Your college days

[Monkeyleg]

Rob87's post got me to thinking about my days in college and tech school.

Looking back, it was a mistake for me to have gone straight from high school to college, because I really didn't know what I wanted to do. My folks were paying for the college, and I wasted their money.

I got an apartment with two buddies of mine. IIRC, we paid under $100 a month for a three-bedroom apartment with a kitchen, bathroom, dining room and living room. Not bad, although it was a real rat hole, with broken windows, etc.

I earned my rent and food (and partying) money by writing vocational education textbooks. The assignments weren't regular, though, so the income was spotty. I remember one time when the only thing in the kitchen to eat for dinner was a can of sardines. Meat was a rarity; macaroni and cheese was a staple.

Eventually I realized that I really wasn't cut out for college, and that I still didn't know what career I wanted to pursue. So I just dropped out.

I continued writing textbooks until I got a regular job as a newspaper vending machine repairman at the Milwaukee Sentinel. If I had been eighteen when I had the job, it would have been okay. But it was embarassing for me at age 24 to be dressed in raggedy, dirty clothes working on a paper box in downtown Milwaukee, with lovely young women passing by with turned-up noses.

Maybe that gave me the motivation to find a direction. Dunno.

At any rate, I tried a night class in photography, and talked to professional photographers about the industry. When I realized I could make a living being a photographer, I decided to go to the local technical college.

My folks wouldn't pay for the school, so I paid for it. I worked 32 hours a week, usually a split 3rd/1st shift, and attended classes during the day. The newspaper box repair job paid $5.86 an hour, which was $2.61 more than minimum wage. That, combined with my now-wife's $4 an hour job, enabled us to rent a better apartment. Still, money was tight. Bounced checks were common.

The kitchen was my darkroom, and I often worked in there until midnight or later.

On the nights when I wasn't doing darkroom work, my wife wanted to go out. So, we'd hit the bars, sometimes until closing. And then I'd have to get up at 3 or 4 am to go to work. Made for some really interesting days.

But, in the end, it was worth it. If my folks hadn't turned off the money faucet, I probably wouldn't have been as motivated. But I came out of that school with what one instructor said was the best student portfolio he'd ever seen. And I had a very prosperous career for decades after.

So, how about you? What were your college/post-HS educational experiences like?

[cosine]

My college days...

Three weeks ago...

 

[member1313]

I'm glad something positive came out of my thread.

Do you do any black and white photography? I love that stuff.

[Standing Wolf]

I had three part-time jobs, more girl friends than a sane college kid would have dreamt of inflicting upon himself, and writerly ambitions.

I've just spent ten of the past 24 hours working on the Great American Novella.

Some people never learn.

[lee n. field]

Long ago and (sorta) far away.  I had no clue what I wanted to do for a living.  STill don't, really.  :-).

[Monkeyleg]

Rob, sure I still do black and white photograpy. I shoot the digital photo in RGB, and then the art director converts the file to grayscale.

It's too bad that photography buyers today have never seen the kind of image quality that was possible back then even with a 35mm camera. I have b&w prints with clarity and detail that even the most expensive digital cameras cannot produce.

[charby]

One thing I miss about my undergrad days was the ability to live on less than $300 a month. I also miss going duck hunting during the week, I used to go every Tuesday and Thursday morning during season and shooting in excess of a 100 ducks during the 60 day season. I never had class before 11am on those days and I could catch the late morning flight and still make it to class on time.  I also normally hunted one of the weekend mornings. When pheasant season started I did a lot of hunting from 2pm until 4:30 and head to work at 5pm.

I lived in a fraternity house and it was a 400 yd walk from my door step to the building I had most of my classes in. I worked about the same distance from my house also.

I miss lack of responsibility I had also, I paid my rent for the entire semester before school started so all I had to worry about was food, gas and beer money.

I could say I miss the women but all the women I knew in college couldn't hold a candle to my wife. It kind of crazy as some of them have met my wife at different gathering and they always email with in a week how cool she is and they see why I married her.

I do regret not joining the military out of High School, I did though work as a welder in a factory for about 18 months before I went to college. I also regret not taking advantage of ROTC when I transferred to a state university because at the time they were handing out scholarships like candy.

-C

[Bogie]

Leg, the problem is that the average press printing tech is within the range of digital... It's only when you go BIG that folks start to freak...

[mtnbkr]

Looking back, it was a mistake for me to have gone straight from high school to college, because I really didn't know what I wanted to do. My folks were paying for the college, and I wasted their money.

I kind of feel the same way.  I went straight from HS to college and entered an accelerated program leading to my MBA.  Had I been more honest with myself, I would have preferred to get a mechanical engineering degree.  I love mechanical stuff, love coming up with solutions to mechanical problems, etc.  Unfortunately, I was turned off from engineering when we lived in Richmond.  A neighbor was an engineer who got laid off and was working in a photography shop.  All of the whispers and discussions about the tight job market for engineers stuck in the back of my mind and I started my school career thinking that was a risky industry to get into.

Not that my BBA+MBA (minors in Marketing and Management) was a bad choice though...

I have spent most of my post college days working in the IT field.  While my current title is "Network Engineering Specialist", most of my work involves the commercial service I created for my company.  I saw a potential market in the project I was working at the time, convinced my manager it was a good idea to pursue it, did the modeling that showed we could be profitable with a minimal amount of customers, pitched it to our VP and away we went...

Six years later, we're solidly established in this project and actively taking customers away from our primary competitor.  I've certainly been able to use my degrees while growing this little service.

Chris

[grislyatoms]

I went with a plan to get an Associate's degree in order to make enough money I could:

1. Move out on my own
2. Keep all the bills paid
3. Have a little fun
4. Return to school for a Bachelor's degree

I accomplished all of those except for #4. Getting married and having a kid, then getting divorced and still having a kid deep-sixed that notion.

If I remember correctly, I had a Sunday afternoon off every couple of months going to school/working/studying. That was under Mom's roof, too.

I was broke all the time, but I remember those days very fondly. Despite it all, I had fun! Things were exciting and challenging.

Guess who's going back to school next fall?

[Tallpine]

it was a mistake for me to have gone straight from high school to college

That's one mistake I didn't make.  I waited 19 years - until I was 37.

I had a wife and two kids.

[Barbara]

My college days too me close to 15 years.

I had a kid to support so while I started at 18 and took a class or three as I went along, I didn't finish until after my divorce when I just pushed and went full time for a year.

My degree is in business but I would have preferred chemical engineering.

Actually, in a perfect world, I'd be an archaelogist.

[Monkeyleg]

Barbara, I didn't know that colleges offered majors in bitchiness. (Now waiting for the volcano to blow ).

[Barbara]

Pfft..that's a gift.

It can't be taught.. you either have it..or you don't.

Fortunately, I've been blessed. 

[DustinD]

At least they have her teaching something she is good at and has experience with.

Just kidding Barbara, and sorry to hear about your indoor pool and health troubles.

[AJ Dual]

So, how about you? What were your college/post-HS educational experiences like?

University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, commuting and living at home, and working part-time to pay for it. All my friends had left for elsewhere.

So it was boring and lonely and generaly disappointing. After three years I had about 1.5 years worth of credit and I quit. I found my way into IT, moved out, and just moved up into "career level" work and pay, which I've been doing ever since. So being independent, and "living my life", things got better in that respect.

Unfortunately, I don't like IT very much.

I feel that time between high-school and my early/mid twenties was where I was "off the track", and if it wasn't to be college, I should have been doing something else. Who I am now and what I do just seems sort of like a "default solution". I want to do something more rewarding and meaningful for a few years now, but I am at a complete loss as to what it is.

[The Rabbi]

I had the kind of education that other people can probably just dream about now.  I know thats true for my kids.
I went to an expensive private university.  My family paid the tab.  I did finish in 3 years so saved money.
It was an incredible time of exploration and personal growth, both emotionally and intellectually.  A lot of my later beliefs began forming then.  I was fortunate to have excellent professors who took an interest in their students, and fellow students who were interesting and were as intellectually excited as I was.
I didnt give a thought to earning a living.  I guess that was a downside.

I would never recommend that kind of education to anyone but I would never give up what I had.

[Euclidean]

The first time... 1999-2003.  Same problem as the OP.

I'm not really that smart, but at the time my parents, my schools, and everyone else tried to make me think I was.  I thought I was hot stuff because I was #35 in a class of 800 and had a 98.33 GPA and won a scholarship.

I made the huge mistake of being undeclared for a year and then majoring in the thing that interested me the most: mathematics.  While Godel's Incompleteness Theorem fascinates me to this day, the problem was I tried to make a major out of something that just should have been a hobby.  I was stupid, a bachelor's degree in a purely theoretical science may make for some interesting table conversations but the kinds of jobs it gets you suck.

I actually wasn't unhappy with my work in education, but the ugly nature of the industry reared its ugly head and I became more and more disenfranchised.  Then I got screwed over by the district I was working for, and resigned in disgust.  After a lot of soul searching I realized all I was really doing was stealing other people's money at that job anyway, and that education of non volunteers is utterly pointless.  I tried to do something else with the same degree and found out I basically majored in underwater basket weaving.  No one gives a damn if you can do triple integrals or find the determinant of an mxn matrix in the real world, and the truth is, I had to realize I'm really not that smart.  John Nash had accomplished so much more by my age, there's no reason to continue that way.

I'm going back to college and I'm a much, much better student this time because I know what an opportunity it represents, and I'm not screwing around either.  I'm getting my MBA like I should have the first time.  And I feel a lot better about myself.

[Tallpine]

I forgot to mention that not only did I start college at age 37 with a wife and two kids, but I was also seriously and chronically ill - which was the reason for going back to school in the first place.

I started doing "work-study" 20 hrs/wk, but this was a real job at the local hospital, not an on-campus sit and do homework and answer the phone if you feel like it job.  That worked into an internship and I did the $6 million plus budget for the hospital two years in a row.  By my senior year, I already had my own accounting service business running out of our home.

On top of all that, I somehow got myself roped into a bunch a volunteer stuff.  I ended up on the board of two non-profit entities (one of which was a start-up, and I did the 501(c)(3) process too).

Through all that (and being sick the whole time) I graduated with almost a 4.0 GPA (I got one A-  ).  I really don't know how I survived those four years 

Even now I am seriously allergic to volunteer work, though I am currently on the local VFD.  My health started improving a couple years after college, and really got better when we moved to Montana.

[roo_ster]

I did well in HS and jumped right into college.  I was better prepared, mindset-wise, than 90% of other college-bound HS students, but not 100%.  I had worked every summer since I was 12YO, mostly at hard labor jobs.  That gave me an appreciation for hard work and motivation to get a sheepskin worth something.

I started off at schools away from the folks, two years' worth.  I did pretty well, but when I finally decided on my major (physics), I realized that I could get that degree at a university local to my folks and save oodles of cash by moving in with the folks.  They offered to put me up & feed me, told me I was a knucklehead if I refused, and I saw their point.

If I could do it differently, I would have joined a frat and a lot of other organizations while in college.  It is not that I was a wallflower, but I felt I owed it to my folks to get out ASAP and I completed a double-major (physics & history) in 4.25 years.  I ground through college like it was a full-time job and completely discounted the "college experience."

I also would have joined the National Guard or Reserves while in and done ROTC.  ROTC and its associated education programs (see the law degree option and MD option) are a terrific deal for folks that are not ill-suited to military service.

------------

The advice I'll give my kids will be the following:

1. Join the NG or Reserves and go through initial training before your first semester of college. 

My boy could go into any, but I would recommend my daughter go into the Marines.  I have reasons I can go into, despite/because my Army experience.

We will understand if you are called up and our (mom & dad's) commitment to pay for tuition, room, board, books, fees, etc. for a bachelor-level degree at state-school prices will persist

2. Have at least one major that can get you a decent job.  We will not pay for a single major in something pretty much worthless (psych, soc, mass comm, pottery, etc.).  If you want that sort of major, you will get another that is useful, or it will be on your own dime.

3. Join social & other organizations, especially if you are not local to mom & dad, to include a local church.  Do this FAST, upon arrival.

4. If you have an athletic scholarship, go for it.

5. If you get a full ride scholarship, we will buy you a new car in lieu of paying for the bachelor-level degree.

[RevDisk]

So, how about you? What were your college/post-HS educational experiences like?

Joined the Army, went to college for a bit, got deployed, didn't go back.  I now have a career as a network administrator.  My company will pay for my college, so I plan on doing the online degree thing now.  I don't have the time to do anything aside from online.

College.  Eh.  I didn't like my CS classes, but some of my courses were very interesting.  I took one class every semester strictly because it interested me.  I was living with two good people.  Plenty of good friends.  A very nice lady friend.  I was poor, but I always managed to get by.  The last semester I attended was probably the longest period in which I was generally happy. 

I miss not having responsibilities.  Being free to pursue knowledge.  Being within walking distance to a wonderful library.  Meeting a variety of interesting people.  That said, I now have something different.  I'm accomplishing rather than just thinking or learning.  I can now afford nicer toys.   And best of all, I now have a goal I'm working towards.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

late 70's i was a moron
i had terrible gpa
but before i tanked gpa i sought and was granted an rotc scholarship based on my test scores. in a display of stupidity that astounds me to this day i descided to ditch full ride to boston college to run  a bar/restaurant for my alcoholic boss/mentor. at same time i married high school sweetheart. i attemted to attend the universirty of maryland while working 80 plus hours a week and playing married. i lasted 6 months.spent 28 years in foodservice before i became a wood butcher/contractor

[grampster]

Went off to Jr. College without a clue.  Thought about teaching or going into TV.
My JC had a TV curriculum that I was involved with.  In hindsight, maybe I should have followed up.  It might have led to something interesting as this was in 1962 and TV was just evolving.  Anywhoo, the following year I wound up being selected as one of the first five Police Cadets, a program developed by our local PD.  We may have actually been the very first of that type of program in the country.  We went to college full time and worked in the PD 20 hours a week learning all of the different agencies within the department.  It was a two year program and we were to be groomed to be the next generation of leaders in the department; thoroughly schooled and familiar with the whole job shebang.  I graduated with an Associates Degree in Police Administration and stuck around for 7 years. During that time I continued courses and was about 4 hours short of a BA degree in Police Admin. when I just sort of stopped going to school.  I was now married and had a son.  I needed to work a part time job to supplement the low PD pay in order to take care of my new family.

In the end, I wound up resigning and going into the insurance bidness where I stayed for the next 37 years.  I wouldn't trade those 7 years for anything, though.  It really opened my eyes about a lot of things, especially who I was.

[Balog]

Finished high school when I was 15. Well, kind of. I finished 10th grade. I was home schooled and just went until I was legally old enough to take the GED and start college.

Started off at a community college at 17. Part time school, full time job. Turned 18, moved out of the desolate nowhere my parents lived in. Boarding with my brother, working part time full time school. I'd never had to really study before; I generally picked the material up well enough during classroom time and homework to get A's. Even in Algebra, my most despised subject, I only reviewed my notes the night prior to mid term and final exams. That didn't work so well in college. I probably shouldn't have taken 200 level English Lit classes right off the bat. Course work was easy, but the volume of reading killed me.

Got married at 19 and stopped going to school. Enlisted in the grunts, went to Iraq, had health issues and got out early. Moved as far from the desert as possible, and here we are today.

I'm 24, making decent money driving a truck, and I still have no idea what to do with my life. I know I need to go back to school, and there are several things I'm interested in; but after the years of intellectual stagnation I have serious doubts about my ability to do it.

[grampster]

Balog,

     Just from my perspective as a 64 year old.  When it comes to work, you should find something that you enjoy.  Enjoying your work cannot be valued or stressed too much.  Going to school merely because it appears to be the "thing to do" may not be efficacious.  To me, formal education is worthwhile for only two reasons:  1.  It is required because of the profession you wish to pursue requires that you do so because laws and licensing require it.  ie: Medicine, law, etc.  2.  It's a good place to meet a wide variety of people that may be useful in later life.

One can be educated and immersed in the vagaries of life and work in many ways other than sitting in an institution mostly populated by arrogant, narrow minded leftist liberals.

I used to train folks in the insurance business and had to deprogram most business degreed college graduates who were chock full of theory and didn't have a clue about the real business world.  Mostly because their professors were people who couldn't cut it in the real world.

Note:  All due respect to the highly educated members of this board.