What should I do?

Applying to College
21

<p>You should care as those tests are just a fact of life right now. Here is an article on the Korean test. Sounds pretty intense… 8 hours which includes testing in Korean Language, History (and I expect a heavy emphasis on Korean History) and English along with college level math and science. I wouldn’t assume that this test would be easier than the SAT. </p>

<p><a href=“South Korea's dreaded college entrance exam is the stuff of high school nightmares, but is it producing "robots"? - CBS News”>http://www.cbsnews.com/news/south-koreas-dreaded-college-entrance-exam-is-the-stuff-of-high-school-nightmares-but-is-it-producing-robots/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

22

<p>Your dad is probably right that your chance of getting into a better engineering schools would be much higher there. I think English is your major barrier leading to a rather low (below average) SAT composite score.</p>

23

<p>Why do you need college at all? I would agree that a trade school in electrical technology would be the best start for you, or become a journeyman electrician. </p>

<p>If you want to be an entrepreneur, take the money you would have spent on college and spend it on taking specific classes on learning how to understand and build circuits and start your own business or apprentice at a business in your field.</p>

<p>As for 1300 out of 2400 being “not good”, people on CC generally feel that 2000 out of 2400 is not good, and nowhere near what is needed for MIT. I think maybe you should read some MIT threads to understand.</p>

24

<p>How to apply to trade school? How many years is that? Is that similar to college in some way? What’s the tuition and financial aid? Does it provide what I want?</p>

25

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<p>You need to have a long talk with your guidance counselor. There are some very basic aspects of American higher education that you need to learn so you can make an informed decision about your future.</p>

26

<p>Tomorrow, I will immediately talk with my counselor in the morning. Thanks for the help, though.</p>

27

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<p>Yes, but you are not showing tons of aptitude in math either.
If your SATs included 800s in Math plus 5s in AP calc and physics then maybe you’d have a point, but they don’t.</p>

28

<p>At this point getting into a Korean engineering school is not realistic for you.
In Korea, although professors know English, they don’t TEACH in English. They teach in Korean. You’d need to be fluent in Korean to understand the classes. The same thing happened to a student last year, followed their father’s advice, didn’t realize the difficulties created by the language barrier (and the student was fluent in Korean - just not <em>academic</em> Korean), the teaching methods, the culture, the grading, the study patterns, and s/he was literally in tears, understanding nothing, getting F’s, and having a college record that will follow him for his whole life including when they return to the US, preventing him from attending the colleges he could have attended had he stayed in the US.</p>

<p>When did you stop ESL? Did you take the TOEFL? What APs do you have and what scores did you get? Do you have SAT Subject scores in Math, Physics, Chemistry?</p>

<p>Is your high school a magnet school, a private school, a low performing school?</p>

<p>Santa Monica is one of California’s best community colleges and you can follow an engineering path from there, then attend the best universities from California. The program is actually envied in other states because it leads to such prestigious colleges. It’s probably your best bet if you want to have a good job as an engineer.</p>

<p>In the US, it doesn’t matter where you get your engineering degree - if you manage to get it and it’s ABET accredited, you’ll get a job, a good job. In addition, there’s no difference in salary based on where you went to college within a company - all first year engineers are paid the same by the company regardless of where they got their degree.</p>

<p>Go see your guidance counselor and ask about being a journeyman in electrical technology. In this, you don’t take English or History classes, only classes that pertain to your future job, and you work alongside your studies.</p>

<p>In an American college, all students must take classes to be well-educated. Engineers will need t speak well, make eloquent presentations, write well, etc. So classes in English and Speech are compulsory, for instance. Engineering is about 4/5 science and 1/5 “general education” though.</p>

29

<p>I don’t want any ‘general education’, that’s just a waste of time. Getting a bachelor’s degree in EE at a college for 4 years is way too long. Colleges are just trying to waste your time and make money, that’s all. They don’t care about anyone. Can I learn EE without college? </p>

30

<p>You can be the best EE in the world, and if you can’t communicate then you won’t be getting that high paying job. That’s why a portion of the ABET engineering at any university includes classes that you may feel aren’t worthwhile.</p>

<p>The CC path may be your best option. That, or jack that SAT score up during a gap year. But realistically, CC. The message you should be hearing is that it takes 4 years (minimum) to get an engineering degree. And if you want your PE (or if your company requires that you obtain one), you’re looking at four-ish years of experience prior to sitting for the exam.</p>

<p>So if all this sounds like just too much for you, then maybe the engineering discipline isn’t for you. </p>

<p>Have a chat with your guidance counselor. They may be able to enlighten you.</p>

31

<p>Oh, and I’m sure my state isn’t alone in allowing an alternative path to a PE. Here, you don’t have to get a BS in engineering. But the alternative is a longer period of tIme in the workforce before being allowed to take the PE exam. Last I looked (granted, a looong time ago), that route was a good ten years long.</p>

32

<p>@Knowledge10: You seem to have some answers already formed: </p>

<p>general education, a waste of time.
Getting a bachelor’s degree in EE at a college for 4 years is way too long.
Colleges are just trying to waste your time and make money</p>

<p>But you have a question that just screams. "Can I learn EE without college? " I guess the answer lies in where would you learn it? And that magical teacher – why would he or she take you on when you’ve shown a pretty poor to mediocre performance to date in coursework associated with EE?</p>

<p>And if (in all likelihood) you don’t end up a mega rich inventor and you decide to actually lower yourself and work for someone else, what will you place on your CV/resume about your EE credentials? By the way, how many 20 year old working electrical engineers have you met? Zero? You ever wonder why?</p>

33

<p>But if I go to community college, can I finish it in one year instead of two years? </p>

34

<p>Finish what?</p>

35

<p>You do realize that MIT takes 4 years, don’t you? (at a minimum)</p>

<p>Look at the programs you are deciding between, and see what they require. Most engineering programs will take longer, not shorter, to finish. They have courses in a certain order, and you can’t take chem 3 before chem 2 before chem 1.</p>

<p>If you can get a job with a company that ‘invents stuff’ that might be a better way for you to go to college. Many firms pay for employees to go to college, although it is in addition to work so a program can take a lot longer. Go talk to your guidance counselor. Go talk to a Santa Monica counselor and see what he advises for you specifically.</p>

36

<p>My counselor told me that if I can’t get into MIT or UC’s, then I should go back to Korea because Cal States and community colleges don’t suit my desire.</p>

37

<p>OK, sounds like you have a plan. Goodbye then. I think we’re done here.</p>

38

<p>For top engineering schools, the average time for graduation is ~4.5 years. There are a lot of internships and Co-op opportunity that would strengthen your career but at the same time may extend your time in college. So if 4 years is too long, then engineering is probably not for you.</p>

39

<p>Engineering is for me. </p>

40

<p>Your dad has no clue at all what he is talking about. Any school with an ABET engineering program, and many others, will get you a job just fine. MIT is not even an edge that anyone in engineering needs. To top it off, I cannot see that you would get in to MIT. And if you did, I don’t think you would be successful. If you only maintained that GPA in high school, and had that few APs, you would get creamed at MIT.</p>

<p>I am wondering…do YOU want to do Electrical Engineering, or was that your dad’s idea? </p>