College choices

[Vintagebikelover24]

I'm now a junior and really need to start narrowing down my college choices! I am looking at Elon and Malone University right now. Anyone know anything bout them? And does anyone have any preferences on a good college. I want to major in business. So any and all help is appreciated! And please no schools that cost $35,000 or more lol. I'm going to have to get student loans and apply for all scholarships that I'm able to.

But which college did you go to? How did you like it? I just wanna get a better understanding of what I should be looking for

 

[MIGZ]

Texas A&M , great school in an great state. Being an aggie automatically gives you a pretty nice professional network. To top things off the economy in the state of texas has held up pretty well compared to the rest of the country. That means jobs.

School with great tradition.

 

[scrumblero]

I hopped around community colleges until I went to cal state Hayward for my last year..

 

[jerrykr]

+1 on Community Colleges.

Once you decide which 4 year college you will go to, talk to councilors at the 4 year college and the Community college.

Take all the "basics" at the Community college for the first 2 years. Much cheaper, and most always better courses, more in tune to the individual.

Then transfer to the 4 year and concentrate on the courses for your major field.

Just make sure that the councilors agree that any courses that you take that the Community college will transfer to the 4 year college.

Chances are that you can live at home the first 2 years and save a TON of money.

 

[Vintagebikelover24]

@MIGZ I love Texas! Lol I want to move there when I'm older. And a family friend of ours went to Texas A&M and loved it! So that's always a possibility. But I think I want a smaller school personally. Any small schools in Texas worth looking at?

@Scrumblero and jerrykr, my sister is doing that now. She's at the local community college and taking the basics. The thing is I don't wanna go to the local school. I want to get away from home when I go to school. But community college is definitely on my list, towards the bottom, but on my list lol

 

[Rockit!]

I've heard good things about Elon, I'm just an Hour or so away. The campus is really beautiful.

I highly recommend Davidson (where I work) IF you can get in......they are one of the most selective colleges in the nation. However, they have a trust set up that will cover your entire financial needs, meaning no loans for you! Even though it's a 40k+ a year school :wink:

 

[Vintagebikelover24]

I've heard good things about Elon, I'm just an Hour or so away. The campus is really beautiful.

I highly recommend Davidson (where I work) IF you can get in......they are one of the most selective colleges in the nation. However, they have a trust set up that will cover your entire financial needs, meaning no loans for you! Even though it's a 40k+ a year school :wink:

I'll have to look into Davidson! I haven't taken my SATs yet. But my PSAT score was a 1400. I want to get a score of 1600-1800 when I actually take it. But I'll look into it! Sounds like a great opportunity

 

[DougTimme]

Try this http://www.ctcl.org/ There is a lot of good info on finding a school that suits your learning style. They have schools that they reccomend, but you can apply the principles to any school search. I went to a seminar they put on, and they raised many good points that we did not consider when my son was choosing his school. They are non profit and are not selling anything.

Doug

 

[Spokeshave]

I'm now a junior and really need to start narrowing down my college choices! I am looking at Elon and Malone University right now. Anyone know anything bout them? And does anyone have any preferences on a good college. I want to major in business. So any and all help is appreciated! And please no schools that cost $35,000 or more lol. I'm going to have to get student loans and apply for all scholarships that I'm able to.

But which college did you go to? How did you like it? I just wanna get a better understanding of what I should be looking for

Can you afford to go away or want to stay local and commute? Kind of limits your choices a bit.
My wife went away to college at Ohio State. I stayed local as my finances and home situation limited my choices.
Good luck in whatever school you choose.

 

[Vintagebikelover24]

Well it's the end of my Junior year now! I took my SATs a few weeks ago and the scores will be in next week! In the meantime I've gotten interested in a few more schools. One is the University of Mary Washington. I've never even heard of the school until my baseball coach handed me a letter I recieved from them saying they were interested in me for baseball! anyways that's in Fredericksburg, VA. It's everything I'm looking for, smaller school far enough away from home, down south! Lol another school is Washington University in St. Louis. Looks like a beautiful campus, it's just outside of the city but close enough for the night life and going to watch the Cardinals play. I've got a lot of narrowing down to do this summer...hopefully I can do it!

Once again, has anyone heard about any of these schools? Any good things to tell me about the area where they are located? I want a nice area to go to school too lol

 

[Rockit!]

I'm pretty sure Mary Washington has a dope digital fabrication facility........3D printers galore!

 

[Vintagebikelover24]

I'm pretty sure Mary Washington has a dope digital fabrication facility........3D printers galore!

Well I'm going for Business Administration lol and I'm going to be applying to Davidson too! Gonna try out my luck

 

[jerrykr]

Start using your Bus Admin mindset RIGHT NOW!
Do Not run up $100K plus debt and expect to graduate, get that high pay job, and pay if off in a couple of years.
It most likely won't happen that way. Listen to the NPR news reports, they are all too common in this environment.
Your competition for employment will be from across the globe, not just here in the USA.
My own son is 2 years out with a great degree and no job, living back at home.
Guess who gets to pay his monthly payments? I'm not complaining, I'm just saying!
Set realistic financial goals.

Take some time and talk to every working college graduate you can find. The older and more experienced in life the better.
I'd be willing to bet that 85%+ of them will tell you that their life career went off in a totally different direction than anything they studied for in college, or even imagined.
I know mine did. Even 40 years ago, the world was changing so fast that what I studied in college was antiquated by the time I went job hunting.
Today, the rate of change has accelerated far beyond anything I experienced in my early career.

Bottom line for you:
Enjoy your college time, be happy in life.
Get A Degree, even if it's in underwater basket weaving.
Long term, you will remember specific moments in your life and career where the degree opened a door for your that would not have happened without it.
I sincerely wish you all the best.
.

 

[Rockit!]

Great advice from jerrykr.

Always remember what Conan O'Brien said......"Work really hard, always be kind, and amazing things will happen."

 

[Vintagebikelover24]

Alright, I got my SAT score back...it's not really what I was aiming for. I'll be taking it again in October! Anyways I scored a 1520. That's not a bad score and it can get me into quite a few schools but I'm aiming for a 1600.

 

[jerrykr]

Isn't 1600 the top score? 1520 has got to put you in a pretty exclusive percentile bracket. WTG!

 

[Rockit!]

It used to be 1600 back when we took it. Can't remember what it is now, I think around 2000. My old score makes me look like a doofus now :roll:

 

[Bicycle808]

This is 2013, and the rules have changed. Changed quite a while back, really. Personally, I wouldn't recommend that ANYone goes to college until they have a definite plan that is based on reality. A degree in "underwater basket-weaving" will never get you a job, and when you're applying for jobs in an unrelated field, that kind of non-sequitur degree is actually a liability.

VintageBikeLover24, you've picked a prospective major, and that's a good start, but what will you do with a Bus.Admin degree after you graduate? If you have some solid business connections already, that's a good degree to have. If you don't.... well, not so much. You *might* make the necessary connections at school, but again, this is 2013. The US economy is faltering; you can't count on making the kind of connections folks used to make in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. It's definitely possible, but it's far from bankable.

I have an advanced degree, and I feel blessed just to have a job that pays all the bills, including the danged student loans. If I could do it all over again, I'd have never touched a single loan... and I might not even have gone to college. Learning a trade seems like the better route, these days. All my siblings have good degrees, a few of us have/are working towards our Master's, but my bro Jeff is the only one making 6figures. Jeff had to leave college after his freshman year; he became a welder, got really good at it, and now he makes more than the rest of us (admittedly, he works a lot of O/T.) Just something to think about. The older generations are still passing out some advice that is no longer relevant. Go to college, get a BA, and buy a house? That describes a surefire way to start a collection of money-pits.

My advice, in a nutshell? Develop a really good plan before you start planning out details like "which school".

 

[Vintagebikelover24]

Bicycle 808...I've done some research on what jobs I could get with a Business Administration degree. It's not 100% like you'd think! There are actually quite a few jobs out there for a MBA, which is what I plan to get. One of the schools that had personally contacted me, Washington University in St. Louis, has one of the leading Business programs. Students graduating with a MBA earn an average of $88,000+ a year right out of school. Now I know it's probably not in my favor to make nearly that much money right out of school but I've done some research; a MBA degree is looking to pan out. Plus I do have a few business connections which will most likely help in the long run :mrgreen:


@ jerrykr and Rockit! The highest score now is a 2400