The college trip was fun but stressful. Visiting the colleges was pretty informative and it helped give some perspective on what colleges offer and what to look out for a college. Despite what others thought before the trip, colleges are vastly different from each other and each college have their own perks about them. When you pick a college, it’s crucial to figure out what their priorities and preferences are because that will be the theme of the college. Cal Poly for example, their priority was “learning by doing”, and just by looking on the campus, it became clear that it was what their focus was. There was a big smell of poop in some of the campus because people were actually learning agriculture and learning to do that themselves! There was a whole “graveyard” filled with previous architecture projects that previous students made. That college tried their best to be the definition of learning by doing.
Another college tried to make a lot of free services to their colleges students like Santa Barbara gave students 5 gyms to use without paying them extra for tuition. So you should consider what colleges prioritize over other things because it affects the whole atmosphere of the college. Anyways, I learned a lot about what I should consider in colleges and I enjoyed myself. Packing, scheduling, and bus rides were very stressful though.
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Surprisingly, there was a big difference in food between colleges. Not only in the types of food they served but also the quality of the food. Not saying that some college’s food sucked but I am saying that colleges prioritize some things over others when making foods. I feel that it is important to consider your food choices because different colleges offer different things and you should try to figure out what works with you the best.
Academics is definitely important but the social aspect of college is also important to know as well because the college’s campus is potentially where you are going to live for the next couple of years. Clubs and activities at the college are important to note as well. There was differences in some of the clubs offered at colleges and some colleges prioritized fun college activities over other colleges so if you care about fun events, that is something to consider.
Also, I did notice a difference in teaching styles which is also important to consider when you are picking a college because if you like the teaching style that High Tech High offers, Cal Poly has a similar mindset where they prioritize “learning by doing”. Which allows students to actually do the job or activity they want to do and learn from the experience you just had. This allows to realize if this job is what you feel like doing for the rest of your life or not which is good information to know! Though some other people prefer more of a lecture teaching so considering the type of teaching is really important when you choose your college!
Students should be aware that when they arrive into college, all the responsibility lies on your shoulders. Supplies, proper hygiene, food, transportation, and everything else needs to be planned out and prepared for when you go to college. There isn’t someone out there to help you because you have to do all that stuff by yourself. Buying college supplies and essentials for living is up to you. The responsibility relies on you and you have to save up your money to be able to provide everything you need for yourself. This trip helped me realize this. The trip reminded me that being at home and being at a college is very different. Parents may help in a form of giving you money for college but other than that, they won't be able to help you at all.
Driving long distances are also a challenge to overcome. Depending on how long the drive is, you need to be careful on how much you eat and drink, the supplies to bring, and having enough money to afford to drive the distance. If you are going a long distance, you might not be able to go to the bathroom for a while so you have to make sure you don't consume much to prevent you from having an accident. However, you need to make sure you consume enough to not be starving or dehydrated on the trip so it is crucial to keep yourself at perfect shape.
The city and culture the college is located should also be considered when choosing a college. This is because the city could include everything that you might be need for living and personal reasons. The culture of the college is important so you can participate in it so it is definitely something you should consider!
Driving long distances are also a challenge to overcome. Depending on how long the drive is, you need to be careful on how much you eat and drink, the supplies to bring, and having enough money to afford to drive the distance. If you are going a long distance, you might not be able to go to the bathroom for a while so you have to make sure you don't consume much to prevent you from having an accident. However, you need to make sure you consume enough to not be starving or dehydrated on the trip so it is crucial to keep yourself at perfect shape.
The city and culture the college is located should also be considered when choosing a college. This is because the city could include everything that you might be need for living and personal reasons. The culture of the college is important so you can participate in it so it is definitely something you should consider!
However, there is many things to look forward to in college. Being by yourself isn’t too bad and it prepares you for when you own your future house. College helps you learn a lot about your interests, helps prepare you for a career, and gets you use to the life of an adult. I am looking forward to all that and to improve my knowledge in video game development and my interests. I also love programming in general and the study of the brain sounds cool too! I hope to find some really cool majors and I want my college years to mean something to me for years to come.
There is many things you should be concerned about in college. Rooms and roommates, food and supplies, tuition and housing prices, majors, everything should be something of concern for college. These things are crucial to figure out before you pick out a college. For me, I am worried about all of those things and if there is a major related to my interests. Not much video game development majors are out there and it may be difficult to find majors that might help me learn how to design video games for my future career. However, I hope to research some more and figure out which colleges have the major I am looking for and if I cannot find enough colleges who do have that major, maybe I’ll attempt to find another major similar to it where the experience of that major will help me in my quest to become a video game developer.
I am very interested in studying abroad because it’s a good experience and opportunity to learn a lot more things. Some colleges will actually make it a part of your tuition to study abroad so you might as well use it! At Chapman, around 85% of the students traveled abroad to study, not only because it was being paid for them as a part of the tuition at the college, but it is also a good opportunity to learn something you might not be able to learn where you live today. I will definitely consider the option of studying abroad but I am not 100% sure if I’d want to go through with it. Only time will tell if I’ll do it or not.
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I am also interested in joining some clubs in colleges because there is some good choices in some colleges. Even though student ambassadors and stuff aren’t my thing, some colleges offer ASB or something like that, which is a program where students can help plan activities and events for the school. They get a huge budget from the organizations where they can arrange whole concerts or big events for the whole entire college to experience. Even some famous bands come to some of the colleges to preform and it’s all because of that organization that helped plan it all. That sounds really cool to me and I’ll consider that option if I get a chance. However, it’s not that relevant to my education so I won’t make it a priority. I am also interested in joining a video game club due to my interests and I may join one if I get the chance as well. Whatever education I can get with learning how to design a video game is crucial for me and I’ll try my best to learn as much as I can.
The type of college I am interested in attending depends on my options on what specific college I believe I should take. My main thing I prioritize is a programming / video game development degree because I am dedicated to learn as much as I can on the subject. Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be a video game developer and I intend to follow through with that goal. I am also considering to pick a hands-on college or a “learning by doing” college. Learning by doing a project about a subject instead of listening to a lecture seems like a great way to learn in my opinion and I think it might work best for my style of learning. Of course, there is the point that I have been attending High Tech schools which offer a hands-on learning style so I might just be use to the concept but I still believe that it is the best learning style for me. However if necessary, I am open to lectures because I have done those in the past. I just believe I’ll prefer a hands-on college instead.
For me, if I wanted to move to a college out of county, I would want to learn in Japan because a lot of my interests are there and I would like to learn video game development in the county that Nintendo games were made in. Video game making is my passion and going to college in the same country as a famous video game company is located could give me some attention in the video game industry which may leave me with a job. However, I would have to learn how to speak and read Japanese fluently so I might not be able to pursue that dream. I’ll most likely stay in country but we’ll see what the future holds.