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Let's Talk About College
- Thread starter GhostWriter16
- Start date
In general: if you appear like you are a rising star, they will be more likely to take you than if you already peaked and are headed downhill.
Yeah, this. I came in with enough AP credits to skip a semester of freshman year, and I used the extra time to pick up a minor and take another interesting class or two... and still graduated in four years and a semester.
While the quality of your collegiate experience is dependent on many factors, I think getting out of the freshman classes ASAP and into the stuff you want to study is close to the top of the list. Then take your time and enjoy it.
sophie
Break My Heart
No. The thing is, everyone takes AP History, so getting high AP scores doesn't really set you apart. Scholarships, while they do exist for academic achievement, nowadays are more about socio-economic background than anything else.
It depends on the schools you are looking at. Generally a GPA in the 3.7-4.0 with SATs over 18 or 1900 and plenty of extra-currics is good enough to get you into a decent mid-level school. I got into UCSC with a 4.0 and 1820 GPA, but I also had plenty of sports and marching band and pretty damn good SATIIs and UCSC is a slightly better than average University, just to give you an idea.
As with history, taking honors/APs are really only useful for the inflated GPA you get from it, which is crucial for staying competetive. Most important is to check the policies your college of choice has on AP exams and weighted grades. For example, UCs only allow you to use 8 semesters of inflated GPAs so I had to pick and choose a bit. Also UCSC took most of my classes as college credit, but my Spanish AP didn't count for anything, and a lot of colleges (especially upper tier privates) don't count any APs at all, so you need to check for yourself.
It's not a matter of difficulty, it's a matter of where you'll be placed and how much extra math you're going to have to do to catch up. If you're in a science or engineering major, trust me, you're not going to want to be stuck doing 4 or 5 extra classes that you probably wouldn't have needed to take, possibly delaying your graduation or preventing you from taking more fun or more interesting classes. Also, keep in mind, that colleges DO look at what classes you take, and they give preference to students who challenge themselves, even in senior year. If you want to major in a humanity, you might just want to take a math AP just so you can get your math GEs out of the way and go straight to taking history classes. I got a 3 on my stats AP, and that meant I didn't have to take any math and only one social science class which made college so much easier for me.
All I'm going to say is that you shouldn't be too focused at school. Make sure you get good grades and do work, yes, but have a good time. Go out, get wasted, experiment with drugs, all that, trust me, it makes college life a whole lot more fun. Oh, and for the love of god, make sure you don't fall behind in reading, because Having to read 300-400 pages in a weekend because you've been blowing it off for 3 weeks is definitely not fun.
Wait, what's with all these crazy-high SATs? I thought 1600 was the max. Is it 2400 or something now?
As it was stated before, taking a single AP class or not is probably not going to have a major impact on scholarships or even admission. When they skim over your transcript, they want to see that you applied yourself (as in, didn't always take the absolute easiest classes and skated by) and that you performed well (good average GPA). It's long-term performance that counts... you are signing up for a marathon, not a sprint.
From my friends' experience going to Georgia Tech, calculus was far easier in high school than it was in college (bunch of annoying delta-epsilon proofs that we didn't have to do in our high school class). If it's easier to take in high school than later on and it impresses the admissions office, I'd say taking at least one before you graduate.
Oh, and I agree, enjoy the experience. Except for maybe the drugs part.
As it was stated before, taking a single AP class or not is probably not going to have a major impact on scholarships or even admission. When they skim over your transcript, they want to see that you applied yourself (as in, didn't always take the absolute easiest classes and skated by) and that you performed well (good average GPA). It's long-term performance that counts... you are signing up for a marathon, not a sprint.
From my friends' experience going to Georgia Tech, calculus was far easier in high school than it was in college (bunch of annoying delta-epsilon proofs that we didn't have to do in our high school class). If it's easier to take in high school than later on and it impresses the admissions office, I'd say taking at least one before you graduate.
Oh, and I agree, enjoy the experience. Except for maybe the drugs part.
Zack
99% hot gas
It's 2400 after the Writing section was added.
I go to a college where at a minimum every student must get through multivariable calculus. That means even the philosophy/history/language/etc all got a solid understanding of math. That said my college isn't the norm. One thing I noticed when I was applying to college was the fact that many schools have wildly different core curriculums. On one extreme you have schools like Columbia/UChicago/Military Academies which you might actually take more classes in the core than in your major versus some state schools which only have basic freshman writing class. So understanding what the curriculum entails at the school you are applying to will be beneficial to you.
So you know that you are pretty good at History and the humanities, but you have to realize that being a single dimensional student won't necessarily get you into a top tier university or a top tier private liberal arts college. In fact just having a high SAT/ACT score won't make you a shoe-in to anywhere besides the schools that give automatic admissions based on SAT/ACT scores. The best thing to do to get into a good school is challenge yourself academically by taking the most rigorous courses available at your school, and by constantly improving your grades. Don't fret about math being hard and instead look at it as a challenge to get through and a character check to see how you do in difficult situations.
That said you should still be having fun. Extracurriculars are both fun and show that you have interests outside of school as well. The best thing to do to make yourself an attractive candidate to schools is to be well-rounded. Also realize you don't have to have everything figured out yet. Many of my friends took a year off before going to college (they applied and then asked for a deferral). The best bet is to have fun and make yourself as well-rounded as possible.
So you know that you are pretty good at History and the humanities, but you have to realize that being a single dimensional student won't necessarily get you into a top tier university or a top tier private liberal arts college. In fact just having a high SAT/ACT score won't make you a shoe-in to anywhere besides the schools that give automatic admissions based on SAT/ACT scores. The best thing to do to get into a good school is challenge yourself academically by taking the most rigorous courses available at your school, and by constantly improving your grades. Don't fret about math being hard and instead look at it as a challenge to get through and a character check to see how you do in difficult situations.
That said you should still be having fun. Extracurriculars are both fun and show that you have interests outside of school as well. The best thing to do to make yourself an attractive candidate to schools is to be well-rounded. Also realize you don't have to have everything figured out yet. Many of my friends took a year off before going to college (they applied and then asked for a deferral). The best bet is to have fun and make yourself as well-rounded as possible.
dwaxe
is not a fanatic
I have some questions for the people in this thread: How did you choose what college you wanted to go to? How did you choose what you wanted to major in?
The deadlines for my college applications are at the end of this year, and I still have no clue what I want to do and where I want to do it. How did you figure it out?
The deadlines for my college applications are at the end of this year, and I still have no clue what I want to do and where I want to do it. How did you figure it out?
Ajidica
High Quality Person
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2006
- Messages
- 22,482
I visited as many as possible. Initialy I didn't want to even look at the college I'm currently in, but my mom insisted that I look at it becuase it was only 20 minutes away and I would know what I was saying no to. Also, at the same time was reading the book The Historian and much of book takes place at various Old-Europe universities and libraries and I decided I wanted that feel rather then the lumps of seventies brutalist concrete most colleges are.
I had it narrowed down to four universities, and then I just went with my gut.
I still haven't decided!
I started out with plans to major in Accounting on a Pre-Law track. That shifted to an generic accounting, then economics, now I am thinking economics with a foreign policy twist as I'm toying with working for the UN/Foreign Service, or an analysis role.
I narrowed it down by trying lots of stuff out at high school. I toyed with Pre-Law because I enjoyed Mock Trial and Accounting because I was the team accountant for my school's FIRST Robotics team.
Don't over-worry on the intented major. If you don't change your major at least twice, you haven't put thought into it. At this stage intended major is really just for the college to see you have put a little bit of thought into it and have a rough idea where you want to focus at.
I would only really worry over intended major if you are thinking about going to a small school. The smaller the school, the fewer options there generaly are.
Hygro
soundcloud.com/hygro/
I wanted to go to school only where the weather was good, so I only applied to schools in California
Of the ones I got into, I chose the most prestigious school. I actually swore I wouldn't go to school so close to home, and so I almost picked another school, but in the end I figured I'd have more opportunities around me at Cal. While I made the right choice in that the other students are all on the level and that's been great, the reason for making that choice turned out to be unnecessary, because I found I didn't take advantage of all the extra stuff I had planned on. Sometimes I regret my choice, but I know that I would regret my choice more often if I had gone elsewhere.
Location was really important to me. I wanted to either be in a city, or very close to one...but also not more than a days drive from my hometown. I had a general inkling that I wanted to study politics, and I wanted to continue to play music. Considering my price range, that narrowed my search considerably.
Then I transfered to a different college, and everything worked out great.
Then I transfered to a different college, and everything worked out great.
Patroklos
Deity
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2003
- Messages
- 12,721
It is true AP courses are so common now they may not have much of an affect on admissions for the better colleges out there. Remember though, that you can qualify out of many general curriculum classes that most college students spend their first year muddling through before getting to the core of their major. By eliminating these you can tackle your core curriculum right off the bat and either get more in major course work done in your four years to make you a better expert in your field, graduate early, or free yourself up for a double major or taking classes that simply interest you (or have a lighter load each year).
The catch to this is that a lot of students pad their GPAs the first year by acing those easy general curriculum courses. If you jumpr right into the advanced courses and challenge yourself right away you may complete some requirements but your grades might not be so good.
Also, remember to CLEP whatever you can.
The catch to this is that a lot of students pad their GPAs the first year by acing those easy general curriculum courses. If you jumpr right into the advanced courses and challenge yourself right away you may complete some requirements but your grades might not be so good.
Also, remember to CLEP whatever you can.
azzaman333
meh
Easy to get to, and trial and error respectively.
Eat_Up_Martha
Prince
I didn't have much choice as to what University I went to. As for a major, I started out with Geology in mind but it turns out rocks are really, really boring. After growing disillusioned with my intended career, I started taking classes in whatever I found interesting. Because I hadn't declared an official major by the end of my second year, the system just logged me into Environmental Sciences because it lined up with the classes I had taken. I looked into the program, thought it was exactly what I wanted, and stuck with it.
Halfway through my first degree I took some Urban Planning classes out of curiosity, was intrigued, and managed to tack that on as well. I'm happy with my career path (well, so far, I'm only just getting started) and I'd recommend taking whatever classes interest you and finding a field that you'd enjoy working in.
Word of caution: really consider long-term employability, the whole 'Arts graduate working at Starbucks' trope really does have a lot of merit. Also, don't rack up a huge debt (or waste all your folks' money, if you're lucky) by spending too long deciding. Take a year to get a feel for what you want and then go for it. You can always change your long-term career later on, but a mound of debt can be crippling for decades.
While we're on the subject, did you consider just taking a year off and working or traveling (or both)?
Syterion
Voodoo Economist
I looked at schools that were good for what I wanted to do, visited some of them, and applied. I wouldn't put a lot of stock into what the visit was like, it's very hard to get the vibe of the campus down. More often than not the place will be heterogeneous enough for you to find people you like. Some of my friends were not so lucky - I was. It's kind of a crapshoot that way. If you really can't find your people freshman year, you can transfer. It is safer in this way to go to a big school that has overall strong programs, so that you get more diverse people. That is what I did.
I'm sure otherwise you know how to narrow it down (location and finances being the two other obvious problems).
I applied to 4 schools but really only wanted to go to the one I am going to right now. In fact I was already given an offer of admission and had accepted it to the school I am currently going before I even applied to any other school. The only reason I applied to any other school was in case I got injured and would have to defer a year.
I just declared my major. At my school you don't declare until the last week of September your sophomore year. I was actually torn between 3 things for my major: Physics, Electrical Engineering, and Computer Science. I ended going with Electrical Engineering and I start classes for the major next semester. I basically have known for a long time I wanted to do something math related. Humanities either bore me or I hate them for no apparent reason. History and Philosophy I can somewhat tolerate but even those two are a stretch. Between the sciences I personally like Physics a lot better than chemistry and I hate Biology. For engineering I have always liked building things. I have played around with circuits since a young age. My thinking is if I had fun just messing around with circuits I might also like it as a major. Overall it doesn't really matter to me since I will not do anything related to my major for at least 5 years after graduating because of the military service requirement of my school. So I just chose what looked like the most amount fun for me and something that seemed interesting.
A little pre-college advice:
Whiskey_Lord
Deity
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2008
- Messages
- 2,163
Basically my advice, but much more poetic.
Crezth
i knew you were a real man of the left
I decided I wanted to go to the University of Cincinnati from pretty early on because it had a very strong aerospace/aeronautical engineering program. I ended up getting a partial scholarship, although for me it was mainly a matter of luck. The university was in-state and I had good ACTs, so I was a shoe-in.
I selected aerospace because I had a great love of calculus and physics, and an intense, personal passion for space exploration. Engineering, specifically, is an excellent discipline for anyone who is goal-oriented, as it is possible (and indeed, it is generally the case) to establish very clear-cut, obvious goals. In my case, I ended up with a very challenging curriculum (my GPA did a healthy amount of weeping starting in my second year), but one thing you should focus on when selecting your major is that it be in an area you have a genuine interest in. That alone will provide the staying power to stick with the program no matter how difficult it gets.
Also I get to tell people I'm a rocket scientist, which is an excellent line to use on dates, even though I get an intense number of eye-rolling as a response.
You wouldn't believe how many people think that it is their business to tell me how airplanes fly! 
But, I digress.Spend some time thinking about what you care about, deep down, and what your skills are. If you look long enough and subject yourself to enough introspection, you should find something which seems correct, and, in all luck, may even turn out that way.
dwaxe
is not a fanatic
I've been thinking intensely for a long time, and this is what I've figured out:
I'm going to minor in History (Thank you Civilization and Civfanatics!).
I'd like to become a scientist or engineer.
That sentence is my problem. It's extremely difficult for me to narrow it down any further. Hell, I can't even decide between the two different professions of science and engineering. Nearly everything in science and engineering interests me. I've liked almost every science and math class I've taken in high school.
How can I narrow this stuff down?
