I don't understand college.

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>I don't really understand college or the terms associated with it and I am the first one in my family that will be attending. I need some help understanding.</p>

<p>My plan is to attend a community college for two years and transfer to a university. I was told I should do this because it is cheaper and gets your prerequisites out of the way. The careers I am interested in require a major in computer science.</p>

<p>My problem is I don't understand the process of attending a college.</p>

<p>I need to know what a major and minor is, what prerequisites are and how to find out what they are for a computer science major at the universities I am interested in, how to find out if the credits for the prerequisites will transfer to the university, how to transfer to a university, what undergraduate and graduate schools are, etc.</p>

<p>I am just so confused about attending college and don't understand any of it at all. I am going to be a senior at high school once the summer ends.</p>

<p>I am starting to feel very sick and can't get my mind of off school.
Is there any books or websites that explain all of this? :(</p>

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<p>Here is one place that states that going to a community college first and then transferring is cheaper:</p>

<p>[The</a> Pros and Cons of Attending Community College before University | Edu in Review Blog](<a href=“http://www.eduinreview.com/blog/2009/05/the-pros-and-cons-of-attending-community-college-before-university/]The”>http://www.eduinreview.com/blog/2009/05/the-pros-and-cons-of-attending-community-college-before-university/)</p>

<p>Can’t anyone help me?</p>

3

<p>A great guide I’ve found to cope with and answer my college-related questions is “The Everything College Survival Book” I picked it up at barnes and nobles a few weeks ago. </p>

<p>Hope it helps!</p>

4

<p>I would suggest meeting with your high school guidance counselor with these questions. S/he should be able to help you through the whole process. A community college can be cheaper (and it looks cheaper on paper) but if your parents don’t make a ton of money, or if you have great accomplishments, you can get need or merit based scholarships at schools that “look” like they cost more. I will be going to a private school that “costs” $55000 a year this fall, for less than the cost of a community college. </p>

<p>Best of luck, you still have time.</p>

5

<p>As for your questions, it’s completely reasonable to feel overwhelmed at first. Going to community college and then transferring is definitely your most economical option in a lot of cases, but don’t rule out applying to some universities off the bat because if you’re a stellar student you might be able to get scholarships that will make attending very affordable. </p>

<p>It seems like you have a decent grasp of major. Your major is just want you want to study in general, and I think requires something to the extent of 60-90 credits in your major courses plus general education courses totaling to 120+ credit hours. To give you an idea, depending on your university, a full out class with lecture will tend to be around 3 credits and a class with a lab might be 4. A minor is another course of study that you pursue, but not as much, and generally constitutes somewhere between 18 and 21 credits (6-7 classes total). For example, like me, you could major in psychology by taking the general course sequences and requirements, and minor in math by taking 6 math classes including calc 1, calc 2, and discrete mathematics. </p>

<p>Your prerequisites are going to vary by school, so it can be a little tough there, but here are a few pointers. One, if you intend to go to a state school after community college, they often publish course equivalency charts that tell you exactly which classes count for which at their school. For example, I go to state school and I am taking a summer course at CC, and I found a chart on the website that tells me that adolescent development at the CC is equivalent to adolescent psychology at my state school. </p>

<p>If you don’t find the information on your own, or if you’re too overwhelmed to pursue it on your own, the admissions people at your prospective schools are also likely to be very happy to help you. There are generally numbers posted on their websites, and often there are 1-800 lines so that you don’t have to worry about long distance. If you’re not as comfortable with that, most schools will have an email address you can contact by (though it takes longer to get answers) or even possibly on online counselor that you can chat to live via instant messager (though I’m not sure how common the latter is). </p>

<p>Another tool that can be useful is the Princeton Review. It requires a login but it’s free and you can match your interests and criteria, and it can point you in the direction of some schools to look at. It also has data regarding acceptance rates, general admissions difficulty, what’s required to get in, etc. Overall, the internet (especially Google) is your friend.</p>

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<p>You’ll likely be assigned a counselor/advisor at community college who will walk you through everything. At my cc, we had to take a little test during orientation that told the counselor about our work habits, attitude towards school/professors/parents, etc.<br>
The books that have been previously mentioned are good places to begin. I would also recommend college board, which has a lot of useful information.</p>