technical side interesting and if you don't major in it - you don't have to take the indepth theoretical classes.

Right now, Sociologists apparently mostly work in conjunction with businesses in consultation with marketers and stores to determine what products/styles/positioning of goods would attract people. About 1/3 are Social Workers, 1/3 work in marketing-related jobs, and 1/3 are teachers. Demand for them as marketing consultants is apparently increasing right now, though.

I'm thinking that hopefully by the end of my career, I'll be able to get a job as a museum worker/historian/social analysist/therapist or a light computer tech guy or a librarian.

I'm still not sure if I'd like psych, soc, or history better. I'll try to take the starting clases for those fields next semester and see.

It took me a lot of soul searching for me to realize I can't do a hard science, because I'm not a logical person. I really admire people who have the skills to be completely logical, and for a while I wished/thought I was one. But then I realized I mostly rely on intuition.

Which is why I'm so good at computers, and why I could never major in compsci. I don't work computers by local knowledge, but simply by feeling my way around and intuitively understanding/getting the feel of how a computer language works. While that's a great skill for someone who does light coding as a hobby or ocassional job (like the kind of thing you'd get into with a minor in compsci), it won't fly in a compsci major where you need to document and show how you've reached each conclusion.

I need a career/field of study that relies mostly on memory and intuition and isn't art. That leaves me with history, sociology, and psychology, basically. No matter how many people in other fields seem to sneer at those fields.

[Xombie]

Here at UM they have already canceled 2 days of class cause of the Hurricane.