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Ask HN: Rejected from nearly every college. What can/should I do?

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11–20 of 29 posts

Re: Ask HN: Rejected from nearly every college. What can/should I do?

#11
It is not a failure it is only a hiccup... I was 16 when i came to USA from Poland. I was struggling with English so after high school I decided to go to community college to learn English. I was two years behind everyone in my age group but I finally transferred to Penn State.

In my last year I decided to take a "break" from school to focus on my start up and I don't feel lie I failed because I didn't finish school, even though my parents were sad about my choice and I felt like I disappointed them.

If you worry about paying for college then it is not that hard as it may seem if you are willing to put some work into it. There is many options for Financial Aid or scholarships and they are not only reserved for the best students. My parents weren't able to pay for my school so I had to pay for it. I started working in a construction company during summer to pay for school. Whenever i was able to work over time I did. After summer i was always able to pay for my school and I had money saved up to live without asking my parents for financial support. I didn't have much but it was enough to not starve.

In the end, owner of the construction company now is my co-founder and is financing my start up and my English is still bad, but I am working on it all the time! You will always come across challenges but there is always solution to everything, You just need to work for it.

Re: Ask HN: Rejected from nearly every college. What can/should I do?

#12
post #3

If you live in the US then you should look into community colleges that offer transfer degrees. Many offer automatic acceptance into a public 4 year university if you do well enough. PLUS it will save you a ton of money.

Would getting a transfer degree at a community college be better than getting an associates that ties in with the field I want to study? I intend on studying until I get my Masters but I don't know if I should go for an associates in something that relates closely to CS or get a transfer degree in science.

Re: Ask HN: Rejected from nearly every college. What can/should I do?

#13
post #3

If you live in the US then you should look into community colleges that offer transfer degrees. Many offer automatic acceptance into a public 4 year university if you do well enough. PLUS it will save you a ton of money.

Do this! I went to community college and you where guaranteed admission into any state school as long as you meet the GPA requirements. Work hard at community college and go to a great state school. Best thing to do if you messed up in high school and still want to go to a good school.

Re: Ask HN: Rejected from nearly every college. What can/should I do?

#14

Go to community college and do really well. I know of people (including myself) who successully transferred to ivy leagues after cc. This is not the end.

I didn't know that was actually possible. I'm going to find out where to go on Monday after talking to my counselor. Just need time to think about things.

Re: Ask HN: Rejected from nearly every college. What can/should I do?

#15
I am really sorry to hear about your recent struggles. I am no stranger to feeling this way.

Right now you are thinking there are no options to make your parents proud or fulfill your life goals. Don't ever think there are no options. We can't always follow our desired path that we lay out for ourselves. Sometimes we have to follow a different path because of unforeseeable, or sometimes, self-inflicting circumstances. In a perfect life I would have gone to film school after high school, but instead I ended up doing a bunch of other stuff until I graduated with a B.S. when I was 31.

You are going to need to way your options. As others have said you should consider community college. It is cheap, and if your parents can help you, you can work part-time and afford it. After two years of community college you can transfer to a state college.

Everyone has failed, my friend. Pick yourself back up. I know it is hard, I know it feels like the future is dim, but it isn't.

If you want to talk further my email is my username @gmail.com

Re: Ask HN: Rejected from nearly every college. What can/should I do?

#16
Whatever you do, please don't give up. Your future is still ahead of you and you haven't failed yet. As cheesy as this may sound, there is so much more to life that you have yet to experience.

If you don't receive an acceptance to a college and reside in the US, I highly recommend attending a community college and transferring to a university.

I know because I went into high school a bright student as well, and like you, I came out without many options. I felt as if I had failed my family because I was the oldest of four and I was supposed to be the first one in my family to go to college. During my senior year of high school, I decided that I wasn't going to let my failures stop me from succeeding.

I went to the local community college, stayed focus, and transferred after two years to one of the top public universities in the United States with scholarships that paid for my entire education.

Now I'm here in the Bay Area, as passionate as ever about pursuing a career in software development. I still have a long road ahead of me and so do you.

Re: Ask HN: Rejected from nearly every college. What can/should I do?

#17
post #3

If you live in the US then you should look into community colleges that offer transfer degrees. Many offer automatic acceptance into a public 4 year university if you do well enough. PLUS it will save you a ton of money.

Thirded. My wife took classes at DeAnza college in San Jose for something like $30 per credit hour. Once she maxed out on transferable classes she transferred to a 4 year college where it was $300 per credit hour.

In the end her degree was from a well known 4 year college.

Re: Ask HN: Rejected from nearly every college. What can/should I do?

#18
See if your 4-year college offers continuing education classes: you don't typically need to go through an acceptance process to get into those classes. After a couple of semesters, see about matriculating over to the undergrad program. The process for applying as an existing student is different than for incoming freshman. This is how I got into college in 1986.

Re: Ask HN: Rejected from nearly every college. What can/should I do?

#20
First off: Asking for help means that you aren't anywhere close to a failure. We all hit our limits at some point - the thing that separates the successful from the unsuccessful is that the former recognize their limits and get help when they hit them.

Going or not going to college will not make or break you! A lot of young kids seem to have a view that if they don't go to college, they're destined for a minimum-wage job for the rest of their lives. This isn't true. What will land you there is giving up - so don't!

If you want continuing education, community college is an excellent place to start. It's much, much cheaper than a university, and you can complete all your "bullshit" classes there at cut rates while earning transfer credits that you can then take to a university. With tuition and student loan rates where they're at, I'm not sure that spending your first couple of post-high school classes at a university is necessarily a wise economic choice, anyhow!

Second, what did you want to study in college, and what do you want to work as when you graduate? No matter what the answer is, here is the single best thing you can do for your future: Find a way to start working in your target industry. Internships are the traditional way to do this, but there are lots of ways in. The important thing is that you start accruing industry experience now. Unless you want to be a MD, civil engineer, or lawyer, your degree is probably not going to make or break your career aspirations - it may make it easier to get interviews and find interest from employers, but at the end of the day, an employer is going to care about what you have done and what you can do, not what it says on your diploma. A 22-year-old with 4 years of hands-on industry experience and a couple of years of community college is going to be a lot more attractive to a lot of companies than a 22-year-old with a shiny university degree and balls-all for experience. The former comes with training and knowledge baked in - the latter has proved that they can attend class and take tests, but will have to be trained, at risk and cost to the employer.

Thirdly, please talk to someone at your school (a guidance councilor, probably) about finding someone to talk to about this stuff. Counseling is not just for "broken" people - we all need it to some degree or another. You're dealing with some heavy stuff, and need someone to listen and talk through this with you. The fact that you're posting here tells me that you're open to help - your school should have resources you can take advantage of. It might hurt your pride, but it will help. Go ask.

Finally, this isn't the end. This is so cliche and cheesy, but you have your whole life ahead of you. What seems like catastrophe today will be something you look back at and see as a small speedbump in the grand scheme of things. I realize this is the most important thing in your life today (and has been for the past four years, at least!), but this is not the most important thing you'll do in life. That honor is further down the road yet. :)

You have drive and you care. That puts you ahead of SO many of your peers. Find someone you can talk to, get out this anger and frustration you're feeling (it's okay to feel it! Really!), and then figure out how to channel that frustration into solutions.

My dad always told me that there are no "No's". If you are told no, then just keep going until you'll find someone who will tell you "Yes" (if for no other reason than you've annoyed them so much that they'll give you what you want to shut you up. /g). It won't be easy, but it will get you what you want.

Good luck.

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