My College Choices/Your Opinion

[yongrel]

If I go to school one more semester after high school, I'll have my associates because Ill only be two credits shy. Once I finish this, I'll be an undergrad?

I don't have any experience with associates degress, but I know plenty of folks who entered college with enough credits from community college that they started as a Junior. If you've been taking the right gen ed courses, you'll be able to forgo a lot of the intro level courses.

Also, to your original post, what is important to you in a college? Are you concerned with location, strength of program, size, political leanings, etc? Any of these factors can be very important in deciding where to apply.

 

[tribute_13]

I want to make my mark in history. I want to go to a good school, with great name recognition that can get me great opportunities and can get me places. I think it is safe to say that Ivy League schools can get you associated with highly influential people. I want to be someone who will benefit this country and this planet. I have a lot of expectations for me. I always have had high standards for me. I don't know if this will be my ultimate downfall if I'm not open to other choices. I will apply to backup schools. I just would absolutely be thrilled if I could get into Ivy League. I personally believe I can do it. I would be more surprised if I didn't get in. I'm not trying to sound conceited I'm just really looking forward to the next 10 years as far as education is concerned. I just hope nothing interrupts it like war or something else equally terrible.

 

[Conza88]

I want to make my mark in history. I want to go to a good school, with great name recognition that can get me great opportunities and can get me places. I think it is safe to say that Ivy League schools can get you associated with highly influential people. I want to be someone who will benefit this country and this planet. I have a lot of expectations for me. I always have had high standards for me. I don't know if this will be my ultimate downfall if I'm not open to other choices. I will apply to backup schools. I just would absolutely be thrilled if I could get into Ivy League. I personally believe I can do it. I would be more surprised if I didn't get in. I'm not trying to sound conceited I'm just really looking forward to the next 10 years as far as education is concerned. I just hope nothing interrupts it like war or something else equally terrible.

"All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education."– Sir Walter Scott

 

[yongrel]

I want to make my mark in history. I want to go to a good school, with great name recognition that can get me great opportunities and can get me places. I think it is safe to say that Ivy League schools can get you associated with highly influential people. I want to be someone who will benefit this country and this planet. I have a lot of expectations for me. I always have had high standards for me. I don't know if this will be my ultimate downfall if I'm not open to other choices. I will apply to backup schools. I just would absolutely be thrilled if I could get into Ivy League. I personally believe I can do it. I would be more surprised if I didn't get in. I'm not trying to sound conceited I'm just really looking forward to the next 10 years as far as education is concerned. I just hope nothing interrupts it like war or something else equally terrible.

1) Ivycentricism has been the downfall of many a promising student. The Ivies are not the only schools worth attending.

2) If your only criteria for judging a school is its lay prestige, then you are setting yourself up for a miserable 4 years. An uncle of mine went to Yale for a year and hated it. Transferred to U Washington and loved every second. There are a ton of factors that should go into your decision. For undergraduate especially, prestige should probably be the last item on your list.

3) Figure out what program you want, and go from there. Going to Harvard for a BA in English is pretty damn silly, considering you could get an equivalent or greater degree for a lot less elsewhere. Figure out what you want to study, and go from there. Want to study Political Science? Stanford's a helluva lot better than most Ivies. Physics? Besides Cornell, the Ivies probably aren't for you.

4) Don't take anything for granted. Your numbers are great, and you obviously haven't been slacking, but... Harvard gets thousands of applicants just like you ever year, and thousands more that are better. Don't set yourself up for depression by assuming you'll get into the best schools in the country.

 

[mtmedlin]

Oh, that reminds me of another suggestion for the sciences: Carnegie Mellon University--they are doing some pretty incredible stuff there in the sciences. It's more robotics/engineering than physics, but a great school. I think you're probably right about MIT for undergrad.

I went to a no-name school for undergrad, graduated magna cum laude, was able to do doctoral level research in undergrad, and got into Hopkins for grad school. They don't really care what school you went to, as long as you distinguished yourself in some way(s).

Carnegie Mellon is great school and kicks ass for Social Policy which in my opinion is much better then a straight up Poli Sci degree.
I guess I shouldnt disparage Poli Sci as much as I do. I hold a BA in it and wouldnt change my life for anything. There are many in the political circles in FLorida that know who I am because of my work and I could have had a great career. I got accepted into Stetson Law school but had an epiphany and chose to switch to education. Now I hold 3 degrees and own a party store. WHo knows? I guess I just have Intellectual ADD or something.
In 2012, I am running for school Board in my county (pays $38,000 for a part time position that takes roughly 12 hours a MONTH - which is one of the first things I am going to fix) All in all I believe fate works out pretty well for me. My background in Poli Sci and Education has lead to a pretty interesting path for me.

 

[mtmedlin]

1) Ivycentricism has been the downfall of many a promising student. The Ivies are not the only schools worth attending.

2) If your only criteria for judging a school is its lay prestige, then you are setting yourself up for a miserable 4 years. An uncle of mine went to Yale for a year and hated it. Transferred to U Washington and loved every second. There are a ton of factors that should go into your decision. For undergraduate especially, prestige should probably be the last item on your list.

3) Figure out what program you want, and go from there. Going to Harvard for a BA in English is pretty damn silly, considering you could get an equivalent or greater degree for a lot less elsewhere. Figure out what you want to study, and go from there. Want to study Political Science? Stanford's a helluva lot better than most Ivies. Physics? Besides Cornell, the Ivies probably aren't for you.

4) Don't take anything for granted. Your numbers are great, and you obviously haven't been slacking, but... Harvard gets thousands of applicants just like you ever year, and thousands more that are better. Don't set yourself up for depression by assuming you'll get into the best schools in the country.

Very, very well put!

my brother got accepted at MIT and Georgia Tech BUT Georgia Tech offered him a teaching asst. Position and he actually MADE $12,000 a year and got a free education. AS far as jobs, he worked for Nasa for a summer and then went to Lockheed Martin and design propulsion systems. G Tech grads make just as much as MIT and they dont owe an assload of cash afterwards.

 

[yongrel]

my brother got accepted at MIT and Georgia Tech BUT Georgia Tech offered him a teaching asst. Position and he actually MADE $12,000 a year and got a free education. AS far as jobs, he worked for Nasa for a summer and then went to Lockheed Martin and design propulsion systems. G Tech grads make just as much as MIT and they dont owe an assload of cash afterwards.

I've got several family members that made very similar choices in engineering. My grandfather turned down Stanford for the Colorado School of Mines. Instead of owing thousands of dollars upon graduation, he got to make about 10k a year (big money back then) from his various patents in metallurgy.

I myself turned down a few bigger name schools in favor of being in DC. There's no better place in the world to study American politics.

 

[mtmedlin]

I've got several family members that made very similar choices in engineering. My grandfather turned down Stanford for the Colorado School of Mines. Instead of owing thousands of dollars upon graduation, he got to make about 10k a year (big money back then) from his various patents in metallurgy.

I myself turned down a few bigger name schools in favor of being in DC. There's no better place in the world to study American politics.

I wanted to move to DC and go to JOhns Hopkins for their Masters in Public Policy but it would have meant moving my kids out of their school....so....
When I talked to them about their program the thing that sold me on it, at the time was that they had a summer program where you could go study at the University of London. I love studying American Politics and Policy but sometimes it can be very beneficial to get that outside point of view.

 

[constituent]

I want to make my mark... I want to go... get me great opportunities and can get me places. I think... I want... I have a lot of expectations for me. I always have had high standards for me. I don't know if this will be my ultimate downfall if I'm not open to other choices. I will apply to backup schools. I just would absolutely be thrilled if I could get into Ivy League. I personally believe I can do it. I would be more surprised if I didn't get in. I'm not trying to sound conceited I'm just really looking forward to the next 10 years as far as education is concerned. I just hope nothing interrupts it like war or something else equally terrible.

Having obtained my degree in english lit., lemme recommend you work on relating to other people, both in real life and writing style.

That said, imo, ditch college for a few semesters and go to trade skill. Learn how to do something useful (besides pontificating over your own greatness) that relates to your desired field of study (science is it? try some flavor of "process technology"), get a job and get your foot in the door somewhere industry wise. Forget riding in on the coattails of the king, stand on your own merits, abilities and work ethic.

Three benefits of this approach

1) If through unforseen circumstances you find yourself out in the street somewhere between your sophomore and junior years, then you will be able to find--in fact, probably already have--a real job that pays you enough to eat, work and pay rent all at the same time.

"Some college" looks like shite on a resume.

2) Keep your chin up on the job, show up on time (everyday) wearing a smile on your face, and your employer might keep you around long enough to qualify for some sort of tuition reimbursement program to intice you to stick around.

3) More often than not, any company that you work for will be a bureaucratic nightmare full of middle-management types more concerned with covering their own asses and protecting their "hard-earned" right to sit around and do f* all toward increasing productivity. Knowing this, expect that you will find being the guy covering his ass w/ underlings vastly preferable to being the underling he does it with. The sooner you get to work on becoming that guy, the better off you will be.


All that said, keep up the hard work, chase you dreams, live long, prosper and all that jazz.