go to a community college and earn a transfer degree
I've done everything from community college, 4 year public, a big state school, big Canadian public uni, and a Russian Uni and this is my interpretation of each institution:
But, first, it is obvious, but important enough to repeat:
For-Profit "Universities": These places are absolute trash. Never ever ever go to DeVry, University of Phoenix, Capella, or any other for-profit university. They are shit and cost a lot of money. Community College = Overall, best value and possibly best learning experience. (Start here and finish at an Ivy.)If you have a full-time prof, they get paid well and have no real research responsibilities. Their job is to teach and do admin work, which means that they are there to help you and probably love what they do. There are lots of opportunities to do cool things on campus.
Your peers are going to range from completely unprepared to insanely brilliant.
4 year public = Overall, these are a weird middle-ground between a community college and a big state school. They come with the benefit of profs who are dedicated, decently accomplished in terms of research, but probably lack connections. They are often torn between focusing on research, teaching, or admin work. Also, the profs often get paid less than their peers at the community colleges and less their peers who made it to the big state schools. I'd argue that these profs are the most overworked and most underpaid.
In terms of student peers, location is probably going to matter a lot. For example, the CSU system is a good place to be a student and the rural 4 year SUNY schools are worthless (aside from Geneseo). From what I've seen, it seems many students in the CSU system are motivated kids who are often slightly underprepared but are trying to come up in life. They have some struggles, but they want to enter the middle-class and they see the intense competition for decent jobs in California. From what I've seen, the 4 year SUNY schools in rural NY are full of students who are prepared but lazy and have no direction in life. They don't do their homework, they don't have jobs, and they waste everyone's time. They are terrible peers. The rural 4 year SUNY schools attract zero students from out of state, which often allows them to operate as bottom feeder schools for wealthy white kids from the NYC area (not NYC but the greater NYC area).
Big state schools - Overall, these places are what the student makes of them. You need to be your own advocate at a place like this.The profs often graduated from fancy schools, have decent connections, and/or have done solid research. However, your chances of interacting with them depends on you and a bit of luck. [/i] 100 level classes can have 700+ students and 1 prof. You will need to reach out to them if you want to get anything from them. Your 200, 300, and 400 level classes may be taught by teaching assistants who are barely a step ahead of you or adjuncts who are just fucked in life. Classes taught by TAs are fun cause they are only a couple years older, it is easy to connect with them, but they aren't super knowledgeable yet. The 200, 300, and 400 may also be taught by famous profs, but they may need to value their research and getting grants over teaching their classes well. Teaching reviews mean nothing at big schools, if your prof wants to keep their job they need publish and pull in money. You will need to go out of your way to meet them, talk to them during office hours, and do research with them or have them guide you through a research project.
Your peers are generally going to be prepared for college, but they could be insanely spoiled, drunk, average, or overachieving.
Big Canadian Uni - Better version of the American big state school. Less emphasis on sport and more emphasis on education and research. Also, a decent deal financially (Quebec sucks for a lot of reasons, but its affordable education is cool).
The profs are at the top of their field and came from good schools. Getting a job at a big Canadian school is next to impossible, the people who work at these schools have made it and have connections. The profs get paid well and have reasonable teaching loads, but housing in Vancouver or Toronto is insane, so their wages don't go as far as they should. Emphasis is going to be on research/grants, but the teaching is of higher quality than what is offered at big American state schools.
The student population is going to be competitive. Lots of kids from outside of Canada who are wealthy and work their asses off. Lots of overachieving Canadians as well. And, a few dipshits, but overall better than their American peers.
Russian Universities - Overall the Russian system is weak. Even the Project 5-100 universities and the important private schools are weak (is anyone surprised?).
Finally,
Sort-of-for-profit Jesus schools like Grand Canyon University:
Often unqualified profs. Business model education with a dash of Jesus. Better than University of Phoenix, but that isn't really saying much.
Topic: Useful information for College/University (Read 1102 times)