David Dyer-Bennet wrote: >Sokerchick <sokerchick777 at yahoo.com> writes: > > >>hmm... my only advice is go to a big school. LOL. I'm currently a >>sophmore in college, so it wasn't more than two years ago that i was >>looking at schools trying to decide what i wanted to do with my >>life. In the end i decided that while i too love to write creativly >>i faced two major problems. One i can't spell for crap, and while >>they do have spell check and the like it's sometimes so bad that >>even spell check can't figure out what i'm trying to get at. And >>second i sorely lack the talent to create my own stuff. >> >>Solution: Go to a big school. I'm currently an Engineering student >>(following my talents and not necessicarily, theres that spelling >>thing again, my heart) But the upside of big schools. Lots and lots >>of gen eds. I'm taking some philosophy and lit classes. as well as >>looking into sculpture stuff. Big schools offer a lot in the way of >>choices. So don't pigeon hole yourself into one thing. Theres far >>worse things you can do than go into college as an >>"undecided". Trust me. I've had friends change majors after being >>Bio freshman year to English, and not much transfers and you end up >>a year behind. As an undecided you can take just about whatever you >>want, and get a feel for what you like. >> >> > >I, on the other hand, would suggest that people should avoid big >schools for undergraduate work. Unless you're set on a career track >involving graduate school, and have the kind of drive and background >that can have you taking graduate courses and starting to meet real >movers and shakers in your field, you'll get a much better education >at a small school (and even if you do have that drive, you may *still* >get a better and broader education at a good small college). In >particular, any school where undergraduate courses are largely taught >by "teaching assistants", that is, graduate students teaching their >first few courses has some severe problems to overcome. > >Small colleges offer a lot of variety too -- from art to art history >to literature to history to social sciences to mathematics to real >sciences to philosophy to moderna and ancient languages to foreign or >english literature. And generally *much* better teaching -- better >teachers *and* smaller classes at the same time. What they don't >offer is vocational programs. > > I agree with DDB; small schools may be more expensive, but unless your TAs are top-notch (good luck with that), you get a better education. I went to Boston College and only had a TA for my chemistry lab. She was a good TA, too. I took a Philosophy of Tolkien course that let me read the Hobbit, LOTR, and the Silmarillion for credit, among other Tolkien works. Wesleyan seems like a good choice for creative-minded folks; they seem to be very receptive to people who want to embrace creativity. They also require your taking more than just arts classes. Of course, if you decide you want to be an engineer, you'd have a hard time taking courses for that at either BC or Wesleyan (I don't know about Wesleyan, but BC does have an excellent business school as well as excellent science departments in addition to its liberal arts). Jose -- Jose Marquez | There are 10 types of people in jhereg69 at earthlink.net | the world: those who understand http://www.hackwater.com | binary, and those who don't.