• Let's Talk College!
    371 replies, posted
[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;28977351]Graduated about a year ago with a two-year Associates degree, because my family isn't filthy rich enough to send me to a real school. I now do the exact job I spent all that time training for, and I make minimum wage at it. Fuck college. My money would have been better spent on blow and hookers.[/QUOTE] What job? It sounds like an awefully stupid employer or an awfully dumb profession that only give minimum wage for a trained position. On that note though you generally don't go to a community college to get an associates and that's it - it's generally something you do to save money by finishing your degree at a 4 year. Also if your family is poor you should have done fafsa and shit to apply for grants. I know people that get their school pretty much 100% paid for because they are broke as shit. You just have to fill out all the paperwork. Look into pell grant. My community college requires ALL students to fill out financial aid forums (even if they are well off enough to not earn anything) in order to be registered. Also, heard of loans? I know it's bad to rely on loans a lot but student unsubsidized loans are made for people like you, who can't afford college right now but can pay it off later. If you go to a normal 4 year college/uni that is in-state, you won't be in that much debt, plus for student unsubsidized ones you don't have to pay interest or any money until after you graduate. The debt horror stories are mostly people who have giant education degrees that span well beyond 4 years or people who went to snooty private schools, or people who went out of state.
[QUOTE=KorJax;28977845]What job? It sounds like an awefully stupid employer or an awfully dumb profession that only give minimum wage for a trained position. On that note though you generally don't go to a community college to get an associates and that's it - it's generally something you do to save money by finishing your degree at a 4 year. Also if your family is poor you should have done fafsa and shit to apply for grants. I know people that get their school pretty much 100% paid for because they are broke as shit. You just have to fill out all the paperwork. Look into pell grant. My community college requires ALL students to fill out financial aid forums (even if they are well off enough to not earn anything) in order to be registered. Also, heard of loans? I know it's bad to rely on loans a lot but student unsubsidized loans are made for people like you, who can't afford college right now but can pay it off later. If you go to a normal 4 year college/uni that is in-state, you won't be in that much debt, plus for student unsubsidized ones you don't have to pay interest or any money until after you graduate. The debt horror stories are mostly people who have giant education degrees that span well beyond 4 years or people who went to snooty private schools, or people who went out of state.[/QUOTE] I'm an automotive technician, that's what I spent all that time training for. Employer is obviously using the shitty economy as an excuse to pay their people next to nothing, but from what I've seen that's the same anywhere that's hiring. My family is in that nice little doughnut hole where we don't have enough money to put us through college, yet we make just enough to disqualify us from any assistance other than federal student loans. What money we had saved up got completely wiped out in the market crash. I had to move out of town in order to attend the program I wanted. After getting fired once, then laid off in late '08, I racked up something on the order of $15,000 of student loan debt between tuition and living expenses just to stay there and keep going to class. From where I stand now, I might as well have been stuffing it down the garbage disposal. I think I'd actually be better off resigning, selling my tools, and flipping burgers at the McDonald's down the street. If I saw my instructor again, I'd probably kill him with my bare hands for not telling us the truth about what we'd be making. I'd like to go to a real school and get a real degree like I should have in the first place, but with that much debt and my income that's simply not going to happen anymore. I fucked up in choosing my school and education and now I'm screwed for the rest of my life as a result.
[QUOTE=KorJax;28975041]People who designed Portal did technically. Same thing applies to programmers too (getting a CS degree over a game programming one). Plus you'll probably enjoy your time at college a bit more in a normal school over some closed off expensive game design one.[/QUOTE] This is exactly why I chose to go for a CS degree over a game design program. I've applied to four schools: Drexel University, Worcester Polytechnical Institute, Penn State University, and Villanova University. I got accepted into all of them choosing to major in CS. I'll probably end up going to Drexel because it's close to home, I like their program, and I got accepted into their Honors College. At the same time, a good friend of mine's already deadset on Drexel and got accepted to their game design program as well as the honors college. I haven't said anything to him about his choice to pursue a narrow degree, but I sort of worry about how he'll fare getting work.
[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;28977944]I fucked up in choosing my school and education and now I'm screwed for the rest of my life as a result.[/QUOTE] You're an automotive technician? Take a heavy-duty mechanic course. Both of those together will let you work pretty much anywhere that there is stuff that moves. Find an apprenticeship for it and money won't really be a worry at all.
[QUOTE=Zeke129;28978274]You're an automotive technician? Take a heavy-duty mechanic course. Both of those together will let you work pretty much anywhere that there is stuff that moves. Find an apprenticeship for it and money won't really be a worry at all.[/QUOTE] The second half of the problem is that I can't stand doing the actual job I trained to do. Whenever this current job ends, I don't ever want to work anywhere even slightly related to the car industry. Something about this business just attracts shitty, greedy, dishonest people and I can't take dealing with their shit anymore. It's been like this at every automotive job I've ever had, so by now I think I can make some assumptions about what other places are going to be like. Actually working in the industry has destroyed any desire I ever had to work on cars. I don't know what I want to do with my life, but I know I don't ever want to have anything to do with cars ever again.
[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;28977944]I'm an automotive technician, that's what I spent all that time training for. Employer is obviously using the shitty economy as an excuse to pay their people next to nothing, but from what I've seen that's the same anywhere that's hiring. My family is in that nice little doughnut hole where we don't have enough money to put us through college, yet we make just enough to disqualify us from any assistance other than federal student loans. What money we had saved up got completely wiped out in the market crash. I had to move out of town in order to attend the program I wanted. After getting fired once, then laid off in late '08, I racked up something on the order of $15,000 of student loan debt between tuition and living expenses just to stay there and keep going to class. From where I stand now, I might as well have been stuffing it down the garbage disposal. I think I'd actually be better off resigning, selling my tools, and flipping burgers at the McDonald's down the street. If I saw my instructor again, I'd probably kill him with my bare hands for not telling us the truth about what we'd be making. I'd like to go to a real school and get a real degree like I should have in the first place, but with that much debt and my income that's simply not going to happen anymore. I fucked up in choosing my school and education and now I'm screwed for the rest of my life as a result.[/QUOTE] Thats crazy, your family sounds like it just got hit with a serious stroke of bad luck (plus tell them to not completely invest in the market!). I'm the same way with financial aid in that my dad makes enough to not qualify me for hardly anything. Your debt sounds absolutely ABSURD though. What kind of community college charges over $15,000 worth of tuition for a two year program??? Mine only costs me about $3000-$4000 for both years, not including summer. And keep a chin up with work, it sounds like you just have a bad first job with your line of work. The quick stop oil lube down the street where I live I think pays starting technitions about $9-10/hr. It's not a super amount, but for a place that just does basic oil changes it's not bad. Plus it's pretty much garunteed you get a job there when they hire as you are qualified. I was always under the impression experienced technitions make much more though if you are working at a legit car garage (i.e. auto repair and maintanence beyond the basic stuff). [editline]4th April 2011[/editline] EDIT: Oh. Well there's always room in life for another major, as much as it sucks. I reccomend Pizza Delivery in the mean time (not a major, as a job). It's laid back, enjoyable (if you don't work with terrible people), and despite how "low" you might feel for doing it, you'll make good money. I average $15-$17 per hour to drive around and listen to music. If you know how to work and maintain your own car it's even cheaper because you can do shit like oil changes and brake changes yourself. It's been able to completely cover my schooling expenses which tend to be about $550 per quarter if I'm doing full time (12 credit hours), and I work part time (20-24 hours a week) with enough spare change left over to enjoy myself. Do something you REALLY want to do. It's much better to work a job for lower pay that you really enjoy and feel satisfied from, than to work a job you hate for more money.
I applied to deliver pizza once, didn't get the job because apparently there is huge demand for it. It's obviously enough to make a living for a while though, you see plenty of adults doing it.
Keep going. They like people who have both food service and retail experience, if they are picky at all (my current manager doesn't seem to be). They really like to avoid people who come off as a pothead steriotype or who they would percieve to be irresponsable on the job. Also nows the time to apply, as business picks up in the spring and a driver at my store works on landscaping instead of delivery over the spring and summer as a seasonal thing.
I'm currently in trade-school, studying media. I really hate it because I singed up for the hope of learning Digital Art. But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! The majority of our subjects are video and photo, and only a minimal part is digital subjects. Now if I want to learn any of that shit that I wanted to learn about, I have to study outside of our school. But the thing is that there is rarely time for that shit when you got school days that last 6-8 hours plus 2 hours for traveling. I had plans of quitting my school and start studying 3D and using photoshop for creating textures and other kind of artwork. But instead I get a lot of disagreements, psychologists who both agree with me, but say that I should continue my studies in school and also my mother started crying. Why is everyone so pessimistic about my plans of studying on my own. Why would I want to go in a school that prevents me from completing my own plans. Instead of doing something that I dislike I could create a schedule of my own, consisting of a daily routine of studying 3D and such. Instead of having lack of sleep, an unhealthy diet and a majority of subjects that I despise. I could finally have proper sleep, healthy food from home, sport breaks and a subject I have a great passion for. But instead everyone thinks that I will never get a job if I don't have a fucking paper with grades. Yes, If I were searching for a job for a bureaucratic company, then my grades and papers would have a great meaning. But I want to work in an artistic field, where what you can show what you can (in a portfolio on the internet for example) would mean just as much or even more than a paper. I'm going to tell my teacher now that I'm going home to work on my photo assignment. (Even tough I will just go home and pick up the 3Ds Max 8 Bible and a cup of coffee)
I'm going to college for Electrical Engineering. I'm hoping to get an internship this summer, but it's getting late, and I have a feeling I may not get one. If I don't get one, I'm going to try to find a job up here and for the summer, and maybe take a couple classes.
[QUOTE=Rollie T;28951073]Hopefully I can get into Berklee College of Music, and I'm taking an AP music theory class next year[/QUOTE] Berklee is where I'd like to go. There or Musician's Institute.
[QUOTE=KorJax;28958534]As a matter of fact heres an article that states that some employers actually avoid people who come from "private elite" schools because they tend to have their head so far up their ass that they are hard to work with[/QUOTE] That's true, and the extremely rich people who go to those top-tier private universities don't face the same academic requirements (because it wouldn't be intelligent to boot out the students/families that will likely donate a great deal of money). It's a different situation here, because I live in Australia (only one private university from memory), and a 3 year degree is about $15,000 to $20,000, or about $6000 USD a year regardless. To put that into context, the minimum wage is about $30,000 USD a year, so it is accessible to most. The government provides about $27,000 to people with low-income families, or if they are independent of their families and earn less than a certain amount. In addition to that, the government will lend up to $100,000 interest free to students, and $200,000 to medical students. It has to be paid back after you begin earning about ~$40,000 taxable income, though. I do plan on completing a law degree after my undergrad.
How do they choose if you get in or not? Is it based on your equivalent to VCE (Aussie) Scores, or by something else? But regardless, when I finish VCE, I'd like to go to Qantm college, do a games design course, then after that, perhaps something to do with Architecture.
[QUOTE=sergeantsmiles;28982155]How do they choose if you get in or not? Is it based on your equivalent to VCE (Aussie) Scores, or by something else? But regardless, when I finish VCE, I'd like to go to Qantm college, do a games design course, then after that, perhaps something to do with Architecture.[/QUOTE] It's based on VCE (now ATAR) scores. [editline]4th April 2011[/editline] But if you can demonstrate that you had significant disadvantages, financial, medical and so on, you can get a lower ATAR score and still get in.
[QUOTE=Contag;28982178]It's based on VCE (now ATAR) scores. [editline]4th April 2011[/editline] But if you can demonstrate that you had significant disadvantages, financial, medical and so on, you can get a lower ATAR score and still get in.[/QUOTE] I meant in America/other countries, I know about ATAR, and VCE, but I'm not sure how the UK and America work.
I'm going to try to see if I can complete a double major, Computer Engineering AND Computer Science! Then to top it off, see if I can get a minor in Physics or Astronomy. I shall be ze uber-nerd!
[QUOTE=sergeantsmiles;28982744]I meant in America/other countries, I know about ATAR, and VCE, but I'm not sure how the UK and America work.[/QUOTE] A-level results in the England most of the time. The equivalents in Scotland/Wales/Ireland, etc.
[QUOTE=Marcolade;28982791]I'm going to try to see if I can complete a double major, Computer Engineering AND Computer Science! Then to top it off, see if I can get a minor in Physics or Astronomy. I shall be ze uber-nerd![/QUOTE] Double majoring in CE and CS sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Wow just realized that there is an aerospace university in England that requires 300+ UCAS points, with my course I get 180-200 or something so I would need to do another year of A-levels and shit just to get into this specialized college.
I don't know if anybody has asked this yet, and I'm not about to read the entire thread, but I just recently got waitlisted from my two top universities and accepted by another. The one I got accepted into wants me to respond by May 1st, however the waitlisted colleges might not respond before that day. What am I supposed to do if they don't respond in time? I heard that I could put a deposit on the one I got accepted to and, if I get accepted to the other ones, just revoke the deposit on the first accepting college. Is that true and is there anything else to do?
I got an offer from Nottingham to do physics (UK). Everyone who applied this year has narrowly avoided the fees increase. Also, just applied for first year accommodation in halls, wey.
Economics/Psychology double major at Brandeis University, right outside Boston. Plan to study behavioral economics
[QUOTE=Rings of Saturn;28985413]I don't know if anybody has asked this yet, and I'm not about to read the entire thread, but I just recently got waitlisted from my two top universities and accepted by another. The one I got accepted into wants me to respond by May 1st, however the waitlisted colleges might not respond before that day. What am I supposed to do if they don't respond in time? I heard that I could put a deposit on the one I got accepted to and, if I get accepted to the other ones, just revoke the deposit on the first accepting college. Is that true and is there anything else to do?[/QUOTE] Yes. If you get accepted somewhere else you'd rather go to then just don't follow through with the paperwork and signup from the first school that wants a reply now.
[QUOTE=Rings of Saturn;28985413]I don't know if anybody has asked this yet, and I'm not about to read the entire thread, but I just recently got waitlisted from my two top universities and accepted by another. The one I got accepted into wants me to respond by May 1st, however the waitlisted colleges might not respond before that day. What am I supposed to do if they don't respond in time? I heard that I could put a deposit on the one I got accepted to and, if I get accepted to the other ones, just revoke the deposit on the first accepting college. Is that true and is there anything else to do?[/QUOTE] This is fine, I put my deposit down at a school, ended up going to a different one. You lose the deposit, but it's worth it if you're really set on the waitlisted school.
[QUOTE=Rings of Saturn;28985413]I don't know if anybody has asked this yet, and I'm not about to read the entire thread, but I just recently got waitlisted from my two top universities and accepted by another. The one I got accepted into wants me to respond by May 1st, however the waitlisted colleges might not respond before that day. What am I supposed to do if they don't respond in time? I heard that I could put a deposit on the one I got accepted to and, if I get accepted to the other ones, just revoke the deposit on the first accepting college. Is that true and is there anything else to do?[/QUOTE] Don't worry about the colleges that waitlisted you responding by May 1st - it's the deadline for 99% of colleges. They'll get back to you before then.
Ughh I wish I had a higher gpa. I'm currently looking at state colleges in PA. My main one is probably Kutztown University, with Shippensburg and West Chester as backups.
[QUOTE=Rings of Saturn;28985413]I don't know if anybody has asked this yet, and I'm not about to read the entire thread, but I just recently got waitlisted from my two top universities and accepted by another. The one I got accepted into wants me to respond by May 1st, however the waitlisted colleges might not respond before that day. What am I supposed to do if they don't respond in time? I heard that I could put a deposit on the one I got accepted to and, if I get accepted to the other ones, just revoke the deposit on the first accepting college. Is that true and is there anything else to do?[/QUOTE] Those schools will respond by that day but you can pay an enrollment deposit at the school you got accepted to. It's really never too late either. I know someone who got a call from Harvard when he was in the car driving to another University. They turned around and withdrew from the other school and enrolled at Harvard that very day.
[QUOTE=XxTheAvengerxX;28904199]Not in today's competitive college market. Most good universities want at least a 3.2[/QUOTE] Doesn't mean you still can't get in conditionally and then progress to unconditional. Not very hard.
Alright, thanks guys. I'm a lot less paranoid now lol.
[QUOTE=nigfops;28988306]Ughh I wish I had a higher gpa. I'm currently looking at state colleges in PA. My main one is probably Kutztown University, with Shippensburg and West Chester as backups.[/QUOTE] There's nothing wrong with state colleges. They can give just as good of an education as private colleges, plus they're cheaper. If you really have your heart set on a private college, you can usually transfer if you do well enough.
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