The Journey into College

I thought I would do a post about college even though it has not started yet for me there is always things you can do to prep for classes however or the program you will be studying. For me, my degree in Computer Information Systems (CIS) with Computer Science (CS) classes thrown in as well. The degree is just considered an Associate of Applied Science in CIS and for me, I consider it to be slightly a duel program because I get a chance to complete all of the computer science classes as well that are required for the Computer Science degree.

But I thought I should back a little ways into why I wanted to do this degree and how I chose it but also go through applying for college and those steps. When I first moved out west, I had no intention of going back to college and the CIS is very much a big career change for me since I already have a degree in Associate Degree of Nursing (ADN) which when I finished that degree, I took the NCLEX-RN exam and passed so am a qualified RN for two states because I took the NCLEX-RN for one state then a few years later applied for a RN license in another state which just required ensuring they got ahold of my original NXCLEX-RN results, college transcript, plus money but I did not have to take another exam to qualify for becoming a RN in the second state. For me, nursing does not seem like me or something I should be pursuing because I do have problems with multitasking and never quite enjoyed it. I did enjoy learning about nursing and still on a weekly basics do learn a few new medical things through watching a TV series/show called Untold Stories of the ER. I knew for the past two and a half years I got into computers and how different Google products worked (so things like Hangouts, Gmail, Google Drive, consumer Google+, Google Search, Google Translate, and etc) so wanted to explore that a bit more and got into a conversation with someone who knows the ins and outs of computer science. I asked them if I could get into fields with my slightly techy side and they told me about computer science and systems managements and what they believe that I could be very good at based upon their observations of how I navigated the online world and took to learning information without any formal learning or even in an environment that did not encourage the learning. At the same time as those discussions were going on, I decided to go over to the local library in the town I was hanging out in. I found a book that perked my interest about fields in forensic science, which was a field I had been interested in about 3 to 4 years previously but never took any classes in though my college at that time was just opening up some new classes about that particular field. The book talked about forensics in relation to many other fields and occupations such as nurses, computer science, dentists, anthropology, pathology, and others. What interested me most was computer science and nursing since I have already been in the field of nursing and I have had some sort of interest in it. Originally with nursing, I wished I could have combined it with my other loves of research and chemistry however never wanted to be in a nursing program that takes 10 years since I saw that most likely to combine my interest was at the PhD level or something that high. The book implied the way to combine forensic science with computer science was to become a computer forensic specialist.

Once I figured this out, I was like well I can go back to college and learn more. The following week after my weekend trips to the library and after reading multiple interesting books that talked about forensic science, I decided to look into community colleges since knew they were cheaper than actual universities. I looked into the community colleges by what programs they offered. Some community colleges have a very limited selection of programs and others are larger. By that time, I knew I enjoyed the coast so wanted to live nearby so started exploring those ones (which is a very limited number). I picked the college that had computer science but also has other degrees and programs that I might want to go into if something happened to my first choice. I signed up for computer science without really knowing there was an AAS in CIS degree. Signing up for the college was a very simple application process on the computer that meant going to the website and signing up by filling out name, address, emergency contact info, what is your interest program so going for an actual degree or just going for non-credit classes (since some colleges do offer that plus classes that the whole community can take). That can take a few days to process and with it being summer, it can take longer since community college is closed on Fridays. After completing the very simple college application, my next step was completing the FAFSA (which you will need tax information for) which is pretty straightforward seeing it asks you which college you are doing FAFSA for, financial information from tax return and a way to use the IRS retrieval tool for tax return even, any other information they deem is necessary to ask you. (Just do ensure you have your tax forms with you for the past few years so you don't need to go hunting for them.) You might even encounter questions which are considered optional meaning it is up to you if you want to answer them or not such as the questions about parents which are optional if you are independent and on your own.

After you get accepted, then starts the process of actually figuring out the platform the college website is on and that holds student information such as how to find classes, checking out which major you have and the such like. For this college, they have you do an online orientation program that talks you through their student portal and what kind of things you would find inside. Their email provider is Microsoft Office 365, which I have some experience in using for one of my previous work environments but is not at a platform I enjoy at all so will take work to learn how to use the platform properly and tolerate it. After I was accepted, I did two academic advising sessions. One was to register for classes and talk through which degree I should be doing and it was decided I would be better in the Computer Information Systems rather than Computer Science. It was also decided that some of the classes part of the program I did not have to take based upon my transcripts from my previous colleges so I do not have to take any pre-program classes and then 5 classes part of the program I don't need to take either. Computer Science was also a degree that majority of classes had nothing whatsoever to do with computers or a class that would help you in that field but the program was designed to help you to transfer into a 4 year program at a university (so a bachelor program). My other academic advising was needing to do some paperwork for FAFSA for an appeal process (my discovery in all of this was if you have already gone to college and got a degree, chances of getting FAFSA for your next degree at a community college is very slim).

Then after that came for me figuring out textbooks and this is a process that involves trying to see if other places sell the particular textbook for a cheaper price. For example, this term I needed two books. One of the books costs $35 and the other was $150. The book that was $35, I did not mind buying from the college bookstore but the book that was $150 seemed quite a lot to me. This time in search of textbooks I just inserted the ISBN into the Google Search engine and see what results it could pull up for me of places that sold it. Main websites that I checked that sells textbooks and seeing how much they went for included Amazon, eBay, and Chegg. Some places sold the textbook for only slightly lower than $150 but one website (textbook.com) was selling the book for $85 and that book also included the access code unopened. This week I was able to pick that book up from the destination point, which was the local post office, and start trying to learn my material. Book is Computer Science Illustrated 7th Edition by Nell Dale & John Lewis. I am still trying to learn my chapter 1 about the history of computing which also teaches you many terms such as cloud computing, linkers, loaders, computer computing, etc so basically the first chapter also has the review of the hardware and software along with the people in history that made a difference, such as Lord Byron's daughter Ada (did you know there was even a programming language called Ada, named after Ada Byron Lovelace, that was used by the USA Department of Defense?).

For anyone curious to learn about what does the program guide look like so the classes involved, check on out https://ecatalog.socc.edu/programsaz/associate-applied-science-computer-information-systems/#programguidetext. To check on out a description of the classes, the CIS ones are located at https://ecatalog.socc.edu/course-descriptions/cis/ and the CS class descriptions can be found at https://ecatalog.socc.edu/course-descriptions/cs/.