I've been really wanting to know others' opinions and stances about their college/university/trade school they attend (or previously attended). You don't have to share your school's name or events in detail if it makes you uncomfortable, but basically...
NOTE: This is not a high school discussion thread. You can mention your experiences in comparison to college, but don't solely discuss it.
- What do you like about your school?
- If you haven't yet experienced higher education, what are you most looking forward to?
- If you already graduated or left, what are some of your best memories? How have you benefitted from attending?
- What don't you like about your school?
- If you haven't yet experienced higher education, what are you most afraid of?
- If you already graduated, what bothered you the most? If you dropped out and never returned, why?
- What is something that could see improvement, that you're able to share?
- If you never tried higher education past grade school, what are the reasons why?
I'll start with the td;dr - I hate them. Now, for the lengthy part:
One of the things I liked about high school were the friends I saw every day. Sure, there was some drama between others every now and then, but our high school was sort of small in 2018 - just over 1,000 students. You knew where every class was; the environment was better and smaller than most as the school came into existence just over ten years prior; and the teachers cared about you in a way. Some students didn't like me, but I never tried to bother them if I knew that. I suffer from social anxiety, and it felt good that all the students knew me by name, even if they never actually knew me on a more personal level. It may not have seemed like it at times, but we were all local, and you could hang out with anyone if you wanted to. There's many students in my graduating class I'd love to meet again, but a lot went their separate ways, never to return to my hometown again.
Then came post-graduation. I could never decide which school I wanted to go to. I remember there being a time during my junior year where you could submit SAT scores to four schools of your choice for free, and I randomly picked them all as I had no clue where I wanted to go. My SAT score wasn't bad - it was above average, but not incredibly amazing either. Being from the state of Michigan, it was good enough to attend Michigan State, but not good enough for the University of Michigan. Going to UofM would've been nice, but I'm too dumb to attend apparently, and State was a bit too far away for my liking. My decision wouldn't come until after graduation - I wound up going to a community college, and even that was a last minute decision as I still had no idea where to go. I signed up for one class, just as a test run to see how I would fare. Being a resident, it was under $1,000.
For me only attending a single class, this "test run" was moderately unsuccessful. There was a good mix of students my age and people in their 30's-50's, which I didn't understand at first. Of course, with me not knowing anyone, I never had small talk with any classmates; not even for group assignments. I could even recall being distraught from the change of instruction and pace compared to high school, becoming so bad to the point of me refusing to contribute to groups and my teacher having to give me one-on-one talks about my poor attitude. It was quite embarrassing. Nonetheless, I ended up passing, and signed up for a few more classes the next semester. These all went by much better, though I still didn't put in 100% effort sometimes. I attribute that to better classmates and teachers, alongside me understanding the content and having interest in hands-on stuff several times. You could even rent equipment for free, as these were video production classes. That was something I appreciated. By far, this was my best semester of college classes.
One day, I started having thoughts that I could transfer to a nearby university in hopes that I could do much better. This community college was actually starting to become alright, but I wanted more. Getting a certificate would be good, but an associate's or bachelor's would be even better. Being turned off from the requirements for an associate's at the community college, I made the executive decision to transfer to a university, taking two final summer classes to get some extra credits before making the switch. One was a math class, and the other was an English writing class. I passed the English class, though did not like the fact that I was required to go to the "writing room" to get my papers checked for errors and do grammar exercises. Mind you that this was NOT optional; I had to go there every time I wrote a paper before turning it in. I appreciate them trying to help, but I didn't need it. It must have worked if the corrections they spotted caused me to get better grades, so I'll take it. Going to the class itself was always a treat, as I would occasionally see a popular female student from my old high school pass by me. She would actually stop and chat with me sometimes. If not, she'd wave to me every day she saw me. That gave me a boost of motivation to do well, despite her being in a completely different class there and university during the regular school year.
As for the math class, it was pre-calculus. I failed it previously when I went to high school, but that was mainly because I slacked off a ton and lost track of what we were doing after a while. I made an effort to try and pass again - even hiring a tutor - but for whatever reason, I failed again. Was it the teacher? The tutor getting confused on some problems? The way they made me take the tests? I'll never know. I will mention that the teacher wasn't all that great, the tutor was only available sometimes, and they made you schedule your tests in a separate room with restrictions. Nonetheless, I never took another math class again.
So, here's the "fun" part. University life for the 2019-2020 school year. I already made some choices before the year even began that I'd later regret. To sum some of it up:
So, you're probably wondering: Why not join a club and see if you can make new friends? Well, I'm going to admit, nothing being offered by the university itself gave me any interest. Besides, you had to commit yourself to attend meetings, and of course, pay an unnecessarily large amount of money to attend. At that point, I was much more willing to work shifts at the job I already knew well, having to reduce my availability after committing to the university which I didn't want to do. I was heading on a downward spiral, and it eventually reached a boiling point to where I couldn't take all these changes anymore. Everything was taking a toll on my mental health, and that's never good. I wanted out.
So, in a fit of rage, I came to my parents and told them that I wanted to drop out. Thankfully, my parents fully understood that my mental health was on a major decline, and after the semester ended, I went to resident housing, and told them that I'm leaving ASAP. I cleaned out my dorm, told my dorm leader that I was leaving without showing any emotion, and was out of there before the next semester began. Thank god. It was also perfect timing, as it was the beginning of 2020 - the beginning of a dark era for everyone. Ever since those events happened, I never returned to another university again, despite me originally having a plan to take a gap year and go back to the community college afterward. It's my own personal decision, as I have way too many gripes about colleges these days. My total loan for the university ended up being over $13k, and I'm still paying it off to this day. Biggest waste of money ever. I've never been able to build a savings account since then to move out of my parents house, and that truly sucks.
Ironically, due to said events, my anxiety reached all-time high levels, and I've become a more sensitive person because of them. Lots of classes became online-only, and I don't do online-only classes. I want to see people in person and do things hands-on. I'm currently 24 years old, and I now consider going back to be too late at my age. It's funny when I bring up the fact that my CDL license training done by my employer paid me; I learned many things about stuff in commercial vehicles, mostly school buses, and did many things hands-on. They even paid for my license and exam fees. That alone gave me motivation to succeed, and I learned in the process. With college? Partial scholarships are nearly worthless. I'm sorry; it's just my opinion.
I have a plan to do something with my CDL eventually. When I feel that I'm ready, I'll upgrade the license and drive bigger vehicles for more money. Driving to new places has always interested me, and I do love me some road trips in general. It won't be right away, but I'll make the big bucks soon.
One of the things I liked about high school were the friends I saw every day. Sure, there was some drama between others every now and then, but our high school was sort of small in 2018 - just over 1,000 students. You knew where every class was; the environment was better and smaller than most as the school came into existence just over ten years prior; and the teachers cared about you in a way. Some students didn't like me, but I never tried to bother them if I knew that. I suffer from social anxiety, and it felt good that all the students knew me by name, even if they never actually knew me on a more personal level. It may not have seemed like it at times, but we were all local, and you could hang out with anyone if you wanted to. There's many students in my graduating class I'd love to meet again, but a lot went their separate ways, never to return to my hometown again.
Then came post-graduation. I could never decide which school I wanted to go to. I remember there being a time during my junior year where you could submit SAT scores to four schools of your choice for free, and I randomly picked them all as I had no clue where I wanted to go. My SAT score wasn't bad - it was above average, but not incredibly amazing either. Being from the state of Michigan, it was good enough to attend Michigan State, but not good enough for the University of Michigan. Going to UofM would've been nice, but I'm too dumb to attend apparently, and State was a bit too far away for my liking. My decision wouldn't come until after graduation - I wound up going to a community college, and even that was a last minute decision as I still had no idea where to go. I signed up for one class, just as a test run to see how I would fare. Being a resident, it was under $1,000.
For me only attending a single class, this "test run" was moderately unsuccessful. There was a good mix of students my age and people in their 30's-50's, which I didn't understand at first. Of course, with me not knowing anyone, I never had small talk with any classmates; not even for group assignments. I could even recall being distraught from the change of instruction and pace compared to high school, becoming so bad to the point of me refusing to contribute to groups and my teacher having to give me one-on-one talks about my poor attitude. It was quite embarrassing. Nonetheless, I ended up passing, and signed up for a few more classes the next semester. These all went by much better, though I still didn't put in 100% effort sometimes. I attribute that to better classmates and teachers, alongside me understanding the content and having interest in hands-on stuff several times. You could even rent equipment for free, as these were video production classes. That was something I appreciated. By far, this was my best semester of college classes.
One day, I started having thoughts that I could transfer to a nearby university in hopes that I could do much better. This community college was actually starting to become alright, but I wanted more. Getting a certificate would be good, but an associate's or bachelor's would be even better. Being turned off from the requirements for an associate's at the community college, I made the executive decision to transfer to a university, taking two final summer classes to get some extra credits before making the switch. One was a math class, and the other was an English writing class. I passed the English class, though did not like the fact that I was required to go to the "writing room" to get my papers checked for errors and do grammar exercises. Mind you that this was NOT optional; I had to go there every time I wrote a paper before turning it in. I appreciate them trying to help, but I didn't need it. It must have worked if the corrections they spotted caused me to get better grades, so I'll take it. Going to the class itself was always a treat, as I would occasionally see a popular female student from my old high school pass by me. She would actually stop and chat with me sometimes. If not, she'd wave to me every day she saw me. That gave me a boost of motivation to do well, despite her being in a completely different class there and university during the regular school year.
As for the math class, it was pre-calculus. I failed it previously when I went to high school, but that was mainly because I slacked off a ton and lost track of what we were doing after a while. I made an effort to try and pass again - even hiring a tutor - but for whatever reason, I failed again. Was it the teacher? The tutor getting confused on some problems? The way they made me take the tests? I'll never know. I will mention that the teacher wasn't all that great, the tutor was only available sometimes, and they made you schedule your tests in a separate room with restrictions. Nonetheless, I never took another math class again.
So, here's the "fun" part. University life for the 2019-2020 school year. I already made some choices before the year even began that I'd later regret. To sum some of it up:
- I wanted to be in a dorm, even though it was a 30 minute drive from my house. The problem? I value privacy greatly, and wanted to get away from my parents and sister for a bit. They had single beds available, but at a much higher extra price. I bit the bullet and went with it as I didn't want to compromise. As I was on a floor full of other transfer students, they made us do group activities that were REQUIRED.
- Rule #1 when it comes to telling me what to do: If I see that there's no incentive or value to have me do something, I don't want to do it. I work a lot because I want to get paid. I take classes and do the assignments because I want to pass. So tell me what the value is in attending these activities and why there's a punishment if I don't attend? What if I want to work on assignments or play on my PS4 with my friends who I already know? Makes no sense, really.
- The worst part of it? One of these so-called "activities" were monthly one-on-one meetings with the dorm leader that lasts for an hour. I'm sorry, but forced social interactions where you can get punished for not showing up is not a solution to my anxiety.
- In regards to the dorm, there were times when students outside would be loud late at night, and I had to leave the window open as my room would be hot and I needed air. I'm a light sleeper, and if I don't get proper sleep, I'm cranky the next morning. It didn't help that the area around the university had a nasty crime rate, and I was even recommended not leave the dorm at night if possible.
- I signed up for a food plan (that you had to pay for, of course) that let you have up to 3 meals a day. The problem with that, however, is that the food you would get was very crappy and the portions were small. Want more food? Too bad, you had to pay. The food they had in the student center was miles better, though it cost a lot more and didn't count toward the plan. I ended up only going to the food court around three times. Every other time, I went to the student center. Big waste of money.
- A big reason I decided to go there was to be with a few former high school friends who also attended the school. Unfortunately, it ended up being a waste of time as they were all too busy to hang out with me, sometimes not even acknowledging my texts. Weirdly enough, I actually encountered another old friend from high school that I forgot about, and they actually had an interest in wanting to hang out with me. However, I had already begun the dropout process when I encountered them, so it was too late to change my mind at that point.
So, you're probably wondering: Why not join a club and see if you can make new friends? Well, I'm going to admit, nothing being offered by the university itself gave me any interest. Besides, you had to commit yourself to attend meetings, and of course, pay an unnecessarily large amount of money to attend. At that point, I was much more willing to work shifts at the job I already knew well, having to reduce my availability after committing to the university which I didn't want to do. I was heading on a downward spiral, and it eventually reached a boiling point to where I couldn't take all these changes anymore. Everything was taking a toll on my mental health, and that's never good. I wanted out.
So, in a fit of rage, I came to my parents and told them that I wanted to drop out. Thankfully, my parents fully understood that my mental health was on a major decline, and after the semester ended, I went to resident housing, and told them that I'm leaving ASAP. I cleaned out my dorm, told my dorm leader that I was leaving without showing any emotion, and was out of there before the next semester began. Thank god. It was also perfect timing, as it was the beginning of 2020 - the beginning of a dark era for everyone. Ever since those events happened, I never returned to another university again, despite me originally having a plan to take a gap year and go back to the community college afterward. It's my own personal decision, as I have way too many gripes about colleges these days. My total loan for the university ended up being over $13k, and I'm still paying it off to this day. Biggest waste of money ever. I've never been able to build a savings account since then to move out of my parents house, and that truly sucks.
Ironically, due to said events, my anxiety reached all-time high levels, and I've become a more sensitive person because of them. Lots of classes became online-only, and I don't do online-only classes. I want to see people in person and do things hands-on. I'm currently 24 years old, and I now consider going back to be too late at my age. It's funny when I bring up the fact that my CDL license training done by my employer paid me; I learned many things about stuff in commercial vehicles, mostly school buses, and did many things hands-on. They even paid for my license and exam fees. That alone gave me motivation to succeed, and I learned in the process. With college? Partial scholarships are nearly worthless. I'm sorry; it's just my opinion.
I have a plan to do something with my CDL eventually. When I feel that I'm ready, I'll upgrade the license and drive bigger vehicles for more money. Driving to new places has always interested me, and I do love me some road trips in general. It won't be right away, but I'll make the big bucks soon.
NOTE: This is not a high school discussion thread. You can mention your experiences in comparison to college, but don't solely discuss it.
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