One of the most important lessons any man will learn in life is how important scouting is. Whenever you have the chance to learn about a situation before hand, do it. You don't want to jump into something completely blind.
Most kids will graduate high school at the age of 18 then jump into college the very next semester. One of the biggest differences a kid is going to notice between high school and college is that in college, you get to choose your field of study, your classes, and your schedule.
First thing first, don't major in something stupid. What is a stupid major? Go buy Worthless by Aaron Clarey.
After you make sure you major in some sort of STEM degree, realize that your degree will require you to take a lot of classes that are a complete waste of time and money. You will take at least 2 years of core classes which must be taken before you can actually pursue your field of study.
With that being said, you still need to take these worthless classes and do well in them. You need to do this to maintain a good GPA which has some affect on your employment prospects after graduating but it plays a more immediate effect on merit based scholarships.
Some of these classes are unavoidable. I'm sure every single major requires 2 English classes and most majors require some sort of foreign language class. Two history classes are required. If I recall correctly, I think that psychology is unavoidable and you have to take at least one philosophy class.
Some of these classes, you will have a choice to take. In my college days, I had to take 3 classes that were a 3000 level class outside of my field of study.
These classes will have nothing to do with your major. So to make your experience as painless as possible, go ahead and follow the path of least resistance. Choose the easy classes that you can do well in and boost your GPA. Just make sure that those credits count towards your degree.
Before signing up for your classes, you get to see the time slot and the professor that teaches the class. This is where the scouting comes in. Make sure to gather intel on your prospective teacher by looking them up on www.ratemyprofessors.com. If you are about to go to college or are in college and don't know about ratemyprofessor, bookmark this link now.
Rate my professor has been around since I was in high school. It has saved me on a few occasions. Most of the teachers you look up will be average. If you have the option to take a professor that is highly rated, you may want to sign up for those. Higher ratings tend to correlate with easier classes.
The biggest reason you want to use ratemyprofessors is to scan for professors that are absolutely insane. The difficulty of the exact same history class can vary drastically depending on who teaches it. If you find a professor with 20 ratings all rating the professor 1 or 2, make sure to avoid that professor. You don't need to make life harder than it already is.
I experienced this when I was about to sign up for an accounting class years back. I had the option to take it in the Summer but only one professor taught it in the summer. I saw 20 ratings off students just dumping all over her.
She was described as senile, retarded, argumentative, and contradictory. The comment that just absolutely broke it for me was that a student claimed this professor stated that debits went on the right and credits go on the left.
After reading all that, I decided to put that class off until the Fall where I could take a better professor.
You want to avoid getting an awful professor for a few important reasons. When I was in college, you were only allowed to withdraw from a class 6 times. If you withdrew from a class after 6 times, you would get an F for the class and that would tank your GPA.
The other real important reason you want to avoid withdrawing from a horrible class is time. If you drop a class, that is time that is being wasted. You have to get those credits sooner or later. In the case of a withdraw, you have to take those classes later.
The other scouting technique I want to briefly mention is getting the syllabus. Go to classes on the first day and make sure to get a copy of it. Unlike high school, in college, every graded item will show up on the syllabus. The point values for every item is listed and the schedule for every graded item is listed. Using the syllabus will let you track your current progress in the class and give you an idea of how much effort you have to put in to get a certain grade.
If you found this information helpful, please visit Academic Composition.
No comments:
Post a Comment