College life - How did yours go??

[Grandpa Frank]

We talk a lot here on needing a college degree to work in Japan(or not). I wonder how our member have done in college;what,where,when, etc. For those of you have not attended yet, do you have a favorite picked out you plan to attend.
I went to college here in Maine. I attended Casco Bay College for 1 year of business management and died of boredom(made dean's list,I don't know how). On weekends I worked as a security guard, so I decided to transfer to Law Enforcement Technology for more excitement. I went to Southern Maine Community College for 2 years and did pretty good, dean's list 3 out of 4 semesters. All my college was paid for by the GI bill and I lived home with my parents while I attended. While in the last year of the 2 year law enforcement class, I worked nights and weekends with the local police department in South Portland. I grew to dislike the idea of being a cop for 20 years or more, so dropped out of the LET class 3 weeks before it was finished. So, bottom line is I received NO degree in anything. I went into the family business for the next 20 years and then on to many other careers, all without needing a college degree.
How about you??

Uncle Frank

:?

 

[ArmandV]

I enjoyed college life, especially in junior college. I got involved in campus clubs and had a great time. Then, when I went to a 4-year university, I tapered off on the activities and worked to finish up in 3 years. I have an A.A. and B.A.

 

[justin]

I went to a community college back home in Spokane, Washington. At frist I was only working toward a A.A. degree, but I had no idea what my major was. I was very quiet at frist and didn't talk to anyone since I still had lingering doubts about people being different from the jerks at my high school. After I joined one of the college clubs I opened up to people and made a couple friends. That's where I met my best friend Ai and really took an interest in Japan. It was then I found my passion in life and transfered to a joint college to study Japanese and finish my A.A. degree. I was really happy learning Japanese and tutoring students with english (writen and spoken), but I always had trouble with numbers. . . I failed the same math class twice in a row. That's when I knew it was time for a break.

Did I enjoy college? You can bet the farm I did! Thanks to college I became a great speaker/leader. Some of the most important people I met in my life I met at college. Once I finish my culinary training and save some money I'll go back and complete my Japanese degree.

 

[sabro]

After 20 years, I'm still going to college. I have a BA, two MA's and a bunch of educational credentials. I enjoyed most of my classes, except the ones I had to take for the Education MA... I enjoyed meeting people and learning new things.

This summer I want to take some shop type classes at a Community College.

 

[A-chama]

I just started college this year and I'm really enjoying it I go to John Abbot College which is really pretty place~ and They have an anime club so I'm all set~

 

[kirei_na_me]

I flunked out! Well, kind of.

I went to Sweet Briar College here in VA, which is a very prominent and upscale private women's college. It was my mom's dream for me to go there, so I went. After being over-protected my entire life, I went wild. Smoked lots of weed, drank lots of alcohol, and eventually just stopped going to class. The dean and my mom pulled a lot of moves to try to get me to stay and turn it around, but it just didn't work. The dean even put me on house arrest after I avoided all of her phone calls for weeks. She was a character.

Anyway, I just wasn't ready for college right after graduating from high school. I didn't know about responsibility enough to make it on my own at that time. I was also rebelling against a control-freak mother who pushed me into going where she wanted me to go, not where I wanted to go.

That's how my college life went. After I left Sweet Briar, I came back to NC and went to community college for a year. There, I made perfect grades and had a perfect GPA. It was like going to high school! So easy.

Since I've been working as an aide in Special Ed., I've kind of found what I'm good at. I'm thinking about going back to school in the next year or so. I've found that I don't want to be in an aide role, I want to be in a teacher role. I come from a looooooooooooong line of teachers, and thought that I was the odd ball, but I don't think that's the case anymore.

 

[Index]

I've spent most of my life at school it seems. I have a Bachelor of Science (psych), Bachelor of Music (performance-guitar), Master of International Diplomacy and now I'm doing a PhD in international relations and diplomacy. The first degree was a blur, kind of like kirei's first stint, except for the last year and a half when I finally got it together. I didn't want to go on to be a psychologist so I decided to continue with school and do a music degree since music was something I'd done since the age of 6. That degree was a breeze, mainly because it was exactly what I wanted to do at the time and I had already picked up some academic tricks during my first degree. After a few years in Japan my interests changed, I no longer wanted to play music professionally or semi-professionally any more so I changed direction and went into diplomacy via a masters degree which was interesting and got me a job teaching at my university where I then picked up a scholarship to do a PhD (which is where I'm at now).

 

[Flashjeff]

Well, I never went to college, having enlisted in the Navy before graduating high school and leaving for boot camp a month after getting my diploma. Even though I did pretty well in my studies, I hated being in classrooms, it was all a hassle, so it was a wonder I managed a B-minus during my high school years.

When I was in 11th grade, counselors told me that I wanted to go college, I'd have to raise my average, but I had no interest in that, so going into the Navy was my way out. While my mother supported my decision to go into the Navy, I think she might've wanted me to go college since no one in my family had ever trod a campus.

In my idle hours, I wonder what life would've been like if I went college. I suspect it wouldn't have been a fraction as much fun, nor would I have gotten to journey to Japan if I hadn't joined the Navy, and that time spent in Nippon changed my life. So in the end, I'm kinda glad I never went to college, dopey as that sounds.

 

[ArmandV]

"Knowledge is good." - Emil Faber, Founder of Faber College.

 

[Pachipro]

I only went to college because I had no other choice. My enlistment in the military was up and they would not allow me to continue to extend my enlistment in order to stay in Japan as I had already done that twice.

Therefore, in order to stay in Japan, a country I had come to so much enjoy living in, I opted to attend college in Tokyo as that would give me at least four more years in Japan and it turned out to be the best four years of my life. I had more fun while in college than at anytime before or since and securing a degree in International Business/Economics enabled me to stay even longer as well as find employment back in the states. It also proved to me, one who hated school and never studied in high school that, if you apply yourself you can do anything.

Today, after working as an executive for 9 years at a Japanese company in the US and getting "burned out", I drive an 18-wheeler and a degree is not required for this type of employment. For that matter neither is a high school diploma, but it is something I so enjoy doing that I know I would probably be doing it anyway had I not gone to college or to Japan because it was one of my childhood dreams and I have been doing it for 9 years now. Thus my signature.

 

[Tsuyoiko]

I loved being at university and would go back in a shot if I could afford it. I went to my local university and lived at home with my parents, working in a supermarket at the weekend.

It wasn't really a choice for me - I had been told all my life that I would go. But even though I had no choice I still wanted to go!

I studied Mathematics and Philosophy: Maths because I was good at it and Philosophy because it interested me.

I found Maths tough at times but not as hard as A level (which I guess is like High School diploma). There was a lot of choices of modules to study, so I took Pure Maths: algebra, graph theory, discrete maths. My special subjects were matrix algebra and coding theory

I loved Philosophy. It came very easily to me, except for Sartre My specialism was Philosophy of Mind: mind-body dualism, artificial intelligence, materialism/physicalism. I still read about those subjects now.

I didn't get much involved with the social side. I got bad grades in my A levels because I spent too much time at the pub and I wasn't going to make that mistake again! I came out with a 2:1, but I did get a First in Philosophy. My Maths pulled it down a bit

University was the best four years of my life.

 

[Satorian]

Wow, Tsuyoiko, interesting choices. I especially dig the philosophy studies.
My novel deals with AI (Strong AI and distributed networking/critical mass/emergence theory to be exact) and has a general systemic theme to it, so my interests are pretty close to yours in that regard.

I am currently in my fifth year at university, studying law, and I hate it. The studies are worthless and didn't teach me anything practical beyond the first two semesters. Additionally I don't feel much of a connection to the people there who share none of my other interests in computer sciences, philosophy, literature (and literary theory and critique) and remotely linguistics, but want to show of their new cell phones and hand bags and brag about things that mean nothing to me.
I know I'm really far into it and wasted a lot of time on these studies with only two exams left before I could take the state examination, but I'm still thinking about quitting, because that's not where I want to see my life go.

 

[MRC1]

Just finished Graduate School. College life is ok, could be better if I did not work full time and go to school full time too. Going to undergraduate college was fun this is where I recieved an AAS in Graphic Art and BFA in Fine Arts. But in Graduate School I studied Public Management in the College of Public Administration for work which made college life just ok. My advice to younger people is get your education while you are young, if you can. But never give up on it either or have others discourage you.