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I know this seems crazy, but lately, nothing has been more important to me than being normal and fitting in.
Well you're in luck. College, especially your freshman year, is a major time to "reinvent" yourself. It's such a relief to not be surrounded by kids who know you as "that guy who picked his nose in 3rd grade" or "that guy who totally embarrassed himself at social gathering XYZ." You're a clean slate. It's liberating.
Worrying about "fitting in" is for middle and high schoolers.
You are an adult. Too old to worry about "fitting in." Are you going to school to be with the "cool people", or are you going to school to get an education in order to have a better life?
I'm back in school at the age of 40 because I want a better life.
In the real world...mainly...most people don't give a sh--. There are no cool kids' tables in the cafeteria that you wonder where to sit.
Um, in what way? I'm told that in college, for however long you're long in class, you need to spend 3 times as long outside of class studying. Since you need 120 units to graduate college, and college is 8 semesters, that means most students need to take 15 units a semester. A typical unit-class meets twice a week for 1.25 hours, which amounts to 2.5 hours total. If I'm taking 5 3-unit classes, I'll be in class for 12.5 hours a week, which means that I'll have to spend 37.5 hours outside of class studying. That adds up to a total of 50 hours a week that I'll be busy. If I take 18 units my first 4 semesters, that will allow me to get by only taking 12 units my last 4 semesters, the minimum required to be considered a full-time student, I'll still be spending 10 hours in class a week, which means that I'll be spending 30 hours studying a week, which means that I'll be busy for a total of 40 hours. It doesn't sound like me or my friends will really have any time to get all hung up on bar-hopping.
Credits are not units.
A college uses either the credit or unit system.
You won't be the only one with an end of summer/early fall b-day either.
I just started my senior year of high school, but I actually should be starting my freshman year of college. My birthday's October 1st, 2000, and the state where I live has a winter cutoff of December 31st, which means that I was supposed to start Kindergarten in the fall of 2005. However, because my parents thought I was immature and didn't have a lot of confidence in me, they waited until the fall of 2006 to send me. All through school, I've felt embarrassed about being a year behind, and out-of-place for being more than a year older than some of my classmates. The thing is, though, that most states have a September cutoff, which means that in most states, I wouldn't have been allowed to start Kindergarten until the fall of 2006. Thus, by the standards of most states, I'm in the right grade. If I went to college in a state with a September cutoff, I'd be exactly in the year I'm supposed to be, and no one would think it weird that I was turning 19 in October of my freshman year, since that's the norm for October-born people in that state. I'd still be one of the very oldest, but I'd still fall within the normal age range for my year. I know this seems crazy, but lately, nothing has been more important to me than being normal and fitting in.
Another way to look at it: You may not be in college right now, but you got to spend some extra time just being a kid and enjoying your childhood. A lot of children work really hard to grow up quickly, and then when they're all grown up, they want to be kids again. Childhood lasts for mere years; adulthood lasts for decades. So, be glad that you had some extra time to be a kid. It probably benefited you in your overall development as a human. And besides: Once childhood is gone, it's gone forever, and you'll have the rest of your life to be a responsible and self-sustaining adult.
But still, if the issue bugs you so much, you could just as well go to college in one of the states you mention, and maybe that will put your mind at ease. But you will probably soon find that you will want to "fit in" in more socially important ways (job, classes, major, friends, income, net worth, etc.), and the age thing will be the least of your worries as well as a quaint memory.
In the long run, the age thing won't matter, but the hope is that you'll move past it and worry about more important stuff. Who knows--you may complete college in four years, and that will put you ahead of many students who take 5-6 years to complete. Perhaps you'll spend only 2-4 years in grad school, while other students who were once "ahead" of you take many more years to complete their PhDs or become a physician. Perhaps you will will reach the $50,000 or $100,000 yearly income mark before your peers who were once "ahead" of you, or maybe you will have a fatter retirement account than they ever will.
You will have many chances to redeem yourself--if that's how you view it--in so many other ways, that perhaps you will one day chuckle at how worried you were about this.
And then there's the Silver Years. Perhaps you will outlive all of your formerly "ahead" classmates. Maybe your quality of life during those years will be halfway decent. Or perhaps your life will end sooner, and that particular concern just won't matter anymore. Old age and death have a great deal of experience in upsetting plans and expectations. Many of us will be lucky just to reach our 70s, 80s and 90s with no major problems. And at that stage, there will be younger and older people with worse problems than ours, and there will be younger and older people who seem more invincible than we are.
What do you meanwhen you say I may complete college in 4 years? A bachelor's degree is a 4-year degree.
You might take a year off to travel or volunteer. You might run out of money and need or decide to work full time. You might transfer and find not all credit does. You might get injured. You might decide to major in engineering, which are traditionally 5 year programs. The class you need might only be offered once a year and there’s a conflict with another one you need. You might complete a year of CLEP. You might find you are capable of overloading and take more than normal. You might end up in a dual degree program.
All of these and more mean you might or might not complete in 4 years, or 5-6, or sometimes 3. 4 years is standard but far from the only schedule degrees get completed on.
It's really a non-issue. My birthday is in December and "back then" as long as your birthday was December 31st you could start kindergarten. Then it was changed the next year so my sister who is a year younger was actually two grades behind me. It bugged her for years. I was always the youngest & smallest in my class but it never really caused me any issues.
Are you a first generation college student in your family? I think perhaps you have some questions and misunderstandings about college that when cleared up will also clear up your concern about age. I'm at work and cant add more detail but will check back later. In the meantime though, what is your planned major if you e thought about it? No biggie if you haven't you have time to fish over yoursrlf.
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