College Life (Help Needed)

i love how this has turned into a rush or not rush discussion. cham, just do what you want. it's your time, money and life. not people on the internets, most of whom aren't in your shoes nor have you met many, if any of them.

despite my avatar, im actually not a big frat fan. like the other poster said, ive made it 3 frat free years and don't feel ive missed out on anything personally. i have a few friends that are in our 2 ag type frats and they seem to think it's worth it. as for the others, from personal experience and observation, pfff, not for me. if it's something you think you'd like and would enjoy, go for it.


.... i just don't have any seersucker shorts or mesh trucker hats so i couldn't do it anyway

 

if hes bringing that hell ned a dozen or so

 

I typed your vs you're ONCE in my entire time here and im caught

well I'll just have to see what the deal-o is when i get there. More suggestions!

 

I dont know what kind of life you had growing up but I was pretty much sheltered and kept my head in books during high school. My first term at Ohio State and I lost my mind with partying/girls/drinking and nearly got kicked out. I was on academic probation immediately after that and it took A's and B's from that point on to get my overall GPA up to 2.7 or so after the initial debacle.

Find a major that interests you but also has marketability when you get out.

Trust academic administrators to get you through college but dont listen to them when they try to tell you what is best for your life. Their main goal in life is largely to keep you at the school. you are, after all, a customer and they are running a business. i wouldn't have any loans if you gave me a dollar every time I ran into a counselor who encouraged me to 'follow my passions' which usually coincided with 7+ years of higher education. I brought 32 quarter hours in (needed 162 to graduate) and got out in 4 years.

Buy your books online or get them from the library. Clemson might even have a library share program with other SC schools where they ship the books back and forth.

if your professor wants you to buy the 18th edition of Psychology 101 and it costs $95, buy the 17th edition for $2.50. many professors will write special chapters into the books just to get new editions released. i worked at a texbook store in college and at a used/rare bookstore before that so I know how the game works. (I did get a lot of numbers telling cute girls that they didn't have to buy the book to a specific class...boss didn't like that much though)

Boost your defenses and eat a lot of vitamin C or take airborne. Viruses spread like fire in the dorms.

Wrap it.

14% of all student loan money goes towards clothes, music, spring break and the bars. Take out what you need for college and get a part time job for the rest.

If you had a job in high school, find something similar on campus. most of the campus jobs will be minimum wage or a hair above it. I brought some experience into my job and managed to negotiate a whopping starting pay of $6.30/hr which was back when min wage was $5.15 and most of the store clerks made $5.50

I found value in taking interesting electives early. Those electives eventually got consolidated into a major by my department and so at the end of my sophomore year, I had my major class requirements completed. You might have a major picked out or in mind now but a few upper level electives in another field could cause you to change your mind. BS classes have their place but i found that the less i cared about a class, the worse i did and I did better at classes that I at least had to show up and study for.

Make the right friends. Many people in college fall off the wayside or dont finish. You dont want to move in later on with a loser or some guy who doesn't have his life or finances in order.

People might ask you where you're from but nobody cares where you went to HS, or how many state championships your football/track team won. i'd avoid wearing a letter jacket or HS class ring on campus

Schedule AS SOON as your window opens. There's nothing worse than a bad schedule.

Dont be averse to a Saturday class. Yes, i said it. It met one day a week for 10 weeks. I had classes Monday, Tuesday and Saturday and was done by Noon each day.

most profs will no-sho-proof their class. make sure you go to class or at least if you miss it, get the notes or find out what you missed. The syllabus is usually a guide but I know a lot of profs change it up to thwart people like myself who skipped a lot of classes.

Thats all I got for now but i'll come back if I can think of any more. College is a blast but you have to balance it with work and responsibility. The real reason you go is to get a job and hopefully put your major to use at some point down the road....

 

^^ this guy was, um, spot on. .. with everything. though he made it sound like a 2.7gpa wasn't a good thing

 

Just got mine up to a 3.01 over the summer

 

There is a bunch of good information here. From my college experience, I didn't drink my freshman year (wasn't for me). I rushed before school even started. Its what I wanted to do.

Don't be afraid to change your major. I changed mine before my Jr year and was still able to graduate in 4.5 years. Don't be afraid to go 5 years. I think the average is 5 years now days.

I've seen a bunch of people get either kicked out or decided to drop out due to the party scene. Remember work hard and it will pay off. If you're able to, don't drink during the week. Wait till the weekend to party.

 

Well I've followed most of the things you've said so far, I dont drink, I didnt buy a HS ring(stupid b/c college was right behind it), I Have 8AM classes pretty much everyday but i'll be done by 1M most of the time. I dont skip class lol regardless of how lame it may be, my summer course i took at Clemson was boring as hell, 6 hours a day sitting in a classroom hearing a dude lecture on and on about oil and other intresting things but hearing it for 6 hours killed my interest. My college bill is about 10,000$ a semester(freshman year) and i have 9,000$ in scholarships and about 2,000$ of that is loans, i need to take out another loan but i dont really mind having a 6,000$ loan over my head after my freshman year because like you said, college is about using my major to do something useful in life, I have a job back home, and i applied and hope to get another job at campus. I also just got a potential computer job back home so when i come home, it'll be just straight work really. I dont see the need to use borrowed money for playing around, thats stupid. Hopefully i can find the balance you mentioned, I just want to go out and make something with my life, not trying to be snobby but so much has been given to me even though i've been working a job since age 16, i want to go out and make something on my own, without anyone giving handouts.

 

sounds like you have a good head on your shoulders, keep that attitude and you'll do just fine

 

$2,000 per semester is about $4-5k/yr. If you can graduate with less than 25k in debt, you're doing damn good nowadays. That corresponds to about a $2-300 monthly payment once you get out into the real world.

Its tempting though to say, "Well, I'm gonna need this new ipad for class so I'm gonna take out a loan" or "I'll take out a little extra this semester to have some fun because I worked my ass off last semester"

I did it (to some extent) and i knew others who went bonkers with it.

All told, my school cost me $100k, 40 of which I financed and $60k paid with scholarships, work, etc.

I'm nearing the light at the end of the tunnel and paying about $500-$700/mo towards my loans with a year to go. Cant wait for it to be over. Sounds like you've got a good head on your shoulders and you'll do fine.

oh, and never stick it in crazy. Trust me.

 

I had a 3.6 in my major!

it takes a hell of a lot of A's to bring an F up to a 3.0 or something respectable....

 

My debt, if it continues at its current rate and i graduate in 4 years will be about 24K. I suspect that my debt should go down substantally as my scholarships enhance, giving me enough money to clear the "gap" left by the unenhanced version, I have a 05' tacoma dbl cab since the age of 16. Not many people can say that. Im grateful for whats been given and i dont think i'll go overboard, In the long run, im making more payments as a result. How long have you been paying off your 40K worth of debt(trying to get a feel for how long it'll take myself)?

Im picky, i just dont stick it in anyone

 

inviting a girl over to your dorm within the first month of school is the same thing as asking if she wants to bang...just saying.

 

and if any girls in your classes tell you that they want to meet up later and "study" within the first week of school....they dont wanna study.

well...in a way I guess you could say you would be studying anatomy.

 

^ the sad thing is i've already done that when i went to clemson for summer school 5 weeks ago :O



She was a good "study partner"

 

oh and keep your dorm as cold as possible...

sharing a twin bed gets hot as fuck....

when not sharing...sweatpants are your friend.

 

You're telling me nothing lol I bought one fan already, considering buying another. >_> hot= no bueno.

 

I graduated in 06 and have another year to go. I'd be done by now but I bought a 2011 Taco, put $5k down and have thrown another $8k or so towards it so I should have it and my student loans paid off in a year.

Like a dumbass, I also went a year after college of not paying bills, thinking it would all just go away somehow. I settled some delinquent credit card debt and caught my loans back up. My stupid tax is more than paid for.