Jive and Maki's Guide to Enjoying College

[jive1]

As a public service, Maki and I have conspired to create this thread to provide tips, advice, and insight into the college life. We both enjoyed college immensely, got good grades, finished our degrees, and even went on to do something meaningful with our lives afterward. So we just want to give something back, and keep it real, yo.

Stay tuned!

[Scarlet Fire]

Thank you, God.

[StanFan]

Define meaningful.

[JAUQO III-X]

Originally Posted by jive1

even went on to do something meaningful with our lives afterward.

You did?

[Mr. Pickles]

I definetly regret the choices I made in college...

[Phalex]

[quote=jive1;6287261 We both enjoyed college immensely, got good grades, finished our degrees, and even went on to do something meaningful with our lives afterward. [/QUOTE]

Ummmm.... Dude......

I thought you worked in retail??

[SnoMan]

Originally Posted by Phalex

Ummmm.... Dude......

I thought you worked in retail??

Owning your own business is a bit more impressive than getting hired as seasonal help at Macy's.

I believe he works for a govt contractor too. Could be wrong there.


Anyways, wish I'd had a list or something...anything when I went to college. HATED it, bad experience.

[MJ5150]

Your mom goes to college.

-Kip

[jive1]

TIP: Get college credits for free or almost free.

CLEP (College Level Examination Program) tests are available at most colleges. Take a test, and you can get credits in a concentration such as humanities, social sciences, etc. There are various tests out there, and at my college there were up 18 credits available via CLEP. I got 15, and on one test all I did was guess. Each test cost about $30 back in the stone age, so it was worth it even if all I did was get lucky on one of them. In the end, I got to take my senior year part-time and hae a blast.

Also, many colleges offer proficiency exams for certain courses. Check with your college's testing department or various academic departments to see what's available. The tests are usually free, so you have nothing to lose even if you were to go and just guess on the exam. At the end of my senior year, I realized I miscalculated my gen-ed credits, so I took a proficiency exam in Poly Sci 101 at the end of the year and was able to graduate in time. All in all, I received 21 credits via CLEP/proficiency exam.

You really don't have any thing to lose but some time, but you can gain college credits without spending money or time in class, thus freeing up your time and resources for other things.

[Vince S.]

Originally Posted by jive1

TIP: Get college credits for free or almost free.

CLEP (College Level Examination Program) tests are available at most colleges. Take a test, and you can get credits in a concentration such as humanities, social sciences, etc. There are various tests out there, and at my college there were up 18 credits available via CLEP. I got 15, and on one test all I did was guess. Each test cost about $30 back in the stone age, so it was worth it even if all I did was get lucky on one of them. In the end, I got to take my senior year part-time and hae a blast.

Also, many colleges offer proficiency exams for certain courses. Check with your college's testing department or various academic departments to see what's available. The tests are usually free, so you have nothing to lose even if you were to go and just guess on the exam. At the end of my senior year, I realized I miscalculated my gen-ed credits, so I took a proficiency exam in Poly Sci 101 at the end of the year and was able to graduate in time.

You really don't have any thing to lose but some time, but you can gain college credits without spending money or time in class, thus freeing up your time and resources for other things.

Can CLEP be taken at any time during your college career? If so, I'm definitely asking my school about it. I'm missing 2 credits right now cause of Freshman Survival course that didn't transfer to my new school.

[jive1]

Originally Posted by Vince S.

Can CLEP be taken at any time during your college career? If so, I'm definitely asking my school about it. I'm missing 2 credits right now cause of Freshman Survival course that didn't transfer to my new school.

Proficiency exams can be taken throughout your college career, but I believe that you are ineligible for CLEP once to take coursework within their credit category. Check with your schools's testing office for more information.

[disenchant]

I went to college.

Now I get paid to write commercials telling other people to go to college.

Seems kind of weird.

[Toasted]

If it feels like more than two fingers . . .

[MakiSupaStar]

Originally Posted by jive1

TIP: Get college credits for free or almost free.

CLEP (College Level Examination Program) tests are available at most colleges. Take a test, and you can get credits in a concentration such as humanities, social sciences, etc. There are various tests out there, and at my college there were up 18 credits available via CLEP. I got 15, and on one test all I did was guess. Each test cost about $30 back in the stone age, so it was worth it even if all I did was get lucky on one of them. In the end, I got to take my senior year part-time and hae a blast.

Also, many colleges offer proficiency exams for certain courses. Check with your college's testing department or various academic departments to see what's available. The tests are usually free, so you have nothing to lose even if you were to go and just guess on the exam. At the end of my senior year, I realized I miscalculated my gen-ed credits, so I took a proficiency exam in Poly Sci 101 at the end of the year and was able to graduate in time.

You really don't have any thing to lose but some time, but you can gain college credits without spending money or time in class, thus freeing up your time and resources for other things.

Ok. Let's get the business of business out of the way. Jive's advice is good advice, because there will be classes that you fail. I did this to get out of a freshman writing requirement. Another reason for doing this would be build up credits. There will be classes that you will fail, and or drop because you don't want them contributing to your overall GPA. I liken credits to dollars. Some dollars come easy, so come hard. Pick up the easy ones, to buffer against the hard ones. It's like finding a dollar in the gutter, versus getting paid an hourly wage to flip burgers. These tests that Jive is talking about are often on Saturday mornings. This might mean rolling back on partying Friday night.

Another reason why Jive's advice is sound is because it saves you money in the long run. Remember you often pay by the credit. Here's another money saving tip. If you're going to a University as a Freshman, most of your courses in the beginning are going to be undergraduate work. Consider knocking these out in a Junior College. It will save you a lot of money. If you are taking an undergraduate course that you're not interested in, change it to pass/no pass as soon as you can. This relieves the stress of worrying about this course affecting your GPA. For instance, Economics. I took the whole series Pass/No Pass. At UCI that particular course was difficult. The grade I received in that class would have dropped my GPA considerably.

If you manage your business well, you can have more time for slacking, partying, and getting into mischief. Just be smart about it.

[cheezewiz]

Two words. Freshman Girls. They are away from Mom and Dad for the first time, aching to assert their adulthood and independence. That can work to your benefit.

[doctorjazz]

This thread is like a dream come true.

[KeithBMI]

I try to follow the concept behind Maki's "Hit it and quit it/not a proud man" ideology.

[SnoMan]

Originally Posted by cheezewiz

Two words. Freshman Girls. They are away from Mom and Dad for the first time, aching to assert their adulthood and independence. That can work to your benefit.

You don't have to attend college for this.

[MakiSupaStar]

Originally Posted by cheezewiz

Two words. Freshman Girls. They are away from Mom and Dad for the first time, aching to assert their adulthood and independence. That can work to your benefit.

Freshman chicks. [smiling reminiscently]. Fresh meat. The wiz is right. This can lead to a lot of deviant debauchery. I was an athlete on campus. I was a swimmer. So I remember I roaming campus a couple weeks earlier than most of the students. After tapping a couple of the swimmer chicks, suddenly there was an influx of girls. I couldn't believe it. The week before school started was called "O" week, simply because it was the zero week used to get moved into dorms and such. That "O" became known as the freshman girls mouth shape. Anyway in that first week I tapped a chick on a Monday, by being kind enough to help her move some stuff into her room, and then running out and getting some beer. Literally, she was naked by the time she snapped open her third beer. Beautiful. Later that week, it was a Thursday. I was lurking around a fellow swimmer's dorm, and down the hall a couple of chicks started hanging out. I hit both of them at the same time. The saturday night of 'O' resulted in a girl showing me "O" shapes. That first 'O' week resulted in a hat trick for me. It turned out to be my best results. A couple of years later, I hit a double, but, never matched that first week. So yes, listen to the Wiz. Don't act superior to the Freshman ladies. Take them under your wing and show them around.

[disenchant]

Originally Posted by cheezewiz

Two words. Freshman Girls. They are away from Mom and Dad for the first time, aching to assert their adulthood and independence. That can work to your benefit.

There's a reason they called our freshman dorm "Virgin Towers" for the first week and "13 Floors of Whores" for the second week on.