Worried college student afraid he might not get into state school.

[chaosakita]

<p>I agree with someone else, and I think you could go to IUPUI. It’s not the best school, but you should really consider it. It’s better than nothing or staying at the LAC.</p>

[CollectivSynergy]

<p>

I’m in agreement with CuriousJane that you need to take care of Number 1 first before you extend yourself and possibly get into tailspin.

</p>

<p>I disagree. Given his life situation offers thin stability and actually creates stressors, the default state will be a worsening one. Sometimes you have to extend yourself to get yourself out of the hole. The best defense is a good offense.</p>

[Lemaitre1]

<p>@ RKS, After reading post #14 I have serious doubts about whether you you have recovered sufficiently for a quick return to college. You are having panic attacks due to fears that are unlikely to be reality based and although you do face a difficult situation, yours fears of future catstrophes seem way out of proportion to the actual likelihood they will come to pass. </p>

<p>You are also letting your fears of what other people might think about you prevent you from making sound judgements on how to manage your situation. What your nosey relatives might think can only harm you if you let it force you into making hasty and poorly thought out decisions. There is no need to tell them anything about what you are doing, it is none of their business, and again, even if they think you are a fool, that can only harm you if you let it.</p>

<p>I realize that when you are twenty years old a year seems like an eternity but as you get older you will realize that years are a brief period of time and in terms of your future you should not let the fear of “losing” one and “falling further behind” put you at a risk for a relapse which might be difficult to recover from.</p>

[MizzBee]

<p>^ All the more reason to stay close to home and attend IUPUI.</p>

[CollectivSynergy]

<p>Most people, including those in therapy, misunderstand its purpose, role, and most importantly, its limits. People here seem to think that you should go to a shrink until you’re a docile little puppy. But every treatment needs to be in context, and psychiatrists/psychologists, believe it or not, are not miracle workers. A couple of concrete examples: Bolting bones together is great if you snapped it in half. Not so great if it’s shattered. A spinal fusion may be good for severe herniations. Not so good for the vast majority, who get them for herniations which do not warrant it.</p>

<p>My point here is that it’s obvious his CURRENT situation is causing him a huge deal of stress. And working towards climbing out of it would go a huge way towards boosting his self-esteem, and improve his mood. Giving canned, generic advice like “stay close to family” only works if the family is a stress reducer. I speak as someone who’s personally suffered panic attacks, depression, and grew up in a medical family including two psychiatrists.</p>

<p>Note: This isn’t an argument for the LAC, I just think that telling him to delay until he’s “fully ready” is a waste of time, and unhelpful.</p>

[BCEagle91]

<br>

<p>You’re right that I should not have gone out and partied while
taking out loans. I messed up, but I took the steps to do what was
right for my health by going into therapy and a drug and alcohol
program right after I left school. And on top of that I got a job.</p>

<br>

<p>What you did in the past really doesn’t matter going forward unless
the behavior would cause problems in the future. If you have those
problems fixed, then move on.</p>

<br>

<p>I just don’t want to drop out of school all of a sudden and go back
during spring semester. I’ll be too behind and even if I wanted to
do computer science, I would have to wait out 4 years because not
ever requirement is offered each semester instead of 3 if I get in
for fall 2012.</p>

<br>

<p>The suggested freshman year courses are CSCI C211 Introduction to
Computer Science, Calculus I (which I assume you’ve already taken),
Elementary Composition (which I also assume that you’ve taken) for
the fall semester.</p>

<p>Suggested for the spring semester are CSCI C212 Introduction to
Software Systems, and CSCI C241 Discrete Structurs.</p>

<p>[Sample</a> Curriculum: B.S. in Computer Science: Degrees: Undergraduate: School of Informatics and Computing: Indiana University Bloomington](<a href=“http://www.soic.indiana.edu/undergraduate/degrees/bs-comp-sci/curriculum.shtml]Sample”>http://www.soic.indiana.edu/undergraduate/degrees/bs-comp-sci/curriculum.shtml)</p>

<p>If you click on the links to these courses, you’ll see that they were
all offered Spring 2012 so it looks like at least the first-year
courses are offered in the fall and spring. So starting in the spring
may work out for you.</p>

<p>I had a look at the Fall Course and it’s your typical Scheme-based CS
intro course. You can find something similar at:</p>

<p>[MIT</a> OpenCourseWare | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | 6.001 Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, Spring 2005 | Home](<a href=“http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-001-structure-and-interpretation-of-computer-programs-spring-2005/]MIT”>Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | MIT OpenCourseWare)</p>

<p>If you have some time and want to sample CS cours videos, you can take
a look at the selection from Berkeley for Spring 2012. You might find
CS 10 interesting.</p>

<p>[UC</a> Berkeley Webcasts | Video and Podcasts: Events by Category](<a href=“Webcast and Legacy Course Capture | Research, Teaching, and Learning”>Webcast and Legacy Course Capture | Research, Teaching, and Learning)</p>

<p>Stanford has complete course materials online for an introductory
programming course. They use Java while IUB uses Scheme but you would
learn a lot of the ideas if you went through this course on your own.</p>

<p>[Stanford</a> School of Engineering - Stanford Engineering Everywhere](<a href=“http://see.stanford.edu/see/courseinfo.aspx?coll=824a47e1-135f-4508-a5aa-866adcae1111]Stanford”>http://see.stanford.edu/see/courseinfo.aspx?coll=824a47e1-135f-4508-a5aa-866adcae1111)</p>

<p>So applying for spring transfer does look like something that is doable.
But you should spend some time mapping what you have that will transfer
over to get an idea of what you will need. You would also need to ensure
how your courses from LAC transfer over.</p>

<hr>

<br>

<p>I’m afraid our economy will collapse or my parents will be broke and
end up on the streets so that’s why it’s important for me to
graduate in the next 3 years. The business isn’t doing well and I
get panic attacks about it everyday. I need to get a degree so I can
get a job and move out, and then send them checks every month to
help them out for all they’ve done for me.</p>

<br>

<p>I can understand your motivation to do as well as you can as soon as
you can but there are so many uncertainties out there right now that
it doesn’t make a lot of sense to worry about so many things that are
outside of your control to the point that it impairs your ability to
function.</p>

<br>

<p>Also relatives will start questioning what I’m doing and it will
make my family look bad. I already told people I was going to go to
med school. Saying that I won’t be graduating for another 4 years
will make me look like a fool.</p>

<br>

<p>Don’t worry about your relatives. Those that are older with life
experience understand that things frequently don’t go according to
plan. I think that the stats are about 50% go to university and about
25% get the four-year degree.</p>

<hr>

<p>I wrote this before seeing the stuff on the other school. I know
nothing about the geography or business climates of these two schools
and can’t comment.</p>

<p>My son is a bioinformatician and he’s having a blast at his job. A lot
of bioinformatics positions, though, are looking for people with a
graduate degree or some graduate school. He works in a research
environment (just about everyone that he works with has a Phd or is
an MD or both) and it is assumed that you can do research work.</p>