What grades should I take for grade 10?Follow

The only distinction I see on my college degree is the *** Laude, Magna *** Laude, and Summa *** Laude titles.

As far as GPA is concerned, I remember back when doing the job search stuff and learning how to properly do resumes, I think they told us that unless your GPA was exceptionally high that employers didn't care about it. The degree was the important part. And most of the classes I took you had to get a C or better to receive the credit.

At my uni too, all major classes had to have at least a C to count. So if you were a math person, you could get away with a D in your English class or your religion class, but you'd have to re-take linear algebra if you bombed it.

If I remember the breakdown correctly, credit hours were as follows
120 hours to earn a BA or a BS
- 60 hours of "core" - the requirements of math, science, history, foreign language, multicultural, religion/philosophy, physical health, language arts, etc etc. Basically a repeat of high school on a more intense level. You could get Ds in all of these, but if you did, your application to your major school or department might not go over so well, as these classes are also the prerequisites for most majors. Academic probation occurs once you drop below a D average.
- 30 hours of major classes . Once your school or department accepted you had to get at least a C in all these classes. Dropping below a C average could get you kicked out of the program.
- 30 hours of electives. You could turn this into a second major, a minor (15 hours in a different program), a double minor, or just take basket weaving to bring up your GPA.

Because a lot of folks don't survive the core classes, a lot of students who were smart and took their core at a smaller school within the university system will be accepted into their major program as transfer students. My husband teaches at just such a satellite feeder school, prepping students doing their core for the pre-requisites of the College of Education at the big university.

Core classes are usually spread throughout all four years, due to the linear nature of some things. Major classes usually begin in sophomore year, although people will do their core prereqs in freshman year. Minor classes are usually done starting junior year, as people realize some of their electives were sort of cool and want to pursue it further. I was accepted to the English department at my uni in sophomore year, but ended up getting a minor in botany almost by accident (as I'd had 12/15 credit hours and realized if I took one more class I'd have it. One of those botany classes was actually a writing class in disguise.)

Edited, Apr 14th 2012 11:22am by catwho

The better your English, the more seriously other people will take you. It's surprising the things that science class prepares you for in life, like what cleaners from the supermarket are safe/dangerous to use in what combination, and what foods will gradually make you sicker, and which ones will help you stay fit and well. The more maths you take, the further you can take the science.

But seriously, apart from one or two key subjects that you'll really miss out on life skills not having, my experience for myself and other people is choose the subjects that interest you. You'll do so much better in subjects you actually are interested in and give you a buzz. Those better grades will give you choices down the line. The only exception is if you have your heart set on a career that requires a certain degree, and that degree requires certain set subjects that are compulsory to get into your desired course.

If you can, I advise you to take a year off in between high school and college. It can really show you how limited your money making choices are without a degree, which can be a great boost in your motivation to do higher education homework.

But don't overlook the trades if that's where your strength lies. In Australia, plumbers and electricians make really good money, fully equivalent to middle or upper management. locksmiths, motor mechanics, etc can do well too.

Varus



Meanwhile, I suggest the exact opposite. If your school has any sort of regard for your future, the last year there will be pushing you toward college. There will be announcements for SATs, courses for college credit (IB/AP), colleges that comes and visit, and perhaps the school will even set up trips for you to visit local colleges. Your guidance office should be helping you with scholarships and applications.

If you take a year off and then come back, suddenly you have to do most of that work by yourself. Odds are you won't be eligible for as many scholarships (as you're no longer a "graduating high school student"). Since you no longer attend your school, the guidance office can do little more than forward your transcript on. If you have a large school, the teachers might not even remember you enough to write good letters of recommendation. This limits your chances to get into a good university and the chance to get decent scholarships. That means more loans and more debt.

Ideally, if you want to travel, do so for a month after college graduation. You're older, more experienced, and less likely to make dangerous mistakes (ie, if you're 22, you're less likely to get trashed in a country with a drinking age of 18). You will still have a lot of opportunities to travel, and a degree waiting for you when you come back and need to apply to jobs. The only downside could be the amount of debt you have hanging over your head... but on the other hand if you had traveled before college, odds are you're going into it with debt hanging over your head from your trip. As for programs that let you travel around the world, I highly suggest looking up ESL programs that send you to a foreign country to teach the kids to speak English.

Assuming you take and pass English first, that is.

Edited, Apr 14th 2012 7:29pm by LockeColeMA

College? I don't think Walmart greeters need a degree, do they?

I think everyone matures at different paces and some people, like myself need time before they jump right back into school. I pissed away a lot of my parents money not being ready for more school. I was more interested in beer, weed, and women. At the ripe old age of 32, I decided to finally get it done and it was much easier the second time because I was ready. I don't necessarily condone waiting as long as I did, but some kids are force fed the idea that college is next and may not be ready. Waiting a year isn't a bad idea.

I suggest you take grade 10 for grade 10.

Going to grade 10 and need to chose classes? In most public schools with the exception of vocational you usually don't have a huge variety to choose from since the normal math/science/English/history classes are mandatory. I would say aim to make it to grade 11 and see where you go from there.

I took a couple of years off before college. I was 20 when I left the multimedia design education and 23 when I went to teacher's college where I'm at now. While I don't recommend that people take three or four years off, especially if they're going for a master's or higher, I recommend taking at least one year off, if - and only if - you want to do something else before locking yourself down for another 3-5 years of school.

Just avoid doing stuff that might lock you into work instead, like buying a house, having kids, or sh*t like that.

The reason I took some time off was because I originally applied to the police academy and had to go back and finish my... conscription? Mandatory military service, which I originally bypassed by luck of the draw. That took four months. Then I decided to spend a year at a... um, christ, why don't you have names for these things? A "folk high school"? Like a boarding school for adults who wish to partake in certain courses/classes. Went there to train for the academy. I didn't pass the admission test to the academy, though (lol, time well spent), so I decided to just start at the teacher's college while I waited for my six months of quarantine from the academy admission program to end.

Fell in love with being a teacher, though, so I stuck around. Also, your physical health doesn't matter when you're a teacher, so I can drink more beers which is win/win (until I die). But yeah, definitely take a year off if you're feeling burned out on the whole school thing. Just make sure you don't have any ties keeping you away from school once you want/need to go back.

Edited, Apr 15th 2012 1:59pm by Mazra

for a second I read that as excrement which would also be acceptable from what I understand.

I've never heard of a college allowing people to defer entry for a year over here in the states. There probably are plenty that do, but the ones I applied to all required you to apply for the semester you plan to attend. I imagine that's pretty standard for the larger/more competitive universities in the U.S. From their point of view, if you're not going right away, they're not going to hold a spot they could give to someone else.

I think you can defer enrollment at my uni under extenuating circumstances, i.e. you were paralyzed in a car crash.

Actually, that was a really cool thing last year. Someone had been accepted to the school on a baseball scholarship, and was severely injured and hospitalized and was probably going to never walk again, let alone play baseball for the school. The university decided to uphold his scholarship since it had already been extended and he'd accepted, and have him work in an advisory/coaching position instead. His enrollment was deferred until he was out of the hospital.