College Advice

[not.your.average.joe]

Well folks, it's Labor Day. As a teenager entering junior year of high school, I can feel it in the air - summer's out of reach. This school year begins the countdown to college. Enter thought control and dark sarcasm. Do the vigilant and the virtuous have any advice?

What I say is important:
Christianity. Debt = FRN's = slavery! I am interested in agriculture and architecture as possible careers, and I enjoy learning about American history. YAL. Ron Paul!

What the people say is important (but what do all the people know?):
I am an A student taking all honors classes in one of the top STEM high schools in the country. I live in New Jersey. Agriculture is monopolized by government.

Are there any colleges that you could suggest? A place where history is a mirror and not a blank chalkboard? Austrian economics? Liberty? Should I even go to college? I'm at that place where I've got my sights set straight ahead, but I'm not sure what I'm after.

[heavenlyboy34]

Well folks, it's Labor Day. As a teenager entering junior year of high school, I can feel it in the air - summer's out of reach. This school year begins the countdown to college. Enter thought control and dark sarcasm. Do the vigilant and the virtuous have any advice?

What I say is important:
Christianity. Debt = FRN's = slavery! I am interested in agriculture and architecture as possible careers, and I enjoy learning about American history. YAL. Ron Paul!

What the people say is important (but what do all the people know?):
I am an A student taking all honors classes in one of the top STEM high schools in the country. I live in New Jersey. Agriculture is monopolized by government.

Are there any colleges that you could suggest? A place where history is a mirror and not a blank chalkboard? Austrian economics? Liberty? Should I even go to college? I'm at that place where I've got my sights set straight ahead, but I'm not sure what I'm after.

Find someone who does exactly what you want to do. Ask them how to get that job. Do that. You might be surprised at how different it is from what college advisors want to sell you. Remember, their incentive is to keep you taking expensive classes and buying expensive books as long as possible-not necessarily to get a job. It's only been since the ADA or so that a degree has been seen as a job qual or equal to competency. /rant off

[dannno]

Cal Poly SLO has a really great agriculture program and a fantastic engineering/sciences/architecture program. Maybe you can get a scholarship if you decide to go that route. Major in engineering or something in the sciences and maybe double major or minor in ag.

[specsaregood]

Don't take on debt. Personally, I think the community colleges are the best bang for your buck around. It took me a lot of money and years before I figured that out. If you are really an A student you could go to any community college in NJ for free. http://njccc.org/njstars/nj_stars.html Get an AA for absolutely no money and transfer to the 4 year school of your choice if you choose to do so.

[heavenlyboy34]

Don't take on debt. Personally, I think the community colleges are the best bang for your buck around. It took me a lot of money and years before I figured that out. If you are really an A student you could go to any community college in NJ for free. http://njccc.org/njstars/nj_stars.html Get an AA for absolutely no money and transfer to the 4 year school of your choice if you choose to do so.

Excellent post^^ In my area CC's only charge 106 FRNs/credit hour and credits transfer to the state universities. Important to talk to a counselor when getting started, btw.

ETA: another good thing about CC's is that teachers are more often than not active or retired professionals in the fields they teach. I had a design teacher who was on the design team for the Lord Of The Rings films, for example.

[106459]

Ha. Agriculture and architecture, a bit outside my expertise.

Be careful if you decide to go community college (associates) > university. Even in Virginia where universities are required to accept credits from other accredited schools, there's no law that they have to apply your major credits to your major degree. I.e. you have 80 credits (60 towards agriculture, AGR), so you get 80 credits at university, but potentially 0 of them apply towards your bachelor's requirements (they count as a generic AGR elective AGR000 or whatever). So you have to retake all 60 credits to meet the requirement and they effectively didn't help you, other than you have to take less AGR electives..
-Probably talk to your community college about successes they have with transferring credits to various universities
-*Follow up with the actual university to do some kind of fact-check*, they're ultimately the ones with the say

+1 to talking to people in the field you want to be in. It can be tough to figure out how to find people, but it can be worth its weight in gold.

I would see if there are any CTE (career and technical education) courses in your area, those are designed to be hands-on and based around industry/certifications rather than just textbook/theory. You can learn some real neat stuff that can save you big money (landscaping, automotive, residential electric, HVAC, IT, etc). I did brakes/rotors on my car myself for $100 parts, guess I shoulda asked how many arms/legs a shop would charge.

Otherwise, just keep going down the right path, don't stagnate. Figure out what you want to learn, dedicate 5 hours a week (or whatever is reasonable in your circumstance). That's 250 hours a year you can give yourself.
-If for some reason that doesn't sound like a lot, look around for all these "bootcamps" that are two weeks/80 hours and cost $3,000 or more. And I guarantee that learning is a lot less effective.
-That 250 hours a year is why people in their 30s/40s make the big bucks. When you have people with 20,000 hours of experience and 2500 hours of education, that's why.

But, advice on university is hard to give. Try to figure out what you want to do, find a way to start learning about it, and make sure the courses under the degree actually line up.

[heavenlyboy34]

Oh, another thing-librarians are a great resource in helping you find information. Highly recommend you enlist the help of a local librarian in doing your research. They might even be able to hook you up with someone who can help you directly.

[Natural Citizen]

OP isn't a student. Pretty sure OP is transcribing from a student board.

Aside from that, my advice would be to learn accounting, practice proper human relations, land a business degree and start a small business in the field of something that one likes doing.

My degree sits in a drawer. I don't use it for anything.

[r3volution 3.0]

@not.your.average.joe

For learning history or economics, college isn't necessary.

You can teach yourself simply by reading (and the relevant books range from cheap to free, contra college textbooks).

I'm not opposed to college, mind you, but - unless you/your parents have unlimited funds - do it with a specific career in mind.

And I wouldn't make the quality of the history/economic depts. a major consideration, unless you intend to be an academic in those fields.

OP isn't a student. Pretty sure OP is transcribing from a student board.

I was wondering about that...

If the OP is currently in 11th grade, he'd have been about nine years old when he joined RPF...?

...on the other hand, he isn't your average joe.

[not.your.average.joe]

Thanks for the good advice. I guess my first step will be getting in touch with two architects who attend my church. Nice young guys making big FRN's. A friend of mine owns a horse farm, I could start there as well. The original not.your.average.joe went the community college route. He ended up switching pursuits several times in university. I don't want to take the chance of that happening, but on the other hand, he was debt free. I guess I'll have to see what the architects and the horse farmer say and post back here later.

[specsaregood]

I was wondering about that...

If the OP is currently in 11th grade, he'd have been about nine years old when he joined RPF...?

...on the other hand, he isn't your average joe.

This might clear things up: (not the original account owner)
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...-account-owner

My older cousin, not.your.average.joe , was diagnosed with leukemia in early January 2016. After several weeks of chemo in the hospital, he passed away. Over the past eight years, he has had a profound impact on my life and the way I think. He introduced Ron Paul to me back in 2012, and since then I've tried my best to educate myself and incorporate the principles of liberty to my life.

Without not.your.average.joe here to guide me, I decided to join Ron Paul Forums to learn from other people of a like mind. Thanks a lot to Bryan from RPF staff for making it possible for me to continue this account, as it holds sentimental value.

Note: I'm probably a lot younger than most of the people on this forum.

[r3volution 3.0]

This might clear things up: (not the original account owner)
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...-account-owner

10-4

[Natural Citizen]

Hm. I see.

[Lamp]

2 hours into the semester and I'm just waiting for the school year to be over as usual............

[oyarde]

Well folks, it's Labor Day. As a teenager entering junior year of high school, I can feel it in the air - summer's out of reach. This school year begins the countdown to college. Enter thought control and dark sarcasm. Do the vigilant and the virtuous have any advice?

What I say is important:
Christianity. Debt = FRN's = slavery! I am interested in agriculture and architecture as possible careers, and I enjoy learning about American history. YAL. Ron Paul!

What the people say is important (but what do all the people know?):
I am an A student taking all honors classes in one of the top STEM high schools in the country. I live in New Jersey. Agriculture is monopolized by government.

Are there any colleges that you could suggest? A place where history is a mirror and not a blank chalkboard? Austrian economics? Liberty? Should I even go to college? I'm at that place where I've got my sights set straight ahead, but I'm not sure what I'm after.

I would look for a job where your employer will pay for your school . Probably business . I would not waste time with economics , you can learn that yourself If you want to learn about agriculture the best way is to do it , but you will not earn enough doing it to buy your own land . Do not borrow money for school .

[tod evans]

I would look for a job where your employer will pay for your school . Probably business . I would not waste time with economics , you can learn that yourself If you want to learn about agriculture the best way is to do it , but you will not earn enough doing it to buy your own land . Do not borrow money for school .

What he said!

[Lamp]

Do you live in Alabama by any chance?

[tod evans]

Do you live in Alabama by any chance?

To whom are you speaking?

[Lamp]

To whom are you speaking?

The OP

[oyarde]

Do you live in Alabama by any chance?

No , but I bought a case of Alabama Sunshine Spicy BBQ sauce there one time .

[oyarde]

The OP

Nah , he is in New Jersey. Hopefully he stays clear of the Pine Barrens this time of year . This is when the Jersey Devil appears so I hear.

[specsaregood]

ETA: another good thing about CC's is that teachers are more often than not active or retired professionals in the fields they teach. I had a design teacher who was on the design team for the Lord Of The Rings films, for example.

Agreed. My calc 1,2 and stats 1,2,3 teacher at CC was a retired NASA engineer and he was the best math teacher I ever had. He used examples that turned theory into real world applications.

[kfarnan]

college is for employees or being a cog. If that's what you want...

It's a slow-lane to mediocrity mostly.

[PierzStyx]

BYU-Idaho has a great agriculture college with multiple different degrees. It is also around $3,000 a semester. It is a private religious school, which means conforming to its expectations -mainly in dress and not drinking alcohol or doing drugs. But for the price it is incredible.

[gaazn]

If all the colleges and universities all donated one of their own online course to create a free school for everyone, the world would be a better place.

[not.your.average.joe]

Anyone have any experience with Keene College in New Hampshire? I heard they have a good architecture program and a YAL chapter forming. Plus, New Hampshire is a bit of a step up from New Jersey as far as liberty goes.

[Murray N Rothbard]

Tom Woods went to Harvard and Columbia.
Judge Nap went to Princeton and Notre Dame.
Ron and Rand both got their MD at Duke.

College is what you make of it. You don't need a libertarian echo chamber of a college to come out of it with valuable ideas, knowledge, skills, etc. Nobody is going to be able to indoctrinate you if you enter with strong fundamental principles. And nobody is going to flunk you if you are intelligent and hardworking. So decide what direction you want to go in life, what kind of jobs/career/etc and choose a college that will help you on that path. The guys mentioned above seemed to have wanted to go into writing, law and medicine, and those colleges they went to- yes, those supposed worthless flaming liberal cesspools Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, etc- nevertheless helped them tremendously.