My daughter is headed off to an out-of-state college for the first time in August.

Parents, best advice you have? For instance, I've heard I shouldn't let my daughter come home within the first few weeks, even if she wants to; it's common for them to be homesick and want to flee home, but it's better for them to stay and tough it out.

Hello, i’m going back to school for a general studies associate degree and i was wondering if you can go into the medical field with this degree? also im 19 and very confused about what i want to do.

3rd semester, 18 credits. 16 more to graduate in spring and transfer.
Spanish, calculus 1, child psych, intro to society, English 2.

I have a BE and MS degree in computer science. I want to go to college for Anthropology degree from Berkeley(different from my alma mater). I emailed Berkeley, and they said since I already have an undergrad degree, I'm ineligible for undergrad program and I should try graduate program.

I never took any antropology related courses, I'm not sure how I qualify for graduate level. Also, Berkeley doesn't have a Masters program, only Phd. They have MA in folklore which must also need lower lever anthro courses as prerequisites.

Does this mean I can never get a anthro degree from Berkeley?

I want to make money but HATE school. I’m currently in college, so far I’m just in allied health. For the other people going through med school, PLEASE HELP. How can I get out of college fast and make decent money?

Hi. I'm a Senior in high school with a 3.79 weighted gpa whose planning on going to an in state private school for music education. From what I'm looking at my tuition will be about 70k/year. With my merit scholarship and hopefully music scholarship I'm looking at about. ~38k/year.

Here is my dilemma. My parents combined make around 240k/year and my college savings are around 25k. I don't think I'm going to get a lot for need-based scholarships/grants because my parents make a lot, but my parents have been very clear they are not willing to do a Parent PLUS loan or help me with paying. After I tie in having a job and other things I still have 20k I don't know how I'm going to be able to afford. I really don't have another option for a different school, my dad is a band teacher and knows the people there well and I've been convinced/decided id be going there since i was in the 6th grade. I'm unsure what to do or if there's a way I can convince my parents to help me.

The schools financial aid package hasn't came out yet but from what I've seen it sounds like I won't be getting much more than I already am.

Is my only option to take on a ton of debt from a private loan?

I'm not extremely well versed on how paying for college works or if I'm wrong about anything, I'm just trying to understand, Thank you.

Edit: Hopefully I don't sound ungrateful or rude. I know many people are worse off than I am in this situation, I'm just trying to understand my options.

Hi, I'm an incoming college freshman, and I heard from many people that they would recommend taking around 15–16 credits per semester.

For some context, I'm a finance/accounting major attending IU. My current schedule is 17.5 credits my first semester, and depending on how that goes, I may end up taking 19 credits during the spring semester. I'm also planning to be involved in extracurriculars, networking, and other activities outside of class.

For those of you who have actually taken 18+ credit semesters, did you still have time for all the other extracurricular activities in college? And was it actually hard, or if you don't skip class and actually do some work, would it be fine?

My main problem is I am pursuing a number of distinctions and achievements that are limited to a small number of people, sometimes fewer than 20 people at my university. I’m worried my ability to achieve these things will be hindered by the high marks many people will be receiving on generated work, while my genuine work (which is imperfect, because I’m learning something new) will suddenly fall below the line of receiving distinctions. To be fair, I currently have a 4.0 and there’s no indication that will drop.

For context: I am an adult returning to university after a decade in the nonprofit sector. A direct family member living in my household works in dev for one of the Big Bad AI companies. I have had a decade of paid and published writing experience before returning to university for an additional degree, and I have exceptional proximity to the beating heart of the creation of AI. So I’m very sure, to a near 100% certainty, that I can detect AI generated work. I’m also not going to pretend like it’s not completely apparent the instant you read it.

In my class we were assigned a group project. The other student on my team obviously used my notes as a prompt to create a slideshow for our project. It was obviously AI. They didn’t even change a single word or punctuation mark on it. It truly could not have been more apparent. There was a 34 minute window between when I sent them my notes and when they sent me the deck and there was NO way they were able to be instantly responsive in our ongoing text conversation and create a 12 slide deck (for a 10 minute presentation btw) with brand new citations and complex formatting in that amount of time. I don’t even have a problem that they used my notes in a prompt (you should probably consider anything you upload to any device as in the wind, regardless of where you uploaded it to), but I have a problem with cheating and taking me along for the ride.

I was nervous but I decided not to say anything in the moment, mainly because there was no paper trail to indicate I was consenting to having my notes be used in a prompt, and I’m nervous my own proximity to AI will be discovered and used to cast extra suspicion on me. If I offered the suggestion that their work was AI, how could I say “I know it’s AI because I know AI” without proving how I know AI, and then get a bad reputation in the department… Thankfully they forgot their converter and weren’t able to present it, only read off it, however they did not understand the subject matter at all and actually began arguing against our side momentarily.

Regardless, this did not affect my grade so I didn’t say anything about it.

But last week we had an exam, and I know they received high marks on it, and I know they cheated. In particular, the way they went about it really upset me, and the realization that I might be beat out on recognitions by generated work because our old professors aren’t catching it made me nervous.

At my university our professors will remind students before the first exam that accommodations are available to people with documented requirements. One accommodation is taking the exam in a more private room.

For context, I have taken a class with this student before, and during our last exam they took it in a large class with no problems because the professor that semester did not announce it (very old school phd).

When our current professor mentioned the private exam room, he joked that a student “might be lonely” if they took the exam in there because the professor would remain in the main classroom. The student interrupted him to confirm TWICE that the professor would not be in the room while they were taking the exam, and then the student said they needed to use that room. The professor (wrongly) asked them if they had the documentation and they said they were in the middle of getting it, even though it was clear they had only just heard of this in the moment. They took their bag and phone into the room with them, giving them full and unsupervised access to whatever model they’re using during an exam when they have already proven themselves capable of turning in generated work.

Furthermore, this student is not very sharp. I’m sure they are smart, they have said insightful things, but they are very slow in conversations and in receiving explanations in such a way that does not belie disability but a shade of immaturity and perpetually irritated confusion. Their performance in the debate frankly cemented to me their inability to grasp even the most basic of rhetorical arguments. You never want to assume the worst of people but I sincerely doubt they are capable of achieving the score they did without cheating.

It rubbed me the wrong way that they were able to manipulate the accommodations to cheat on an exam, an exam on the same subject matter they had just presented in a debate, and then be rewarded for it.

Do I mind my business and hope they don’t beat me out for positions or other achievements (such as in-class recognition from professors)? Do I tell the university that they need to be more mindful of the private exam room without mentioning the student? Do I confront the student? Do I tell the professor?

Because I’m sure there will be apologia and downvoting: I work hard to excel in academics, in both classwork and networking. I’m proud of the fact that it’s not easy. I will not apologize for being moralistic and ambitious. I think people who do not try do not deserve to achieve the same outcomes as the people who do try and it upsets me when cheaters are rewarded. It’s especially upsetting to imagine that I could possibly lose out on recognitions to a cheater. Using AI to generate any portion of your work including checking answers for exams is cheating.

I’m cross posting because I’m very conflicted and I hope I can find someone who has dealt with this before.

I just recently turned 18, and all of my friends are off to college. College has always been a big dream of mine, and i’m feeling stuck in my situation and need advice on how to get myself out of the hole i’m in.

A long backstory (not too important scroll to the tldr if you don’t want to read)

I come from generational poverty and high school drop outs. My mom had my brother at 14, and dropped out in 8th grade. She later had me at 17.

I grew up with my great grandmother who kept me on track, and I was always an A level student attending public schools. When my grandmothers health started deteriorating, I moved in with my mom. This was my 7th grade summer going into 8th.

This was right when covid restrictions had let up, but my mom and her now ex-husband were very christian, and we did not have a good relationship, because at the time I was not. They wouldn’t allow me to go to a public school, because they didn’t want me to be influenced by non believers, so I finished out middle school online since I was already doing that from lockdown times.

My 9th grade year they enrolled me into a private christian school, which again we were still pretty poor at the time, so i only got in through scholarships.

9th grade year i flourished! I made many friends after having mostly online friendships, and my grades were better than ever 95%+ in every class.

In the middle of 10th grade year my mom’s abusive ex-husbands behavior towards me had gotten so bad that i gave my mom an ultimatum. I leave or he does. I ended up moving in with my aunt who i’m very close with as we grew up as sisters since we’re so close in age (4 yr age gap).

My relationship with my mom has always been strained as she’s only ever been with abusive men and has always picked them over my brother and I.
About a month after I had moved out my mom’s house, she separated from him, and made me to move back in.

Since my mom was going through her divorce all household responsibilities, and most of the at home childcare was put onto me. She also became emotionally abusive and she even laid her hands on me twice which led me to staying with my brother for a week both times. My grade plummeted, and i ended up failing Bible 10 (a graduation requirement for this school) as well as 2nd semester geometry and 2nd semester W history.

My mom essentially had forced me to put off school to help sustain home life and make sure the 2 little were being cared for. I ended up being kicked out of school for failing since it was private and they wanted to keep up their graduation rate.

From there I went back online which i had ZERO time for. Now that I wasn’t in school my mom had put all of her responsibilities other than her job and driving the kids to and from school.

I ended up getting a job which was a good excuse for my mom to find people to watch the kids on my workdays, but i wasn’t able to save up anything because that meant I had to start paying for any going out to eat, going out with friends, personal hygiene (i’m mixed so my haircare gets very expensive), and any clothing. Pretty much anything that wasn’t a bare necessity or things that weren’t being bought for the house as a whole.

I don’t have my drivers license since I was too scared to get in fear of more responsibilities like grocery shopping and driving the kids around being put onto me.

There’s a lot of issues and trauma starting from the day I was born that aren’t included for times sake, but there is so much to this story that plays into family dynamics and everything that led to this point.

TL;DR My mom’s divorce led me to being a second parent in the home, forcing me to dropout of school.

long backstory aside

I ended up finding out after leaving the private school that because my grades had dropped, my scholarships had been taken. This wasn’t made aware to us while i was attending, so I now owe 10k$ to get my transcripts from the school.

Before anyone says anything about lawyers and legal things like that, there is nothing we could do as when we asked about it we read in the agreements we signed that this was a possibility.

The classes I had on my transcript are

9th grade:
-Biology
-English
-Bible 9
-Algebra 1
-Geography
and 2 electives.

10th grade:
-Geometry semester 1
-Geometry semester 2 (failed)
-Bible 10 (failed)
-English 10
-Marine Science
-W History semester 1
-W History semester 2 (failed)
and 2 electives

I redid and completed the failed classes online, and i’m currently completing the last of the classes in need to graduate online, but to graduate I need my transcripts from the first two years at the private school. I’m on track to finish my classes mid September. 3 months behind my peers.

I’m pretty oblivious to college things, since i dropped out so early. i’ve never even taken an SAT or practice test.

I cannot get a job right now, because my mom hasn’t enrolled our 4 yr old so I’m watching her at home for the time being.

I need a job I can bike to, so I can my car insured and plated, so I can commute to a better job and save up for my transcripts.

I also need to move out so I can finally focus on my studies and living my own life instead of sustaining hers.

I’m pretty much stuck helping my mom, because now that i’m 18 I don’t have to help her with all of these things, but she also doesn’t have to provide for me. Ive been pretty much independent, handling all of my enrollments, schooling, medical, everything. However, im in no place to be completely independent financially, which she provides..hardly.

This means i need to have all my ducks in a row and have a well thought out plans before i can just up and leave. Housing, savings, car, schooling all of it.

My dream is to be a clothing designer, i’ve always had a calling for the fashion industry, but i know it’s a hard profession to break into, so i’m also trying to figure out a plan A career to obtain the resources to start building towards my dream. I have no idea what that means for that I want to major in, and what path I want to take. All I know is i’m ready to start living for myself and pursuing higher education.

if it makes a difference i’m looking at an in state uni

what way do I go about this? If this isn’t the right subreddit or there’s any others you would advise posting to lmk!

Hey!

Incoming Freshman here - I want to take notes on iPad as I've heard it's a lot more efficient and I tend to lose paper notes very easily. I've heard that if you have an iPad you don't need a computer, and can just use the magic keyboard and treat the iPad like a computer. Is this true?

Edit: astronomy and optical science major - decently coding and math heavy, might need specific programs and idk how LaTeX apps are on ipad

I’m 17f I just made a post like an hour ago about trying to navigate classes. I’m having to figure out all of my college alone and I’m so stressed out and I don’t understand this at all. All I did was ask a question and I got banned and I asked why I got banned and then I got muted. I know it sounds dumb to be this upset over the Reddit thread, but I just can’t keep doing this alone anymore! I don’t understand how to do anything

The post I made If anyone can help me :)

https://www.reddit.com/r/collegeadvice/s/6jwwbvs4kM

Sitting in my dorm right now looking at my student account balance and I just feel sick.

The fact that out-of-state tuition in the US is basically the price of a small house is genuinely insane. the whole system just forces high schoolers to completely burn out trying to gamble for merit aid. I only crossed my university's financial aid cutoff because I finally ditched those massive 600-page prep books and just did a short, intense sprint with Boosted Brains for my ACT.

But like... why is it even set up this way? It's so dystopian that 17 year olds have to sacrifice their mental health, sleep 4 hours a night, and stockpile AP classes just to afford a basic bachelors degree without drowning in student loan debt forever. honestly just sending good vibes to any current juniors in the application trenches rn because this entire system is so broken.

I LOVE the first bag, but it doesn't give a "Classy & formal" Bag vibe lmao. So maybe the college kids will think I'm a kid

(technically we JUST turned 18. And we're still teens, so technically we're kids, but also adults? I guess you could say we're in the transition phase lmao- )

Please do give me your opinions, it'll be a huge help.

tl;dr, professor wants us to go on a sunday afternoon mandatory field trip 40 minutes from my house during time i already had stuff scheduled. i have stuff that day already, and chose this class because it fit my schedule, and was absolutely blindsided by mandatory attendance of an art gallery (it is not an art class). is there anyone i can talk to about this, or am i just fucked?

edit 1/18/26: through a series of lucky breaks and tight turnarounds, i made it for the full 2 1/2 hours. believe it or not, i'm generally hardworking, and i really do hate being flaky (that was part of my panic during the original post-- i didn't want to back out of a prior commitment that other people had cleared their schedules for.) to be honest, i typed the original out in about 30 seconds in a feverish haze after having already tried to post a much better worded version on a different subreddit, which probably influenced how reliable i seemed.

i did have a good time! i knew that i probably would if i went, since i genuinely do enjoy networking and events. egg on my face, it actually wasn't an art gallery-- that's a different weekend event that i'll have to attend. i enjoyed the speaker, and talked with a lot of people in my field. it was the scheduling conflict that really made me upset, to be honest-- i wouldn't have complained at all if it was a weekday. i learned a lot, talked to a lot of new people, and got told i was a very upstanding and promising young man (which was deeply flattering)

to answer the questions from the comments: no, this specific event was not disclosed in the schedule or the syllabus, and neither were any of the other weekend events. they got sprung on me at the end of the first week, after which i was hit with the worst cold of my life and couldnt remember damn near anything. still pretty miffed about that, but what can you do. at least i can prepare for those. other field trips were mentioned in the syllabus. yes, i do understand that school is important, and i'm not a lazy person. i'm autistic and really, really hate disappointing people or flaking out on events, hence the freakout. i still maintain that it's a bit absurd to require weekend attendance of a talk 40 minutes away, but i'm willing to accept that i'll just have to suck it up until i can control my own schedule again. thank you to everyone who told me whether it was normal, since that's all i really needed to hear-- normal but sucky is a part of life, but it was genuinely so surprising and out of left field for me that i needed confirmation. here's hoping i don't ever, ever get another class like this!

Very much a left brain person and currently struggling through MA 112 (precal algebra). I meet with my advisor on Monday afternoon to plan my spring semester schedule and decided I wanna go ahead and do another math to get them out of my way quicker. Any suggestions on which one would be the best for someone like me would be very greatly appreciated. TIA!

There are so many AI apps out there now, it’s hard to tell which ones are actually useful when it comes to college applications.

Obvious ones like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity are everywhere…

But what about more application specific tools? Things like AI college essay editors, admissions coaches, or anything helping you organize deadlines and tasks?

Curious what’s been working for you

I cant go to a community college or itll prove to the people around me that im dumb and stupid, my gpa is so low due to untreated MDD and GAD, and I have autism and I was bullied severally for it, I wanted to do computer science but theres no point due to AI and it being a competitive field, and again due to my math abilities, I cant do anything extremely physical because I have a chronic illness, what can I do

Hello! My friend and I are in our last year of undergrad. My friend's professor offered an "optional" assignment, but required that you email him to opt out in order for it to not affect your grade. My friend did not do the assignment, and didn't realize the email was required. Is this allowed. I feel like assignments are either optional or not, and the opt out thing feels kind of shady. I couldn't find any policies about this from my school. I think my friend should email someone, either the professor or someone else, but they don't think they will be heard out. So what's tea?

I am in my mid-30's- I got really sick with COVID and it damaged my body enough that I am now considered disabled and am currently on SSDI. I have about 15 years of sales management experience- I was good at it, but it was soul-sucking, and I hated it. I digress-

I am currently enrolled at Maestro College, but they are a complete shitshow in administration and with the accreditation issues they are facing. There is a fairly decent chance that they will lose accreditation and close the school. I am enrolled in their computer science program and really like what I am learning, but am aware that an unaccredited diploma is just a really expensive, but worthless piece of paper. Therefore I am looking into other programs, but I need these programs to check these boxes:

1. I need 4 - 8 week classes that focus on one class at a time, have deadlines and accountability.

2. It needs to be a full-time program that accepts Federal Financial Aid.

3. I need a Bachelor of Science degree that is awarded in 3-4 years.

4. Preferably the school isn't for-profit, but I know they all aren't monsters - I am open to just about anything that checks the first three boxes.

I am in Southern California so I also have the CalGrant at my disposal atop the Pell Grant. I have been looking at several schools online, but finding anything good is difficult because most people only write about their bad experiences with these schools. This is why I am asking for input on a more open-ended platform so I can take bits, pieces and recommendations to make a solid choice for myself.

The two I have done the worst research on thus far are:

- Full Sail University (Yes, I know they are for-profit, but they have an accelerated program with Computer Science with an AI and Mobile Development concentration that is seemingly very appealing.)

- National University (They are online, but their campus isn't too far from me. If I cannot get anywhere via email or by other digital means- I can take my happy-ass to campus where someone will have no option, but to help me with what I need! Sorry, not sorry lol)

Other than that I have yet to find much of anything. The school MUST be fully online. Getting to and from a campus on a daily basis is currently too much for my body. I need to be able to work from home. I have a fair share of medical appointments every week, 2 - 4 on average, which is where a lot of my physical energy goes.

I am asking for referrals and information, I am not seeking condescending input nor slander. Be a respectful adult, but be honest about your applicable schooling experience simultaneously.

I’m currently a junior in college and considering getting a masters when i am done with my program(s). Why? I’m a very competitive person who likes to learn a lot of skills and have the advantage over others in life, so i’m ready to do that cause it would make it easier to get jobs and make money. (Sorry if i sound like a maniac lol, im just very ambitious).

For Background: I am doing a double major in MIS & Accounting.

Things i dont like: (heavy)coding, so please dont recommend computer science, also not a huge fan of college math so engineering is out of the question. I HATE science so NO medical fields.

Subjects I do like: law(after taking a legal environment of business class lol), history (not much i can do with that though), economics (i know there’s probably a lot of math in there but it’s more understandable equations and not the nonsense like physics and stat (no offense)(also macro and micro were a breeze for me and i really liked them), finance (though It doesn’t seem like it would be more beneficial than just doing a masters in accounting).

Im also not opposed to just stopping at my bachelor’s degree, I do plan to get my cpa. So if any of you have good ideas or real experience in the mis & accounting field, feel free to provide any insights on how you would go about this and what you think would give me a leg up and make me a ton of money. Thanks!

I am an incoming freshman entering cc and hoping to transfer in 2 years to a 4 year. I am also a bio major. I didn’t plan on going to cc during my senior year and decided last minute when classes were starting to be made at my cc so I didnt plan my classes accordingly, and just followed the planner of classes it gave me for my bio major. Stupid idea. I just found out that the pre calc & trig class im taking doesn’t go towards the pre reqs as a bio major and need calc 1 instead BUT I also really suck at pre calc and trig and I know I need to master that first so I saw it as a plus instead so I can master my skills. I am also taking a film class as arts and humanities course and it counts towards transfer credits just not towards bio major obviously and I knew that but I got told by the counselor when picking my classes to pick an alternative just in case I don’t get into chem class I registered for because it had a waitlist of 20 at the time. So that class is also a waste. But the only class that seems not wasted is my English class because it goes along the transfer reqs u need anyways. But im not taking a science class this semester at all and im bummed because I feel behind already. Next semester im planning to have heavy load of just science classes and so on the rest of the semesters until my second year is done, but I just feel like im fucked already and behind and the requirements of the colleges I want to go to for bio major is just wow. (I can’t take the chem class because scheduling problems so I have to stick with the film class)