my entire college experience! + advice from a college graduate | community college to uc berkeley

dumping this lead I actually have water in this cup we're here staying hydrated and I'm caffeinated hello my friends it's Nina and I am finally going to talk about my entire college experience as you may or may not know I am I was a college student I finished college I graduated I didn't drop out I was a student at UC Berkeley for two years and I was also a community college students for two years I already talked about most of my college experience in another video but I'm going to talk a little bit more in depth about it in this video and also answer some questions that I got from you guys on Instagram about college yeah let's go down memory lane and talk about it I'm gonna mention first hand that I have a pretty international audience and so I've been talking about the American education system which might be confusing to people who aren't in America if it is confusing I'm sorry anything I might say about tuition or the value of college in society or any of that might be very different from you this is just from an American perspective and from someone who finished college and experienced all of it but to my American viewers I hope that this kind of makes sense or is a little bit helpful but anywho I'm going to first talk about my timeline I'm gonna start the story off with my senior year of high school then I'll move on to why I went to Community College and then how I got into UC Berkeley and then how I got here absolute they want to mention everyone's college experience is subjective my experience is probably going to be very different from yours especially because I am a college graduate but I am also on YouTube but I'm just going to talk about it maybe there's something useful in it but I figured I have to talk about my college experience at some point so without further delay here is my entire college experience so it all started 2014 I applied for colleges in November of 2014 I was just like any other kid wishing to go to college just because I heard everyone else wanting to go to college but personally for me my parents weren't very cutthroat about college they were very nutshell about it I don't know if that was a pro or a con basically in my immediate family not my cousins and whatever in my immediate family I am the first to finish college while rewinding back to 2014 I was basically applying for college but I had little idea of what I was doing because I grew up kind of having a lot of freedom about what I should do in the future I didn't have a clear idea of what I actually wanted to do I had a lot of freedom to live my life and explore my hobbies I really loved drawing and painting and being creative and all that I love story reading hanging out with my friends I loved using my imagination I loved watching movies I loved listening to music I was a good student but I wasn't a very passionate teenager I was naturally a good student just because I got my stuff done there's nothing much to say but I just got A's and B's in high school I was very attentive I showed up to school all the time on time but being a good student versus being a passionate students were kind of different things it was like I knew I wanted to apply to college just because all my friends were doing it college was just in my brain like instilled like drilled into my brain that I have to go to college but at the same time I had no idea who I was I didn't know what I wanted to do I didn't know what major I wanted to study I didn't know my future at all so in junior year I took my SATs and did whatever I needed to do to get into college but I didn't really understand what I was doing I got a good score on the SAT - - I got a 2010 back then when we were doing ethic tees the high score was a 2400 I know now it's like a 1600 the only thing I really had going for me were a few clubs that I took in high school my decent grades and a four point something average because I had a bunch of AP classes that this did my GPA and I basically had my SAT score and I was crossing my fingers and hoping for the best I don't like thinking about my senior year of high school and applying for college because every time I think about it I just think about how unguided I was how I really kind of just screwed up my application basically I'm not gonna get into full details but my a/c could have been a little bit different my choice of major could have definitely been a bit better I didn't know what I wanted to do and that reflected in my application in here in here everywhere I just wasn't ready for college and I didn't realize it I applied to most all you sees and I did do a common application and apply for some private universities and smaller universities I tried to do some art schools but then I was also very unconfident about my portfolio and whatever which is also kind of sad to think about because I loved drawing and painting and all that I loved my art classes but at the same time I wasn't passionate enough where I had a strong portfolio which gets you into an art school and so all in all it was just a pretty difficult process but I was kind of going through the motions and just going through it in my mind I thought one College will accept me I'll just go there I think in high school I wasn't thinking a lot for myself I kind of just existed and floated around trying to get through each day I didn't necessarily have goals or desires at the time I didn't really deal with my insecurities or columns in my life or really kind of have some sort of communication with myself I would go to school be a good student and then come home get stuff done and then go to school again oh and so that really took a toll on my college application process and in 2015 when we finally got our college results that is kind of when reality started to kind of hit me I did not get into the schools that I wanted to go to which were basically the top schools that everyone talks about and I got into a few schools but they were not really schools that I wanted to go to they were kind of just backup plans I got into a few schools with scholarships but again it wasn't necessarily the plan that I wanted even though I didn't really have a plan so that is kind of when reality hit like oh hmm maybe I should have kind of figured things out a little bit more maybe I should have really researched what I was trying to get myself into and so a plan was basically to go to these schools that I got accepted into but I didn't have this heart for and then later on I finally learned about Community College Community College was not a plan ever because no one ever talked about it I only got into the idea of going to Community College when I found out that my friend was going and then I was like that is also an option but now that reality was hitting and I didn't have a lot of options I really had to think about what I wanted to do for the next four years Community College became an option and I talked to my parents about it the conversation Nevada was actually nice just because as I said before they didn't pressure me to get into a good school obviously I wanted to make them proud well going to university is a huge commitment it is literally four years of your life or ten years depending on what you're studying it might be four to ten I also do want to mention that college is not the path for everyone and that's something I wish I had known as a high school students but I did my research on Community College and that's when I figured out that you can transfer to another university in two years if you are on time obviously you can also take 3 4 whatever many years you need but you can transfer in two years and you can finish your entire education within 4 years just like anyone else and so I'll like why didn't I know about this earlier because personally for me I wasn't ready and there's a lot of people who aren't ready there are also lots of people who are ready for college right after high school as you can see millions of students go straight into college right after high school but more and more Community College started to become a better solution for me because I didn't want to throw myself into a school that I didn't have the heart for and also I learned about the whole financial thing we're literally Community College you're not spending that much money and now these days your first two years are free apparently but even then back then the tuition wasn't even bad it was probably like the cost of a few college books from a university but the tuition wasn't bad and I would be saving much more money I feel like it would be time for me to explore my options and really get myself together and find out what I really want study because personally for me I did want to pursue a further education not everyone needs that not everyone needs college not everyone needs college for the career Society is definitely very different now even if you do go to college it doesn't guarantee a career because society is competitive but personally I wanted to experience it and I wanted to kind of complete my higher education that was my desire and so Community College in the end did become my choice and my parents were actually very relieved I am very fortunate that it was a good communication that's they were supportive of my choice I was very thankful that they didn't think going to university was the only solution and that any other solution was a solution that I wasn't showing my life away that my identity didn't revolve around me going to a university oh man I don't remember my Community College life that well I can't remember my classes that well but I know in commune college that is the time if you're planning to transfer that is the time to take care of all of your general education requirements I highly recommend that you try to finish every single requirement in Community College before you transfer because transferring is a process it has its pros and cons compared to going to a university for four years I was in Community College for two years so four semesters because we were on a semester system I took about four to five classes per semester I'm pretty sure I was five each I took English I took one semester of math I knew this time that I wanted to do some kind of liberal arts major just because that's what I'm interested in in high school I actually considered more stem like majors when I was a senior in high school my major that I applied for was computer science we don't talk about her but now I know I wanted to do a major that revolved around either liberal arts but I was also considering art I took my science requirements I took a public speaking class which kind of drove me towards my major that I chose in UC Berkeley which was Media Studies which is basically like mass communications but more focused on media I was pretty daring in Kimiko I remember in my geography class we had an opportunity to go on a class trip for extra credit points and other things and I was like I'll go it was pretty far from home and I'd be gone for a few days with classmates that I didn't know well I even signed up for camping instead of having a hotel it was quite a time and I was trying new things but kamil college was definitely a time for me to be my own person and I don't think I would have had that experience had I gone to before your University because I'd be constantly surrounded by people I would still be in that kind of mental states where I would constantly compare myself to other people and knowing my personality as an introvert I probably would have shut myself away from people a lot just so I can have my personal time but in Community College I didn't have to commit myself to the college I could literally just go home and be by myself you know I journalist wrote in a diary I exercised I meditated I'm sure you might be able to do that in a university as well but personally for me I was glad that I had so much freedom to really figure myself out it was kind of like a gap year or two gap years but I was also studying and working towards transferring at the same time and eventually in 2016 I finally had much more confidence in myself to apply for universities again and this time I knew what major I wanted to study I was definitely interested in content creation whether that was at the time short films or writing using my imagination I kind of had a better idea what I want to talk about in my application and what I wanted to offer when I went to a university the biggest thing I think about applying for university is that and which basically is why college is not for everyone applying for college it's better if you have something to offer or the college will offer something to you you have to kind of ask yourself if going to a university is going to benefit you if you want to meet like-minded people if you want to learn something that you can't learn from the real world if you want these connections if you want access to internships or whatever that will get you to your job that kind of stuff that is what you really kind of had to consider when you apply for a college and for a lot of jobs you don't need that and that's why college really isn't for everyone but personally for me in my world here I applied for colleges again and I was just definitely a little bit more determined this time I was so determined and confident I only applied for three schools I applied to UC Berkeley obviously I applied for UCLA and UC Davis those were my top three schools I applied with a major that actually mattered to me and I was connected more to myself that that reflected on to my application after application in April May of 2017 that is when our results came and I found out that I got into all three other schools that I wanted to get into this time ultimately I did choose UC Berkeley because I was born in Berkeley I've always heard about UC Berkeley it is hard my family my aunt graduated from UC the major was basically made for me and so I decided on UC Berkeley as a media studies major yay and so that brings us to 2017 I transferred to UC Berkeley and started on August 22 mentioned one kind of con abouts UC Berkeley is that you don't have your major yet you have to declare when you get there like my friend who transferred she got into her school and she got into her major just like that you didn't have to declare or anything she was just in her major but I still had to declare it and it was kind of a process because Media Studies at UC Berkeley it was said to be pretty difficult to get into just because it's very competitive and a lot of people want the major so I had to work for it I wasn't able to rest yet and again this is why I said in the beginning that my experience is completely subjective because this is an experience that I had to go through but if anyone else is applying for Media Studies and is also transferring and maybe this story will resonate with you I had to really keep up with my classes I mean I was obviously going to try hard I wanted to keep my A's and B's oh sure that's what I did not mention in Kumiko llege I got a 4.0 but anywho now I think I can talk about the classes that I took at UC Berkeley my first semester are UC Berkeley I took a documentary class I really enjoyed that class it was a small class it was like 20 to 30 people I also had a required class for my major which was basically introduction to Media Studies and then I took a sociology class which was an elective for my major it was virtual communities in social media and it was one of my favorite classes it was so interesting I loved my major I UC Berkeley I really learned a lot so I had those three classes and then I have one more but I can't remember ah it was a film production class I took a film production class and that was very helpful actually but at the time I wasn't declared and another thing about my major since it is an impacted major I had to take a bunch of classes in order to declare first so I wasn't able to declare for a couple of semesters I think it was two semesters in and another thing is that I had to consider another major just in case I didn't get into Media Studies which was pretty scary because I decided on EC Berkeley for me to studies and if I couldn't even get that major that would have been quite sad and my second major of choice was actually film studies so I was so close to being a film major I used to Berkeley that would have been very different but that is why I took a lot of film classes because video studies and film they have a lot of overlaps which was a good thing because just in case I didn't get into Media Studies I was able to apply for film which wasn't impacted but I was pretty set on Media Studies just because I did want to learn about the literal media aspect of it I do want to mention that Media Studies is not really what you think it is it's not a media production major there are a few classes on media production but it definitely was a lot more research heavy there was a lot of research going on a lot of reading going on but it was interesting and it really offered a lot to me it made me look at the world through multiple lenses but I was very close to being a film major in my second semester I applied to declare Media Studies I took a lower division intro to film class which was a prerequisite to declare film I also took Spanish there was a language requirement for film and so I took that and that's a mess I only took their classes because Spanish took five units and so I would have a lot of units if I took four so I took three classes and my third class was another core class for Media Studies it was visual communications and that class was very interesting it taught me how to storyboard and decode advertisements read the media not take everything in that service level all that and so that's the mesopause I obviously got into a major but now I had a major now I could chill out a little bit and it was my senior year I think a con about transferring is that you do only have a short time there I had two years I basically graduated when I was a sophomore at UC Berkeley even though I was a senior I felt like I was a sophomore you know I was out there for two years I didn't explore my campus all that much I felt like I just got there and I already had to leave so that's also something to consider when you're transferring is that you're not going to have all the time in the world to do everything you guys you want you know I wanted to study abroad I wanted to take more classes I wanted to take unique classes not just classes that were required for my major but I didn't have all that time because I only had four semesters and I did want to graduate early well not early but I wanted to graduate on time so that was something that I kind of had to settle was that I didn't have the fullest experience because I didn't have the time my third semester I finally took a bunch of upper division classes that I needed for graduating and it was intense I took an international media class I took a sociology class which was called sociology of culture I took another core class on media theory and then I took I really uh I just I'm clicking on my school app that I haven't deleted yet because I am paranoid about deleting it so I took all those classes and then I took a media history class I took those classes those are really interesting it was very intense and a lot of studying but very much worth it and then my last semester I UC Berkeley was just also basically at the time that you guys started to come into my life and basically be part of my college life my last semester at UC Berkeley I took a research methods class and then I took a history class just because I needed to finish a requirement that I never got around to doing and then I took another core class which was on media and democracy but it was intense senior year because I had to fit in everything for my major so I think that is definitely something that you have to consider if you are transferring is that you're not going to be able to take all the classes that you want unless you really cram everything in but yeah my last year I UC Berkeley I was very much focused on my classes on my life and I was also doing YouTube and my life was just going by so fast there then I graduated in May and Here I am doing YouTube full-time and working on other things but now that you have a basic sense of my college career I think I want to do a small Q&A just for things that I didn't really address or things that you guys were curious about on Instagram I just thought that it would be important to kind of give my background story first before I go into these questions were you mostly hanging out with friends at college or just went and did your own thing so I got a lot of questions about making friends all you deal with being alone and I got a lot of questions about whether I was hanging out with people or just doing my own thing whether you have friends or not you're going to just be spending a lot of time on your own because it's a natural thing you know you're trying to get your life together you're trying to find a job you're trying to graduate you're trying to manage everything that you have to juggle so it was actually pretty common to alone at college when I went to lounges to study there would be tables of students but they weren't friends they were just sitting together at a table so everyone in college was basically just being alone together a lot of people are alone even if you are in a student organization and you have a social life it's so common to be alone you're going to see tables full of students studying by themselves and you're going to just sit with them so you can study and it's just like this natural culture of just asking someone hey can I sit here and then guys study and don't even talk to each other so personally for me I was pretty much doing my own thing just because I was focused on my life that's why we stood on passing my classes I was by myself a lot in the library at cafes and also I was doing YouTube I didn't really have that in common with a lot of people I kind of kept it not really a secret but it's like I can't just go and tell people like oh I do YouTube you know I was very much just naturally on my own and I feel like even if you're like the most social person you're going to want to have time alone obviously I did study with friends occasionally but even if we were together we'd either talk the entire time and not get things done or we wouldn't talk to each other at all it's just like I was studying by myself anyway but just know coming from someone who literally experienced college a lot of it you're going to spend on your own I do want to mention that in college rather than friends you're going to have a lot of acquaintances and that is a completely okay thing to have almost all of my friends who went to college they also had five - and most ten friends maybe I'm gonna be realistic and say 1 to 10 friends basically but I know that if you are in a student organization such as a club or a fraternity sorority that kind of stuff you're naturally going to make friends because you're surrounded by people who are like-minded who probably have similar schedules as you probably spend a lot of time with them naturally they're going to kind of become your friends because you know you're naturally going to be friendly to each other you also will find friends in your major you will just naturally find people that you have a lot of classes with because you guys are taking almost all the same classes which is a funny thing is that like hundreds thousands of us are all taking kind of similar paths and living similar lives but anywho you're going to make a lot of acquaintances and hopefully maybe some of those acquaintances become friends if you guys have similar schedules and you guys can study together or spend time outside of class together but otherwise again people are busy in college when I was in high school I had the mindset of you know making friends with people because obviously you would make friends in high school but in college it definitely is a pretty fast-paced busy setting so not everyone has the motive or the desire to make friends because they don't have the time for it you know you really have to commit to it or you really have to get along with this person that you met as an adult they're not your childhood friends you know you guys are going to relate based on similar career paths or interests I think the best way to make friends is just to be a decent human being smile be nice you know you're going to find someone that can kind of stick to you and if not stick to yourself another similar topic of loneliness and learn to be okay on your own is that you're going to find lots of times where you're going to be alone in college because everyone's living their own life I was literally on my own income in college all of my friends from high school went off to college they went to different cities states countries and so I was literally on my own I was surrounded by people that I didn't know I think it's just me personality-wise I was always kind of okay being on my own because I didn't see that as a bad thing I didn't see being alone as like oh no one likes me or you know I can't make friends I'm not desirable or anything like that that's not how I thought I was just like oh I'm alone I'm going to get stuff done I'm going to get my life together focus on myself I think I was just a natural way for me to think so it's going to be different for everyone but just know that being alone is so common College like I think it should be a thing that is talked about more is that you know you're not going to have the liveliest social life in college you can see some people having the time of their life with a lot of people but there are also so much people just doing their own thing remember that it doesn't mean you're any less of a person if you're alone if you're by yourself it just means hey I'm alone that's it gonna get some stuff done gonna go home gonna sleep gonna eat it's okay to be alone you're actually going to probably want to be alone a lot of the time in college because it's just so busy you just want to relax and just be in your own zone for a little while but being alone is just so common and it's something that should be talked about more did you like being a commuter or what you have rather lived on campus now the thing is my college experience and the person that I am today is because of the decisions that I made so had I chosen to live on campus I'd be a very different person my life just would be different there are pros and cons to commuting you know you get to at least escape from college but because of that you're not like I said it's not like a home you know you don't have somewhere to escape to my only place to escape was the library or a cafe I was low-key kind of jealous of my friends who were able to go to her apartment which was just like a few blocks off campus like right after class they could just go to their apartments and take a nap and I wasn't able to do that so I had to be productive and you know I didn't really get a break I went from one class to the other or I was in the library slash cafe and I would go to another class and then I'd go home because I was so exhausted but because I was able to escape from college you know I was able to live another life I focused on YouTube I focused on other things and that is my own personal life you know not everyone's going to have the same desires as me someone's going to want to actually have a student life and be involved in the university as much as possible if that's the case then maybe living on campus is a better solution for you but obviously you can have a busy life in college and be a commuter but I was just exhausted alive I had to get up pretty early just to get to campus because driving took 40 minutes to an hour sometimes it would be 1 hour and 30 minutes because of traffic but I am Who I am because I commuted and I can't wish for something else you know or else I'd be different but really just evaluate what's important to you whether you want to be able to be close to campus so you can do whatever you want or whether you're okay with commuting or whether that's just a better decision for you finance why is life wise whatever did I like being a commuter I'm just neutral about this whole thing another topic is how to keep college from defining your self-worth this is also going to be subjective because of how valuable college can be per person but the way that I College was never this defining thing for me it's not the biggest part of my identity you know going to UC Berkeley it's part of my identity but it doesn't define who I am it was a part of my life and I think more people have to realize that college is such a small part of your life it can be a very defining part of your life but it's only four years of your life like a lot can happen in those four years but a lot more happens in the decades after college as well everyone has different opportunities experiences circumstances that make them the person they are and even if you go to a prestigious university that doesn't determine the life you're going to live you could be at a great university that everyone talks about but you could also just be in your dorm doing nothing but then you could also do so much in college but that doesn't determine your future that doesn't determine if you're going to get a job there are so much people going for similar things and all that which is a whole nother topic but I think what matters more than what you do in college or who you become or anything like that is learning about yourself and making sure that you're okay taking care of yourself and being your own friend learning to be okay on your own learning to be okay when things don't go your way learning to find backup plans other paths and being okay with it and really just taking care of yourself I think is what matters more don't determine your self-worth on something that is four years of your life going to college does not promise a prosperous life what matters in the end whether it's graduating college if you go to college because not everyone goes to college or whether you're in life ten years from now 20 years from now what matters the most is the person that you are the human being that you are whether you're a decent human being because life is long and life is unpredictable and nothing's promised nothing is determined more than anything just make sure that you're prepared to take on the world with whatever comes keep your loved ones close always remember there's a plan B for everything you just have to kind of look for it and the plan B is not always going to be something that you want like for me I never thought about coming College and because I went it offered me the life that I have now which I'm so thankful for there are backup plans everywhere but they're not always something that we won in the first place but they lead us to somewhere if I did something else in the past I'd be a different person because that leads to something else life keeps happening even after college college was just four to ten years of your life and they had to figure out something to do after that another question is was it worth it personally I'm glad I took the experience and I'm glad that I was able to go to college and finish not everyone is able to so I'm very thankful for that I definitely learned a whole lot when I was in college I don't know if I would have been able to teach myself these things and a lot of it was stuff that I had to learn along the way not just in my classes but in life in general so personally it wasn't a waste of time and it definitely offered a lot to me you should just do research on to what path is good for you College is a commitment and it's hard and it requires a lot and yeah but for my life I'm glad happened I think this is going to be the final question which is advice if you were to do it all over again now like I said I am never doing that again but if I were to start all over it's a weird thing to think about because my mistakes brought me to where I am now if I didn't go to Community College my experience in college would have been definitely a very different I wouldn't have gone to UC Berkeley obviously because I wouldn't have been accepted my personality would definitely be different and just everything would have been different I'm kind of thankful that I want to come in college so I wouldn't I can't tell high school senior Nina to work hard and make sure you get into these universities or else I wouldn't be the person I am today I wouldn't have gone through the transferring experience that I've gone through I guess I can start from Community College Nina and just tell her that you're going to be okay you're going to graduate that you're working hard that you're doing your best everything will pass my favorite quotes and to just not spend so much time being stressed and anxious about the future about everything that's happening I could say that one regret I did have when I was in college was that there were a lot of times when I doubted myself and I was hot in my anxiety and negative thoughts about not graduating not being so sure of my future I remember in my last semester UC Berkeley I was so overwhelmed so anxious that I didn't have and to enjoy the last few months that I had in college for the rest of my life also worried I wasn't going to graduate that I didn't have time to have fun to explore UC Berkeley for the last time and just be excited about graduating about starting a new chapter in my life I was just like oh my god I have to get an A on this paper or else I'm going to fail this class even though that's like not possible there were lots of times when I was just so overwhelmed that I couldn't really enjoy my day or enjoy my experience so if I had any regrets or anything that I would change OB to just enjoy college a little bit more it is such a short time even if it seems so long even if in pasts videos of mine that you probably have seen I would complain and wish it would just be over that I could just graduate already college is short it seems long but it's such a short part of your life and you have the rest of your life ahead of you advice if I were to do it all over again if I had the same path if I went through everything again I would wish that this time I did it with less worries and less negative thoughts and doubts about myself and just enjoy it while it lasts because it goes by so fast and that chapter literally closes and you can't go back to it and it happened so just try to make the best out of college while you can take on access to whatever College provides take on those internships take on those clubs organizations take on those acquaintances in class I was worded kind of badly become friends with them be friendly to them explore campus go on spontaneous trips with your friends or classmates take care of yourself make sure you're making good choices if you go to college enjoy it it's going to be overwhelming and hard but there is time to live your life a little bit there is time to enjoy it try to enjoy it while you can because there are so many decades of life ahead of you after college so just remember to make sure that you're going to be okay when you leave college and always take care of yourself basically I think that is all I can say for this video I know that there is stuff that I may have not talked about but this is basically what I can think of before this college experience video I'm sure I will do more College advice videos in the future because there's definitely a lot more I can say it's a whole four years of experience I could talk about a lot happened in those four years in this is just I don't know how long this video is it's probably 20 to 30 minutes long it's just 20 to 30 minutes of my college life I hope that this video was helpful it's a kind of way I feel like it was more like a big-picture kind of advice video I'm definitely going to do more college related advice videos experience videos and all that in the future I hope you enjoyed this video I hope that it was kind of helpful I know that a lot of you guys are already in college but hopefully some of you guys are about to start maybe you're like me and you're done with college but I just hope that this video resonated with someone and I'll be yes thank you for watching this video and I will see you next time goodbye my friends

Channel: oh no nina

Views: 279,828

Rating: 4.9838367 out of 5

Keywords: college experience, college, experience, university, advice, uc berkeley, productivity, motivation, life, education, transfer, community college, how to, college graduate, media studies

Id: Tq0vb5h2kYk

Length: 33min 38sec (2018 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 22 2019