I’m holding about a 3.5-3.7 gpa right now at the city college and it’s time to start looking for where I want to go. My problem is that I don’t know where to start. I am a history major and after I get my B.A. I don’t know where I want to go. I might get my masters and teach or I may join the military, I have no clue.
I do know I want to go to a good school to where I have that option. I’m less concerned with where the school is located, I mostly care about them having a good program and a name. I’ve heard Texas A&M had a good history department, and I’m going to apply to Notre Dame. I probably won’t get in to the latter but it doesn’t hurt to try.
At what city college? You need to look very closely at what other schools will accept credit from yours, especially out-of-state schools. Many schools will simply not accept credits from other than major state schools. When I returned to school at UW Madison, they accepted some credits from the state community college (because by law they have to) and they accepted 20 year old credits from another Big 10, and no others. This despite the fact that the were “accredited” by one or another institution.
After my first year in junior college, I didn’t know where to transfer. I knew what I wanted to study but didn’t know how to find a college. I found a college counselor who knew how to match up my interests with colleges that “fit” me. It was a great service. I highly recommend you use the Google to search for these services, and pay for them. You’ll probably pay quite a bit, but it is money well spent.
There are so variables to consider that it is pretty much impossible for you to get decent advice from a message board, since we don’t know you very well. Questions you will have to answer include:
Where do you want to live, and where do you refuse to live?
How much money are you prepared to spend/go into debt?
Do you fit better in a small, liberal arts college or a large state university?
What kind of history are you interested in?
What extracurricular activities are you interested in?
Do you require an ROTC program on campus?
What are your test scores like?
You should start by answering these questions for yourself. You can also pick up a copy of the latest US News and World Report’s college rankings. Don’t take it as gospel, but as a guide to do research on colleges you find interesting. For example, look up their history departments and see if the professors teach the kind of history you are interested in.
One other piece of advice I give to everyone: study a hard language in college. Like Chinese or Arabic or something. I cannot adequately explain how rewarding it is, even if you aren’t a great language student (I wasn’t). You will look back someday and be really glad you did, even if your grades weren’t the best. There’s a lot of employers who’d take a 3.0 student who can speak Chinese over a 4.0 student who only speaks English, and both the military and academia are fields where language skills can be incredibly important.
Second this. My school will let you start as a junior if you transfer from one of the affilliated junior colleges (and you get admitted). So start by asking your current school which four-year colleges they’re affiliated with and then determine which has a strong program in history (and in particular, the history specialty you’re interested in).
The ones at the city college in SB are pretty friggin hot too. I’m engaged though, so not hot chicks will probably be a selling point for my girlie.
1: It doesn’t really matter to me where the school is located. I figure that as long as the school is worth it I can always move afterward.
2: I’m willing to go into a good amount of debt. I don’t want to, but if that what needs to happen, then so be it. Luckily I’ll still have a year under the new MGIB to help with costs.
3: I don’t know with that one.
4: I don’t know either, it changes so often.
5: None, as of yet.
6: It’d be nice, but it isn’t a requirement.
7: I haven’t taken the SATs or anything. I went directly into the Air Force after high school.
Oh, one thing I would like though is a pretty campus. Since I’m going to be spending a lot of time there I want to look at something nice.
Go to http://www.collegeboard.com/ . They have a great college matching program that allows you to search using all kinds of criteria, including things you haven’t even thought of yet. Once you narrow it down to some options, come back and ask about them and I am sure you’ll find dopers that have been there.
And take your SATs ASAP. It will give you a rough idea about your options.
I went to Oberlin College, just SW of Cleveland, Ohio, and loved it. Met my wife there, too. She was a history major, and I was a government major but a history minor. Oberlin is a small but very well-regarded college, with a great history department, a beautiful campus, a conservatory of music with lots of great free concerts, and lots of good-looking people of both sexes. It’s not cheap, but it’s worth every penny. And more Obies, adjusted for the size of the student body, go on to grad school than any other college, IIRC.
UCSB has an easy transfer program from SBCC and is certainly no slouch in the hot chick department. It’s actually hard to get in these days, so I wonder if the hotness factor has taken a hit recently.
I know Rand McNally is pretty sickened by the ridiculous cost of living here, so I figure UCSB is not an option. In any case, I hope he enjoyed his stay here.
Hard to get into does not hurt the hotness factor at all, IME: to get into a really competitive school these days you almost have to have been an athlete of some sort for 4 years and have other “leadership” experience. You also have to be impressive in an interview. That doesn’t mean you have to be hot to get into a good school, but the things they are looking for correlate with some sort of charisma.
The University of Florida has been really hard to get into for years and years and is crawling with elementary ed majors who could double as *Deal or No Deal *girls.
I would vote for The College of William & Mary. It’s a Virginia state school, and it’s located next to Colonial Williamsburg, so if you have a particular interest in early American history the facilities are bar none and they are also great in historical archaeology if that would be an adjunct to your studies. Even for out of state students the price is very reasonable.
It’s a very lovely campus, and with the significant military presence (lots of Navy folk based in Norfolk take classes there) people won’t find it strange or even notable that you were in the Air Force. It’s a mid-sized campus of about 7,000 total students, not overwhelming but you wont know every single person after a year either.
I’m bumping because the question is still relevant, especially because I am looking at colleges online as we speak.
More background: One of the things I am really looking for is a sense of “college,” if that makes any sense. I’m looking for something like Notre Dame, Texas A & M, or University of Oregon.
Some places I refuse to live are Arizona, Nevada, or California (I can’t transfer to a UC, as I am short 6 credits, or something like that).
I have applied to Quinnipiac University and St. John Fisher College.
I can’t get into Notre Dame, as I am short a math credit, Texas A & M is in Texas, and I’m trying to avoid the South, and I like U of Oregon, but I’m hoping to find something smaller.
I’m not sure what you mean by “college”. Is there some connection between Notre Dame, Texas A&M, and University of Oregon that I’m not seeing? I know people that went to all of those schools, and they aren’t necessarily similar types of people.
Never heard of the schools you applied to. Of course, I’m not a history student, but if you’re going for high name recognition, I don’t know how well you’re doing.
Why not take a class or two this summer at your CC so that you will have the math to possibly get into Notre Dame, and/or the six credits you need to get into a UC? Usually you can apply now and let the school know that you will be finishing the requirements over the summer. The only thing is your acceptance may be contingent on your completion of those classes, and thus you may get in later/have to register for classes later. The schools you are looking at, though, are all quite big so you would still have plenty of good classes to choose from.
Look at Baylor University (www.baylor.edu) The History department there is top-notch. The campus is beautiful, and the student enrollment is only about 15,000. It’s in Waco, TX, which is 90 minutes from Dallas and 90 minutes from Austin.
I didn’t explain that too well. What the schools have in common is they each have a high * esprit de corps* kind of thing. They are the Fighting Irish or the Aggies type of thing. All are really proud of their schools.
The problem with trying to get into Notre Dame after the summer is I won’t have enough time to plan the move. By then I’ll have a wife in tow so I can’t just up and decide where to move at the last minute. Were I single I’d do that in a heartbeat.
I can’t do that with the UCs because the deadline to apply was in November, and they won’t count upcoming summer to transfer. And they don’t take Spring transfers.
As one history major to another , don’t get into crippling debt getting your Bachelor’s. So many US grads come out of school owing ridiculous amounts of money, & that can become an enormous, life-changing burden. If money’s no issue, go wherever ya like & have a great time, but higher education costs keep skyrocketing, & student loans get alot of people in financial trouble they hadn’t anticipated when they signed up.
If you wanna go crazy on a big name grad school, fine, by that point you’ll have a better idea of what you want, & what you’ll be doing for work. But BAs are dime a dozen, no one really cares where you get yours from. You can get the college experience you want from a state school & still get a good education. Really depends on the classes you take & how hard you want to work. :smack:
Anyway, my two cents. Good luck!
Of the schools he’s applied to, I haven’t heard of St. John Fisher College, but in Connecticut at least, Quinnipiac University is well-known (and is getting better known nationally because it runs political polls). So if you’re planning to live in Connecticut, Quinnipiac is OK. And they’ve aggressively grown the school in recent years. It used to be Quinnipiac College and was primarily a commuter school. But they acquired a law school and have built dorms, a whole new campus and a Division I hockey program.
It’s not cheap, but it’s worth every penny. And more Obies, adjusted for the size of the student body, go on to grad school than any other college, IIRC.