Careers...

• Chillax wrote on 2011-01-09 20:11

  Quote from Cucurbita;283409:

  I don't see why you can't take a 5 year graduation plan. You can even go a little easy on the class load. Most liberal arts colleges require that you take a pretty solid number of general education courses, on top of every major having some sort of non-major related courses required to graduate. You can compare, find which ones are most common ground for those programs, and take those while you settle into college life and start talking with other students or professors about what directions you want to take your life.
  
  Its a little harder on the finances, but I think people who aren't sure of what they want their future to be should take this route.
  I went straight in head on into a topic I just wasn't sure of and it resulted in a pretty bad motivation crash. Being 18 years old and unknowing of the world and being forced to pick a road often times ends in disaster, hence the high drop out rate for college freshmen.
  
  Now that I have my life sorted out things are going a little smoother.
  
  Also, if you take advantage of summer/winter semester courses, you can grab enough credits to probably graduate in 4 (or at least, 4 and a half) years.
  
  Helps if you have AP credits too. I had Calculus and English credits from the get go.

  
  
  The thing is, some GE classes, i.e., a Life Science GE class, will not be accepted as a Major requirement if the person in question wants to major in Biology. The Major form of the class must be taken. Yes, there are some non-Major classes required as well, but each Major has a different requirement. Wasting money on a class that isn't even needed isn't very good, especially if that money comes from loans that will have to be paid back later with interest. It would be good for Humility to pick one career choice as a Major and one as a Minor, and work from there.
  
  Humility will need to do some research as to what classes are a part of the Majors she is interested in, and instead of advising her to take a bunch of GE classes, I would recommend attending and being a part of the different Major-related clubs offered on campus. Since there are probably going to be upperclassmen there that haven taken classes needed for that Major, they can offer a lot of insight into that particular field, and better yet, what teachers to choose and help when you have trouble on homework problems and quizzes.
  
  Summer is probably better spent interning and spending some time in the field instead of being holed up taking classes. You can afford to be a little unsure about what career you want to go into when you first enter college, but you still need a general sense of direction and do some planning, not saying that you didn't recommend that.
• Cucurbita wrote on 2011-01-09 22:00
  But thats what a catalog is for.
  You can pick out a few majors you might be interested in, and find the common GE that they all accept, take those first as an undecided major.
  
  See, the true benefit behind being an undecided major is that your adviser's primary focus is to help you decide what you want to do.
  
  When you go straight in with a major of choice, they really push that major into your face and leaves very little room for exploration.
• Chillax wrote on 2011-01-09 22:26

  Quote from Cucurbita;283905:

  But thats what a catalog is for.
  You can pick out a few majors you might be interested in, and find the common GE that they all accept, take those first as an undecided major.
  
  See, the true benefit behind being an undecided major is that your adviser's primary focus is to help you decide what you want to do.
  
  When you go straight in with a major of choice, they really push that major into your face and leaves very little room for exploration.

  
  
  GE requirements are dramatically different for each Major. I just think that clubs or even auditing classes, if that's allowed, are more viable alternatives.
  
  There's also the problem of priority enrollment and limited class size as well as a limited amount of people allowed in each major. The reason I don't recommend being Undeclared is because I've just seen too many of my Undeclared friends have a difficult time changing majors. Most of them ended up on the waiting list during class enrollment.
• Cucurbita wrote on 2011-01-09 23:13

  Quote from Chillax;283917:

  GE requirements are dramatically different for each Major. I just think that clubs or even auditing classes, if that's allowed, are more viable alternatives.
  
  There's also the problem of priority enrollment and limited class size as well as a limited amount of people allowed in each major. The reason I don't recommend being Undeclared is because I've just seen too many of my Undeclared friends have a difficult time changing majors. Most of them ended up on the waiting list during class enrollment.

  
  
  I dunno about your school but mine kept me damn busy for the second semester with GE's that are required by ALL classes.
  
  I mean, at LEAST take a semester to do this.
  
  I'm not recommending this to someone who has their life planned out. I'm saying it for those who aren't sure of what path they want to take. Charging straight in has a high risk of crashing.
  
  And you're saying right now, "Its a waste of credits/time/money", but if you end up deciding its not the major you want to take, you just REALLY wasted a bunch of credits, time, and money.
• Chillax wrote on 2011-01-10 00:27

  Quote from Cucurbita;283950:

  I dunno about your school but mine kept me damn busy for the second semester with GE's that are required by ALL classes.
  
  I mean, at LEAST take a semester to do this.
  
  I'm not recommending this to someone who has their life planned out. I'm saying it for those who aren't sure of what path they want to take. Charging straight in has a high risk of crashing.
  
  And you're saying right now, "Its a waste of credits/time/money", but if you end up deciding its not the major you want to take, you just REALLY wasted a bunch of credits, time, and money.

  
  
  I already finished all my GE's, but it's not like I didn't have to do my share. However, I took a freshman GE cluster which I think is specific to my school, and that one class was able to fulfill several GE requirements at once. Obviously, each school is different, so using our schools as an example might not work for Humility.
  
  Planning will have to be done sooner or later, the sooner, the better. Humility is still a junior and still has time to plan before going to college. One of the people I met is a junior taking freshman-level courses. Don't be that guy.
  
  As I've said before, clubs and auditing classes are good alternatives to spending money and quarters/semesters on classes that may not be needed. Experiencing these careers can be done during summer and winter breaks too.
• Tokiko wrote on 2011-01-10 12:43

  Quote from Mama;283609:

  oh okay. just say so then.
  you never mentioned any of them not being provided by the school, and responded angrily when suggested that high school crap wasn't worth it, so that would be the centre of our discussion by assumption.

  
  I didn't mention that they were provided by the school either.
  Also I didn't respond "angrily" but you assuming that I was just pisses me off.
  
  Edit: There are some schools that provide good after school programs.