[quote]Moon Knight wrote:
nycsoccax wrote:
LOL @ moon knight. I don’t think having a 1420 really means much these days but anyway…
Ditch the job. Last fall I worked an internship from 9-3 or 4 almost everyday and had class afterwards. Not to mention I didn’t get much sleep from living in a house of 5 other guys and had to wake up at 7:30 every morning.
Last spring semester I found a campus job that allowed me to work when I was free, with no set hours. I got a 3.93 GPA. It really makes all the difference, when you are stress free about work/school.
Well this was before the scoring system changed. I am sure there are plenty of people here that did as well or better.
It was just the simplest way for me to make my point that I wasted my potential.[/quote]
I had a 1380 and won a National Merit scholarship. 1420 was a great score before they messed it up.
[quote]Agnostic wrote:
I could get private loans but the interest rates on them right now are so high, once I got out of school I would be hard pressed just to be able to pay the interest… I will likely end up doing this further into my schooling when the demands get higher and the total time in debt will be less.
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Honestly, if you are using high interest rates as an excuse to work part-time so you can pay for college, thats sad. That also means you have no confidence in your academic ability to find a job with ease after college, which is mind boggling if you pulled a 4.0 (unless you goto CUNY, anybody there can get a 4.0).
I paid 12% on a $11,500 loan last year. A loan I took out freshman year of $11,200 for a semester now accumulated $4000 in interest since then (which was at around 8%). It sucks, I know. I’ll be going to graduate school next year at $50,000+ a year. Please stop whining about high interest rates.
[quote]Moon Knight wrote:
That’s really part of what went wrong the first time. I didn’t know why I was there. My parents weren’t paying for it but I didn’t have a goal or plan in mind. College was just the next step after high school that anyone that was not a loser took and somehow along the way you discover a career.
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I second etaco’s suggestion. Go to community college. Do a little research first; many universities have a list of what credits will transfer from which community colleges. So you have to plan ahead that they will accept your credits.
Many community colleges will cover math up to Calc III and DifEq, plus first and second levels of physics and chemistry. They usually have analog/digital circuit analysis and some other intro engineering courses.
If you maintain a 4.0 or near 4.0 going to CC part time, you will have a much easier time of getting into a state university, and you will also have an easier time getting financial aid.
If you follow that plan, you could be halfway through an engineering degree (well, maybe a third of the way) just from CC classes alone.
Computer science is no longer as lucrative as it used to be. Engineering is still doing reasonably well. If you are interested in a more or less fool-proof engineering/compsci job after college, with great benefits… PM me, and I will give you some information.
[quote]Agnostic wrote:
Thanks for the replies, I will likely be doing most all the advice given here… just some further into my future than others.
I am a bio/chem major and hope to end up with a PhD in decent enough time.
I am reluctant to drop my job for a number of reasons, I work in a private lab testing food products, which although not research… is still in a lab which will help me get into grad school. Another problem is I can not get enough government loans to cover my bills, I can get some but basically only enough to cover the actual classes.
I could get private loans but the interest rates on them right now are so high, once I got out of school I would be hard pressed just to be able to pay the interest… I will likely end up doing this further into my schooling when the demands get higher and the total time in debt will be less.
Last quarter I pulled a 4.0 with 16 credit hours on one 4 to 5 hour block of sleep a night, so I think it is something I can sustain… though I will likely sleep most the weekend away trying to heal my body and rid myself from that horrid coffee rot gut feeling.
koffea- did you use the choline cocktail w/ caffeine additive?
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Like atg410 said, two two hour blocks is not the same as a single four hour block. 4-5 hours a night five days a week is doable as you know, but it gets much harder if you can’t get a block of that length. If you want to try it out I’d suggest you have everything lined up to drop your job on a dime if it looks like you won’t be able to sustain your academic performance under the regime, given your aspirations. Remember, unless you’re a total freak, you probably won’t be running a negative split over the course of the term with this sleep schedule. Let us know how it goes.
[quote]Moon Knight wrote:
koffea wrote:
Moon Knight wrote:
Also, its a big question mark what I would go back and study. College is an investment in oneself, with the goal being to be able to make more money later on. I know there are other reasons for going but if you are financing it yourself then you need to be able to pay it off.
Most of my interests will not return much. I would love to study mathematics, history, languages (especially ancient languages), and philosophy. Psychology is about the only interest I have that might be able to be turned into a lucrative career. Computer science is an option too but that job market is pretty swamped I hear.
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for a guaranteed job w/out 4 yrs in college i’d suggest nursing school or a tech schoool.