College Decision Help?

[Hollywood42]

Hey guys, I am a senior in high school, and I'm just wondering if anybody has any tips for anything at all in the college application process, decisions, or anything else at all. I'm just looking for any opinions at all that may help me out. I'm the oldest in my family, so I have no idea what to expect, so any tips are very helpful. Thanks!

[WilyWestbrook0]

Need more info. Be as concrete as possible.

Have you decided on a major?

What do you want out of your college experience?

What sort of colleges are you considering?

What kinds of jobs do you think you could do in the future?

[stlcardinalsfan]

dont go to a community college unless you knwo for sure your credits will transfer to a university........i didnt check and was told they would.....they didnt....it cut half of my credits so now im a 22 year old sophomore who has been in college since 2009.

i am a first generation college student.....none of my family or cousins or aunts or uncles went so i had to figure out everything on my own (parents helped as much as they could)

talk to your counselor at school, they should be able to help with the application process

fill out the fafsa by the earliest deadline.....thats a biggy

[WilyWestbrook0]

Community colleges shouldn't be canceled out unless we know more about the context of what the poster wants to do with his life. If he wants to learn a more specific trade, community college is actually the way to go. I am considering going back to one to get a more practical degree because my university degrees are not very applicable for the things I want to do now.

[Hollywood42]

What, you mean you guys don't know my thoughts? Hahaha, whoops! Here's a few details:

I really have no idea what I want to do yet. I am leaning towards computer sciences, but I can't tell for sure because my high school only offers 1 CS class (took it last year and liked it). For that reason, I am leaning towards a liberal arts college. I've been looking mainly at ELCA-affiliated colleges near me (Midwest), but that's more because my family can't just pack up and go halfway across the country to look at a few schools, I'm not intent on staying in the Midwest (but not intent on leaving it either), just have looked the most at them because it is much easier to. I have gotten a few invitations to apply at/get in touch with really good schools (Penn, Boston U, etc), and I have even got an invitation to attend a CS info/intro session at a Brown University (It feels good saying I got an invite from an Ivy League college ). There are a few colleges that I would like to know more about (Indiana, Brown, and a few others on either coastline), but as I said, my family is not a family that can afford to take a big trip to look at a handful of schools. I guess that is one of my questions, what is the best way to find out if I want to apply to a school if I can't go visit it?

I had a lot more to say, but I'm drawing a blank now! Feel free to ask me questions!

[centrehice]

If you are not fearing attending an out of State university where tuition runs insanely high, then look at a Canadian University, Your out of State Tuition will be 7-10 K more than your out of country tuition at any Canadian Universitry. Now if you want something more along the lines of Brown, then look to these comparable Canadian Ivy League counterparts:

Queens University - Kingston, Ontario
McGill University - Montreal, Quebec
Bishops University - Sherbrooke Quebec
McMaster University - Hamilton, Ontario
Sir Wilfred Laurier University - London, Ontario
Carleton University - Ottawa
Dalhousie University - Halifax Nova Scotia
University of Victoria, Victoria, BC

University of Western Ontario - London, Ontario - Business (one of the highest rated business schools in the World, full of poop-head rich kids)
Osgoode Hall - York University - Law School only. One of the highest ranked Law Schools in the World
Ryerson University - Toronto, Ontario - Journalism, Writing, Fine-Arts. World ranked again.
University of Regina - Regina, Saskatchewan - Political Science. Nowhere else do you get radical, and the best teachers of PS than here.

The Colleges above are prestigious and the last few, specialists in their proscribed field as I have listed.


Provincial Universities that correspond to their American counterparts are very cheap to attend, and you won't be cheated either. Some are quite large, I believe the University of Toronto may have the largest student body of all Universities in North America, it used to be over 70K students.

This at least gives you some options that are affordable, and an opportunity to live outside the USA and gain some valuable life experience as well.

[deansayso]

Iowa State has a pretty good computer science program! (We invented the computer)

They also have a very good Lutheran Frat if that's what you are in to.

[ajcorleone]

If you unsure of your major try and take your other courses needed first.You can spend a year and get those out of the way(english,math,science)or whatever the cores might be.