I just have some questions since I'm kinda getting stressed out about this lol...

Are you supposed to know what your gonna major in before you enter?

How exactly am I supposed to pick a college? they all look the same <<

and Is it ok to take a gap year or what (like a year off of school then go into college)

ONLY ONLY A NINTH GRADER.

I was hoping for a real answer

man I'm so screwed lol

YES U ARE.

comeon some of you are in college right? <.<

can you tell me like what you guys did going from high school to college

right now all I know is...

1. take SAT and SAT
2. find a career plan
3. find a college

then with the college shit something about an essay or something? I'm so clueless

lol

im takin a year off when i finish school



shityeeeeeh

pick the course that you are interested in for college, with your career in hindsight but not as the main focus.

you mean a major? o.o

what about you? did you go to college already knowing what you we're gonna do and your career plan

ugh other than that I see no real difference between colleges so idk how to pick

@tenken - is it good to take a year off? I asked herge and he said no

and I googled it, something about you won't have teacher recommendations and counselors help if you do but it does help you be more prepared or something...

edit: one last question <.<

Is it harder to get into college if you do take that year off...

	Dangerdoom wrote:
	you mean a major? o.o what about you? did you go to college already knowing what you we're gonna do and your career plan ugh other than that I see no real difference between colleges so idk how to pick

yea major. i'm not in college yet but i am going to.
think about what you want. a career that earns you a lot of money? a career that you will enjoy? a career that gives you freedom? is your family in financial difficulty and require you to have a stable job?

if you dont have an answer to the above questions or your answer is no for the last question, then pick the major u will enjoy the most.

a college degree is just a platform for you to get a job. it's your performance in the job that counts.

	Dangerdoom wrote:
	@tenken - is it good to take a year off? I asked herge and he said no and I googled it, something about you won't have teacher recommendations and counselors help if you do but it does help you be more prepared or something... edit: one last question <.< Is it harder to get into college if you do take that year off...

why dont you get your teachers to write something first? it's not an offence if you don't submit your application after your teacher has written the reccomendations.

and it depends on what you do. if u waste away the one year, i guess yes. but if you spend the time broadening your horizon, possibly no.

HeartofSword wrote:

yea major. i'm not in college yet but i am going to. think about what you want. a career that earns you a lot of money? a career that you will enjoy? a career that gives you freedom? is your family in financial difficulty and require you to have a stable job? if you dont have an answer to the above questions or your answer is no for the last question, then pick the major u will enjoy the most. a college degree is just a platform for you to get a job. it's your performance in the job that counts.

I guess that makes sense

well in england you have to take a gap year so it cant be that bad.

i live in aus and i'm planning on working and wasting away the year

	Cavester wrote:
	well in england you have to take a gap year so it cant be that bad. i live in aus and i'm planning on working and wasting away the year

I guess it wouldn't be that bad then :/

one last question to clear things up

I read somewhere that the difference between "college" and a "university" is that a university has multiple colleges (College of Nursing, College of Engineering, etc.) Are those colleges graduate schools or are those part of your undergraduate years? I just need to know if it's like you choose your major at the beginning and then go to the specific "college of ___" that goes with that major and you take your general ed reqs there + your junior year and up where you take your courses that correspond with your major

OR

if there's a sort of an undergraduate building of some sorts where everyone goes to get their majors and those specific ones are Graduate schools.

I've been in university for 2 years now and I still don't know if that's what I want to work on, so... just pick the thing you believe you'll like the most. You've got plenty of time to change.

all right

I think the last post was unneccasary stuff I don't need to know yet lol so just ignore that if it is

I meant my last post, not yours

Well, here's my take on it.

I went to a liberal arts University, where I majored in Philosophy. I decided on Philosophy because I liked the material and the professors, and I didn't like Music, Psychology, or Computer Science (my previous majors) and I knew I didn't really want to major in math (of course being the subject I was good at... go figure).

I currently work in IT for a credit union here in South Carolina. Obviously, my major has nothing to do with my job.

Some jobs like to see undergrad degrees in their field. In the end though, it doesn't really matter. I spent 5 years in school, taking several semesters off entirely. Some schools have different policies on classes - I was able to pay by the credit hour, so when I took no classes I only paid my normal bills. Some schools require that you attend minimum hours, or fill out extra paperwork. Make sure once you choose a school, you find out their policies.

In terms of choosing schools, especially if you don't know what you want, try to pick one with a diverse spectrum. I applied to 8 schools, 6 were up in the north. I visited one of them, and decided I didn't care for the north as much as I thought I would (and I was too lazy to visit the others), so that left me with 2 to decide between. At the time I was a serious musician, and one of the two only offered a minor (no major) in music. Made my decision easy.

If there is a particular field you enjoy, I would look into a school with a decent program in that subject. Just remember that you will be doing whatever subject you choose for hours a day. It's very possible to get burned out on it, especially if you pick a bad professor (I have personal experience in that area). Websites like

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can help with that, but keep in mind a lot of people on there are only looking for that easy A.

Bigger schools will have smaller, splinter schools. University of South Carolina, for an example I'm familiar with, has at least 5 locations throughout the state. Each of those has "sub-schools," usually broken down by department. These sub-schools you don't really have to apply for - you graduate from them simply by declaring your major. Just keep in mind that anything that is department specific you may have to apply for within the department, such as a scholarship. Some programs, especially Masters programs, will have you applying to the department directly. If I were to apply to the Darla Moore school of economics at USC, for example, I would be applying to USC by proxy as oppsed to directly.

In my experience the only people who need to know what they want to do before they go in are music majors and pre-med people. Pre-med people because you have to take lots of sciences, and music major because the faculty are usually jackasses and have pre-determined that music will run your life for 4 years. Therefore if you start in year 3, be prepared to go through year 6. Anyways...

So really, my main advice is look for a school that offers a variety of programs that you can hop between. Don't worry about your major - if you want to change fields later (I'm looking into accounting myself), you can go back to grad school. Not only will it give you a better degree, you will have better pick of jobs and will get paid more just for having the extra degree.

Before I worked IT for the credit union I'm at, I worked as a teller. They have literally 0 use for a philosophy degree, but I was paid more anyways just for having it. They also didn't look at my grades, but keep in mind that if you might want to go to grad school later they definately will.

What I did between High School and College:
Senior year I took the SAT, and filled out applications (which involved essays).
Sent them off.
Heard back from schools.
Picked one.

Best of luck with everything, let me know if I can help at all. Sorry to have rambled for so long, hope at least some of it was useful.

Thanks for the info. Anyway, I thought you needed a specific undergraduate degree to get a specific degree at a graduate school or is that wrong? I mean can you graduate from a four year college with a psychology major and then go to graduate school for a masters degree in something else?

"if you want to change fields later (I'm looking into accounting myself), you can go back to grad school."

That's a good question - a lot of masters programs (especially things like MBA programs) do ask for an undergraduate degree (or at least give them preference). The other thing you can do though is just go back later and take those classes and add them to your application / resume, or there are several masters places that will let you "catch up" by taking the undergrad classes before you start / while you start the masters program.

When do you recommend I start looking for this stuff? Beggining of senior year or right about now? I'm taking the ACT and SAT twice this year and don't really know still. Deadlines I've seen are like December and I don't think 3 months is enough to look :/

I would honestly (as much as I hate to say it, as I'm a major procrastinator) start looking as early as possible. If you can find a place that really jumps out at you, you can apply early decision which makes it a bit easier to get in. I would try to find a place that has a decent program in the top things you enjoy. I found one that had a music and computer science school / program, though I ended up neither as I found something else I liked.

It also lets you spread out your application process, which makes it far less stressful. Also, most applications are due by January of your senior year if I remember correctly, which doesn't give you much time after you start your senior year.

Sorry if my writing is a bit disjointed, I'm doing two things at once and writing line by line so I think I'm repeating myself...

Visiting the schools is also a plus. Supposedly that helps you get in, but I honestly have no idea. I visited 2 schools of my 8, and one of the two I visited I went to the other was the only school that rejected, so... *shrugs*

I wouldn't recommend taking a year off. I went to the Navy, and at the same time I got an AA as a paralegal (I'm interested in being an attorney...so I wanted to get some legal studies and get a job to see how I like it). Anyway, I'm currently taking a year off of school before I decide to keep going BUT... I'm not working in the legal field OR in what I did in the Navy. I ended up getting a better job in a sales position with a very good base pay, 100% free (and covered) health insurance (doesn't matter cuz I could use the military..but it's still awesome), good bonuses/spiffs and commission and they'll pre-pay 100% of my tuition if I go back to college (undergrad...) for anything I want, even if it's not in the same field I work in and they have pention and all this other good stuff . Needless to say, the benefits and bonuses together with the base pay are better than what I could have gotten in the legal field, but this job DID require a bachelors, but they considered my military experience and aa enough.. But now that I'm taking this year off, I don't think I want to go back to school and I also don't think I want to be an attorney (go figure...). So anyway, like Saxboy said "Start looking as early as possible" but don't worry about your major, just do something you're interested in. Alot of good jobs just require the degree (like the FBI, commissioned officer in the military, etc). I wouldn't take the year off if I were you. The sooner you get your schooling out of the way, the faster you can concentrate on your career/job. I'm 22 now and I make pretty good money and I'm relatively stress free with alot of free time. So just go with your gut is all I can really say. In my opinion it's not about WHICH college it ends up being, as long as you DO go to college and do something that interests YOU. You have your whole life to make money after so just go with the college you like that has what you like........................... Or you could join the military. !