5 College Myths Debunked - Part II

re: 5 College Myths Debunked - Part II

KatyCCRN — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 02:41:51 GMT

Very sound advice

re: 5 College Myths Debunked - Part II

Student — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 11:48:01 GMT

true.

ee/cs major student

avg. gpa for my major is 2.7

and most material for the class does not exist in the book

re: 5 College Myths Debunked - Part II

drowning — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 01:06:15 GMT

Really... read this...the truth hurts.

martynemko.com/articles/college-americas-most-overrated-product-abridged_id1235

re: 5 College Myths Debunked - Part II

Mr. Batch Process — Fri, 30 May 2008 13:14:06 GMT

Number four is potentially very dangerous advice.

True, most employees won't care what your grades are 10 years from now. However, if you are 3 years and 90 credits through an engineering program and suddenly need to transfer to another school, having a GPA of 2.4 is going to cause 90% of the accredited universities to deny you. It won't matter that you already own two patents, routinely perform community service, passed 90 credits of extremely difficult coursework and demonstrated that you could survive three years in what's basically a profession's hazing process. All the people with a GPA of 3.6, largely from majors like marketing and business, will be the ones that fill a lion's share of a school's transfer quota. Sure, you could appeal the admissions decision but is that something you really want to do as part of a standard application process? Forget about taking a couple easy classes too, you already have 90 credits and the weight of a few 4.0 courses won't change the big picture.

Grades do matter for certain things, be careful.

re: 5 College Myths Debunked - Part II

Lauren — Thu, 28 May 2009 00:17:44 GMT

Picking a major right away isn't required, but here is the best advice I can offer:

Take university required courses at the start of your college career - no matter what your major, these classes hold the key to that diploma. Also, taking these classes buy you more time in figuring out what really motivates and interests you, in fact, they may even help you decide upon a specific area of study.

Don't make the mistake I did - juggling a course load of half chemistry, half journalism classes in the first semester of my freshman year. Had I known that two years later I would become a Communication major, I would have spent my freshman year taking the required english, math, and foreign language requirements. As an incoming senior in college, I have 40 credits left until the proverbial commencement ceremony. BUT - get this: at least 15 of my remaining credits fall under university requirements. If I'd have known that those credits would have been such a large bump in the road towards graduation and the "real world", I would have spent my first couple years at university focusing on what THEY required of me, not polar opposite fields of study that I could have potentially turned into a major (does a news editor heart surgeon even exist?).

Bottom line - follow your bliss, but set goals. Do what you know you need to do first, unless you want to be on the 8-year super senior plan. Once you've done that, explore your interests, feel out different types of courses, and choose a major from there.