College Thread (Take Two)

[Ivelliis]

Hey all.

I've been looking at colleges for the past knows how long, and a few have caught my eye.
There is one that is quite far away, but looks pretty good.
There is another that is close but looks less good.

But if I get the same end result (A level in whatever) that's all that matters, right?

I have limited my choices to the following (subjects to take at A Level):

Business Studies - I did this at GNVQ and quite enjoy it, plus it is useful as it can apply to anything you work as.

ICT - I am good at ICT, and I'm looking for an A* in my GCSE exam in January.

English - Not sure whether to do Language/Literature/the English with both of those in it. I could see myself as a writer or journalist or something. I quite enjoy writing.

Maths - I've been told so much to do Maths if I am good at it, as Universities find this a good A level to have.

Law - Law is new and it sounds quite intresting.

Biology - I don't find it that bad at school, plus if I ever decided I wanted to be a doctor or something in the medical profession my options would be open.

I would also like to do some type of Graphic Design, preferably computer based, but as I didn't take it at GCSE I don't think I can.

Now the question

If anyone is in a job which has something to do with the following (Biology = Doctor for instance) could you tell me about it?

Choosing the college is hard, choosing the courses is harder. What if I don't take biology and find out I want to go on to become a doctor? (for example)

[ 11-14-2005, 12:27 PM: Message edited by: Ivelliis ]

[Sir Degrader]

Law= Lawyer.
Math= Math teacher.

Also, if you don't take the preriquisite courses at HS, then maybe take a 101 or introductory course at a local/community college.

[Ivelliis]

Ummm. 101? HS?

All I know about colleges here in England is that we have Secondary School -> College -> University, and you do courses at college to prepare yourself/get the qualifications needed for the degree you want to do at Uni.

*shakes head* It's all far to confusing. How can we expect to narrow our choices down at nearly 16?

[Sir Degrader]

101- Introductory
HS- High School

Just get a general idea of what you want.

[Melcheor]

Biology aint going to be a tremendous amount of use if its the only science. Most medical/biological science courses will want chemistry too.

Business, IT and maths would get you a very good job in finance without even going to uni. Consider the non-uni option, far too many people don't.

Frankly, I don't know how clever you are, advice on these matters depends greatly on intelligence. For example, english language will be frowned upon by the best universities, they all like literature. They probably won't like law either. If you apply to a really good uni, they like to see how clever you are, rather than how much you know, hence if you applied for law, they'd look at you english lit grades more so than your law grades because they give a better indication of raw brainpower. If you are clever (hoping for durham/bristol/oxbridge unis) take traditional, academic subjects.

To be honest, you mix is a bit awkward. You don't really have enough sciences do do science, and you don't have enough arts to do an arts.

Personally, I think you should do further maths and physics and do engineering at uni, but that's probably a bit of bias talking.

Oh BTW, which colleges are you referring to? I live not so far from you (when not at uni anyway), I might know of them.

[Ivelliis]

Not trying to sound big headed, I'm in all top sets at school, and have been since Year 7. I'm predicted A*/A/B's in my exams.

I live in Middlesbrough (Yay smog central) and Prior Pursglove was the college far away. Middlesbrough College is the one I think I am going to apply to, but others are St. Mary's and Bede. I was looking into Stockton Riverside, but they only do BTEC's AFAIK.

I know my mix of subjects is fairly random, but that is just what I quite enjoy/wouldn't mind doing.

I'm a bit puzzled about the whole English language/literature argument. I hate, no, I dispise doing Lord of the Flies and poetry in English at GCSE, I find it hard to stay awake, but people say English literature is regarded more highly than English language.

[ 11-14-2005, 12:26 PM: Message edited by: Ivelliis ]

[Sir Degrader]

Off topic question: what's the difference between "language", "literature" and "the English". Also, have you considered a career in the military?

[Ivelliis]

Language is "the language that we speak", and Literature is doing about novels and poetry and stuff...I think.

I don't really fancy joining the military. As much fun as paintballing is, I doubt it's anything like the real thing.

[Lucern]

Originally posted by Melcheor: Biology aint going to be a tremendous amount of use if its the only science. Most medical/biological science courses will want chemistry too.

Useless American here, so I can't offer much on this thing which doesn't exist here. However, I did want to agree with this. Here at least, pre-medical undergraduate programs (what we call both college and university) entail lots of biology, particularly microbiology and anatomy/systemic physiology (vs the kind I find infinitely more interesting: evolutionary and ecological biology). Simultaneously, students take chemistry classes on a 1:1 basis with the biology classes to get that perspective. Here, students also have to take at least a year of physics to get a respectable score on the MCATs (standardized test for medical schools). They don't get a lot of time to take courses in the humanities, social sciences, or more broadly applied physical sciences.

That being said, I was an anthropology major (at what you'd call uni) and gained quite a bit from biology, barely taking any chemistry. Field labs are way more fun than anything you could do inside, and an evolutionary/ecology perspective is much more applicable to what I do than cellular biology or biochemistry. If you're looking at it on a transcript level, it certainly shows competency in abstract thought that other sciences may not show, but it would look strange as a focus without chemistry.

Edit: On these languages, of course there's always linguistics [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 11-14-2005, 12:49 PM: Message edited by: Lucern ]

[Brayf]

Originally posted by Ivelliis: I've been looking at colleges for the past knows how long, and a few have caught my eye. There is one that is quite far away, but looks pretty good. There is another that is close but looks less good. But if I get the same end result (A level in whatever) that's all that matters, right?

I'm resitting my GCSEs at Stockport College now (I wasn't allowed to finish high school due to my sinful ways ), and believe me, being at a good school makes such a difference. The college I'm at now is awful compared to the school I went to. Sure, I'll still get the grades, but I'm having to teach myself all of the Higher Tier work for Science and Maths in my own time. The lessons are practically useless so it's a real graft to scrape A and A* grades, and I'm learning nothing on top of the bare essentials for those top marks. A good school can easily get someone of your intelligence through the curriculum with flying colours and teach you extra to boot.

I'd strongly recommend enrolling at the best college available as opposed to one for convenience. Also, if you have no firm ideas for a future career you'll need to leave options open, so English and Maths A-Levels are probably good choices. IT could also be good, from what I've heard it's an easy A for anyone with general IT know-how.

[ 11-14-2005, 12:47 PM: Message edited by: Brayf ]