College Dilemma.

[airman]

Okay. Talkin to the mother today about college. Realistically, the only university i want to go to is Clemson. They have the exact major i want, and an amazing program for it...mechanical engineering. Lots of my friends will be going there. Lots of parties/etc, etc. So, i like the idea of that.

 

But say i don't get in. I really don't feel like appying anywhere else as there aren't any colleges around my area within say, 200 miles that have a good program for the major i want. Sure, I can always transfer later, but here's the catch: my mom told me that if i didn't get into clemson, i'd obviously have to enroll at greenville tech. [technical school in my county]. it costs 5,000 a year. or semester. or something like that. south carolina has the education lottery scholarship. keep a 2.5gpa and you get 5,000 a year. so basically, i'd be going to college for the first year for little to nothing, minus food, housing, etc. so, instead of spending all that money on tuition [about 8 grand a semester after dorm, food plan, laptop/etc], they would spend that money on me. i.e. get me an apartment, give me cash, or a new car, etc etc.

 

so...have one hell of a freshman year [given i get in] at clemson with all my highschool buddies?

or have a mediocre year living in my own apartment making new friends and getting money from my parents ontop of my job i'd be able to keep while staying in town.

 

financially and logically, greenville tech would be my best choice for my first year. get 17 or 18 hours of my basic classes, etc, and then transfer [gville tech has a great transfer program] to clemson to finish out my college career.

 

but what do yall think?

[Vasto]

I would goto clemson (I actually have a friend looking there). Transferring can get messy. I also have a friend that opted to goto a college about 20 minutes from his house because of cost. Well, most of his friends are away in college partying and he is stuck living with all his brothers. He regrets his decision (unfortunately doesn't want to take out a student loan to goto school away from home either).

[Kash]

After reading your little post, there's only one real option:

 

Go to Clemson if you get in. If you don't, then go to the local school and then transfer the first chance you get.

 

Simply really.

[cold_snipe]

After reading your little post, there's only one real option:

 

Go to Clemson if you get in. If you don't, then go to the local school and then transfer the first chance you get.

 

Simply really.

, thats what you should do imo

[ClayMeow]

After reading your little post, there's only one real option:

 

Go to Clemson if you get in. If you don't, then go to the local school and then transfer the first chance you get.

 

Simply really.

Although, I'd say that having a lot of your high school friends is a negative, not a positive thing, so I wouldn't use that as a reason to go. You don't want to feel (or act) like you're still in hs when you're in college. College is a great experience and you shouldn't you should see it as a new stage of your life. It's great to keep in contact with your hs buddies and hang out on breaks, but go out and meet new people and experience real college life.

[Kash]

Although, I'd say that having a lot of your high school friends is a negative, not a positive thing, so I wouldn't use that as a reason to go. You don't want to feel (or act) like you're still in hs when you're in college. College is a great experience and you shouldn't you should see it as a new stage of your life. It's great to keep in contact with your hs buddies and hang out on breaks, but go out and meet new people and experience real college life.

 

That's definitely a good idea, but I find that even if you have a large number of friends from high school at college, you still manage to enjoy all aspects of college life. If you're living on campus, you will definitely meet new people. It's nice to have high school friends around first year to help you adjust, so that you don't feel too lonely (and you have to admit, you don't always get the best roommate). As the years go by, you either start to drift away from high school friends and hang out more with college buddies or you just integrate the two.

 

I had almost 20% of my graduating class go to the same college as I did, and I'll admit, it was nice having them to fall back on when in a new environment. As the years went on, I made new friends and now I only hang out with the closest of my high school friends (though ironically, none of them go to my college)

[Verran]

Although, I'd say that having a lot of your high school friends is a negative, not a positive thing, so I wouldn't use that as a reason to go. You don't want to feel (or act) like you're still in hs when you're in college. College is a great experience and you shouldn't you should see it as a new stage of your life. It's great to keep in contact with your hs buddies and hang out on breaks, but go out and meet new people and experience real college life.

I completely agree with Clay. That's a very smart point.

 

I went to college and made an entirely new group of friends, and it really helped me branch out. I know a lot of my old HS friends that have been hanging out with the same old HS gang for the last 10 years, and they're the exact same person they were when we left HS. It's just a question of whether or not you want to be "that guy". Moving away from your established friends is tough, but in the end, I bet you'd be very glad you did.

[UMTopSpinC7]

Although, I'd say that having a lot of your high school friends is a negative, not a positive thing, so I wouldn't use that as a reason to go. You don't want to feel (or act) like you're still in hs when you're in college. College is a great experience and you shouldn't you should see it as a new stage of your life. It's great to keep in contact with your hs buddies and hang out on breaks, but go out and meet new people and experience real college life.

 

I agree with that too. Part of the college experience is meeting new people and doing things you aren't familiar with. That being said, you can still do that even if you have your high school friends with you. You'll probably find out that you make better friends than the ones you had in high school.

[ClayMeow]

That being said, you can still do that even if you have your high school friends with you.

Yep, that's definitely true. What I was trying to say is that "all my friends are going there!" shouldn't have ANY influence on your decision on what school to attend.

[UMTopSpinC7]

Yep, that's definitely true. What I was trying to say is that "all my friends are going there!" shouldn't have ANY influence on your decision on what school to attend.

Agreed. I remember that it was pretty hard to not consider it when I was deciding though. However, going to a new place where I didn't know anyone worked out extremely well for me and I think it was a good choice.

[flareback]

Some very good points above.

 

- Don't choose where based on friends, you'll make more. I tend to do quite a bit with the people in my major. Mainly because we can talk about school and know what each other is talking about

 

- You mentioned parties. Don't go because of the parties. I've seen lots of people flunk out because all they did was party. I'm not saying you shouldn't, just don't make it something that guides your decision.

 

- Things to look at:

>Major (which you have it, Clemson has a good engineering program)

>Cost

 

I'd seriously look at transferring in from Greenville Tech. I went to Tri-County Tech (another local tech college for anyone wondering) and transferred into Clemson. See what classes you can transfer in that would count towards your major. If you can get enough to transfer it might be cheaper to transfer in. But if not many will transfer in than you'd be spending an extra year catching up. Example say your supposed to take Mechanical Engineering 101 your first semester but Tech doesn't have anything that would count as ME 101 then you'll spend an extra semester taking that because it's required before you can take any other courses in the major.

 

There are several things to think about it.

[ClayMeow]

- You mentioned parties. Don't go because of the parties. I've seen lots of people flunk out because all they did was party. I'm not saying you shouldn't, just don't make it something that guides your decision.

There's no point in choosing a school for partying because you can party at any school. Hell, I went to Cornell...Ivy League...not a school you'd think of when you think of partying, yet there were tons...hell, my last semester I must have partied 5 nights a week for the last two months

 

Example say your supposed to take Mechanical Engineering 101 your first semester but Tech doesn't have anything that would count as ME 101 then you'll spend an extra semester taking that because it's required before you can take any other courses in the major.

Definitely speak to someone to Clemson about the ease of transferring in and how transferring credits work. I've seen it both ways...I've known people that transferred flawlessly, and others that had to retake courses.