how many students do we have here?

[shootthebandit]

I get the impression that most people here are students. If you are tell us a little about what you do?

Ill kick things off. Im not a student and its never something I thought about. I stayed on at school to finish my A-levels and at 17 i went into employment. Ive been in my job for over 3 years I would probably just be finishing uni now

If you are like myself and you arent a student join in too and tell us a little about yourself too

 

[Rosiv]

I've been a comp sci student at a community college for 2-3 years. And then transfered to a lower tier four year state school to try and finsh, but the level of difficulty from community college to a four school on my major was too hard. I changed majors to biology and hope to finish in 2 years, for that's all the money for finacial aid I have. For age refernce I started at 17 and am now 21.

 

[Colour Scientist]

I'm currently a student but I'll be finished in July.

I did my undergraduate degree in History, a Masters in History and I'm just about finished my MA in Archives and Records Management.

This is the first year I've been a student where I haven't also been working so I'm looking forward to going back to work and actually having money. I'm definitely done with being a broke student, I miss earning money.

Also, if it's relevant, I turned 23 a week ago.

 

[Drummodino]

I'm currently studying my Masters of Professional Engineering (environmental). I finished my three year bachelor's degree last year and I should finish this one at the end of 2015 hopefully. Then I can actually get a job and start earning some money for once.

Oh and I'm turning 21 in June.

 

[JoJo]

I'm not a student right now, I graduated university last year (BSc Biological Sciences) and found my way into employment. There's a good chance I'll go back into studying at some point in the future though as I'm not sure what I'd like to do long-term for a career and many options (e.g. research, teaching etc) require some further training. Certainly not for a couple of years though, I like earning money

 

[Silvanus]

I'm a B.A graduate of Modern History and Politics. I'm just in temp work at the moment, but I have another job (in London) coming up next month. Then I'll be a commuter.

I plan to go back into education in the future.

 

[Slenn]

Right now I'm a 2nd to 3rd year graduate student in nuclear physics, working towards my PhD in said subject. I'm also a Bachelor of Science in Physics. My research is studying Chi-C production and detection. In a week I'll be traveling to New York to get some experience on the hardware our team is using.

 

[Foolery]

Working towards being a machinist. The programs that universities offer aren't useful in the area of Canada that I live in. At least not in the short-term. The decent paying jobs are in the trades and it's much cheaper to get into. Some of my friends tried to persuade me to go to university, but I decided it wasn't worth the money, and funnily enough these friends also had their parents paying for a large chunk of their education or living expenses.

 

[shootthebandit]

I've been a comp sci student at a community college for 2-3 years. And then transfered to a lower tier four year state school to try and finsh, but the level of difficulty from community college to a four school on my major was too hard. I changed majors to biology and hope to finish in 2 years, for that's all the money for finacial aid I have. For age refernce I started at 17 and am now 21.

I would assume you are from america? How does the system work there. Whats the difference between community college and a "lower tier" and subsequently how does the tier system work.

As far as im aware all the unis in the UK are fairly standardised apart from reputation. A degree from oxford will get you the same weight of qualification as any other uni its just that its got more of a status behind it. Employers will be like "wow you went to oxford"

first year I've been a student where I haven't also been working so I'm looking forward to going back to work and actually having money. I'm definitely done with being a broke student, I miss earning money

As someone whos always been in employment Ive never really been "broke" to the extent of your average student. Is it difficult to hold a job whilst studying full time or is it even more difficult trying to survive as a student with little money coming in?

 

[shootthebandit]

Working towards being a machinist. The programs that universities offer aren't useful in the area of Canada that I live in. At least not in the short-term. The decent paying jobs are in the trades and it's much cheaper to get into. Some of my friends tried to persuade me to go to university, but I decided it wasn't worth the money, and funnily enough these friends also had their parents paying for a large chunk of their education or living expenses.

Doing an apprenticeship is a much better way to become a machinist. Its a lot more hands on and you'll learn from people actually doing the job. My friend is a machinist and after his apprenticeship the company he was working for actually paid for him to get a degree

 

[Colour Scientist]

first year I've been a student where I haven't also been working so I'm looking forward to going back to work and actually having money. I'm definitely done with being a broke student, I miss earning money

As someone whos always been in employment Ive never really been "broke" to the extent of your average student. Is it difficult to hold a job whilst studying full time or is it even more difficult trying to survive as a student with little money coming in?

It's nice having the extra time for college work but I honestly preferred it when I was working. It was tough but I find the money issues more stressful than the pressure of balancing work and university stuff. It meant a lot of late nights but it was worth it for the regular pay-check.

I've had to borrow a fair bit of money this year and it makes me feel like a total bum.

 

[YuberNeclord]

I was a full time student but I'm part time now. I'm doing a Bachelor of Film Production, which I should finally finish either the end of this year or early next year. I'm able to get by financially because I'm on Centrelink(Australian version of welfare) and I'm a freelance editor with a handful of clients, so I get money coming in from that as well.

 

[Rosiv]

I've been a comp sci student at a community college for 2-3 years. And then transfered to a lower tier four year state school to try and finsh, but the level of difficulty from community college to a four school on my major was too hard. I changed majors to biology and hope to finish in 2 years, for that's all the money for finacial aid I have. For age refernce I started at 17 and am now 21.

I would assume you are from america? How does the system work there. Whats the difference between community college and a "lower tier" and subsequently how does the tier system work.

As far as im aware all the unis in the UK are fairly standardised apart from reputation. A degree from oxford will get you the same weight of qualification as any other uni its just that its got more of a status behind it. Employers will be like "wow you went to oxford"

I assume that a degree from a "lower tier" college would have less weight than one from a more prestigious american university. To be honest though i don't know. I feel like its true though, if that means anything. For instance, in my intro to bio class, our tests are very simple,50 question multiple choice. In my high school i had the option of taking a college equivalent class to biology on the same level as the one I am taking now, and the tests then were much harder, 30 question multiple choice, 1 page essay response. This could just be me being memory biased though. I would also like to assume that higher tier colleges have "better" professor or have more money to spend on better lab equipment / student assistance services. Or maybe it is simply that since higher tier colleges have higher requirements, they get students who can meet those requirement grade wise, and as a result, output better graduates, which then gives them the air of competence.

But to get to the point, a community college is where one can get a Associates degree, which usually takes about 2 years.
People usually attend them because they are cheap and the classes that are taken there if done well can transfer to other 4 year schools to finish a bachelors degree.

 

[Esotera]

I am a biochemistry undergraduate in the UK and will be finishing in less than two weeks, then I'm starting a job developing Android apps. I'm very much looking forward to earning some money again rather than accumulating about £10k of debt every year.

The housing situation in the UK really sucks at the minute, and it's probably my biggest long-term worry. I plan on renting for 3 years, getting some good work experience, then assessing whether I'm going to stay in the country or not...

 

[TravelerSF]

First year biomedical laboratory sciences student (somewhat equivalent to 2nd. degree/uni I suppose) from Finland. I'm still leeching off my parent's bank account (as in, I'm still living with them), but plan to move on my own after I've gathered enough money over this summer. At which I point I expect the real worries of life starting to kick in.

I'm fairly satisfied with my choice of studies right now. It's not a field that can be outsourced overseas or that will see a noticable lack in demand in the future and I get to play around with blood, bacteria, DNA, acids and other kinds of fun stuff!

 

[Granfaloon]

I am currently working towards an associates degree in energy systems technology, should be able to get a decent job in the field with that, then will probably work and take more classes for a higher degree.

 

[Fractral]

I'm coming to the end of my A-Levels in England, doing double maths and physics. I've got offers to do Maths at a few universities, so I imagine I'll be continuing in education barring somehow messing up my exams in June. I never seriously considered doing anything else, but with the current job situation for students I expect finding employment after I finish my degree will be hard. Fortunately that's some time away, so things could have improved by then.

 

[Radeonx]

I graduated a few years ago with a bachelor's computer science degree, so I'm quite close to being a student I guess. I currently have a career job in programming.

 

[Basst Woefatt]

I'm about to finish my associates of science(which is meant to transfer to a 4 year university) then study Russian as my major and time arts(animation) as a minor. I've started school pretty late having done manual labor and military before becoming too broken to do anything but a desk job. I'm 28 and, assuming everything works well, will be done when I'm about 31.

 

[iseko]

I got a degree in Pharmaceutical biotechnology and now finishing up a degree as an engineer in biochemistry this june. I'm looking forward to finally getting a permanent job. I did some student work with my first degree whilst getting my second one. I'm 24 at the moment. I'm just worried that the older I get the less time or energy I have for gaming. Which is sad because I game a lot with my girlfriend but I don't find the time anymore.