I'll start: I'm going to UMBC which stands for University of Maryland, Baltimore County. It is an honors university independent from the whole College Park ordeal which a lot of people confuse it with and think we are just a satellite campus. Overall campus life is great, it's a pretty technical school so there aren't many crazy frat parties as you would expect. Instead we usually have small parties for close friends that get out of hand. Sadly, a lot of people complain that the campus is dead and nobody is ever there on weekends which is totally not true and I feel like those people just don't try hard enough to engage in social life. Academically, its very rigorous. My roommate freshman and sophomore year transferred out to UMD and his GPA soared from a 2.5 to 3.75 and he claims that the professors at UMBC make things way too difficult for no reason. I've had many friends fail classes and have to switch to the five year plan, I do not know of a single CS student that has graduated in 4 years. As far as administration goes, I cannot stand it. Everything has a fee and takes far too long. I've had a friend who failed to transfer out because UMBC did not send out her transcript in time even though she gave them plenty of time to do so. Although the students here are very friendly I cannot stand the faculty especially the administration.
Wow, a bunch of smartskis here at hubski! Wonderful thread, I am enjoying reading everyone's educational journey and getting some inspiration from it. I am most likely older than everyone reading this. My second to youngest child started college this past fall, and with just one left at home (he's 15), I decided it was time for me to go to college, too. I never had the chance. I dropped out of school 30 years ago. So, I'm attending the local community college, just finished my first semester with a 4.0. I hope to transfer to UNM in a year, and major in history or Spanish. Going back to school at 47 has been fascinating, terrifying, and humbling in equal proportions. Most of my fellow students are as young as my children, and they treat me as if I were another teacher. I took Astronomy (ack! math! help!), Music Theory (easy!), US History (weird!) and an advanced Spanish class since I already speak and understand well but am not up on the reading/writing part of it. I'm glad I decided to jump into the deep water.
Rutgers! Finishing up my last semester as a PoliSci/African Area Studies/Arabic major. Love it here.
Awesome! Make sure you check out the Aresty research center. They have great year-long research opportunities for psych students to apply for.
I'm at North Central College out in Naperville majoring in Jazz Studies.
I'm currently in between my first and second semester of college after spending three years in the navy. I'm going to Nicholls State University studying Mass Comms.
I'd say go and join the navy. You get to do a lot more stuff there than in the Airforce. but I guess I'm a little biased.
Not the biggest fan of getting stuck on a ship/sub. That's why I liked the linguist opportunity so much since from what I understand it's mostly land-based desk work with some time on ships. Also my linguist friend suggested Navy since they are considered to have the best Intelligence branch out of all the forces. Sadly that fell through.
You could still be a CT! Being on a ship in the middle of the ocean is probably one of the best experiences of my life. You don't have to be on a submarine if you don't want to!
Just not that big into being on ships. I love seeing ships and knowing how they are made but being on one is a whole different story. As far as CT goes I'll look into it if the Air Force shabang falls through. Been trying to join past 5 months and they are just being assholes and leading me on.
I am a second year business major at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. I love it there. I recently joined a professional fraternity, and I feel that it is the best decision I have made in a while.
Delta Sigma Pi. Not to be confused with Delta Sigma Phi.
28 Years old, I started off going to Eastern Connecticut State University (ECSU) and after a year in their computer science program transfered to the University of Connecticut (UCONN). I have to say that it was a pretty big transition, ECSU definitely was easier to learn in alot of ways because; for instance the majority of the classes I took at UCONN, I changed major after a terrible orientation for computer science (the department head literally stood in front of us and told us to not even bother because they were so full it didn't matter if they failed half of us) so I did a dual degree in business and engineering called Management for Engineering and Manufacturing (MEM). In UCONN the majority of my classes were taught by teachers assistants, and it wasnt uncommon to be in a lecture hall with hundreds of students versus like 20 students at ECSU. The atmosphere at UCONN was very much more, official? It was as if it was normal for the student to have been marginalized and that the sheer volume of people and massiveness of the school had made it OK to sort of become an assembly line for people with degrees. In all my classes what I put into them was very much what I got out of them, there wasn't a lot of help and I quickly found that joining study groups with other students was going to be an important part of passing my classes. I definitely feel like going to UCONN gave me more pride as a student than going to ECSU, and the parties were insane there. If I had to recommend either school I would say that any extrovert would be well suited to UCONN as you'll quickly adapt to having so many people in your classes and easily make working relationships with other students. For my self I tend to be more of an introvert and I don't normally go outside of my normal routine to find people to partner with for help. The smaller class sizes and one on one time with the professors definitely would of helped me in ECSU and I think I could of graduated there much more quickly (4 years versus 5 and a half) versus UCONN, where I ended up retaking some of my engineering classes because I didn't join study groups quickly enough.
How is Oxford's mathematics program, if I may ask?
The Oxford mathematics course gives you massive amounts of flexibility as to what you wish to study after the first year. You'll usually study between 4 and 6 topics a term simultaneously. In terms of tuition, my average day has 2-3 hours of lectures and I work through about 10 problem sheets a fortnight. Classes do not exist as such, what we do have is an hour long tutorial with a professor or doctor (post-grad on some occasion)s who specializes in that area once a fortnight. The tutorials are usually 2 students to one tutor, and in later years 1 to 1 as you become more specialized. These tutorials consist of going over the work you've done on these problem sheets. EDIT: All the course notes and problem sheets can be found here: http://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/courses I'm not sure how much you know about the university of oxford in general, but I'll mention a few important things: The university itself consists of over 35 separate colleges, each with 150-700 students studying for degrees or doctorates (well, except for All Souls College, but they're something insane.) These colleges run semi-independently of of the university, The university sets the syllabus and exams and provides the lectures, but lodgings, tutorials and food are provided within each college.
I went to a little community college in Pennsylvania (Luzerne County Community College), where I earned a degree in Music Recording Technology. While I was there I made it a point to spend as much time in their studio as I could. The faculty was incredibly supportive and seemed to appreciate my enthusiasm, and I graduated with three albums' worth of engineering credits and several internship offers. I took every internship I could and used them to get to where I am now: working for a large music retailer, where I get to chat with my musical heroes on a daily basis (and make really, really good money for it). I loved every minute I spent there.
CSU. Online. Global campus program. That wasn't the plan, but I got a job I liked before I went away to college, so I never ended up going. I would recommend the program to anyone in the same situation who just feels they need a degree and wants it to actually mean something, rather than being from a degree mill. It's still not as rigorous or as informative as in-person classes, but much higher-quality than most online education, and I liked the focus on projects applicable to the student's career field. If I decide to get an advanced degree, I'll take night classes, though. I'm over the online education thing for now. They just haven't gotten it right as far as interaction with the class and professor yet.
I've looked into quite a few colleges, and given my grades and my family's income, anywhere. Of course though, I'm not a senior this year, and I still have time to decide where to go. I say MIT because of my interests in physics and technology, and the community there.
When you visit make sure to do some networking with at least one of the professors. Upper tier schools tend to admit students that they know rather than just looking at your transcript (since most people applying have great grades, SAT scores and lots of extra-curriculars)
Georgia Tech. Huge nerd culture and a great campus. Loving every second of it.
It had been my top pick from very early on in high school, so even though I'm out of state my parents let me go. I'm hoping that my future income outweighs my future debt.
I'm doing a degree in Electrical Engineering at Queen's University in Canada. Half-way through a year long internship placement then back for 8 months in september to finish up the degree. I've had a really positive experience so far, nice small city and a great community. It's going to be strange switching back to the student life after working for a year but I'm looking forward to having a bunch of money saved up from the job.
First year at University of Western Ontario for Economics (possibly HBA degree). So far it's been good but I feel disillusioned with institutions. I enjoyed high school, made friends, did well academically but I don't have that "high school spirit", I don't proudly rep my highschool. Same deal with University (Though I'm feeling a bit more academic challenge, which I'm enjoying). The party scene is great but the work load means you either party or you study, which is unfortunate. My residence has a national reputation for being crazy (It's called the Zoo, it's a main reason Western made Playboy's top 4 party schools) so they're cracking down on us. Couple that with expensive alcohol in Canada, stepped up police patrols in light of last years St. Patricks day Riot and they've really tying our hands when it comes to having those parties you tell your grandkids about. I've been looking at transfers to the US, does anyone here have experience with this?
Ah another Canadian here. I'm in my 3rd year at Queen's over in Kingston. The residences here are going through the same sort of thing after the Homecoming fiasco a few years ago (similar to Western St. Patties day riot last year). Do you feed like the crackdown is necessary or does it feel like they are treating everyone like children based on the actions of a few people?
I feel it's necessary, but that doesn't mean it's unfortunate. I can see why we have these rules on us, our floor has thousands of dollars in floor damage despite these rules and false fire alarms have been a huge problem for our building. So having real good parties becomes near impossible. I wouldn't mind, but due to the riot house parties also get shut down way to quickly. Even in all student neighborhoods where nobody complains they get busted up. So it's necessary but I feel like (as it's my first year at the infamous residence in this uni) that I've been cheated out of the experience But Queens has a little more going for it as Kingston is a bit more mature and it's right by the lake. If you're not partying in London there isn't a whole lot to do but hit the bars, and that's not really what the uni experience is supposed to be like, is it? What are you studying?
Yep that sounds like the general opinion i've heard from most Frosh I talked to last year. House parties don't get broken up here very often unless there are multiple noise complaints so it sucks that they are going after the off campus stuff too. I know I felt the same way going into first year, that college was going to be full of all these american pie-esque parties and the whole thing would be a crazy free for all with no authority outside of class. While there have been a few of those they don't make of the majority of my nights out. Looking back those crazy house parties were fun but not very memorable (and not just because of the beer). The most memorable parties I've been too here are small house parties with just our close friend group. We all know each other and we just have a great time without dealing with all the drama of bars and huge frat parties. So I guess what I'm saying is that even though right now you may feel cheated out of the "university experience", give it a year or two and I bet you'll have a much different idea of what that means. I'm studying Electrical Engineering, I'm taking a year off to do an internship at the moment but I'll be going back for my fourth year in September.
James Cook University in Cairns, Australia. We're not as prestigious as some of the other Australian universities, but this is where I want to live and work and do research.
I started with a Bachelor of Nursing Science (oftentimes I reflect upon the poor decisions I've made in my life) but I'm enrolling in a grad cert in research methods in the coming year with hopes of moving over into physiology and/or tropical disease research.
I wouldn't say I've figured anything out, but the realities of working in nursing are fantastic for making one aspire to more. I'm hoping that further study will help me find something I can sink my teeth into. What's yours?
Carnegie Mellon University for undergraduate. UPenn for graduate. CMU is great. I highly recommend. Professors are great and really care about the students. Facilities are great. Computer are great. Fastest internet connection ever. And very efficient administration as well as websites. We have internal p2p connections, misc market (like craigslist), a very visual and efficient website for looking up courses. No one ever uses the gym so its always empty for you. Plenty of Mac, Linux, and Window clusters. Free transportation, free museums. And produce graduates with highest paying jobs. I think its rated #1 in college with highest salary graduates. Courses are reasonably hard. As long as you attend class, do your homework, and study, you'll get a B and graduate in four years. Don't recommend ivy league schools at all. So overrated. I think the school spend more money on networking events and looking good to the public than anything else. The internet connection is horrible. The administration is horrible. The website is horrible. Not enough computers. The professors don't care and most of them are all living in NYC. So they vanish most days of the week.
I went to Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. It's a private, Jesuit liberal arts college with a prominent basketball team and good programs in CS, engineering, nursing, psych, natural sciences, theology, philosophy. I majored in Bio/Environmental Sci and got a job in the area at an environmental consulting firm. I loved almost everything about my education. You have to understand when you go to a liberal arts school that you're getting the full educational package. A lot of people complained about taking classes outside their majors, but I personally loved it. I think the broad exposure to different topics helped me to grow. If you're receptive to that kind of educational style, it's awesome.
Cornell University. I'm in the middle of my sophomore year. I'm a CS major in the College of Engineering. The great thing about Cornell is that while it has a large and respected engineering college, it has extensive programs in almost everything else, too. I'm minoring in Music. I plan to go to grad school once I graduate. I am afraid of getting sucked into an office job developing boring software for my entire life; I want to be able to effect change in something that I care about, and I want to explore the natural world. I hope that grad school will show me an opportunity to apply my CS background to work that can satisfy those desires.
Nice, I am a high school senior and have applied (Arts and Sciences, though) regular decision! How are you liking the weather so far? I feel obliged to ask since I live near Syracuse.
I'm from Cortland, so I'm liking it quite a lot! I'm really happy that it looks like we're finally going to get a good winter. I wish you luck with your application. What is your intended major? I am technically still in A&S; I applied into it, and after a couple semesters I decided I wanted to transfer to Engineering, but I wasn't able to until this month.
I hope to major in biology with a concentration in microbiology, possibly a German or physics minor. If I end up at Cornell, then I'll probably feel my way into a minor. (May be completely unexpected and out there) Ah, I assumed that you had come from some other non-snowy land where everything is warm and there is scarcely a snow plow nearby. So winter is just routine business for you. Regardless of where I go, it will be interesting to see how people react to the local weather.
I went to Grant MacEwan Community College (Before it became a University). I took a two-year Technical Theatre course that ended up not being my career choice. Whoops.
Studying management with concentrations in entrepreneurship/global management, maaybe a minor in russian, don't know yet, at Binghamton University in New York
I currently go to Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. The university has a relatively small sized campus and population, but I enjoy going there for these reasons. I am studying engineering and physics and average pretty much a 3.00 every semester. Only downside I can think of is that the tuition is pretty expensive, and so I am grading papers to allow myself some wiggle room in terms of spending cash.
I went to Arizona State University. Graduated in 2009 with a psychology degree. Teach math at an alternative high school.
My school is a credit recovery school with low enrollment so I have to be flexible. I work in the lab as well and tutor all levels. But I mostly direct teach state test prep, pre-algebra and algebra.
UCLan (University of Central Lancashire), in Preston, UK. I'm halfway through my degree, Broadcast Journalism. Absolutely fantastic university. Lecturers are smart and the general population are mostly friendly and helpful. City is a bit quiet at times but a thousand time more lively than where I'm originally from.
We don't have fraternities or sororities (not a big thing at all in the UK as far as I know and have experienced). We have a large sports department, lot's of societies for sports; the normal ones like rugby, football (soccer), American football, hockey etc, as well as some odd ones like Snow Sports (we have no snow here at all!) and skating for example.
I'm not too sure how our team does compared to the rest of the country (tried to find statistics but apparently they don't have them up), but I know they travel all around the North West doing competitions, and playing leagues. In terms of the play, I think it's more Rugby orientated than people in the US playing American Football, especially because many of the players are also rugby players. Also, they're not as beefy and buff as the college players in the US. Our British American Footballers are either fat and tall or athletic. Not really muscled up, although there are a few exceptions.
No problem! I wouldn't say it's popular per se. If stuff like Football (as in soccer) is in the "A Class" in terms of popularity in the university, American Football would probably be in the "B Class", alongside Rugby, Cricket etc. That said, there are a lot more American Football players at the university than soccer players, this is because it is a different experience they can barely get anywhere apart from uni, whereas most people play football with their mates round here.
It's a case of experience. My university us very "experience" based, and like to provide students with new experiences whenever possible. Seeing as Rugby is played regularly any who, and it taught in places such as secondary school (or high school), it's not really a "new experience" per se. American Football is something Uni students here can't really do anywhere else and hence is played by many for the experience.
Psych / Neuroscience freshman at Loyola University Chicago (LUC). The only major draw back is it is mandatory for freshman and sophomores to live on campus, which is incredibly expensive. But the buildings are modernized and the professors helpful.
Just graduated in May from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ with a degree in Computer Engineering.
It's great. I was lucky enough to find a job right out of college with the degree. The Stevens name still carries a huge following. What year was your class?
2011. Got hired on full time from my internship then got contacted by a recruiter a year later and got placed at my current job. The career resources that Stevens has is top notch, but I cant say the education was all that exceptional. Definitely taught me how to teach myself and learn quickly and efficiently though.
Thank you. It was quite a long road, but worth it.
I'm at Plymouth University in the UK. I'm going into the last year of my BA (Hons) degree. For the first two years I studied Music but for the last year I've specialised purely in Music Technology. It's a cool place it's been under a lot of development the last decade and is starting to establish itself as a really good university. I believe it was shortlisted as University of the Year in various areas as well as overall (It didn't win though). It's purely a campus uni, right in the middle of the city and it's quite nice. Some cool architecture and modern buildings juxtaposing some older ones. Nightlife is good if you're into stuff like bars full of drunk freshers playing awful music too loud. Though, there are some nicer places to go if you want a bit more a chilled night and the underground music scene isn't too bad either. Being in the city center also means quick access to shops and amenities. Overall it's a pretty good place, I've enjoyed my time their. I'm going into my final term now.
I went to UC-San Diego. From another Social Dead school (haha UCSD get it...), I feel your pain. Everyone is either an Engineer, Pre-Med, or in the hard sciences. Majors in Math and Biology. Of course, if you make the effort you can have a lot of fun but we definitely miss out on the group experience you get with athletics or a well developed Greek System.
I'm currently a sophomore Chemical Engineering/Physics major at Northeastern University in Boston. Great school, great city, great people.
I actually live on campus. I'm over on the Columbus Ave side. Are you off campus?
That's cool...I lived in 153 Hemenway last year. So far the only definite plans I have for co-op is that my first one starts in July and ends in December lol Beyond that I have no idea what I'll be doing or where I'll be doing it. Are you in class or on co-op?
I went to CSUN, which is a CalState school in the San Fernando Valley. Everyone's experience there seems to be different, but it's essentially a commuter school, so not many people dorm on campus. The majority of students there are basically all trying to get their degree while holding down a part-time job, meaning they don't like to hang around campus any longer than they absolutely need to. It kinda sucks, but it went by really fast and I got in and out in 4 years with an Econ degree. If I had to do it all over again, I'd probably go to a different school with a more traditiaonl college culture. EDIT:.....and probably study physics.
University of Southern Denmark, med school, got 1 year left. I'm Swedish and really like it here.
I'm working on a neuroscience/politics double major at Bates College in Lewiston, ME. Though the location isn't great (minus some spectacular Indian food locally), I love our campus. The school is fairly small, at ~2000 students, so you can get really close with your professors and have a lot of access to helping out with their research. As a senior next year, I'll also be writing two theses (one for each major) where I will work on independent research. I think the only thing I would change about Bates is their major + 2 system, because the clusters of classes (generally 4 per concentration) you have to choose from to take with your major don't always make a lot of sense. There might be a "law and society concentration" with politics and philosophy classes, for example, but no basic "politics". A year also isn't a very long time to expect us to be able to do a lot of coherent research. The teaching faculty is phenomenal, though, and our deans tend to be incredibly helpful. The student body seems really well-educated and you can hold an intelligent conversation with just about anyone there (though there's also an air of elitism about the student body).
B.S. at Southern Arkansas University. It's a small ag-related college. It was never on my list of go-to colleges but it's where I ended up. It's only challenging if you specifically aim to be challenged. I enjoyed my time there only because I sought and found amazing professors who pushed me to do my best.
I'm currently attending Santa Barbara City College. Despite it being a city college and despite the fact that I didn't choose it, I'm really glad I go there. The professors are there to teach at a CC as opposed to many other schools and since it's in beautiful southern California people really want to teach there, so we have great teachers. Also, it's super cheap.
I just started a one-year MA in anthropology at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, after completing my undergrad there. I love Maynooth. Campus life is great, and all of my friends are from Maynooth, since I dropped out of contact with all of my home friends (all of whom went to study in Galway). My closest friends left Maynooth after graduating last year, however, and I very rarely see them, which leaves me feeling rather lonely at times. Academically speaking, I'm a lazy underachiever and hate myself for it. I should be finishing an essay right now, but here I am on Hubski... My MA thesis is going to be on otherkin on Tumblr and other websites, and the ontological problems they pose (i.e. how we reconcile what they say about 'reality' with what we say about it).
BA and MA in Comm at Wazzu (Washington state)
PhD in Comm at MSU (Michigan state)
Professor of Comm at Albion College Bummer you don't like the faculty and administration. There are options for you if you think plowing through challenging circumstances isn't helpful, but oftentimes they are more helpful upon reflection. Before you make drastic change, try talking to some CS alumni (5 years out minimum) and see what they say. Good luck!
Not worth it to me since I don't plan on staying in Baltimore and nobody outside Baltimore knows what the hell UMBC is. I mean if you plan on working in the Baltimore/DC area I can see this being very advantageous. Most of my friends have internships and jobs for government contractors making $20+ an hour, but they still hate UMBC administration. Its a love/hate relationship.