you're talking about Northwestern, right? You say you "suck at school" are you sure you can even get in? And if you "suck at school" what makes you think you'll be able to pursue a difficult degree you aren't even interested in other than cash you think you'll get from it because STEMmeme.

You'd honestly be much better served by doing your gen ed requirements at your local community college or a state school then transfer to NW if you're so dead set on getting a degree from there. The quality of the courses will realistically not be that different.

>>17009978
>mom wants me to get a good education

Is mom paying for it? If no, then you may as well bite the first bullet of adulthoood and tell her to fuck off.

>>17009978
Why private school?

If you don't dig school then you might work your way up with community college first, transfer later.

>>17009978
Unless you're expecting to make 150k a year post graduation it is NOT worth it. You will become a slave to the bank for the next 20 years of your life. Consider working for a year to live life and figure out what career you want, and to give yourself motivation about how much working a dead end sucks. You can also go to a cheaper school and pay 50k for your entire education and get an engineering job.

Take a 2 year degree at a community college first and see if you're motivated enough to do school.

>>17009978
As a former high school teacher, BS in com sci and Ex-Military (who had 47k in loans paid back):

No. It is not fucking worth the debt. If you can go with under 10k debt, you're golden but even then you have to be sure you have a job when you get out and that you can keep it.

I had a teaching job out of the gate but then certification fucked me because I wasn't a education major (hence no certification)

Despite them saying they were going to renew my provisional, they didn't. This isn't about be, but my point is; If it can go wrong, it will.

I'm not saying don't seek to better yourself through education, also college is fun as FUCK, but in the end it's more about who you know (how I got the teaching job + teaching trig in summer school while in college).

Going into debt to get an education is prescribing to the notion you know exactly what you'll want to do for at least the next 20 years, and WILL and CAN do it. You can fake the will, but it you can't find a job or get hurt, you're fucked by having a second mortgage for a piece of paper.

You can't resell that piece of paper outside of your services. Tread carefully.

>>17010100
Thanks a lot anon, I'll definitely have to keep anot eye out for what Im doing

>>17010056
Well shit

>>17010036
The thing is, Gen eds are a bitch.

>>17010022
I suck at it, but it's because I put sometimes very little effort. I CAN understand the material rather well, but sometimes dedication is not there, and honestly having a part time job makes things a bit more difficult.

48,000 per fucking year?! Are you insane?!

Do NOT take out loans for that much. Jesus Christ.

>>17009978
Why is college in USA so expensive? In my country you can choose between subsidised (we pay trough our taxes so it's "free") and private (you pay for it) universities and in other countries it costs but you don't have to sell a kidney to get a degree. I think they are sticking their middle finger up your asses and you let it happen for muh freedom.
In regards to your trouble, it's your life don't let mom influence you on this, the one who will break his ass working/studying and being enslaved by the bank is you, if you don't feel like to the hell with them.

>>17010036
>>17010075
There is zero guarantee that the 4 year school he transfers to will take any of his credits, let alone all.

If his goal is to avoid debt, he's better off going to a 4 year for 2 years and saying fuck it because he can always go back and finish.

I have my Bachelor's and I talk to friends all the time who try doing the community route and they're livid over the fact that their credits didn't transfer when the 2 year said they would. Colleges can lie to you and there's nothing you can do legally about it. they will go as far to tell vets they're completely eligible through law to get certain benefits only to have the vets find out later that they weren't and they blame it on the vet, not the person who has the job and act as a financial advisor especially for vets. They'll authorize a class, then go back on it, making the vet foot the bill when they would have never taken the class in the first place).

Hell, even if you call the 4 years scholl to verify if the credits will transfer, it doesn't matter because its the registrars office that determines if your credits are fulfilled for graduation, not the department.

I wish I were joking, but the department just igves them the list and if the school isn't on top of it (Protip; most registrar's offices are not), they're using a course list from years ago.


tl;dr: Here in the land of FREEDOM, Post-Secondary education is a big business and the more money you spend seeking a 'competitive' degree, the better it is for the school, and they will always blame you, not the advisor for any shortcomings, which most are because the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing (school doesn't have their shit together).

OP here guys, so taking in all of this advice, then this school isn't worth the fuckery of money I have to give.

So, what should I do? I don't want to work in a home Depot all my life like some of my co-workers.

And in all honesty, I'm scared shit less of the lack of direction in my life.

>>17010162
To be fair, the only thing we Americans could do is stop going to college, but teachers would feel bad for telling their students not to seek more education at all, not to mention lose their jobs.

"bettering yourself" is ingrained into the American culture and while I don't disagree with it, it's akin to sawing off your legs so you can get prosthetics and sprint faster (and runners with legblades do sprint faster than their au naturals variants)

Not going to college (or the military) is largely looked down upon after school, but going to school and getting 30-50k in debt is "normal" or "like paying off your first SUV".

I actually got told the second one by a father figure. The generation after the baby boomers is a bunch of fucking retards.

>>17010193
If you want to get a higher education, but aren't comfortable with the costs, attend community college.

You can at least visit and probably talk with counselors about transfer credits. You should also be able to ask whatever schools academic counselor about transfer credits so you don't waste time (and money).

>>17010193
Find a way?

A boy falls in love with a school. gifted with a Pell Grant-Ex Machina

Seriously though: Find an alternative school that doesn't charge a shit ton of money for what you want to do and get whatever scholarships there are that you can. Where you get your degree from is big for certain fields to get you through the door, but what you do once your feet hits the ground is even bigger. Where you get your degree from is usually not that important unless you get it from somewhere really skanky, and after you have job experience it doesn't fucking matter.

When I was doing engineering, I was talking to NASA engineers who went to Perdue and they were telling me how they felt lucky to get a D in some classes and left their grade as a D. These were Chief engineers too. Perdue is no bitch school, but they proved themselves after.

Prestige only means anything when you're fresh off the graduation podium, after that it's all you and where you went won't matter.

Having 15k versus 70k in loans will though. Go for 0 though, scholarships are great if you can keep them.

>>17010162
because OMG THAT'S SOCIALISM

>>17010213
>talk with counselors about transfer credits

Except they don't know what the fuck they're talking about and even if they do, the 4 year school can go back on their word at anytime. Counselors are not the say all end all of authority on credits for a degree, the registrar's office of the 4 year school is.

Community college gets posted like a meme here, but if you do 2 years there and then try to transfer to a 4 year, the frustration that comes with it is more likely to turn you off from it.

Why the fuck would a 4 year take all of your 2 year credits when it doesn't have to? That's more money for them. They can take 80% of them, give some bullshit, yet offical and legitimate sounding excuse as to why it won't transfer, and then they get an extra 2k out of you.

>>17010230
>>17010213
I should stick with community college for a longer period then?

File: 1415330522030.jpg (71 KB, 600x800) Image search: [Google]

71 KB, 600x800

>>17009978
Do you enjoy school work?
What is motivating you to do this? Your family being proud of you, the money, stable job prospects, carrier aspirations?

>>17010193
>Life direction
What are you looking for out of life?
What do you fantasize about doing?

>>17010243
You raise a point. It's up to the OP to investigate.

I live in Michigan there's legislation that improves the transferabillity of common core classes. I'm also taking a specific class schedule set up by the University I'm transferring to that fulfills the first 2 years of classes.

You are right that they can change, or require a better grade in the future

>>17010253
>>17010273

A challenge, something I can beat and as soon as I'm done with it, there's no consequences. Or very little after effect.

I just want something that can set me decently well in life and something I can be proud of.

>>17010248
>EE Degree
Wait, this changes everything.
Anon, do you WANT an EE degree? If you want to do anything with engineering, any time you spend at a 2 year school is largely a waste of time. I was taking Statics my freshman year of Mechanical Engineering, and by second year the ME and EE majors were taking MATLAB. Engineering accelerates quickly, and because of the work load: realistically most people don't go 15 or more credits, but maybe 12 and graduate in 5 years.

I think you need to figure out what you want to do before you start thinking about schools, but if you want to do engineering, take it from someone who has been there; A 2 year school's math courses, even if they're the same name, even if they take the credits, will have you far behind your peers who took the same courses at the 4 year you went to.

tl;dr: 2 year schools don't have "Physics for engineers" or "Calculus for Engineers", and they are indeed different and more in-depth where they need to be, so unless you don't want to do engineering, ignore all the people telling you 2 year schools are the way because you'll be another 4 years at the 4 year once you get there due to being behind. Hell any transfer, you're lucky to get half your credits.

>>17010297
>A challenge, something I can beat and as soon as I'm done with it, there's no consequences. Or very little after effect.
When you say challenge do you mean the academic/intellectual sort, physical or something else? What comes to mind?

Have you considered starting a small business? It be something material that you may take pride in and could also pay the bills.

>>17010290
that is good, i've just seen so many of my former (was a teacher) students, friends and even myself get screwed when it comes to "This class doesn't line up with our requirements" when transferring to a different school.

Hell, me and my best friend almost didn't walk because in the 4 years since we started the Com Sci program, they changed the course schedule more than a few times and the registrar's office didn't update their lists.

They had graduate level courses on the list for undergrad degrees. (Numerical Analysis II was a 500-level course, but their paperwork said they needed it. It wasn't offered at our school or the nearby ones either.)

Food for though: You need to have a college education to graduate, but the people who tell you that you can graduate, they do not.

>>17010308
Elaborate anon, so you're saying if I wanna do engineering I need to stick with this because a 2 year community college won't cut it?

>>17010318
Yeah intellectually, something a lot of people would like to succeed in but usually dont

>>17010359
In most cases: yes, a 2 year degree will not cut it. the main reason is that a 2 year school is largely for people who cannot afford by either time or money a 4 year school. This usually means parents or students that do not know what they want to do, in that assertion, most anons are right in telling you to go to a Community College.

The harsh truth of this is however, as you're likely already aware, Engineering is highly intensive. I got screwed while going to a 4 year because they only offered 2 years, and had to switch to com sci to get a degree (yes i'm the same anon that's been posting) The Engineering department at the school swore that they would have the full program with by the time I became a Junior and I believed them and even netted a NASA scholarship.

I had to take Specific Physics courses for engineers (Phys 1,2 and 3 for Engineers) and those courses were far beyond the common physics classes. If you took physical at a community college and tried to transfer it they'll likely laugh at you unless they have a very special arrangement. Being you want EE, it is usually the third physics course gets into electrodynamics.

Realistically you would need Diff EQ done by the time you were a junior too, and most community colleges don't teach that high, nor are their teachers that good. I say this as a former educator with more than a few years experience (as I went to a community college after the military, which was after teaching)

All i'm saying is that if you go to a community school and THEN a 4 year to finish engineering you will more than likely end up with far more debt than you would if you went straight to the 4 year.

I don't recommend debt at all, but if you want to do EE, there's not many other ways, at least not that I know of. I don't recommend the military either unless the military itself is something you want to do.

>>17010308
EE here. I went straight to a 4 year but I have friends who went CC first and did fine. Of course I don't think their education was as in-depth as mine but nobody in the real world cares.

The more important thing is, if you don't like school, you are not going to survive an EE program.