College

im not in college yet, but i should have the money in about a year. till than im just working towards it

Its alright to bee honest you sound pretty amazing honestly.. Did you get your bachelors degree or just a cert?

I got bachelor, I'm actually foreigner in Germany and I come from non-eu country, so without at least bachelor I won't even get a working permit.

It sounds tougher over there then in the U.S. I got a grandmother living there,
and a working permit to work? Wow

I feel like I've learned many things at college - none of which are related to any goal I've set - because the reason I go to college is different than most people. The reason most people go to college is to either get a career or connections, or find relationships and enjoy life.

In my case, I go to college for one thing only - personal success.

And not success in careers, or in making friends - no, I just go so that I can have a 4.0 GPA and scholarships to play around with.

Being a college student IS my career. As long as I can work the system, and keep a high gpa (haven't lost my 4.0 after 3 years already), all the scholarships and grants I could want are at my fingertips - no pesky loans to pay back, no horse-shit job to be stuck with to try and pay for college.

As long as I succeed, I can have as much fun on the side with my extra cash from scholarships as I want. granted, I still have rent and utilities but that's approximately 1200 per month (taking into account my one bedroom apartment's rent of 875 and my electric, high-speed internet and phone), and it's really cheap for me to get bus fares I need (only 26 per month).

I make enough in just academic/pell grants that my net profits are approximately 800ish per month (because each 3-month quarter I'm left with about 2400, minus summer, in which I usually only get 550 (academic grant, no pell grant for me in summer since I use it over fall/winter/spring)

And that's not even counting the scholarships I earn each term, which is how I obtain spending money for things like buying swords/cosplay/dining out(mostly too lazy to cook at home, so I eat at Denny's mostly / Sharis sometimes also)

Granted, I don't make that huge paycheck of 5000 per month a lead game designer for a company like microsoft would make (my original plan), but I also don't have to worry about work - being a student and learning many things is fun, and also the money I get to play around with for being successful is pretty good too.

Jesus man I know you work hard for it but wow having all that and are you still going for a career at least? Maybe youll be able to have even more money when your done and have done but your a pretty hard working,smart,lucky bastard

one bedroom apartment plus utilities for 1200? wow that's kinda high, where do you live? I pay like 800€ (in total including internet 100mbits, cable tv, flat rate phone) for 2 bedroom apartment with balcony, and a tube in bathroom ( which I couldn't live without)

back to topic, once I considered to get a high degree, but thankfully I didn't do it. I have a brother he is also a software developer working for different company, last year they recruited a guy with a doctor title, yet once a while my brother is still mentoring him, because his knowledge of current tech isn't really up to the standard, and he like to take an easy way to approach a problem, rather than doing the proper thing. Their company use mostly java products, struts 1+2, GWT. I guess title doesn't really say anything about someone's capabilities to learn.

speaking mainly for computer science or engineering major, I fell like most colleges/unis are still teaching old fashioned stuff, the fundamentals are fine because they don't change for long time, but as for more advanced stuff they didn't really keep up with market standard, which is about to be expected, because there are always new thing, and we can't expect the profs to study all of them before they teach us. My programming prof was new to java and OOP when I started in college, and OOP was already considered as a standard for high level programming paradigm, because we simply can't manage codes for LOB application without OOP.

I still remember once we had a new guy, he is like over 50 years old with 20 years working experience as a software developer, but he was doing procedural programming mainly with delphi, so my chef arranged training course for newcomers like 2 days a week, sadly after 3 month they decided to let him go, because he couldn't really adapt to the tech which we are using.

I don't know what's its like in the states, but in Germany if you apply a job as a software dev, grades doesn't really matter at all, because during the interview or afterward we will be asked to do some test, connection also don't really matter. Getting a good grade without proper understanding won't get us far.

So for me college was like one stepping stone, even my current job is a stepping stone, I don't really want to work for someone else for the rest of my life. I have a relative in other city in Germany, he has his own automation company, they are developing software for micro controllers, I kinda envy him, it must feel so good to have everything under your own wings.

I believe college is an integral part of the part to success. Can't get a proper job without a degree (judging from the experiences of those around me). Besides the fact that college is a place where you can learn the necessary skills required for a high paying job, it's also a good place to meet new people. College friends can go a pretty long way in life if you ask me.

Speaking from personal opinion.

Meh, don't disagree that you learn a lot of social skills and you develop academically, but I went into college hoping to meet good people/make friends..... wasn't my luck apparently. Most of the people I was around were jackasses and the people I did come to like stabbed me in the back or they already had their "cliques". Sort of felt like it was a bigger version of highschool except with more sex and booze.

Did end up with a very nice boyfriend at the end of it all, but the friends part was still to be desired. Ended up with a good crew of friends on here as well as met some awesome people through my bf who are great to hang out with.

I guess to add this to the college thread I'll say this, you can definitely meet interesting and awesome people during your college experience. You learn a lot of social skills through all of your interactions. Just don't get too down if you don't make a lot of friends and you have to deal with some immature folks. You just have to keep trying to find what works for you and eventually if you work at it you'll find people who will love and accept you (even if it ends up being on a hentai site lol).

I think connections are actually really important, seeing how one of my friends dropped out of high school to get a job in cs with a starting 5 figure salary...

I start college on the 13th of this month, I really appreciate everybody's help from this forum. Connections along with money can make the world go round

It may sound cheesy but I really do wish everyone on this forum the best since this could be one of the toughest part of going forth of a future that we hold dear. As for me, all I have in mind is to become the "master of the universe" or something along those lines. I myself may not have a dream that's satisfying enough for me to live on, but I believe being on the road to see what's around you is worth the effort and promising myself to remember what I live for. I myself will probably start in the spring at a community college to get started and work my way up to become an adventurer in space.

I really appreciate it, do you mean you want something to do with astrophysics or to be a astronaut? Or one of those scientists that monitor what goes on through drones on other planets? All in all you're right college is hard but its possible. I'm in to become a medical assitant and its alot to take in even though its my second day so far and we end up choosing what department we want to go too at the end its not easy but it'll so be worth it. I wish you the best in your studies and in life.

I was thinking to work independent really and well explore space and everything else. I like to see something new because it really drains me out when I don't do anything and see a pattern of everything go by. I like to change something my way and hopefully it will be awesome. For you, to be a medical asst., well I give you props for actually seeing something more clear compared to my dream which is something I can barely see myself, but I know for me, it's the only way to go and maybe I'll find people that I can make friends who share my ambition to be at least something.

Wanting to become a MA just sounds like something id like and it fits my personality even though id like to get a bachelors later maybe in Computer Engineering but that's far off. As long as you strive and hopefully people try to help you or not make things difficult, you will be able to follow your dream. You might need to take less or more boring classes,jobs but itll be something that will be able to help you even more. Alot of people are starting there own business in somethings and some of them sound silly or dumb but that's a objective opinion, I support you man( I think you're a man at least lel) that your trying at least.

Same here, good luck man.