Moving into the Military

  I'm troubled with a little bit of anxiety of the high school year almost being over and the thought of me going into the Air Force. I'm still questioning myself about this because, I will be physically and mentally challenged in the military. This feeling excites me but, also frightens me at the same time. Me personally I have never "worked out" to say the worst except doing competitive swimming which was always a splash (Haha get it?...I suck at jokes). I told my recruiter once " I don't know how to feel about the physical aspect of going to boot camp because, I'm a whippy skinny guy" he looks at me laughing and says "You let us worry about the physical part because we will train your body to be 10x better than where you are right now. You just focus on doing your best and we got you". I hear this and picture this saying to myself wait....is he saying like making me a muscle builder LOL we'll see. I still think about this a lot because, I don't know yet where I am being stationed, If I got the job I wanted, or when I'm getting to MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station). Anyways still excited of being able to travel and be in the Air Force that will allow me to work for my bachelors in the military, getting paid, and being able to send money back home to support my mom.

What's After Senior Year?

We have all waited and yearned for our final year of high-school, but now that this year has come about, many if not all of us are wondering what we are going to do after our senior year. The way I see it there really are only two choices right after high-school. A student can either go to college, which would mean another four years of schooling, or the option to go directly into the work force. I for one lean towards the whole going to college idea. However I have come to question this very idea and wonder what it would be to simply not attend college.

English placement, should you still take it?

So I took ERW, because Mr. Pendleton told my classmate and I that if you pass ERW with I think a C or higher, you wouldn't need to take the placement test for English in college. He told us that this class, if you pass, will for guarantee you a English 1 class in college. I'm wondering if I should still take the English placement test still? The reason why I am questioning if I should take the placement exam or not, because I think that I will be struggling in the English 1 class in college. See I'm struggling in ERW, possibly going to get at least a B-. If I'm struggling in this class, I'm assuming that I possibly wouldn't have a chance in college's English 1 class.  So I'm wondering if I should just take a placement, if I can. Also, does anyone else struggle in this class or think they will struggle in their next English class in college?

Has anyone completed the fafsa yet or are any of you procrastinating like me

What should I do if I don't know what I want?

I still have no idea what I want to major in and high school is almost over.  Does anyone have such a problem in life where you don't know where to go?  I may be heading to college, but is that truly the right choice for me?  How will I know?

AM I COMPLETELY ON MY OWN?

Like everyone, I have the same worries about the environment and the types of people I will meet, the professors, the workload, the consequences, the adjustment, and the transition onto college, yet one of my most profound worries are if I will be completely on my own. I mean, I know we have to be independent and responsible for ourselves, but does that mean no one will help you in a time of need? For example, I'm one of those students where if I don't understand something I will be in the teachers' way until I feel confident that I fully comprehend what I once didn't understand. My worry is, will the professors be willing to help us after class or before, if we don't understand a topic? I feel like the media and world has portrayed professors to be the "big bad bullies" or " strict sally's" but I want to believe that they are not all like that. Plus, I'm worried that if I am in a class with at least a hundred students, how will the professor help me? Or do we have to seek help from other students? Are there tutors? Believe it or not, these are my most major stress factors, since I overthink a lot, or even if I have the slightest most obvious issue in any mathematical problem or subject, I need to know how, why, and what can I do to fix it. So my question is, are professors willing to help out a student if they don't understand something, before or after class, or are they tired and do they want to leave as soon as possible, therefore leaving us to turn to peers for help?

How do I survive ?

I am really stressing out about how I am going to survive in college because I plan on living on campus because most of the schools I applied to a quite a drive. School is also really expensive and my future debt is overwhelming I don't know how I would be able to balance going to school full-time and working at the same time.  What are other options to make money during college?

Scholarships and Financial aid

So I hear teachers talk about applying to scholarships and getting financial aid, what are some scholarship that I can apply to? I heard about one called Chafee but I want to know if there are more options, another question is what scholarships are you planning or have applied to ?

Would you risk leaving your family and friends for education not knowing if it will pay off?

Most of us as teenagers fear leaving the comfort or our parents homes because most of us are not used to being on our own. We expect mom and dad to take care of us forever, but what"s going to happen if that college that you have been wanting to go to actually wanted you would you care about leaving your friends that has always been there would you let them persuade you into staying because your not sure if you University ready?  

How am I supposed to pick just one subject to major in?

It's hard enough as it is to pick the college you want to apply to, but even harder to pick just one major to be educated in for the next 4 years. Most colleges have over eighty majors so how do I come straight out of high school already knowing which direction I want my life to go in? Coming straight out of high school and jumping into college it hard enough, but now we have to think about all the different majors they have too. This is why many students change their majors over and over again, because they have been pressured or talked into something that sounded good but now its not what they thought. Also, for many majors you have to have taken special classes, so what if I want to go into a field and I cant because I haven't taken those classes. Biology for example is a major where you had to have taken very high levels of math and science in high school, but if you were a student like me you were just barely trying to pass geometry. My point is that not only do people expect you to go to college but they also expect for you to now exactly what you want to do and who you want to be before you get there.

Community or University?

Ever since i was a kid, I have always been told that it would be best if i went straight to a university, but new information about this has come to light leading me to be unsure of what to do next. I have heard that it is better to go to a community college first then transfer to a university because it would be cheaper and easier than going straight to a university. On the other hand, i have heard that it is easier to go to a university because it consumes less time and while it may be more expensive, it is more to the point and a lot less time of school is required overall. Based on what I have seen they both have their ups and downs, but that is exactly why the decision is that much harder to make; in other words, what is the best thing to do?

Creating New Relationships

          This is less of a question and more of just an open statement , but something that excites me about college is "starting over" in a sense with all your relationships. Depending on where you attend you have to create new friendships and relationships and that's really intriguing to me.
          We become so familiar and accustomed to seeing the same faces everyday , but within the next year we'll be surrounded by strangers. I'm a very curious person and I'm going to enjoy meeting people from all around the world especially in an atmosphere that I'm unfamiliar with.

How do you all feel about creating new relationships and friendships as you move on to college? Are you nervous? Or excited like me?


There's been studies to show that college is where you meet most of your life-long friends. If you want to check out the article here's the link:

http://www.purdue.edu/uns/x/2007b/070807SparksFriendship.html

FAQ: College Environment and Top Ramen

Going off to college (or staying home for college) is such a huge step. Sometimes I can't even wrap my head around it. Maybe that is because I dream of going away and it will be a whole different environment for me. I know going away to college is the right choice though. I suppose my first question for you is "How important is the environment to you?". I don't mean in a "Let's save the penguins!" kind of way, but basically in every other sense of the word. Out of the other things to think about like cost and major or whatever where does environment go? By environment I mean local vs. somewhere else in California vs. out of state.  Rain and cold vs. sunny and hot. The diversity and look of the school. It is pretty important to me. Diversity of the school more than any other factor. I just feel like the more diversity the better. There is nothing bad about making a wider range of connections and having more cultures to learn about.

There is a joke between my friends and I that I will be so poor in college the only thing that I will be able to afford is apples with oranges sometimes for diversity. The thing is I'm scared this will come true. I don't want to be in thousands of dollars in debt after college either, but the college that I want to go to has a big price tag. I'm applying for aid and scholarships and whatnot, but I still have this heavy feeling just lurking inside. Does anyone have the same feelings? Are you willing to give up the college of your dreams because the cost is too much?  Will you only be eating Top Ramen for four years of your life? 

                  -- Mikayla Lewis

My Questions about College

          One of the main questions I ask about college is: how do you know what classes you would take for your major? And also, what if a class you need to take is full? Would you take it the next year? Another question I have is After you do 2 years in a community college, how would you transfer to an university? I have a lot of questions about college and I'm not sure who to ask. If anyone has any answers for me, please feel free to tell me. 😬😬

What are your plans after High school?

I think to myself all the time , What do I want to do after high school ? College my first mind set then I thought a break sounds nice. However taking a break is not such a great idea , because as the time goes by you start forgetting the material , I did not want that to happen because I will be playing catch up again and if college is on another level then that won't be the best idea . Well what I'm trying to say is time is flying and we need to know our plans after high school . We have about eight more months and then some of us are on our own. So we have to stop lagging and actually think about what we doing after high school. There is always different options such as working to make money to be able to afford college. On the other hand , talking about pricing for college is a whole different topic. One thing most of us have to do is first think about our plans and also how we are going to going to achieve our plans. I asked fellow classmates what were their plans after high school and some said " I'm going to take a break for a year " , " I'm going to straight to college " , then you have some who said " they are not going to college ". Everybody have their own opinions and plans , everyone different.

     My question to you is What are your plans after high school? What are you going to do to make sure you achieve them?

College Applications

I have a question, today for government we had this special speaker and he mentioned that you don't have to pay for the application for the college you want to go to, all you have to do is call them and ask them for a fee waiver, is this true? Because I've never heard this before

Team Apple or Samsung

        Personally, I like Samsung products better, the camera quality is more advanced than Apple. If you think about it, no matter how much Apple tries to hype up their cameras by putting them on a new IPhone offering different features Samsung is still better. Also, is it me or you guys figured out too that once Apple comes out with a new phone your phone mysteriously start messing up out of no where? So I ask you how many of us are #TEAMAPPLE or #TEAMSAMSUNG

College indecisiveness

     When it comes to making decisions on college I am an extremely indecisive person. I can't seem to make a final decision on what my entire future will be right now. Sometimes I think that going to community college first would be the better choice so I'd have time to get my general ed out of the way and decide on a major within that time frame. On the other hand, I've also heard that community colleges are super impacted which means that getting the classes I would need would be even harder and could end up costing me more time and money, so it seems it could be easier to just go to a four year university anyway. My question to you all is which choice would be better? Going to a community college and finishing gen ed then transfering into a university, or just starting out at a university even without deciding on a major?

FAQ: Other Options After High School

By now, most people have a fairly good idea of where they want to go or what they want to do after college.  Counselors, parents and teachers have started talking to us about financial aid and different college options.

One option people have considered is going to a community college and then transferring to another one after two years.  I have always thought that it was a smart option. It saves money and community colleges are usually easier to get into.  It seems like a win-win situation.  My first question has to do with the whole process of transferring.  Is it harder to transfer after community college?  How does that application work? Instead of looking at SAT scores, what would the colleges look at?  To answer these questions, I looked at the UC requirements for transfer students. From what I saw, transferring seems like a good option.  GPA requirements are relatively lower, especially for people in-state, and there is no standardized test you have to take.

Another topic that I have questions about is taking a gap year.  People might take gap years due to economic or personal reasons, or maybe they just need a break from going to school.  If someone were to take a gap year how does it work?  Can they apply and get accepted to a college then decide they want to hold off a year?  Would the college be obligated to save their spot?  When they want to go back will they apply using their stats from high school?

What are your plans after high school? What are your thoughts on transferring from a community college or taking a gap year?

-Tiffany Nguyen

Living at Home Versus Living on Campus

At this time during senior year, I am working on college applications, as I am sure the majority of you are, and thinking about all of the different options that I have next year. One thing that I keep going back and forth on is the option to live at home or to live in a dorm room. For some that plan on going to a college far from home or out of state, living at home is not an option. However, for many of us who plan to attend a college that is within driving distance of our house, whether we decide to live at home or on campus is a crucial decision that we will have to make.

Although there are both benefits and drawbacks to living on campus and living at home, it is difficult to determine which outweighs the other. The most obvious con to living on campus is the cost. In the 2014 to 2015 school year, the average cost of room and board was $9,999 as stated by Susannah Snider on usnews.com. However, this number is often higher when talking about room and board in Southern California. But, the major con to living at home is missing out on the so often talked about "college experience".

What do you think? If you had to choose, would you pay to live on campus or save the money and possibly miss out on getting the entire college experience?

Also, are you planning on going to a college in state or out of state? What college is your top choice?

FAQ: Sororities & Studying Abroad?

Hey ERW!

One of the many questions I have (had) about college is about the Greek System. I'm sure all of us are familiar with sororities and fraternities (along with their stereotypes) and I always wondered why someone would pay hundreds and even thousands of dollars to dress up and throw parties.

While researching the topic, I came across an article titled “7 Considerations When Thinking About Greek Life” by Julie and Lindsey Mayfield which lays out the pros and cons. Their three main cons were the cost, the stereotypes, and the time consumption. Despite the cons, they were able to list clear benefits, the first of which being connections. People involved in the Greek system are able to make connections with others, including alumni, who may be able to help them in the future, mostly with employment. Another benefit is community; Many consider sororities and fraternities as a built-in group of friends which can be a great help, especially in freshman year, because it can be difficult to make friends in an entirely new place. The Greek system also participates in many events which help students connect with the community and in turn can help with networking as well as giving resumes a boost.

My second question is : What are the pros and cons of studying abroad? Are any of you planning on studying abroad and if so, why? Feel free to answer this or leave your opinion on the Greek System!

-Taylor Spencer

We'd like you to vote!

This survey was created by Mr. Mike Headley, who will close it at 8pm on Tuesday, November 8. The survey asks you to vote for the national and state offices, and all the ballot propositions.  He will let us know how the Mayfair community voted on Wednesday.

Access the survey here.

Information on the candidates and ballot propositions can be found here:

http://voterguide.sos.ca.gov/ 

https://ballot.fyi/