I (16F) am looking into going to a 4 year college, but have no idea where to start. I’m currently looking on how to choose a college, but what else should I prepared for? Scholarships, tours, etc.
BTW I’m in the USA
Well you’re not giving us much info to go on so ill just give you generic advice I’d give any prospective college student.
Stay away from the dorms , wherever you end up find a decent apartment, dorms are ripoffs, from the crappiest state school to the finest ivy league private university the dorms are nightmares. Most people who dropout list problems with their living situation as one of the main reasons.
Second of all, money is more important than anything. If you’re not able to pay for college yourself, your entire life revolves around money. If you have scholarship requirements, if you need a part time job, if you can’t get the same student loan you got last year, all these things can screw you up.
Take the easiest classes first, alot of A+ students take advanced courses freshman year since they could handle it in high school, without realizing they will be dealing with 1000 new problems now that theyre on their own. So take english and math pre-requisites and try to take atleast one fun elective class.
Your social life is also important, many freshman think they should focus on school, maybe get a part time job, but what they don’t realize is their daily habits and family life are no longer there to keep them occupied, boredom kills more people than opioids. Stay active, try exercising, find atleast one hobby, and consider joining a sorority or club of some kind.
Choose an Engineering or Physical & Life Science major, and study Mandarin at the same time.
I am into Electrical engineering, I should have been more specific with that. I spoke with my biology teacher and she suggested that I take a physics class and get that done which would help higher my changes of pursuing the engineering career.
Also, why Mandarin? I’m quite interested
China is the largest economy in the world and will continue to thrive as the West continues to deteriorate. Becoming fluent in Mandarin, combined with your engineering skill set, will open up a world of opportunities; especially, if you want to live in the nation one day.
I actually plan on going to China! I wonder if 16 is a good age to start learning the language, then I could go over there and study once I’m 18 but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to due to financial circumstances. What would be your advice?
I’m not sure about financial advice, unfortunately. I believe Chinese universities, in general, offer scholarships for foreign exchange students, but you will have to look into that on your own.
My advice for you would be to keep studying for your major and to use the HSK program to learn Mandarin. If you dedicate even half an hour to learning the language per day, you can become near fluent in just a few years.
Edit: Terribly sorry, I think I got my wires crossed here. I’ve truncated my comment accordingly. The previous conversation I referred to in my original comment was with someone else entirely, I think. Sorry about that.
- 16 is a great age to start learning Chinese.
If you start learning before you’re 19, there’s a good chance you’ll develop a good accent.
The real benefit of starting to learn a language as early as possible is that it just takes time. So if you start now, even if it’s just a bit, you’ll have a decade’s worth of exposure by the time you’re e.g. 26. If you wait till after college, that becomes ~4–5 years. (Better to measure language learning by the hour rather than year, but the logic holds.)
- Learning Chinese would be fun and is likely to increase your opportunities.
Chinese BRI infrastructure projects are likely to increase in number in Latin America and Africa. A multilingual engineer might find work on those sorts of projects.
If you did find work on BRI infrastructure projects, knowing some Chinese will be very useful.
If you start to learn the basics and familiarise yourself with the sound system now (while your mind will absorb it well), it could come in handy later when you can study it in a more focused way. And if you visit China after studying the language for a year or two, you’ll pick up so much more than you would if you arrived knowing only the very basics.
Have a look at some Chinese university websites. See what kind of entry requirements they have and what scholarships are available. You might find that finance is not an issue if they’ll pay for everything. But if this is the case, and you like the sound of it, you need to make sure your CV meets the requirements in time and that could take a couple of years if you need to learn Chinese. If that’s the case it’s a good reason to start learning it now.
You’re obviously bright and ambitious. If you started to plan now for a move to China in two years, it might not go to plan. Have a back up where you study in the US (I think that’s where you’re otherwise planning to study EEng) and continue to do things that will improve your chances of a later visit (or move) to China (but keeping your options open in case that still doesn’t work).
(You never know, some lab work may be led by a Chinese PhD student who could know of opportunities in China and be willing to help out an undergrad who is enthusiastic about the language and country.)
It you start learning Chinese now, you’ll make things easier if you later get the chance to study an HSK course. This way, by the time you’re, say, 24, you’re reasonably bilingual with an engineering degree – you’ll be on fire with loads of opportunities.
Aim for a school that is affordable! Most schools in the usa where I live can give scholarships and grants, so take that into account too.
Other then money, just figure out what you want to do (or at least a general field). Then you can just use the internet to search for colleges that fit that interest. Most colleges also have courses for people who don’t have a clear idea of what they want to do yet.
When applying for colleges try figuring out which apps you can do get for free because the fees do add up.
Last thing, always try to finish your applications sooner then later. Try to get everything except your essay questions done ASAP.
Take note all of this is from the perspective of an American student
I second scholarships. Go to the campus of your choice and figure out where the scholarships and student aid offices are. Get in contact with the persons in these offices and ask questions, let them know ab yourself. Get their numbers and emails if they’re full-time staff, probably not if their just some college kid.
Make sure that you apply for scholarships as early as possible, like by Feb/March is good to aim for, and as many as you can. This will show initiative and get you a better chance of getting them.
Also, if you can, u could try to get work-study. It’s a good opportunity to get work experience and pay off some college.
Thank you! This information is really helpful :)) I have a question though
What time should I have already applied. I’ve met some seniors who applied before graduating. Should I be applying as a junior or in my senior year?
One other thing: ask for teacher or counselor recommendations early on. Then they can write a nice letter because they were given a lot of time
It really depends on when your deadlines are. Early action is just a normal application except with an earlier deadline; those are typically due end of October or November your senior year. There are a few schools that do super early applications but you really shouldn’t worry too much until the summer before your senior year. I recommend getting parts of your applications finished before you start senior year. If you’re planning on doing a normal time application, those are typically December through to late spring of your senior year. Basically, just don’t worry about them until you’re done with your junior year. Then you can get started, but just spread it out because you don’t need to do it all at once.
USA?
Yes, sorry I should have clarified.
I didn’t study in the US but I just finished university and one of the things I regret is not making more friends. I focused a bit too much on studying and didn’t bother taking the time to meet any of my classmates. That would have helped a lot now that I’m job searching.
I have no idea of how workload-heavy US universities are so I can’t give any advice on that, but one thing that could be general advice is: academically, you’re on your own now. Up until high school, teachers kinda hold your hand sometimes and can be lenient on deadlines and grading; well, in university that’s no longer the case. If you were used to not studying and getting acceptable grades like me, it could be a rude awakening when you realize how easy it is to literally fail, and I mean fail for real. Then, it’s easy to hyperfocus on studying and not socialize like my case.
I will also pass along a quote I read once before starting university myself: it is possible to graduate and not have learned anything. Which means, if you just focus on doing whatever assignment you have to turn in next or acing the next exam, you could end up with a broad but very shallow knowledge of most topics, which depending on your major, could be unfavorable in the end.
Hope it helps
I wouldn’t overly focus on what you think you want to do before going into school. I majored in philosophy and math as an undergrad, then went to grad school to become a clinical psychologist. Unless you want to be a doctor (which has a pretty specific track you need to do) there’s plenty of room to change your mind. Remember you have to be there for 4 years so make sure you’re ok with the geographic area. Living in the dorms is how I made most of my friends in college, and you will miss a big part of the experience if you aren’t there. I wouldn’t suggest eschewing that unless you absolutely need to financially. Once you get to school, never cut class, always do the reading, and talk a lot during in-class discussions. As professors we all know if you did the reading or not because people who don’t read usually ask questions answered by the reading. Plus if we recognize you, we will inevitably be more willing to cut you a break when it comes time for grading. Don’t plagiarize because it’s super easy to catch these days. Otherwise remember to have some fun. College is much more than education to get a job.
Also if you’re heterosexual, as a social FYI, always have protected sex until you’re in a committed relationship of whatever variety you’re into—no one’s dick is too big for a condom so don’t buy that shit if someone tells you that.
I think the first thing you should think about isn’t the GOING college part it’s what you want OUT of it in the end? Idk how it is now but when I was going through HS is was just constantly told to get a degree and the job comes after. Well let me tell you, that a load of bullshit. College isn’t a guaranteed job but, unless you are very lucky, it IS a LOT of debt. Don’t just go for whatever degree sounds good. Know what field you want to go into first. Then stay the course. I always figured I’d get a degree in natural science, get a nice lab job “cause those have to pay decent right?” Fucking wrong. Took me 6 years of hopping from one trash job after the next trying to get something that not only used my degree but payed good. Finally got a job doing… Tech writing… Which has nothing to do with my degree at all but at least the pay isn’t complete trash. Meanwhile my buddies that went into computer programming all make 6 figures and do piss all all day long.
Planing out your end career is more important than the college bit. Hell you might not even need college bit s trade school instead. Lots of trades are loosing workers at an alarming rate as boomers retire and there’s no one to replace them because… The told all the next generations do go to college and get degrees… Imagine that.
Uni programs are flexible at the start of the program. Within the first 3 semesters or so it’s decently easy to change without falling behind as most majors will have bullshit classes that can be taken as free electives as the start of their prereq chain and common things like math, science, and literature that you end up taking first year anyways. So definitely have a couple ideas of what you want to do and take the intro classes and health or something to find out. Take bullshit classes when possible if you’re taking math, science, or major specific courses. It helps keep the workload reasonable.
Just check that the school doesn’t wall off some majors. Some colleges let you freely transfer within liberal arts degree programs but crossing the barrier to eng (eg electrical engineering) has a grade check or some other silly hoop to jump through. It’s usually easier to declare eng then swap within eng or leave eng entirely.
A lot of schools in the US have their own subreddits, you can see what people are up to and complaining about and try and get a feel for the average experience. They’re invaluable when you have to pick a dorm as some colleges (mine included) have a few unrenovated 50year old dorms that are atrocious mixed in with some newer ones and it’s hard to tell online.
There’s a scholarship program associated with the PSAT I believe. It’s the same as the SAT but you just take it as some kind of means testing the school you go to thing. The added bonus is when you take the test for real you’ll be well prepared. If you can cop an SAT prep book, do so. It’s generally pretty valuable. Older used editions can usually be found for cheap online. The math is capped out at 8th grade level iirc. Knowing that can help you grind through the problems and crush it. Reading section is very literalist interpretation of the text. Every answer maps 1:1 with something in the text w/o any additional interpretation. Vocab you unfortunately have to grind and study for but w/e. The writing section is ??? I think schools are going back to SATs with just math and reading and dropping writing. It might be a school by school basis if they care about your SAT score out of 2400 or 1600 for caring about writing or not respectively.
Don’t take the ACT imo unless the specific college “super scores”. Super scoring is the practice of taking your highest score in each section of the SAT and ACT, and converting them to the other and basically taking the max of that. So like if you got a 26 on the math ACT but an 800 on the SAT that would convert to a 36 ACT for your super score.
Tours are okay but supplement them by researching the student orgs on campus and see if there are any clubs or whatever you may want to join. These are more important socially than classes are for making friends through the 4 years in my experience.
For choosing it’s a tradeoff of cost x “prestige” x how close you want your parents. Tbh having my parents nearby made schooling affordable as I could just commute and I never needed to mess around with fakes they would just buy booze for me. But that may not work for everyone it really depends on your situation.
The “Common App” is becoming more accepted by schools with fewer custom addons. For some schools accept the common app but you need to submit an essay on some topic they chose to go with it. This is all done through the common app’s website. Definitely use it, it saves a lot of paperwork and maybe fees. The general guidance from high school counselors is apply to 1 safe school. That’s a local school with median accepted test score and gpa that you exceed. 2 schools that you want to go to and are hovering around the median of test scores. And apply to 1 reach. These are your Ivy’s if you can afford (they usually have decent need-based tuition assistance if you qualify) or the really good public research universities.
FASET is the student aid forms. You get the best loans from them but it’s means tested as fuck. You can get Pell grant too if you qualify as a low income student. But to qualify you need to fill out FASET. Stay away from private loans. These are the ones you hear about people paying off in perpetuity. They have usurious interest rates and limited repayment plan options.
Due to high costs, it is a major financial decision. Do a sensible subject that can get you higher earnings.
In addition to that, you have to complete the whole thing. Dropouts are worse off than people who never started due to having incurred the costs, without increasing their earnings.
It seems also in USA many educated skilled professionals end up living paycheck to paycheck anyway. I have not read much into how they do their budget but that seems like a terrible deal.
