College?

[Avenged]

I was just wondering - how many of you are in College? And if not, where are all of you going? I myself am staying here and going to UNM (University of New Mexico) in January, since I'm graduating from High School early. (I don't see any point in going out of state for your undergraduate degree. It's cheaper to stay in state, and you'll get roughly the same education with little to no debt at the end. Plus, New Mexico has the Lottery Scholarship, and with that, College is looking pretty freaking affordable right now.)

[EndOfTheEarth]

If you have the guts for it, you can dual-major, or do a mixed major-minor. You'd be surprised how much people are looking for weird mixes; my English and IS&T combo got me into PBK.

Keep in mind though that the odds of getting an immediate magical job from that are small. I'd say that all the "cool" jobs these days require a masters degree.

[Lamp Post]

Well, archaeology is a dying field, and with microsoft and boeing right here, most in the nicer programs actually get recruited.  And if not, Starbucks takes everyone else. XD  I'm completely set on going dual-degree, actually.  Even more fun, wee.  

But I can't even afford to do the two grad degrees I hope to accomplish, so a third is obviously out of question.

[Contradiction]

*thread resurrection*

Senior year.

Oh my god.

I visited UChicago (and downtown Chicago) this summer, which only served to drill further into my head that I need to get in there. But the possibility of not getting in is starting to stress me out. Also application essays.

Ugh.

Also, the only EA backup school I have currently is Northeastern, and there's a possibility I won't get in there, either. I feel like I should find some big urban state schools (out of Colorado) but I'm worried about them being too big. I haven't decided whether I'd sacrifice a small liberal arts school for a big city or not, or how much I value things like access to the outdoors/oceans/lakes/mountains vs access to downtown without a car.

[Tally]

Well, I've just started high school, so it's very weird browsing through this thread and seeing when lots of you that are starting college/finishing high school now were around my age. 

At Phillips Exeter right now, which is really one of the best prep schools in the country, and I'm already feeling remarkably hopeless and like there's no way I can deal with it. If I stay here I'm pretty much guaranteed at least a decent college (but like...the average SAT score two years ago was 2105 and I feel more inadequate here than ever before in my life so even if I do well there's no way I'm going to stand out in a pool of applicants from here to the best schools), but if I end up going back home, who knows.

[Contradiction]

You go to Exeter?

What's that like?

[Tally]

Exhausting, mainly. I'm the most stressed I've ever been and have a ridiculous workload and I've been feeling pretty down most nights. I constantly feel pressured and stressed no matter what I'm doing. It's harder than I think anything could have prepared me for, and the adjustment period kind of sucks, but it's slowly getting better and the upperclassmen say that it continues to improve. Some times are much, much worse than others - on Saturday my friend and I were both really upset and just needed to get off campus and ended up miles away walking along the mostly dark highway, so that was kind of scary - and it's definitely a huge challenge, mentally and emotionally.

On the other hand, though, it's amazing. The people are all fantastic, it's by far the most accepting place I've ever been (a senior in my dorm came out as trans the first day of school, nobody batted an eye and he's had an incredibly smooth transition so far), the club opportunities are incredible (I went to a GSA meeting of upwards of 30 people tonight, and tomorrow I'm going to a meeting for 'Muggles in Denial'), and the classes are everything I've ever wanted. It's entirely discussion based, which is exactly what fits the way I learn. People only contribute something if what they have to say matters, for the most part - at my old school I never used to share any writing in class, but today in English I was the first to volunteer because the feedback we get just from other students is really invaluable.

I realized today that even though I've only been here for two weeks, and even though it's more difficult than anything I've ever done before, I already can't even imagine going anywhere else.

(This got...incredibly wordy and didn't even answer the question, really. sorry.)

[Contradiction]

No, that does answer my question.

That's incredibly cool. It basically sounds like what I want out of college.

I hope you stop feeling so stressed soon, because it sounds like you will really enjoy your experience there.

[Fate]

This basically sums up my first month of college. Which means you'll probably be a lot more prepared for this than the average student.

[Xuut]

Never, ever, ever. ever think that for some reason you are inadequate. Do some ECs you like, maintain an average you're happy with, and yeah SATs are good, but don't think, "oh shit, my SAT isn't high enough to get in because it fails to meet X and Y." 

Seriously. 

Getting yourself down about it, especially in the first year of high school is only going to bring you down and potentially make you do even worse than you want to. Speaking from experience here. >.> 

Also, I honestly don't believe in private schooling, especially up here where basically, we have 5 private schools tops (including religious ones) because public schooling is so damn good that we don't even need them but holy shit, I wish my school was like that. I get mocked for being in Debate and just going out on a limb and joining my friend's Anime Club. To which my response is the middle finger but I digress. 

[Xuut]

Ugh, it's this time of year again. 

Going to a lot of school presentations, feeling like total shit because my parents are really against me leaving the province without appropriate financial aid. Hating my friends whose parents are so god damn supportive (kids in my class discussed how their parents would move the family to the city where they wanted to go to school, what the heck) and wishing my ECs were a little more impressive for scholarships. 

Applying for Queens for sure, maybe University of British Columbia (but the Asian population and competition is cut throat so I don't know...), maybe University of Toronto (same reasons as UBC, also I wouldn't want to live physically in Toronto I think). Thinking about U of A just as a back up plan and seeing how it goes. >.>  I'm not afraid of not getting in, my average and anticipated IB marks are more than enough to show that I will, it's the scholarships that will pay for this that I'm afraid won't give me what I want. 

[Lamp Post]

*offers tea*

Best of luck in the hectic search.  It's very irritating at times to see some people better off financially, emotionally, or with parental support get it done so simply.

And you should apply everywhere!  I think, I found all these random ways and programs to get people/programs at school to pay for an application here or there.  Plus waivers are great, so there's hardly a reason not to, other than for essays.

[Fate]

Seriously, what Lamp said. Apply everywhere. You'd be surprised how much financial aid you'll get even if your GPA isn't flawless. A friend of mine got college paid for completely and she definitely didn't have the best grades in high school. Don't not try because of cost/odds of getting in.

Besides, you'll go somewhere awesome anyways.