Impact of Robotics on your college choice

[Eugenia Gabrielov]

There have been many threads going around recently in regards to where FIRST kids go to college, what most people study, or what people use for their transitional year. However, the issue I'm dealing with right now is prioritizing colleges before I start applying in the fall.

Here are a few questions I was wondering about...
Did the availability of FIRST competitions or mentorship on a team highly affect your college choices?
Was the prospect of combining build season and classes a challenge for anyone?
Did you specifically search out colleges with a prominent FIRST program, or did you choose to take a less-walked route and start a new team?
Most importantly,
How do you feel about that decision?

I couldn't find specifics on this question, but myself and a few friends discussed it amongst ourselves today at the 461 open house. Thanks

- Genia

[Billfred]

1) Nope--wanted to go to USC, FIRST or no FIRST.
2) YES. I'll warn anyone who is planning on helping as a college student--make sure your stuff is in order early.
3) Neither.
4) I'm fine where I am.

[Shu Song]

Though FIRST didn't affect my first choice for a college (Cornell University), it did, however, affect my choice for a major.

Prior to joining first, I had no idea what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, but now, I know very clearly. FIRST not only opened a door of vast opportunities for me, but it made that option so attractive. So there was no way that I was going to do anything else with my life.

Since I'm not in collge yet, I cannot comment on whether my choice of career path was a good one or not, but I'm confident that I won't be disappointed.

[Stephen Kowski]

Did the availability of FIRST competitions or mentorship on a team highly affect your college choices? One of the aspects that helped me pick USF was that I had an opportunity to start a new team. There were never any teams in the same county as USF so I thought it would be best to try there rather than other schools where they are already jaded by some aspects of FIRST.

Was the prospect of combining build season and classes a challenge for anyone? Absolutely, but in the grand scheme of a semester it normally only affects one test in a course so keeping up is not terribly difficult for me. Also it should be noted that I purposely take a lighter course load in the spring and attend during the summer to make up for it.

Did you specifically search out colleges with a prominent FIRST program, or did you choose to take a less-walked route and start a new team? Once I had a choice between schools and all other things considered I had to factor in my FIRST vote I went to the college that had never been exposed to FIRST before in any serious manner.

How do you feel about that decision? I am very happy now that I have validated (in my mind) walking away from a $40,000 scholarship for the ability to start a new FIRST team. I was not too sure how it was going to go and was nervous that I would regret walking away from the scholarship. All worked out for the best and I am very happy to have continued to work on FIRST because now 3 new schools are looking to start up next year.

Be very careful in your decision and pick your college on more than what FIRST has to do with it. Ultimately FIRST only affects one semester so be careful about going to a college for purely reasons to do with FIRST. Understand it takes a lot of hard work to start a new team so be careful before accepting that amount of responsibility. Also I would make sure I had some ace in the hole (machine shop/sponsor) just in case if you start a new team. gl hopefully this info is useful.....

[tiffany34990]

well.. i can't say that it truely made a diffrence where i planned on going because every city i choice a school at had a FIRST team near it or a competition held there. i knew that where every i go i will still be apart of FIRST, perhaps not a team but go and volunteer at the competitions.

[ebmonon36]

Did the availability of FIRST competitions or mentorship on a team highly affect your college choices? No it did not. I applied to Purdue before I had much knowledge of FIRST and didn't know that my high school team was being started until later.
Was the prospect of combining build season and classes a challenge for anyone? It is always a challenge. Between school, robotics, homework and CD, it is difficult to stay on task (I should be doing hw as I type this). That is the reason that help with the animation instead of the robot. I don't have the time to be at the high school as long as the Tech team does
Did you specifically search out colleges with a prominent FIRST program, or did you choose to take a less-walked route and start a new team?
See first answer
How do you feel about that decision?
I am happy with my decision
Eric

[MOEmaniac]

Well for me it kinda made a difference cause i wanted to go to a college that was relatively close to Wilmington, which is where MOE is located, and i definetly dont want to leave MOE. And since I got accepted to Drexel, I'm pretty set on going there cause its a great engineering college and its within driving distance of MOE.

[Beth Sweet]

Did the availability of FIRST competitions or mentorship on a team highly affect your college choices?
Not really. I went to college for broadcast journalism and chose this college because I felt it was the best of my options. Starting the team freshman year was sorta an afterthought.

Was the prospect of combining build season and classes a challenge for anyone?
1 word for you. INSANE! Now this is granted that I was a freshman, but even though I didn't listen to the warnings from everyone, it is a bit crazy.

Did you specifically search out colleges with a prominent FIRST program, or did you choose to take a less-walked route and start a new team?
Started a new team but like I said earlier, FIRST was not a prominent factor in my college choice.

How do you feel about that decision?
Wow, once again, I sort of wished that I would have listened to the "CD elders" and waited a year or so, but on the other hand I don't. I know we really were able to make an effect on all of this year's seniors, so I'm happy to have been able to give them the opportunity, but I think it probably would have been good to wait.