I am at the end of my Sophomore year and I have been looking at colleges and what they will expect of me in the next few years. I know I will be in the engineering field and I currently want to be a mechanical engineer. I want to go to a school like UW Madison of UM Ann Arbor but with my current uw gpa, the odds are against me (3.1 freshman, 3.3 sophomore) I go to a small college preparatory school of 300 people, it is small but it has the highest ACT scores in the area and is recognized by most colleges. I am not very athletic and a lot of the kids that do play them are stuck up pricks, the only sports I have played are 1 year football and 1 year tennis. I will be taking 4 years of all the basic courses like science and math, except for foreign language (no AP classes). Long story short I should have taken Spanish 1 in freshman year but now I can’t go back and am now stuck taking Spanish 3 when I struggle to maintain C, giving me 2 years foreign language. I would like to take another year of Spanish to go to a school like UM Ann Arbor or UW Madison, but I have accepted that it would be too much of a far reach even if I did take it, leading me to my questions.
Some other things you may like to know:
-Eagle Scout
-full high school scholarship
-Normal middle class but I won’t have to worry about financial aid.
-Both of my parents went to U of W
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I know most colleges only need 2 years foreign language but should I take another? (I HATE the class and I have never gotten better than a C on a test)
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I want to go to UW Madison or UM Ann Arbor but I would be a far reach so I am looking at UIUC, Purdue and other mechanical engineering colleges in/near Wisconsin. What do you think my chances of these colleges or if you know of any others?
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What should I focus on changing in the next few years in/after high school.
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My town has several major engineering businesses and a CC that has excellent engineering courses so I am thinking of going there for a couple of years, get an internship and eventually transfer to a college. I would guess 25% of the 200,000 people in the local area work for a engineering business, just to give you an idea. Again I don’t have to worry about money and this is a good plan but would it be better to go straight to college in my situation?
Thank you for your time in reading this article.
A 3.3 is not going to be competitive for engineering at many colleges. Rather than trying to plot a course of CC then xfer, I suggest you devote your efforts at this time to improving your academic skills. If, senior year, the CC route is still your best option then it will be there for you, but in the meantime try to become a better student. It may take more time in studying, but a big part is studying more effectively. And if you are serious about being a ME, one of the harder degrees in college, you shouldn’t mind spending more time on studies.
There is nothing magical about doing well in a foreign language or any other class. The sad thing, though, is that even though research has found ways for people to learn more effectively you’ll never learn about them in a typical HS (or college) education. If you haven’t stumbled onto effective methods on your own then you’re leaving points on the table. There is a book I strongly urge you to get titled “Make it Stick” (http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674729018&content=reviews with reviews plus some other informative links).
Your Spanish grade is a symptom that you can do things better. What is a language as taught in a class, really? A bunch of symbols (called words) with rules for combining and changing them, if you step back far enough to look at it. This also describes many other subjects, especially ones important to engineering such as math, chemistry, and physics, although a language may have more symbols to memorize. Even though you may have no interest in Spanish for its own sake, improving your study skills for it will have carry-over effects for subjects you care more about. And using better study techniques and technology such as the free program Anki you could do better. Much better. Same with your other classes, where the techniques the book talks about such as spacing out retrieval practice will help a lot. And for many of the classes you are taking, even in HS, there are books such as the REA Problem Solver series that give plenty of worked problems you can use for that spaced retrieval practice and frequent testing.
After going around the internet for a couple of days I concluded that it was in my best interest to take Spanish 4, so I tried out the Anki program you told me and I have to say that it is AWESOME. It just took me about 5 mins to download and find a shared deck and I am doing a LOT better! I just downloaded it for free on my computer and got a free app that let me control it from my phone (so you don’t pay 20$ for the mobile version) It only takes 2 mins to go through a deck which is enough time to study in between classes, I guess what I am trying to say is thanks for being awesome.
I’m glad you found the advice helpful, you made my day!
I would still suggest reading thru the book “Make it Stick” for a better understanding of why programs like Anki help, as well as other techniques you can use.
Also if you search on the web you’ll see that many people say that decks you build yourself are much more useful than ones you download. It’s the work of creating the card that teaches you the concept, then using Anki helps you retain the knowledge. Here are some tips on making cards for language: http://fluent-forever.com/create-better-flashcards/
Try to stick through the Spanish as many years as possible. Colleges like to see that you have 2-3 years of a foreign language. 4 is ideal. Work on getting that GPA up. A 3.6+ is preferable. Duolingo is another great website (free!) for foreign language practice and mastery.
@andrew148 One other free tool I want to mention is Memrise. It is similar to Anki, both being SRS (spaced repetition system) programs. However the spacings in Anki are more tuned towards retaining material you already know, while Memrise is very good at helping you initially memorize new words.
My best advice for getting into a good college and succeeding generally is to question your attitude. You talk about hating this class and how these kids are stuck up pricks. I know a few highly successful people and those are not th. kind of things they tend to say. Something to think about.
Taking the CC route is a big risk because, statistically, the vast majority of CC students never finish their associate’s, let alone successfully transfer. It’s safer IMHO to just go to a lower-ranked 4 year school.
I know, my school is not cheap to go to, so you tend to see a lot of rich families and almost all of the time they are really nice, it’s just the select few that ruin it for everybody. I think it is kinda funny when you think about it because everyone wants to get a 4.0 and get filthy rich, but in reality you need a million dollars to make a million dollars.
Besides my rant I am beginning to realize that a school like Madison is out of my league, so I have been thinking about a few other school. Would these be reasonable for me , UIUC, UM twin cities, Michigan university and Purdue.
UW Milwaukee would be reachable for you. UIUC is a reach, and Purdue is out of state and not cheap.
I don’t have to worry about cost, it’s a long story.