National College Fair assignment

1) To gain a broad perspective relative to the different types of colleges, campuses, and programs, provide the name and a brief description of the following: (Do not hesitate to explore colleges outside the Northwest states, do not use the same college twice, and do not simply list information available on their website.)

A public college:
Highline Community College: Highline has a major in computer science, but did not believe they had one in networking.

A private college:
Digipen: Digipen had a major in computer science, networking classes, and a focus on game programming. I should take math and physics if I want to get in there.

A rural college:
Southern Oregon University: SOU was rural, internships were moderately regarded here, they have a BA in computer science, and the person running the booth did not seem like he knew much about our area, nor did he give the impression he cared.

A traditional large university:
University of Washington, Tacoma: This University offers a Masters in computer science. The BA class sizes are about 15-20 people and getting smaller to the Master classes of 5-10. Networking classes are included in the computer science degrees, along with theory/design, programming, algorithm development, hardware. Calculus, background knowledge in programming, and physics are preferred, along with Java 1 and 2.

A small alternative college:
Evergreen State: Evergreen was an interesting college, you are able to major in computer science, along with 2-3 other disciplines at the same time, apparently you get thrust into a study of a subject and find how your discipline relates to that subject.

2) Select a college major that you might be interested in pursuing. (Computer Science) Find three colleges that are known to offer quality programs in that major. You may choose only one of the three colleges from within the state of Washington. Briefly describe what impressed you about each of these colleges. Then finally, describe how your overall educational experience might differ if you were to choose one college over the others. In making your comparisons, be sure to consider some the issues raised in the “suggested questions” above. (You probably should do some research on this before attending the Fair)

The University of Advanced Technology seems to offer quality programs in computer science. This University is completely and unashamedly geared towards nerds and people with a passion about computers and gaming. The brochure makes it seem like an enormously fun and inviting place for me to go to. However, I was not impressed with their representatives, they seemed tentative to give us any form information. Also, because it is in Arizona, and is a private college, I don’t believe I would be able to afford it, because leaving Washington would take me away from my high paying job at my family business, and the tuition is higher at private colleges.

University of Washington, Tacoma looked to me to be my best choice. It offers a Masters in computer science, two different degrees in fact. Also, the small class sizes would allow for a better, more personable experience where I can get hands on help from the teachers. Its close proximity to my current house would also allow me to keep this housing option if I so choose, along with my current job. Another thing that impressed me about this college was that their representative happened to include the head of that particular wing, so I was able to get quality, trustworthy information.

The only thing about Southern Oregon University was that I had previously heard of it, so I assumed it was at least somewhat prestigious. The representative seemed to know little about their computer sciences degree, leading me to suspect that they are not proud of that area, nor is it at all important to them. Also, it only offers up to a BA in computer sciences, when I was hoping to get a Masters.

3) Attend at least one of the workshops during your time at the Fair. Briefly describe the content of the workshop and evaluate the information received.

I attended the workshop for financial help. It told me about many boring and nearly useless (for me) things. First it told me about the FAFSA or Free Application for Federal Student Aid. One thing that was that private colleges are about twice the cost of public colleges and cost about 35k per year, and that the UW costs about 19k per year with tuition making up 6.8k of that. I learned that aid counts as scholarships, grants, work study, and loans. Another thing I learned was that there is 122 billion dollars in aid given annually. Grants are free money for the needy according to the sermon. The last thing I learned was that I should try www.fastweb.com and www.FAFSA.ed.gov

4) Write a personal evaluation of your experience of attending the National College Fair. Share whatever thoughts you have, but be sure to include a discussion of the following:
 What information was the most useful?
 What questions are still unanswered?
 What should now be included in the next phase of your educational and career planning process?

Personally, I found the experience to be very informative but for the most part only actually minimally helpful. I found out a lot about different colleges, found that most of the research I did online wasn’t useful, and found that I still mainly want to get into the University of Washington in Tacoma. However, most of what they told us, I could have gotten from online, what it’s main use was, was that it helped me find what colleges I was interested in other than the University of Washington. I hadn’t even heard of Digipen or the University of Advanced Technology through my research, but I saw their booths and thought they would be really nice to go to if they offered a Masters in what I was looking for. I believe my next phase should be to do as well as possible in school and attempt to be involved as much as possible.