<p>$10,300 isn’t necessarily 3 roommates in a closet, especially if it’s a 9-month calculation. That’s rougly $1150 a month; you can share a decent-sized apartment with 1 or 2 roommates in the lower-cost areas of the city (Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, Inwood, Wash Heights, Harlem). Me and a roommate rented a pretty big apartment in Washington Heights for $1800/month.</p>
<p>Anyway, I think you should apply to Geneseo and Stony Brook too - just to see what happens - but yes, going to a CUNY college and planning to transfer isn’t necessarily a bad plan. Is there any reason that you aren’t applying to City, Queens, Lehman, and/or York? City College in particular is known to be good for math. Lehman is a good school, too.</p>
<p>Attending a community college would be cheaper, but I think that attending a four-year college might be better for you. Like you said, you can always choose to stay where you are after your first two years, and also four-year colleges are just different environments - everyone’s there for the long haul, whereas CCs are often populated by students taking one or two classes or who are there for the 2 year programs. If you’re especially focused a CC could be a great money-saving endeavor, but CUNY colleges are extremely affordable especially if you commute from home.</p>
<p>Direct college costs usually consist of tuition and fees. There’s also room (paying for an apartment; n/a if you are living at home) and board (the cost of eating). You will also have to buy books and miscellaneous items - like pencils and notebooks, maybe a computer, maybe special software for a class. There’s also the cost of travel/commuting, and then any personal expenses like hanging out with friends or buying clothes for school.</p>
<p>About the classes - well, theoretically. Most colleges require general education classes across a range of fields (humanities, fine arts, social sciences, and natural/physical sciences, as well as English comp, math, foreign language, and maybe other things). But in practice, most students take some major classes and some general education requirements every year of school, maybe except senior year when you’re only taking major classes. Especially in a math major - you will HAVE to take calculus II and calculus III in your first year in order for you to graduate on time in your major (or at the very least, tale calculus III in the fall of your sophomore year) since those are usually required prerequisites for almost every other course in the major.</p>
<p>The traditional route to teaching is that you major in math education at a school that has the program. You take some education and math classes, and in your last semester you student teach. You take an exam, likely in your senior year, and get licensed to teach. At the same time you are applying to jobs contingent upon licensure, and you start teaching in the fall.</p>
<p>But there are other ways. Especially in math, there are alternative certification programs that allow you to start teaching even if you aren’t licensed (like if you attended a school that doesn’t have math education and licensing requirements) and get licensed during your first 2-3 years of teaching by taking night classes. Sometimes you can arrange this individually with a school, but there are also formal programs that do this, like NYC Teaching Fellows and Teach for America. School districts usually only do this if they are facing teacher shortages, though.</p>
<p>Most teachers, I think, eventually get master’s degrees in their field. It can be the only way to advance and/or get a pay raise.</p>