College Information

[Havok]

Hello fellow TZers, as you can guess by the title it's getting around that time for me to consider a specific college or two. So I come to you, asking about how your college life is, and for me personally what colleges might be best for my interests.

I know for sure I want to be an author, but besides English I'm not sure what else to focus on. And I'm also curious as to what colleges suit an aspiring authors best.

[Captain Highwind]

There is an English Writing major. It should be available at most colleges.

[purplehairedwonder]

There is an English Writing major. It should be available at most colleges.Mhm. I'm currently an English major and also want to be a writer. Within an English major, there are generally concentrations you can choose or schools will encourage you to take a minor in a field that you might use with an English major.

[Lazerboy5000]

Yea, another good question that applies to me too.

I'm a seinor in High School this year and I've been narrowing down my college search. But here's what I've learned:

Don't be afarid of smaller schools. You don't need to go to a big time school in a big time conference to get a good education. Consider all your options.

Make sure you like the location of your school. Try to go with a shcool that resembles the area you live in now. You wan't to pervent culture shock. (So if you live in the country, then you probably don't want to go to NYC)

And apply to several colleges. You don't want to pin your hopes on just one college.

So, that's all I've got. I'm looking into Meteorology, and my top college choise is Valpo (IN). It's a smaller college (4500 students) but it's really nice and has a great Meteorology program. Other colleges I'm looking into are Purdue, Ohio, Utah and a couple others.

So I hope your college search goes well.

[silverfox1027]

Ah, college applications. I think I was the only person I knew who actually enjoyed filling them out. I don't know...it was pretty stress-free up until decision notification time rolled around in late March. But of course, I'm looking at this in retrospect. :p

As for advice, well, I'm not entirely sure what you want in a college, so I can't really give you anything specific. Like Lazerboy mentioned, make sure you like the location of the school. It'll be your home for 4 or so years, so consider it strongly. Large student body vs. small student body, core requirements vs. open curriculum, these are all things that you want to consider.

I don't really know anything about schools good for English majors. I've heard that Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) has a great Journalism program, if you're looking into that sort of thing.

Good luck!

[Kury Wagner]

http://www.collegeboard.com/

^They have an excellent 'MatchMaker' tool. =)

[Lazerboy5000]

Ah, college applications. I think I was the only person I knew who actually enjoyed filling them out. I don't know...it was pretty stress-free up until decision notification time rolled around in late March. But of course, I'm looking at this in retrospect. :p
My first try at my college essay... I didn't want to do it, and it honestly sucked.

But after school started, and we went though the whole 'how to write a college application essay' thing, I really enjoied writing that one. It was lots of fun. And it's really good too. Hopefully my other essays will be like that (or hopefully the prompt will be "a graded sample from a college prep course". Then I could use the same one).

Oh, and one more piece of advice. Try to start early with your college search, like Junior year. You don't want to be still searching for a college during Seinor year. You have more of a chance of getting accepted if you apply early. Plus you have a better chance of getting scholarships too.

Good Luck.