Life goes by so quick, I'm not ready for this.

[Disney Dork]

like 90% of what you just said was really, really wrong.

i went to a comm college in high school, and now i'm at a university. the comm college and my state university had the same cost per credit hour (if the comm college wasn't actually more expensive)

While I do understand some of what you have said, I do disagree on some points. I think it probably depends on what state you're actually attending college in, because I am taking 4 classes this semester (and I am currently attenting a com. college- will be transfering next year). All of them together add up to a total cost of $533 and I'm going to be earning a total of 13 credit hours by taking them.

At UNT (the college I am going to be transfering to), the cost of earning 13 credit hours is $2,732.75.

community COLLEGES don't offer the different specialization like a school of basic and applied sciences, human sciences, and business, etc. it just does general education.

This isn't neccesarily true either, especially in my case. At my school, they have an entire department dedicated to people who want to be teachers. We can't even be advised by the normal advisers. We have to go through the Teaching Center, who then specializes our classes depending on what type of teacher we want to be. The degree I'm working on getting now isn't a 'general' degree. It is called the "Associate in Sciences Degree with an Emphasis in Teaching EC-4". I'm taking a lot more than just the basic core classes. Along with those, I have already had to do a case study, observe in 3 different elementry schools and teach 3 different lessons to a 2nd grade class.

universites typically have a much broader gen ed than a comm college. and it doesn't actually take two years to finish your general ed, because at a university you have specified gen-ed for your major. by the end of your sophomore year, you should already have a lot of major specific hours finished.

Look at what I wrote above. ^^

Right now, I am taking an Elementary Math course, which focuses on how to learn different math concepts and be able to explain them properly to a elementary and middle school student. We do math (College level, not elm/middle school level), and then learn how to explain how to do the problems to a class, just like we will have to do in our classrooms later. If that's not specified to our major, then I don't know what is. >__>

 

[DramaQueen]

the difference for colleges and universities in the US seems pret similar to Cananda. Going to college is definitely much cheaper than university, for one!
(i know this because my sister is in college, while i'm in university...big price difference! and in the US it's probably be an even bigger difference because of the insane price of going to university!)

College here is much more hands on than university, my sister was in uni last year for communications but dropped out to go to college, and it's MUCH more hands on in college, instead of learning about programming you're DOING programming etc.

My sister will be done college the same time I'm done uni (my program was 4 years, hers is 2), she'll get a diploma, I'll get a degree, and for that she wants to do, a degree is definitely enough. I find college is better for some fields because you actually get practical experience in college that you don't get in university.

as for class sizes in university it really depends on your program/year. none of my french or theatre classes have over 50 people in them, in face my theatre class only has 25! Whereas my friends who are in psych and bio have big lectures full of 100+ students still!

now totally OT from what i've been saying, but I don't understand how anyone in the US can afford to go to university for 4 years having to pay like $10,000 per year!!! My whole university career will barely add up to $10,000 and I'm having trouble coming up with the money! HOW can you guys all afford to pay that much!?!

 

[Sparx]

the difference for colleges and universities in the US seems pret similar to Cananda. Going to college is definitely much cheaper than university, for one!
(i know this because my sister is in college, while i'm in university...big price difference! and in the US it's probably be an even bigger difference because of the insane price of going to university!)

College here is much more hands on than university, my sister was in uni last year for communications but dropped out to go to college, and it's MUCH more hands on in college, instead of learning about programming you're DOING programming etc.

My sister will be done college the same time I'm done uni (my program was 4 years, hers is 2), she'll get a diploma, I'll get a degree, and for that she wants to do, a degree is definitely enough. I find college is better for some fields because you actually get practical experience in college that you don't get in university.

as for class sizes in university it really depends on your program/year. none of my french or theatre classes have over 50 people in them, in face my theatre class only has 25! Whereas my friends who are in psych and bio have big lectures full of 100+ students still!

now totally OT from what i've been saying, but I don't understand how anyone in the US can afford to go to university for 4 years having to pay like $10,000 per year!!! My whole university career will barely add up to $10,000 and I'm having trouble coming up with the money! HOW can you guys all afford to pay that much!?!

this is my bill for this semester:

if the number has a -before it, that means they owe me that much. (i'm currently applying for more, so the -500 is all that has been cleared)

you can see my refund for this semester, and was whats left over after all the credits to my account.

 

[DramaQueen]

this is my bill for this semester:

if the number has a -before it, that means they owe me that much. (i'm currently applying for more, so the -500 is all that has been cleared)

you can see my refund for this semester, and was whats left over after all the credits to my account.

that's awesome that you have all those scholarships to pay for it!!! i guess there are a lot of scholarships available in the US!
but if you didn't have any scholarships that's a crazy price! almost twice what i pay for a year! How can people afford 4 years of that without scholarships!?!

and how much would a year at college cost vs a year at university, is it a major price difference?

 

[Sparx]

that's awesome that you have all those scholarships to pay for it!!! i guess there are a lot of scholarships available in the US!
but if you didn't have any scholarships that's a crazy price! almost twice what i pay for a year! How can people afford 4 years of that without scholarships!?!

and how much would a year at college cost vs a year at university, is it a major price difference?

well i don't know how its set up in other states, because some people are saying that comm colleges are cheaper than universities, and thats not true here. when i went to motlow, the cost per hour was the same, since they have to adhere to the same standards.

tennessee has the tennessee board of regents. that monitors all state colleges and universities to put everyone on the same requirements for gen ed, and it monitors the basic in state tuition cost (they don't have power over some of the random fees though)

and if you can't pay, they will definitely give you loans. they WANT to give everyone a loan, because that way they're making even more money off of you, kwim? and you also don't have to pay all at once. there is a differed payment plan (if my number wasn't -, i would have had to pay the university) i think today was the date for the second differed payment, actually.

 

[imabrat]

the difference for colleges and universities in the US seems pret similar to Cananda. Going to college is definitely much cheaper than university, for one!
(i know this because my sister is in college, while i'm in university...big price difference! and in the US it's probably be an even bigger difference because of the insane price of going to university!)

College here is much more hands on than university, my sister was in uni last year for communications but dropped out to go to college, and it's MUCH more hands on in college, instead of learning about programming you're DOING programming etc.

My sister will be done college the same time I'm done uni (my program was 4 years, hers is 2), she'll get a diploma, I'll get a degree, and for that she wants to do, a degree is definitely enough. I find college is better for some fields because you actually get practical experience in college that you don't get in university.

as for class sizes in university it really depends on your program/year. none of my french or theatre classes have over 50 people in them, in face my theatre class only has 25! Whereas my friends who are in psych and bio have big lectures full of 100+ students still!

now totally OT from what i've been saying, but I don't understand how anyone in the US can afford to go to university for 4 years having to pay like $10,000 per year!!! My whole university career will barely add up to $10,000 and I'm having trouble coming up with the money! HOW can you guys all afford to pay that much!?!

Ah, so your sister's "college" is what "technical school" is here. I'm in the technical school already. This will only give me the lowest degree possible, but if I do another 2 years I'd get an associate degree. 4 years is bachelor's, which is what I want.
Caitlin, 4 years of college plus expenses is only 10,000$?"!?!?!?!?!Dayumnnnnnnnn! If I want to go to public university, tuition and everything plus personal expenses ends up to be about $35,000 A YEAR! Times that by 4 and it's a hecka lot of money.

 

[DramaQueen]

Ah, so your sister's "college" is what "technical school" is here. I'm in the technical school already. This will only give me the lowest degree possible, but if I do another 2 years I'd get an associate degree. 4 years is bachelor's, which is what I want.
Caitlin, 4 years of college plus expenses is only 10,000$?"!?!?!?!?!Dayumnnnnnnnn! If I want to go to public university, tuition and everything plus personal expenses ends up to be about $35,000 A YEAR! Times that by 4 and it's a hecka lot of money.

THAT'S why I don't understand how people can afford that!!!!
My full tuition for the 4 years will probably come out to about $15,000 IF that, it's just about $3,000 a year but that depends on how many classes you're taking. I could NEVER in a million years afford $35,000/year!!!
How do you guys do it?!

I'm not sure what kind of degree my sister comes out with to be honest, definitely not a bachelor's though (which will be what I'm getting after my 4 years) The school she goes to offers more than just the computer stuff she's doing though, I know a few people who go there who are taking business or early childhood education...is that the same as a technical school? I dunno what graduating from the early childhood education programme from that school gets you though to be honest. hehe

Seriously I have to say I'm glad I live in Canada when it comes to post secondary education! It seems so much less complicated!!

 

[Disney Princess Elli]

uhmm i've started looking at sixthforms/colleges for next year.. but i have no idea what to take..

 

[imabrat]

THAT'S why I don't understand how people can afford that!!!!
My full tuition for the 4 years will probably come out to about $15,000 IF that, it's just about $3,000 a year but that depends on how many classes you're taking. I could NEVER in a million years afford $35,000/year!!!
How do you guys do it?!

I'm not sure what kind of degree my sister comes out with to be honest, definitely not a bachelor's though (which will be what I'm getting after my 4 years) The school she goes to offers more than just the computer stuff she's doing though, I know a few people who go there who are taking business or early childhood education...is that the same as a technical school? I dunno what graduating from the early childhood education programme from that school gets you though to be honest. hehe

Seriously I have to say I'm glad I live in Canada when it comes to post secondary education! It seems so much less complicated!!

We don't afford it. Lots of scholarships and loans around here. Sometimes if you're exceptionally smart or athletically advanced you'll get a full ride, which means the university pays for your tuition, but that's rare. It sucks so much because college is so astronomically expensive, therefore not many people go to college. I'm seeing it happen in my own family. My parents never went to college (well my mom went by dropped out a year shy of graduating), my dad's siblings never went to college, their parents never went to college, etc. My cousins aren't going to college. My dad joined the military and so did 3 of my cousins. My aunts got pregnant at 16 and 18 because my grandparents were of the mentality "once you're 18 you're out". It's just really, really sad. The only successful cousin has his own business now at the age of 30. That's why I'm getting my CNA certification now, if I can't go to college at least I'll have something more than my high school diploma.

Technical school doesn't usually have elementary education over here, at least.

 

[BabyPiglet]

My university is pretty cheap. It's about $3,000 for 15 credit hours. But of course, I live at home. If I added dorm and meal plan costs to that it would be about $10,000 a semester. And like I said, that's cheap compared to most. Then of course my books are like $500 a semester.

 

[Babyjustrun]

I know I will never be able to afford to go to school in the States. I've accepted that. I can hardly afford to go to school 2 hours from here, where to live in a residence with next to no space, the cost of that is MORE than the tuition. Why would I pay that much to go to school here when I can go to Ontario and get a much roomier place for the same price?
The only reason I mention residence is because my parents expect me to be in res for at least the first year. They almost had a heart attack when my brother got an apartment.

 

[minniesBFF]

Shelby, I know you weren't implying anything about community college being bad. I was just putting it out there that I went to a community college. haha

So, do you prefer the university as opposed to community college?

Also, at my school, it's $130 a credit hour. A girl in my public speaking class went to school in North Carolina and she paid $43 a credit hour there. Now I don't know exactly where she went, but I'm pretty sure it was a community college.

 

[STOPxmickeytime]

We don't afford it. Lots of scholarships and loans around here. Sometimes if you're exceptionally smart or athletically advanced you'll get a full ride, which means the university pays for your tuition, but that's rare. It sucks so much because college is so astronomically expensive, therefore not many people go to college. I'm seeing it happen in my own family. My parents never went to college (well my mom went by dropped out a year shy of graduating), my dad's siblings never went to college, their parents never went to college, etc. My cousins aren't going to college. My dad joined the military and so did 3 of my cousins. My aunts got pregnant at 16 and 18 because my grandparents were of the mentality "once you're 18 you're out". It's just really, really sad. The only successful cousin has his own business now at the age of 30. That's why I'm getting my CNA certification now, if I can't go to college at least I'll have something more than my high school diploma.

Technical school doesn't usually have elementary education over here, at least.

I agree that in the past not many people attended college (both of my parents dropped out after a few terms because they had already landed good jobs) but now it's pretty much necessary to go to college to get a good career, outside of the military.
I mean, 99.9% of my graduating class is going to college. Maybe a handful will go on to the military, but the massively overwhelming majority here goes to college.

And Caitlin, colleges and universities are essentially the same thing, except for the fact that universities are comprised of several different colleges, like a school of business, a school of science, etc. And they're generally bigger.
I think what you're thinking of is COMMUNITY college vs. state or privately owned colleges, because that's what most people here have been debating.

Community college is generally 2 years, and after that most people continue on to finish with another 2 years at a state or private school, or you can just end your education there.
At least here in NJ, it's MUCH cheaper than state and private colleges or universities.

For example, Rutgers (a state college in NJ) is $307 /credit hour for a NJ resident ($654 for a non-NJ resident) whereas the community college in my area is $94/credit hour for county residents.

Also, they work really hard to give as many breaks in tuition as possible with community colleges so that everyone can afford an education. For example, my brother qualified for 2 years of entirely free education at the comm. college because of the NJ Stars program, which will pay for your full tuition if you graduate in the top 20% of your class or if you have high SAT scores.

 

[Sparx]

Shelby, I know you weren't implying anything about community college being bad. I was just putting it out there that I went to a community college. haha

So, do you prefer the university as opposed to community college?

Also, at my school, it's $130 a credit hour. A girl in my public speaking class went to school in North Carolina and she paid $43 a credit hour there. Now I don't know exactly where she went, but I'm pretty sure it was a community college.

i don't really prefer one over the other, it all depends on what you need. comm colleges fit some people's needs more than universities. and vice versa.

 

[tower_of_terror_luvr]

UF is a really good school. Check out fastweb.com it has a bunch of scholorship oppurtunitys