<p>I need this for a school project. We're supposed to interview people with college degrees but I can't get a hold of anyone who I know has one.</p>
<p>Answer each question please.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>How did you decide which college you wanted to go to? Which were the main factors that influenced your decision?</p></li>
<li><p>Did you go in undecided or did you already have your major picked out?</p></li>
<li><p>Based on your personal experience, what is some advice you would give someone who is completely undecided about their major?</p></li>
<li><p>Did you ever change your major? If so, why?</p></li>
<li><p>Would you recommend joining clubs/sports in college? Did you? If so, was it hard to balance both school and the extra curricular activities?</p></li>
<li><p>Did you dorm? If so, what were some pros and cons of dorming?</p></li>
<li><p>Would you recommend work study? Did you participate in this?</p></li>
<li><p>Did you find a job right away after getting your degree?</p></li>
<li><p>What is your degree?</p></li>
<li><p>Overall, do you think attending college and receiving a degree was worth it?</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><p>How did you decide which college you wanted to go to? Which were the main factors that influenced your decision?
Family (I was a legacy student at a college where much of my family attended). I fell in love with the bright colors (The school color is orange) and it just made the campus seem and feel alive. That and the dorms were, for their time, very nice.</p></li>
<li><p>Did you go in undecided or did you already have your major picked out?
I had a major picked out, but it only lasted one semester before I changed dramatically from a science type major to a business one.</p></li>
<li><p>Based on your personal experience, what is some advice you would give someone who is completely undecided about their major?
Don’t be afraid to still go and take classes - it is hard to understand what the different degrees entail until you are there and being undecided is often better than changing majors all together after a year. Being undecided, you will likely not take extra classes for a major that you might change.</p></li>
<li><p>Did you ever change your major? If so, why?
Biochemistry ate my lunch. I was going to be a Medical Technology student but in the second semester, I met Biochem and it convinced me I would never enjoy that field. In that same semester I was taking a general ed class in Economics and found it both easy and interesting.</p></li>
<li><p>Would you recommend joining clubs/sports in college? Did you? If so, was it hard to balance both school and the extra curricular activities?
It is almost manditory if you are going somewhere that you will not know very many people. It is how you meet people, find your core set of friends (especially in a large school) and often is the thing that lets you escape the pressures of normal studying and schoolwork. I saw kids who did not balance well and those who did - I was often teetering as I played in a large marching band and pep band for a major state university. The time commitment was intense and you really had to truly schedule things like studying at the library and hold to it.</p></li>
<li><p>Did you dorm? If so, what were some pros and cons of dorming?
Freshman, Sophomore and Senior years I lived in dorms. For me it was a great experience and I have told my kids that I will basically mandate 2 years of doing so before I want them to try to rent an apartment. While apartments may seem cheaper, and for some they probably are, for me it was the opposite…I ate out nearly every meal when I moved into the apartment because it was far enough from class that going back didn’t make sense. In addition, dorms serve as an intermediate step - Most bills are paid and food prepared and cleaned and so there is less time commitments and stress related to those things. There are also the social needs that get met by living in a dorm. Off campus, your neighbor may be a student or it may be a 80 year old widower. Dorms are a great way to ease into living on your own and studies do prove that kids that start out in dorms for a year or two tend to do better in school as well.</p></li>
<li><p>Would you recommend work study? Did you participate in this?
Yes - easy money. I worked at the library on campus.</p></li>
<li><p>Did you find a job right away after getting your degree?
Yes, but not in my chosen field or a field I was even interested in.</p></li>
<li><p>What is your degree?
BS in Business Administration (Economics) with a minor in Management Information Systems, Master’s in Management Information Systems</p></li>
<li><p>Overall, do you think attending college and receiving a degree was worth it
Absolutely. Even if you never work in your degree’d field, you will find employers far more willing to look at your resume and listen and consider you for employment. In spite of what you may think, college degrees rarely ‘prepare’ you for your jobs. Most of that happens on-the-job…What a college degree proves is that you have the ability to do something incredibly difficult, stick to it, and complete learning something in an intense way…and employers need people like that that can learn quickly under pressure and finish tasks completely. A degree in a field may lay the groundwork, but most employers need learners more than skilled people because at least in my field (Information Systems), technology changes faster than you can graduate anyway. I know that when we hire someone out of college they have the ability to learn advanced topics and that makes all the difference.</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><p>I lived nearby my college - about 20 minutes away. I knew I wanted to go to a women’s college and an HBCU because of the things I had read online about both kinds of colleges. I really wanted to be in a woman-centered living environment. I went onto the campus and visited, and I loved the vibe of the campus. Finally, they offered me a full merit scholarship, so that sealed the deal.</p></li>
<li><p>I had a major picked out, but I changed it twice. (Was political science, then sociology, then psychology.)</p></li>
<li><p>Take some classes for majors in 2-4 of the majors you’re interested in, and then major in the one that you like the most. Also, think about the kind of work that you want to do in the future. If you know you want to work with technology, you’ll likely need to select a more tech-focused major, for example.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes. The political science classes looked boring so I changed my mind before I even took one. I took sociology, but I wanted a more “sciency” social science, so I switched to psychology.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes. I joined a few and I wish I had joined more! No, it wasn’t hard to balance both. You just need to be selective about the activities you select.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes, I did. Pros: Lots of people on your floor to meet and make friends with - most of my college friends lived on my floor freshman year. Proximity to classes - can roll out of bed and stroll to class. Lots of events happen within the residence halls. Cons: No kitchens, no private bathrooms (although some newer residence halls remedy this with suite-style living). Have to follow all of the res hall rules (mine did not allow male overnight visitors, which sucks when you have a boyfriend!). And after sophomore year everyone at college moved off campus, but I was still stuck.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes. I didn’t do work study, but I did work. It allowed me to make extra money to have fun and I learned a lot of valuable skills.</p></li>
<li><p>I went to graduate school.</p></li>
<li><p>A BA in psychology.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes.</p></li>
</ol>