Ugg paying for college is another issue. I don't make enough money to pay for school but yet don'r qualify for loans and finincial aid because I'm only part time this semester. Which I find to be total crap, if someone is willing to take a few classes to work towards their degree because they have to work to afford them, there should be some sort of money help.
I can get the loan, which is good I suppose, but a few of my friends get grants they don't have to pay back, apparently my family are too well off for those, I get the minimum of the minimum for the loan too, o well... I'm really anti-everything uni lol! That's really bad you can't get any help, I mean if you want to take classes surely they should help you financially!
Currently I'm enrolled in uni. I'm studying Informatics. I want to major in Bio-Informatics (Computional Biology). It's a bachelor degree study. My semester will end in Februari so I have some time left to hit the books real deep! Before this uni I went to a small community college. There, even with doing nothing at all I managed to get my degree... Which I needed to go to the uni I'm now enrolled I like the oppertunity that you get from studying. I am the first in my family (all greenhouse workers mostly) going to a university so it's pretty new to me and sometimes I feel an outsider but hell with it! What I hate is that the department my study belongs to is one big mess. They forget to put classes or exams up and such and then they blame us for it.. wtf??? I'm a nervous reck so I hate exams but because I know I am going to nervous I study harder and get a good result anyway I think everyone should see how they study best. I can study for hours when I have some music on and be totally alone. Not getting any distraction from anyone. I live in the same city where the uni is. It is about 30 minutes with the subway. Since I live here with my mum and older brother I can skip on the rent part. If I had to move out to go to uni I would not been able to make it financially! Here in my country scholarships don't excist. I do get a small fee to pay school from the government.. It is about 90 Euros a month. Yes, I agree that makes things easier with college fee, books and a life! NOT... But I am glad that I get the oppertunity! EDIT: what I hate about uni is that there are to many kids hanging around that think it is just something that you just get in life. I was 22 until I finally managed to get the money and the proper writen certificate to go. And I didn't had bad grades in high school! (I did gave up one year to spend some time with a dying friend) And I owe my mum big time for helping my out a bit financially. She works pretty hard to let me study!
I have an appointmant at the career counselling center next week. I'll definitely be looking for job training in a kindergarten or children's home, I really hope it will work out because if I don't find anything soon I'll be unemployed. (I'll stay enrolled at Uni of course, but I don't want to waste any more time, I'm 20 already) I wish you all the best and that you find the motivation to pull through somehow. Do you at least have some friends at Uni who make lectures more bearable? Back when everything was new and I didn't know anybody I took my girlfriend to some of my classes, found it really helped with the boredom factor if you can talk/write letters during classes. I hate the arbitrariness with wich they seem to give out Uni places. This semester I applied for the same subject I took last semester, but due to changes in the system (they just recently changes to BA studies) I didn't get it again. Which is why I was stuck with only one subject to study. For graduation I'd need two anyway. It bothers me especially when I see all those kids running around there with no idea what to study, thus taking everybody else's chance to get a place they actually want. Okay, so right now I'm one of those too, but at least I stay at home and don't rub my disinterest in their faces. I feel a little bad though, especially since my mother is paying for a majority of my rent and I'm not really doing anything for it. Although, during the semester holidays I did work a 40 hour week for 3 months.
Friends do make lectures more bearable yeh. I hate the people who just are at uni to say they went to uni, they do my head in, like all they do is get drunk, turn up to lectures drunk and ergh. I mean yeh, I'm often drunk lol, (student is a good excuse) but I don't turn up thenext day! I annoy my best friend at uni sometimes though. We were sat in Marketing Psychology, and I'm always just like, I don't agree with that, that's useless, don't agree. And she's just like why are you doing this course?
LOL, I'm like that too. I keep telling everyone how pointless the stuff we study is. Drinking is much more fun than studying I think I'll miss the lifestyle of being a student, though. Sleeping in, partying during the week, shopping in the middle of the day... won't have that with regular working hours. Oh well, I'll gladly sacrifice that for a job that I know I will love. I think that's far more important than the possibility of an academic career at some point in the far future. So what, I could make more money then, but it would never make me happy.
Yeh, I like the lie-ins, mid-week parties etc but that's about it... Drinking is so much more fun, although I think if I was studying something I liked, at a Uni I liked more, maybe I wouldn't go out as much? ... Maybe not.. lol.. I suppose if you are going to go into a job you will love you'll be happier overall? I just know, that I'm going to have to really really have to do something to motivate myself for my exams after Chritmas, I'm bad at revising when I am motivated!!
I really don't drink but I do go to the parites to socialize and spend time with people I don't see much. I think going to college should be about getting a job that you want to enjoy for the rest of your life. Afterall you're the one paying the tuition you should make the decisions. Don't know if I'll be attending classes next semester...still waiting on word if I got into the college that I want to attend. it's nerve racking, almost like being a Senior in hs waiting for the first letter of acceptence.
Well, I've got one more semester of High School to go. I've been accepted to my first choice school, and I've been invited to apply for the Honors Program, which I'll do to see if I can get in (plus, the residence hall reserved for Honors students is brand new and has some nice features, which I guess is incentive enough ). As for scholarships, I still have to send in the application for that, so hopefully I'll get around to that soon and get a nice one. However, there's only one hanging question: What do I major in? I'm having a tough time figuring out what I want to do, so I'm Undecided as of now. Bleh...all this pre-college prep is sucking the life out of me. Anyway, I like reading about all the different perspectives and opinions on college and such. I like the international dynamic we have on this site, and the discussion has been good so far!
Well they don't make you declare a major on your first day. You get a couple of years to decide that one which is a good idea cause I may have just changed my mind about my major.
^ It's very true. Sometimes it takes people two years, after doing the general credits, still don't know what to major in. Don't make that one of your top worries, in fact no worrying at all! Sounds like you're going to have a good experience...don't ruin it with what's the come, just have fun!
I wish our system was like that. We choose our course in the final year of high school, and have to do that course, if we don't like it, it's normally start again year 1 at the beginning, unless you get a common first year like I did. But still, I think it's not good our way, unless you really know what you want to do.
Thanks for the advice. I keep hearing that you don't have to choose right away and that lots of people change their major at least once, so I'm just trying to get a better idea of what I might want to do, which is somewhat difficult...I figure that being Undeclared will give me more options when I first get there anyway, so maybe I'll take some random class, find that I really enjoy it, and pick a major related to it.
I think if you get the choice to take a few classes then you'll find out many things, what you do and don't like, so then that'll be good for you. And if you're going to the uni that you want to, then it'll be better too
You don't have to pick your major? Meh, we go to entrance exam - of subject that we want to be our major Of course once you get in, you can change (depending on Uni) but yes... Dats they way in here.