- Have you been to college? Or a University?
To be perfectly honest I'm not all that clear on what differs between the two (I use them interchangeably), but I go to a university in one the states next to me.
I'm majoring in Biomedical science (which happily comes with a built-in chemistry minor |D).
- Has it been helpful?
I'm only just completed my freshman year, so it hasn't really been helpful yet. I'm still slogging through my basic courses so I can get into the higher level classes like microbiology, anatomy, organic chemistry and biochemistry. I get to take intro courses to psych and anthro this fall semester though (since I have to retake a lab, which prevents me from progressing into my higher level bio for now
) which should be fun and interesting.
Most of my courses are sciency, so they're useful for the most part (though I REALLY wish I'd been able to get out of the basic bio courses because they were just a useless rehash of what I'd learned in high school bio :/). And as much as I hate math it's useful too; thankfully precalc this fall semester is the last one I have to take before stats, and then no more math (yay). I did NOT feel that my english course (and the second semester of what qualified as english to an honors student) were helpful in the least, and the the Lord I don't have to take any history courses that I know of.
I also don't feel that my creative writing class was helpful. I took that my first semester because it looking kind of fun - it centered around creating monster characters in writing. But I didn't like the professor or how she taught and I didn't feel I learned anything.
The workload hasn't been all that helpful to my stress levels and overall health. I already have problems with various anxieties and last semester during my chemistry final I started getting heart palpitations. With my creative writing class I purposefully skipped the public reading the prof wanted us to do in favor of remaining mentally okay. And I tend to procrastinate (I work best under pressure for some unholy reason) so a lot of times I wait until a couple of days before to start things. <w< Bad habits are bad.
- Are you currently enrolled?
Yep, 15 credits a semester...that's the minimum I have to take per semester to be classified as a full-time student to keep my financial aid. I could take more but I haven't felt up to taking more yet, especially since during my freshman year I was doing english requirements (which unfortunately were mostly uninteresting and killed any real interest in writing I had).
I'm also an Honors student here but I've been considering dropping it. Biomedical science major is full of difficult sciency things and I really don't feel like I'll be able to deal with the extra workload in my later years and I'd rather take extra psych classes than courses that qualify for my honors requirements. <w< I'm torn on dropping it though because one of the perks of being honors is that I get to enroll before everyone else which means I'm guaranteed to get into the courses I need when I need them.
- Most importantly of all though, is the experience of it. How does one deal with college - especially full-time enrollment. It is truly difficult to be fully enrolled in a university and living off of scholarships, I believe (and two of my friends are about to be).
I found it to be great. The uni I go to is a completely different type of environment and this was one of the first years I'd actually experienced an actual snowfall of more than an inch (per winter :U) of snow. I'm finally actually able to take courses that
interest me - which was a major reason I really hated high school (I really disliked having to take four years of english and history classes :/ ). And another nice thing is that I'm now around people who are interested in the same things I am, which is a great feeling because at my HS I didn't really have anyone with similar interests to talk to.
At first the transition was hard because I'd only been away from family for a maximum of three weeks straight before, and yeah, I cried after they left. But then I decided it wasn't so bad being away from them. It was a real eye-opener to the real world. Thankfully I also got a nice roommate (we may be rooming together next year) but the third roomie we got later in the year I didn't like quite as much (she was always bringing over random friends and would wake up hideously early and crinkle her cereal bad really loud whether the rest of us were asleep or not). Overall I've had a really good university experience so far and I'm really looking forward to going back
"Fully enrolled" differs from place to place and between undergrad and grad level work though, doesn't it? I think financial aid awards also play into what's classified as "full time," since my full time is 15 credits or more per semester in order to continue receiving my financial aid. And honestly I didn't find it that hard to live off the financial aid I got (then again I also got a couple thousand dollars in refund for books and to live on for the semester as well, so it wasn't hard
).
My only issue with college/uni in this country is it's so damn expensive.
My loans are through the roof but considering what I'm going for with this it'll be worth it in the end but for so many people the expense isn't worth it. I really don't feel like college/uni should be this expensive.