Life As A College Student

destinyunknown

Banned deucer.
I am pretty nervous because I am going to have 0 friends, and I will have to make completely new friends which is kinda scary. Also I have gone on like 2 dates in my life so I am going to have to learn how to date from the ground up.
As for things that could go either way I feel like I am going to get a really good roommate or the super Mormon who condones my video game playing as devil worship and reports me to the administration.
But those are just my thoughts, I think I will have a good time despite being nervous for a lot of things. I am pretty flexible so I think I will be fine.
It might sound obvious, but even if you're someone that likes spending time alone playing videogames/watching series/whatever, do you absolute best to try and spend as much time as possible out of your room for the first ~2 months at college. The first two-three weeks are especially important because that's when people usually make their friends mainly. It doesn't mean you can't make friends later, but it's usually easier the first month because everyone is alone and trying to find someone to hang out with.

I have always been an introverted person and I still am, but I took a ''hiatus'' from that until I had made some friends.

As for dates, don't worry too much about it, just focus on getting to know as many people as possible, some of them will end up being your friends, others you won't ever talk to again, and then there will be some times when you think there's date potential (just go for it, you really have nothing to lose).
 
finding it rough rn and I'm not exactly new to uni... I made friends this year but also a lot of enemies (car-attacking, moronic social media witch hunts, etc.) because I wanted to sleep at 4 AM (not a joke, they were having ~40-people parties at 4 AM behind my window and I asked them to stop). my recommendation would be definitely to check by word-of-mouth what it's like where you're thinking of living. I moved into a petri dish, because even the google reviews didn't cover it; a staff member at the uni who is handling helping me moving told me he had 5 students in one day come to him from this place once. so now I'm house-hunting in the middle of the semester lol. a general tip for everyone would be to worry less about roomies, people are people you'll run into them wherever you go, and investigate thoroughly the environment and culture (this includes cleanliness, reliability of amenities like washing facilities if stuff like that is provided, rules, staff responsiveness, etc.) of where you'll be living imo
 
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destinyunknown

Banned deucer.
finding it rough rn and I'm not exactly new to uni... I made friends this year but also a lot of enemies (car-attacking, moronic social media witch hunts, etc.) because I wanted to sleep at 4 AM (not a joke, they were having ~40-people parties at 4 AM behind my window and I asked them to stop).

Yeah that sucks... To be honest I think that unless you know the other people, the best option is just to call the staff (if you live in a dorm or something) or the police if there's no other option, because trying to talk to morons usually does more harm than good, sadly. It's worked fine for me the times I have had to do it, as at least you remain 'anonymous'
 
2 months to go fam you got this
you'll still dream about imaginary classes/exams you skipped and may believe they exist for a solid 5 minutes after waking up until you come back to reality.

also life will hit you hard a few months after graduation but you WILL overcome any challenge you face. you are loved and have support from those you least expect. treasure that, don't get cocky, and learn from your mistakes.
 

Cresselia~~

Junichi Masuda likes this!!
I personally find it's easier to make friends in college than elsewhere, because people who study the same course with you probably have similar interests and similar way of thinking with you.

Also, you can be with your friends all the time, without your parents saying no to you.

For example, I studied biology, and I went to many trips with my college friends that are organized by them. We liked to visit organic farms and country parks to photograph wildlife, so we went to different places many times, and we had a lot of fun.
That is something that other friends cannot provide.
Other generic friends might only want to barbecue or have parties., or just have a drink in a pub.

Paying rent sucks though. And exams suck. So as essays.

Anyway, I think you can try it. If you don't like it, you can quit. Not having a degree is not the end of the world, and there are many jobs that don't require a degree.
 

pulsar512b

ss ou fangirl
is a Pre-Contributor
Oh my, college is "fun," let me tell you.

Okay, story time. I lived the first eighteen years of my life as a spoiled brat that always got what he wanted from his parents. So naturally when I had to leave the protection of my parents to attend my first semester of college, I had no idea what to do. I couldn't buy my own food. I couldn't talk to people. I honestly couldn't do anything. Well, except get good grades somehow. First semester classes were disappointingly easy. And yeah, my parents did visit me at the end of every week, and I got to see my grandparents about once a week too, which was great because I rarely got to see them beforehand. Regardless, I was stressed and felt awful for about the entire semester, and when it was over, I was not feeling good at all. Did I mention that very little budget went into maintaining the freshman housing? No? Well now you know.

So after the winter break it was time for the second semester. Luckily, due to my first semester crash course in not starving to death, I handled living in a dorm a little better. Sure, I still didn't know how to buy anything, and I still couldn't talk to people, but at least the act of not living at home wasn't giving me constant panic attacks. So at first things were looking good. Then I got hit with Foundations of Higher Mathematics.

A quick disclaimer: I'm currently a Computer Science/Applied Mathematics Double Major. Your mileage will--not can--vary. I know a lot of people who adore being at college or uni, and appreciate the extra freedom and whatnot that comes with it. I understand that. If you're not taking Math or CS, you probably won't even deal with Foundations of Higher Mathematics at all, and even if you do, I can't guarantee you'll have my experience. Alright, disclaimer over. Let the rant begin.

Fountations of Higher Mathematics is essentially a logic course, where they teach you how to do proofs. Some of the example proofs given are incredibly useful for later math courses. Thing is, this class requires you to change your mindset. In previous math courses, you had to remember formulas and apply them. Here you have to figure out the logical steps to get from point A to point B flawlessly. I was not ready for this, and combined with the entire class being a single semester and me still not being used to college life...second semester was easily one of the worst times of my life. I'm convinced that, even if this were the only class I had to deal with that semester, it wouldn't have been any better. At least I finally learned how to buy food at a restaurant. But the fact that it took me until then to learn that is honestly kinda pathetic.

So then came summer break, followed by third semester. I was hoping this semester would have been better. I was wrong.

Last time it was Math that screwed me over, this time it was Computer Science. The idea with this course was that you were given a pre-existing codebase, and your job was to add new functionality to the codebase, in little steps assigned as projects that teach you more things about coding. This may sound daunting to the non-programmers, but as a CS Major I didn't expect this to be too difficult. I mean, I've already done programming. How could this be anything but more programming? Haha no. The due dates were incredibly strict, and the projects were much larger than I first expected them to be. There were other problems going on as well, which I don't feel confident I could explain in a way that's actually correct. Programming is not easy, I already knew that. But man did that class really open my eyes. I definitely believe I became a better programmer in the end, but the stress was honestly not worth it at all. Combined with the new living situation, this semester was easily around as bad as the previous one.

I'm currently on winter break. Here's hoping the fourth semester is slightly less traumatizing. One of my classes is Art! ...except apparently the teacher is pretentious, and not the person I initially signed up for, so this might end up being my next traumatizing class. I also still don't know how to talk to people. Grab some popcorn, this could be very entertaining for an outside observer.

Your college experience might end up being completely different, though, if the large disparity between the answers you got is any indication. Could be amazing, could be awful. You won't know until it happens.
Damn I have the same major. Luckily, I haven't quite got fucked that much YET.
 
2 semesters to go. I got 2 internships under my belt and networking with my department. I think that is college experience is definitely not worth it. Everything that I've learned in classes are freely available on youtube and moocs. Any further details can be googled or scholar googled.

Life experience can be obtained for free by living on your own in an apartment or whatever. College is completely unnesscary and oftentime oppressively paternalistic.

The only reason that I'm staying in school is that there are greater fools who will think that my degree mean something and hire me.
 

pulsar512b

ss ou fangirl
is a Pre-Contributor
2 semesters to go. I got 2 internships under my belt and networking with my department. I think that is college experience is definitely not worth it. Everything that I've learned in classes are freely available on youtube and moocs. Any further details can be googled or scholar googled.

Life experience can be obtained for free by living on your own in an apartment or whatever. College is completely unnesscary and oftentime oppressively paternalistic.

The only reason that I'm staying in school is that there are greater fools who will think that my degree mean something and hire me.
Definitely true. In some fields, sure, there might not be as easy to access resources, but if you've got a subscription to a couple research journals you are fine.
 

destinyunknown

Banned deucer.
It's kind of funny that the most useful thing about college (having access to journals and other resources for students) is made useless by classes/projects/exams, which leave students with little time for their own projects. University would be much more useful if they gave you free rein to investigate/create something yourself instead of having to study some crap you'll forget the week after the exam.
 

pulsar512b

ss ou fangirl
is a Pre-Contributor
It's kind of funny that the most useful thing about college (having access to journals and other resources for students) is made useless by classes/projects/exams, which leave students with little time for their own projects. University would be much more useful if they gave you free rein to investigate/create something yourself instead of having to study some crap you'll forget the week after the exam.
Lel. Very true. Sometimes, however, you can link your own projects with schoolwork, such as in senior projects. RN i'm part of a research group at my school studying configurations. Fascinating stuff.
 
yeah college is a shitty time rn with covid. Let's be honest, everything that you learn in a lecture hall, you can learn online as someone mentioned beforehand through Youtube, Google, or some other way (trust me, there is a way). In fact, in many courses, you're already searching stuff up online to complete HW sets (literally my prof told us to search it up); you might as well search the whole course up at that point and learn it yourself.

Anyways, now we're even more literally learning everything ONLINE because schools can't reopen but they need some way to not become bankrupt (at least my school needs this) so they're "welcoming" students back and poor freshmen who don't want their first year experience ruined are coming back to live in dorms when in reality they're better off living at home because there won't be much interaction or "first year college experience" anyways.

tl;dr: make college cheaper if you're gunna take away the most valuable assets (meeting professors in person during office hours, networking, recruiting, etc.)
 
I thought I'd share my thoughts because I read a post about community college not being the recommended decision. I'd actually disagree starkly. I went to community college first primary because I wasn't 100% locked in on a major, so I knew if I didn't like what I was in and I needed to switch, my classes were only roughly ~$300 so it wouldn't be a massive deal. I also wanted to save money on classes in general knowing how much debt I'd likely be in during 4-year university, so I also wanted to fraction my cost for just gen-eds that I could take anywhere (like your history, maths, some sciences, etc). I'm about to be a senior in college and I finished my first two semesters at Rowan University as an Educaton major, and to be completely honest with you, my experience at county college was a lot better. For starters, this is more of a luck thing, but my academic advisors actually gave a shit about me and gave me legitimate recommendations towards classes and what not. I completed the honors program at my county college as well, and even they treated me much better than Rowan's program. The transfer process from county college to Rowan I was sadly given little to no help on how to register for classes and what to prepare for, so if the college you choose happens to have a dick attitude towards county college, the time in-between your transfer is gonna be absolute hell. For some colleges that was not the case, but for my university it was RIP.

As for college in general, yea you need to buckle down for the various exams and papers, I can only speak for me but it's not terrible. The independence is nice, but you sometimes become a bit lonely or miss the time with your family. You do become a lot busier (for example on top of my usual classes, I need to be in an Elementary classroom twice a week all day from 8 AM to 3:30 PM), but so long as you pace yourself and practice good time management, you should be okay. It can be a really enriching experience that gets you ready for full adult life. In some ways that change can be scary or abrupt, but you gotta make the most of it and take it in while it lasts.

As a little sidenote, I'm also personally still deciding whether to keep going for my master's or get a job first and be ready to move out of home lol. I haven't read many of the other posts here as to whether they talked about that or not, but since I'm here, anyone got advice on that (especially teachers)?
 
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Hulavuta

keeps the varmints on the run
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
As a little sidenote, I'm also personally still deciding whether to keep going for my master's or get a job first and be ready to move out of home lol. I haven't read many of the other posts here as to whether they talked about that or not, but since I'm here, anyone got advice on that (especially teachers)?
Hi Dece1t, I am on track to graduate with my Master's Degree this December and plan to be a teacher as well, though for college and high school, so certainly my experience will be a little different. You didn't post much specific information about your situation, but my general advice, is that I would personally avoid going for a Master's degree that puts you in debt, and look for opportunities to go for free first.

I started my Master's right after graduating. Personally, my path was a lot more straightforward so it was an easy choice. A Masters degree is the bare minimum to teach at a college. My school offered me a tuition waiver and paid TA work that actually involved leading and lecturing my own university freshman courses, which was basically an opportunity for experience too good to pass up. I assume from your post that your time spent at the elementary school is for interning, so you are already getting something similar.

There are a lot of factors here for you to think about. How much more would you make with the extra degree? Do you need the extra education to be competitive hiring-wise? Do you feel like you're not ready to leave school yet? Do you feel prepared to work? From what I can see from your posts only, you've only mentioned potential problems with doing it, and not any of the upsides. So that's something to consider.

On another note: your profile says you are 21; personally, unless there is some significant strife within your family that makes it difficult to be around them, I would not be in a rush to leave home so quickly. But I realize having this pressure may just be a cultural difference (I am Vietnamese). I would say if you are not sure about your next move, take some time off to think about it. It's never best to make decisions about the future while you are already under a lot of pressure. Being dependent on your parents forever while directionless is obviously bad, but don't confuse that as the same thing as staying with them for a while as you go slow and steady. So long as you have an end goal in mind and you are taking steps to accomplish it, there should really be no rush.
 
Hi Dece1t, I am on track to graduate with my Master's Degree this December and plan to be a teacher as well, though for college and high school, so certainly my experience will be a little different. You didn't post much specific information about your situation, but my general advice, is that I would personally avoid going for a Master's degree that puts you in debt, and look for opportunities to go for free first.

I started my Master's right after graduating. Personally, my path was a lot more straightforward so it was an easy choice. A Masters degree is the bare minimum to teach at a college. My school offered me a tuition waiver and paid TA work that actually involved leading and lecturing my own university freshman courses, which was basically an opportunity for experience too good to pass up. I assume from your post that your time spent at the elementary school is for interning, so you are already getting something similar.

There are a lot of factors here for you to think about. How much more would you make with the extra degree? Do you need the extra education to be competitive hiring-wise? Do you feel like you're not ready to leave school yet? Do you feel prepared to work? From what I can see from your posts only, you've only mentioned potential problems with doing it, and not any of the upsides. So that's something to consider.

On another note: your profile says you are 21; personally, unless there is some significant strife within your family that makes it difficult to be around them, I would not be in a rush to leave home so quickly. But I realize having this pressure may just be a cultural difference (I am Vietnamese). I would say if you are not sure about your next move, take some time off to think about it. It's never best to make decisions about the future while you are already under a lot of pressure. Being dependent on your parents forever while directionless is obviously bad, but don't confuse that as the same thing as staying with them for a while as you go slow and steady. So long as you have an end goal in mind and you are taking steps to accomplish it, there should really be no rush.
Hey I am so sorry for not getting back to you sooner, I've been packed this week. So to explain my situation a bit better, yes I am 21, and I am going into my senior year of college this coming Fall, so I am expected to obtain my bachelor's in 2 semesters (with student teaching beginning that Spring hopefully). I'm going in for Elementary Education, and due to the way my school's program works, I have a dual major in Writing. I'm tossing about what to do (between staying longer to obtain my master's or go straight for a job) for a couple reasons. If I got my master's now, it would allow me time to get an additional certification to make me more much hire-able especially in a highly sought after suburban school, say a reading certification, teacher of the disabled, etc, and I'd be able to potentially work as an adjunct college professor for extra income (something that I genuinely am interested in doing in the long run, that way I have additional options for jobs/opportunities). The problem there is obviously the accruing of significantly more debt in doing so. Even though I completed county college to save quite a bit of money, I'm estimated to have ~$40k in debt from my associate's and bachelor's alone. Adversely, I could search for a job straight out of college and hope for the best, but I'd be worried because I'd only have my bachelor degree in my dual majors. Those alone may not be enough given how increasingly competitive the teaching profession is. I'd also be worried about the time to fit in master-course classes when I'd also have to worry about lesson plans, grading, etc, despite them likely being covered by a school district/my master's classes going towards professional development hours.

So that is where I am stuck. As for the other things you wanted to know about my situation, I have no issue staying with my family longer. Regardless of which way I want to go, I plan on staying for at least an extra year and use that time to put my paychecks towards paying off my school debts as much as I possibly can. I have been saving as it is all the while living at home so I don't need to worry about the cost of dorms/housing, and I have a little over half of my prospective dues ready to be paid for when I'm out. I'm also, like most upcoming teachers, nervous in a sense to start working, but knowing me, I'll be alright once I know how to run my classroom/what are my resources to teach with/get into a general routine.

Thanks so much for sharing your experience and giving me the advice, I really really appreciate it.
 
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