Baby Slump.

Rollout

Mothercucker
Apr 8, 2010
2,654
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Miami, Florida
Marklar
₥948
Well its college time. (not really)

The grading period ends in two weeks and I've been slacking in my grades. I waited till last minute to do a project and I'm gonna pay for it through the nose. I've been so lazy lately and my priorities are fucked up. Checking Facebook every ten seconds. Log on here every other min. Playing some stupid unwinnable browser game MMO shit. I feel like a wreck. I’d tell my mom first about how I feel right now but I know she’d rip me apart and take everything I know and love away from me (my computer). So I'm just coming to you all cause its fun to hear a stranger's opinions on things or whatever.

And then I started to think about college. To be frank I do want to get out of this state. To go see the world. What’s outside of Miami? i dunno i don't go anywhere.



And so I went to college board and did some shit and it determined what the best colleges would be for me.

Major: Computer Science (or some other bullshit dealing with computers)

Boston (or Brown University) I forget which one , they looked the same
Cornell
US Air Force or US Naval Academy
Texas A&M

Those up there look the most interesting.Thing is, their admission rates are so low (8% - 20%) and their tuition is about $10,000 - $30,000. How the hell am I suppose to pay for that? Or matter a fact, get in? There’s only so much scholarships can do. Lord knows I really don’t wanna start working now. idk what to do.
and I know i haven’t thought all of this through.

What college did you all go to? How'd you all get get in/through college?
 
whatever you do, go cheap. just an undergrad degree doesn't mean shit anymore, so you won't get a great job, so you will be stuck with student loans that will forever haunt you because you can never pay them back before you die, and you can't bankrupt on them.
 
I might work in admissions at a large private research university, the vast majority of applications right before and right after our winter break. Decisions went out about a week ago for Fall 2012 US students, now they are cleaning up foreign applicants.

Any of the service academies you have to start planning freshman year, maybe junior at latest. You can try, but you need a congressional nomination to even have them look at your application (or your parents have to have be retired or active duty). Then you need some serious extra curriculars, JROTC, Varsity sports etc. Most of the people who go to them want to be officers in the military so it attracts a certain type...

Going into debt is stupid. The problem is you shouldnt look at an educational qualification as securing you a job. You have to get a job, degree or no, qualifications just qualify you for different jobs. What you SHOULD look at is the job placement/corporate partnerships of whichever school you do attend. Some schools have exclusive internships etc. that can help a great deal. Others just push you out the door with a degree and say good luck (this is extremely prevalent in 4 year liberal arts colleges).

There is a procedure for getting rid of students who just arent quite going to make it called "cooling out." Cornell and other Ivy League schools even if you get in the course load is pretty heavy and they will put you out to pasture while collecting tuition if you can't cut it.

I don't know why you said 30k as a high end. We don't even let foreign students apply unless they have $57,000 cash in a bank account. Out of state is essentially foreign, they don't get the instate tuition rate. The only difference is US citizens can get some help through FAFSA.

Admissions policies for private institutions really depend on how many applicants they get. People who might've not gotten in one year with X credentials, might get in another year with the same credentials simply because there was a different number of applicants. Early decision applicants usually get priority over regular admissions. People who are willing to transfer colleges within the university might get conditional acceptance vs people who apply for one specific college. Generally though, don't fail classes, get letters of recommendation, and have a good essay. Also don't send the wrong application packet to the wrong school, it looks really really bad.

It makes the most sense to go to a state school. Cost of living is cheaper, tuition is cheaper, and most states have state specific grants for domestic students.
 
Any of the service academies you have to start planning freshman year, maybe junior at latest. You can try, but you need a congressional nomination to even have them look at your application (or your parents have to have be retired or active duty). Then you need some serious extra curriculars, JROTC, Varsity sports etc. Most of the people who go to them want to be officers in the military so it attracts a certain type...

Really? All I did was have good grades and score high on ASVAB and they came to me.

And for Computer Science, unless you want to go the programming route, Thorn Bird is right. Get an undergrad degree from any school, and work on getting your certifications.

Oh and you're way off on your tuition numbers (Except for A&M):

Brown: 42,808/year (doesn't include fees, books, room, or board)
Boston: 40,808/year (doesn't include fees, books, room, or board)
Cornell: 43,185 (doesn't include fees, books, room, or board) - This would be cheaper with a different major by a large margin apparently.
Air Force and Naval Academy: At lease Five years of your life after you graduate

Regarding how you pay for them? Apply for scholarships, Apply for grants, get a FAFSA loan. This is the one time that being a minority is going to help you drastically. Since you'd be using it to better yourself (i.e. get an education) DO IT!
 
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Really? All I did was have good grades and score high on ASVAB and they came to me.
"Coming" to you like getting recruited is way different than being accepted. Lots of people start planning for it in middle school. Hell my school gets transcripts from enough 4.0gpa capt of the volleyball/football team, started their own charity freshman year, prep school types. Can only imagine the service academies get more of them. Only know Army so: Each senator/congressman only gets 5 nominations per year, if every senator/congressman, and the vice president and all the other numbered nominations go through there are exactly 2925 that go out every year. Narrows the pool considerably. I think they only take 1300 students per year so less than half the actual nominations actually get in. VMI is a good alternative, so is Norwich University but lesser known.
 
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Cornell: 43,185 (doesn't include fees, books, room, or board) - This would be cheaper with a different major by a large margin apparently.
Cornell has contract colleges and endowed colleges. The contract colleges are like half the price of the endowed ones for NY residents. Dorm housing is 7.1k for a triple, 7.8k for a double/quad, 8.3k for a single. Books depend on the courses but is about 1.5-2k. No idea about the meal plan.
 
I am paying $50k for my 4 year tuition at UoP... I hate myself right now. Student loans now rape you on interest, mines 7%. I'm paying double payments each month, but I won't be done for six to seven years. I hate debt, it's my only debt tho.
 
I am paying $50k for my 4 year tuition at UoP... I hate myself right now. Student loans now rape you on interest, mines 7%. I'm paying double payments each month, but I won't be done for six to seven years. I hate debt, it's my only debt tho.

FAFSA is currently 5%. Was lower previously. I hardly doubt that counts as rape on interest. UoP = ?
 
6.8% for Stafford, 5% for Perkins, and there are maximum amounts you can borrow on both.

Also, looks really good on your app to not having to be applying for aid.
 
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I think it really depends on where you want to be in life. I know it's tough to think about that 4 years down the road from you right now, but what you want to do with yourself will kind of dictate where you want to go to college. If you know, and you want to be a doctor, go to a school that has a great pre-med program and a high acceptance rate into med school. If you want to be an engineer, go to a good engineering school with a successful hiring rate and look at the companies that recruit heavily from there. Look at the professors- were they ever in industry, or have they had their noses stuck in books for the past 20 years? What's the environment like at these schools- how many core classes do you have to take outside your major? Do any of them look interesting? What's the weather like- do you want to experience the fun and bullshit that is a real live winter, or do you want to stay somewhere moderately warm? All of these crazy things add up to what is a good or miserable collegiate experience.

I happen to know a thing or sixteen about Brown (and about a shit-ton of other schools by association), because my mother was Vice President there for almost 20 years. I'm still on a first name basis with many of the faculty and admin there. Their CompSci department is one of the best in the country, but their "curriculum" is odd- you don't have one. You make shit up as you go, so if you need some kind of structure to get you through school Brown is probably not the place for you. Providence is pretty, but small. Drugs are pretty rampant on the East Side. But they're one of the best schools in the country for a few reasons- high endowment, great faculty, strong placement, etc.

Cornell is gorgeous and the programs are strong. But's in the middle of fuck-ass nowhere. There's a lot to do right in town in Ithaca, but you're 15 miles from oblivion there. The winters are brutal. They're an Ivy League school, but they're also an in-state school for some programs, which means they have quotas to fill for NY residents. So unless you're like cream of the crop, it's brutal to get accepted.

Texas A&M is an exceptionally strong school as well, and the climate and atmosphere are definitely different than any of the other schools you mentioned. You'd best be liking sports if you want to be one of the "in" crowd there.

My admissions process to undergrad was a bazillion years ago, so I don't know how much it would help you today. I had good grades, fantastic extracurricular activities, and I suppose a vibrant personality (I was a concert pianist, wrote admissions essays about Anna Karenina- which got mentioned in US News, an AcDec National Medalist, etc). Unfortunately that was before the times of "helicopter parents" and these days there are a crapton of kids out there with the same qualifications. Awesome high schoolers are a dime a dozen. But I CAN tell you that my undergrad experience-as much of what I did there and WHERE I went- got me into the research position I took outside of college, which in turn got me into grad school, and onto the path I'm going to be on for probably the rest of my life. I applied to 10 schools, got into 6? 8? can't remember. Ended up drawing names out of a hat between my top two choices, and picked the school whose name I didn't draw, because a little voice inside of me went "oh shit". I loved my college experience. It was brutal. But I made lifelong friends, developed a strong work ethic, and learned how to learn, and in a roundabout manner, teach. I was also fortunate that my parents had saved for my college education and Brown chipped in for some of it as well- being involved with Higher Ed meant my parents really cared about my Higher Ed and that was incredibly fortunate for me. But this was also when tuition was about 15-20K cheaper than it is today- would my parents pay $50k for me to go to a school that I didn't absolutely love and devour every day? No.

Okay I'm rambling. But I've spent the greater part of my life being immersed in higher education, either at my research bench, working part time in an admissions office, or at the dinner table, so if you want to know some of the ins and outs of collegiate ish ask away.
 
If your mom gives you a hard time just give her one right back for not having a college fund for you!

whatever you do, go cheap. just an undergrad degree doesn't mean shit anymore, so you won't get a great job, so you will be stuck with student loans that will forever haunt you because you can never pay them back before you die, and you can't bankrupt on them.

This. Starting out adulthood saddled with debt is really crippling.

Really? All I did was have good grades and score high on ASVAB and they came to me.

Regarding how you pay for them? Apply for scholarships, Apply for grants, get a FAFSA loan. This is the one time that being a minority is going to help you drastically. Since you'd be using it to better yourself (i.e. get an education) DO IT!

There's way more applicants now then there were even 15 years ago and it is different if you are recruited.

You are right about the minority thing.

Rollout, apply for all the scholarships you can. I got a scholarship for being at least 50% Irish be descent. I got one for being a DAR. There's tons of random crap like that out there.



Also, I know you want to see the world but in-state schools are much cheaper and you can always take study abroad semesters. It was definitely worth it for me, but what do I know? I'm a spoiled girl. My parents paid for everything for me. I had a job to supplement that, which is how I paid for the semester abroad, which really wasn't that expensive considering all it included.
 
If your mom gives you a hard time just give her one right back for not having a college fund for you!
You sound like a LI-JAP. :lol:

Either way things that come to mind:
A lot of people never even have their application looked at because they don't send all the required paperwork. It is incredibly important to send every single thing they tell you and make sure your HS doesn't fuck up sending the wrong transcript etc.

Talk to your school counselor more than once. They fill out evaluations that you never see that are required by most admissions departments. Having more than one generic paragraph helps.

Don't have stupid shit on facebook, twitter, etc.

Except for service academies, don't worry about getting in as much as you worry about what you are going to get. People get hung up on getting in and totally forget that they are making the largest purchase to date in their short life.
 
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Want job security after college? Go to medical school or become an engineer. Don't want to go to college? Enjoy doing all the sh*tty work, for a quarter of the money of those with professional degrees.

In before "YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO TO COLLEGE TO MAKE MONEY."
 
I spent about 50k in tuition on my electrical engineering degree. Well worth it.

Cousin spent about the same on his economics degree. Pretty sure he regrets it.

Brother dropped out and became a low voltage tech, moved up to pm in a small electrical, he's satisfied with his decision.

Theres good options with or without a degree, and bad options with or without a degree.

Also, don't borrow for living expenses, dumbest thing I've ever seen anyone do. Get a part time job and struggle through it. I worked at UPS which has tuition reimbursement so it cut down on my loans quite a bit.
 
If you are going to mostly be doing the college thing on your own, then stick in state and take advantage of in-state tuition. You will save a considerable sum, and still have access to your core peeps when you need them. Florida has some alright schools here, more than good enough for undergrad.

Once you have your BS or BA, evaluate where you stand at that point.