Hi, have a question about the college process

College Search & Lists
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<p>Hello all. I am a highschool student, low GPA <em>in my school its low, if I were to go to a regular public highschool i’d have a high GPA, sucks for me lol</em>, and a regular/normal SAT score. </p>

<p>I will be taking the CCC route. </p>

<p>I never truly understood the university process…</p>

<p>Now, in highschool, its simple. You get your schedule, you chose <em>sometimes not</em> classes, chose and elective, and are on your way the whole day to learn. </p>

<p>Whats different about the way the schedule works for highschool, and how the schedule works for a University? </p>

<p>I know that you chose the time to go to class and you’re not necerssarily AT SCHOOL the whole day, but over intervals, but my question might be a little wierd…</p>

<p>Why? </p>

<p>What do you learn?</p>

<p>Is it specific to the profession you want to go into? </p>

<p>You’re already in the college, so you are done with A-G reqs, no more need for pointless classes, and since you are paying now, you cant fill a schedule with random classes.</p>

<p>Everything is geared towards one thing. A degree. </p>

<p>All I know is that the first 2 years is general education, which makes sense. But what about the 2 years after that?</p>

<p>My teacher tells us alot “College isn’t for everyone, i completely agree with you guys, but if you dont know why you are going to college, its not a good enough reason to waste your time doing so because alot of the people who get in, get out.” </p>

<p>I completely agree, so I’m trying to find out what I am going to do, what i want to learn, and how the system works. </p>

<p>Thanks in advance!</p>

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<p>In highschool the schedule is drawn out for a few different reasons that include things like different speeds at which people learn and keeping kids out of trouble during the day. In college they go at a moderate to fast pace due to this there is less need to spend tons of time in the classroom learning. Also you will find that in college you are expected to spend time outside of class working on things much more than you were in highschool this self learning that you do goes a long way toward building your understanding well before you even set foot in the classroom. After the first 1-2 years (depending on the school you go to and AP credits you come in with and how many classes you take at once) you go onto major specific classes. In these classes you go much more in depth than do the general classes. They are not so much harder as they are more involved. The goal of college depends on the degree you are going for. Some degrees such as those in Math, Sciences, or Engineering prepare you for a carrer; other degrees such as Pshycology, Sociology, Economics and the like teach you how to think. Still others that can be lumped together as the arts teach you how to look at the world and capture it. So due to the broad spectrum of what college is and isn’t it is very hard to say that it is not worth it to go to school not knowing what you want out of it. Many would say that the goal of college is to explore what’s out there while others may say that is what life experience is for (I personally believe the later but that is due to my real world personal experience). If I may leave you with one last piece of advice it would be this. Buck up and find a way to get the grades you want at the school you are going to. When you attend college more likely than not it will be many times more demanding the any prep school. When you consider that most colleges average gpas lie between 2.8 and 3.1 when they take in people who have much higher gpas from highschool and then you talk to those with the highest gpa’s you will probably see that gpa has very little to do with intelligence or sat scores and much more with the ammount of work you put into it. Give school your all and you will get a truly great education out of it almost without regard to what school you end up attending.
Best of luck in your college search.</p>

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<p>Typically, in college you would take maybe 5 courses in one semester. Each course might be worth 3 credits, which basically means that it meets for 3 50-minute periods (MWF), or for 2 80-minute periods (TuTh). In between your classes, you would be able to study, or possibly work at some on-campus job. </p>

<p>Most schools have certain courses which are required, like English 101. Then they have general topics from which you have to choose 1 course or 2 courses from a selection of 5 or 10 or more possibilities - like 1 math course which could be Business Calculus, statistics, etc. Usually you end up taking at least 1 which you feel is a waste of time but is just there to fulfill the schools requirements. At most schools you also have room in the schedule to take courses which are in areas interesting to you or which you need for your major. Especially for engineering, which starts right off freshman year.</p>

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<p>Thank you. Sylvan if you havent read the other post on the last thread you commented on of mine, ill ask here.</p>

<p>Counselors are telling us that most CCCs are packed. Thats why I said it will take an extra year.</p>