…and I’m having a hard time figuring out where to start with all this. I never took my ACTs or SATs (well, during seventh grade, but I hardly think that’s going to cut it), never bothered to get information during high school about colleges, and now I’m totally clueless. For instance, I thought that the tuition per credit hour was charged each time you attended the class. Imagine my relief when I found out that was wrong.
I know what school I’d like to go to, but I’m not sure what classes to take since I still have no idea what I want to be “when I grow up”. I’m going to talk to an advisor at the school, but I don’t want them to know what an utter fool I am when I get there. So, if anyone has any suggestions for me I’d appreciate it.
Okay:
I work full time, 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. What’s a feasible number of classes to take during my first semester? Also, any suggestions on what those classes might be?
When do I have to declare a major? Can I just take basic classes (like lit and math) at first without declaring one?
Am I better off trying to pay for classes as I go, since I’m only going part-time to begin with, or getting a student loan to finance it all at once?
Please, someone tell me it’s nothing like high school.
God, I have a million more questions but I can’t think of a single one. Hmmm, wonder if there’s a College for Dummies I can read? If anyone ever needed a step-by-step-hold-your-hand-and-lead-you-through-enrollment book, it’s me. I feel like a total idiot.
The advisor should be able to answer most of those questions, like when you have to declare. At the school I went to, it had to be before you registered for the classes for your junior year, and I imagine it’s much the same at other schools, but the advisor will know for sure. Don’t be afraid to ask questions! It’s the only way you can find out what you need to know, and LOTS of people come in there not knowing what they’re doing. Start making a list of stuff you want to ask, since if you don’t write it down, you will inevitably forget something.
Since you’re working full time, I’d recommend only taking one class your first semester, since you don’t know yet how you’ll handle work and classes/homework. You will probably have classes you will have to take, unless it’s a groovy liberal arts college like mine, where there were no prerequisites.
Talk to the financial aid office about financing options. You may qualify for some aid, so ask. At the very least they will have FA advisors you can talk to about your options.
When it comes to the appropriate time to start thinking about a major, take classes in subjects you think you might like. That’s how I found my major. I decided to take a geology class because it sounded interesting, and I was hooked.
Disclaimer: I have no qualifications (besides having gone to college) which deem me proper to give any advice. In general, asking an advisor and/or consulting the college catalog is a very good thing.
Now, to begin…
For the first semester, you might try doing one class. In the future, it depends on family, work, travel, study styles, scheduling, etc. (Although I’ve heard it can get difficult taking more than 2-3 classes while working full time.) As for classes…
What you’ll hear a lot: it depends on the school. In my school, we didn’t have to declare a major until junior year (roughly 18 classes, or something like 54, 56 credit hours? I don’t remember specifically). Just a note though (applied to my school again, don’t know if it applied to others), if you want to do something such as Architecture, Engineering, or Music (and there are others), you may want to have that in mind now and start taking classes towards it as soon as you finish the most basic general courses, because those tend to be long programs with a lot of prerequisites. (Again, ask the advisor.)
Again, that really depends. There’s a lot of factors to take into account.
It’s not really like high school. On my campus, the first 4-6 weeks of school you’d run into freshmen who thought they were still in high school, but they learned quickly that they weren’t in high school anymore.
And asking questions is a good thing. I remember going off to college and wondering stuff like what a credit hour was, what final exams were (we didn’t have them in my high school), and the like.
Trust me. Listen to them, when they say take one course. You may be more than capable of working full-time and taking on a full course load, but I wouldn’t recomend it. Not you first time out. I finding out the hard way right now. I work 65-70 hrs, a week and I am taking 4 casses. Some days I just want to rip my hair out.
Honestly, it feels like highschool all over again, but that’s just me I guess. Young, hardbodied CO-EDs are a bit distracting. Hmmmmm…CO-EDs.