Graduation 2004!

[Rían]

I've seen that several Mooters are graduating from various levels of school and wanted to start a thread for congrats and discussion

I know our esteemed Entmoot founder, bmilder, is graduating and heading off to college (Harvard, Princeton or Yale - I forgot if he's decided yet). I think Arien is graduating, too, and Tano, and many others that I can't remember now.

Who's graduating, and what are your plans? (immediate, as far as parties and longer-term, as far as jobs or further schooling).


EDIT - could you guys please include your country and maybe your age, or whatever might help with cross-cultural understanding? There's different terms for different countries.

[Twista]

Well im moving into 6th form..

Big change. Free periods!! woooo

More of a student life, major skive! hee hee

Kind of graduation...

[Rían]

Could you please explain what 6th form is to this poor uninformed American?

[Dreran the Green]

well I'm not graduating from anything, I'm just a sophmore in highschool next year, but my friend Elyse is graduating this year and going to Colombia College! I'm really happy for her, she has an incredible flare for costume design and now she's going to have a chance to learn more about it.

[Hemel]

Sixth form is the two years of school that come after the GCSEs.

The GCSEs (General Certificate of Secondary Education) are the exams that people take just before or at the legal age when they can leave school (16). AFAIK everyone does them - loads of them - although a number of schools now, recognising that not everyone expresses themselves that way, are beginning already to offer in tandem courses that are more specifically vocational.

After GCSE you have choices. Some people go out to work, or take on a modern apprenticeship. Some people go to college and learn things like hairdressing, car maintenance, computer things. (But can also do more GCSEs there, and AS and A2 level exams, and NVQs).

Some people stay on at school. That's when they go into the sixth form. The sort-of general intention there is that they will get further academic qualifications. Thus the AS and A2 level exams. These are Advanced level, with the AS being taken after the first year in sixth form and the A2 in the same subjects at AS after the second year (normally people will drop one of their AS subjects to concentrate on, say, three A2 level exams). But there are also the NVQs (NVQs being work-related qualifications with a high practical component ... National Vocational Qualification) and some people take them in sixth form, maybe also combining them with an AS or A2 exam.

And THEN ... well, you could leave school. But a number of sixth formers will go on to university. It's the results at A2 that really determine whether you will get the course you want and the university you want - different places have different entry criteria.

Sixth form is much better than ordinary school. That's because suddenly you're not legally forced to be there - it's through choice - and most of the teachers start treating you like adults.

And if I've got this wrong, because even since I left for university lots has changed - let me know, Brits! (And of course, this is about England - there are variations )

And for Rian ... maybe you'll let me know about the US system? Because what confused me was when USAmerican friends referred to my university work as 'school' work ... and talked about graduating (because for us, graduation is from university ).

[Ragnarok]

I'm graduating high school and this fall I will be attending Tyler School of Art.

[Finrod Felagund]

Well I am completing my fifth year of high school. next year, if I don't make the group i auditioned for, i will work for a year. And hopefully the next year I will attend Sheridan college for their Musical theatre program.
However, this summer I will be camp counselling.

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Hemel
And for Rian ... maybe you'll let me know about the US system? Because what confused me was when USAmerican friends referred to my university work as 'school' work ... and talked about graduating (because for us, graduation is from university ).

We (Americans) graduate both from high school and college. College is synonymous with going to a university. So whether a person is going to a university or college - they're still going to college. And yeah - you still do school work as long as you in are in school - whether it's elementary school, middle school, high school or college. Some middle schools and junior highs also have formal graduation ceremonies. We also take ACTs or SATs in our junior, senior year of high school which are one of the ways used by colleges to determine if they will accept the student. It isn't the only way though - and different colleges put different emphasis on the tests.

Twista - what do you mean by "free periods"?

My cousin graduates this year from high school.

[Arien the Maia]

Ok..as Rian said, I graduated! YEA!!! I graduated on May 12th from Indiana University (in Fort Wayne...they have like 8 different campuses in Indiana) with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A) in Graphic Design. I'm looking for a job right now but I also have a non paying internship with a printing company that I go to on Mon and Wed from 10-2. It took me 5 long years to get this degree and I am SOOOO relived that I am done! Although, if they offered a Master's program here in Fort Wayne I would probably get my Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A)

[Radagast]

Originally posted by jerseydevil
We (Americans) graduate both from high school and college. College is synonymous with going to a university. So whether a person is going to a university or college - they're still going to college. And yeah - you still do school work as long as you in are in school - whether it's elementary school, middle school, high school or college. Some middle schools and junior highs also have formal graduation ceremonies. We also take ACTs or SATs in our junior, senior year of high school which are one of the ways used by colleges to determine if they will accept the student. It isn't the only way though - and different colleges put different emphasis on the tests.

Twista - what do you mean by "free periods"?

My cousin graduates this year from high school.

Jersey- A school day is divided up into 'periods', usually slightly more than half an hour each, and a 'free period' is one in which you have no lesson in and you can do whatever you like.

[Starr Polish]

I graduated from high school on May 21st. I didn't have a party of my own, but I went to all of my friends parties instead. I plan on going to a state university and majoring in psychology, but tentatively.

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Radagast
Jersey- A school day is divided up into 'periods', usually slightly more than half an hour each, and a 'free period' is one in which you have no lesson in and you can do whatever you like.

Oh - study period then. In my school students didn't have study periods - unless there was ABSOLUTELY no other way to fit another class in that they didn't have before. I never had a study period in high school.

[Hanza]

i go into 6th form next year. doing my GCSE exams atm which i really should be revising for right now. ah well. shopping seemed more fun!! For AS im doing Biology, Maths, chemistry and psychology. probably dropping psychology when i go into yr 13 (upper 6th form). I cant wait to have free periods. gonna be bliss.

[Nerdanel]

I've graduated! I'm from Finland, and I know almost nothing about other systems. According to my dictionary, I've graduated from something that's like senior high-school. ( )

[Twista]

Originally posted by Hemel
Sixth form is the two years of school that come after the GCSEs.

The GCSEs (General Certificate of Secondary Education) are the exams that people take just before or at the legal age when they can leave school (16). AFAIK everyone does them - loads of them - although a number of schools now, recognising that not everyone ... blah blah etc etc

You Lie. I remind you i come from Scotland, and we run on a different system. It is similar but not the same...

The equivilant to the GCSEs are the Standard Grades, this is run over 2 years also. But in fact this system is getting converted to Intimediate 2 examinations.

Just a quick reminder, in Scotland, we have seven years in primary school. Called Primary 1 - 7. And 6 years of senior school, Senior 1 - 5, and 6th Form

In 3rd and 4th year, you sit the Standard Grades of Int2s. Usually eight subjects are sat in this catorgary.

Standard Grades are graded 1 - 7, 1 being the best, and 7 a fail. This is further more devided into more catorgaries, [1 + 2 - Credit Level] [3 + 4 - General Level] [5 +6 - Foundation Level]. And as i said, 7 is a fail. The Int2 system is graded ABCD, D being a narrow fail.

After this comes Senior 5. This is where you sit your Highers and in some case Int2's for the less intelligent. You sit 5 of these subjects, and in English terms, equivilant to AS Levels.

Okay Finally, 6th Form. This is where you sit 3 or 4 subjects, depending on what you want to do. In 6th form you can go up a further level to Advanced Highers, the same as Highers, but at another step up obviously. You can also resit Highers you failed last year, if you didnt get the grades to get into university. Advanced highers are the same level as A-Level, and are only needed to get entry to English Universitys, Scottish Uni's only demand Higher entrys ( Miniumum usually 4 B's ).

ANYWAY Sixth form is more of a student life, you have free periods, can go home when you dont have them etc etc. And you can skive periods without really getting noticed lol.

Theres a small explanation then... I will make amendments...

[Garbo]

I'm in Scotland and just finished 6th year, so basically graduation. Still got a few things left like leaving day etc, but pretty much over. Kinda sad to leave, every other year i kinda wanted to leave now i don't 6th year was definitly alot better than previous years, probably because it's way more relaxed and more like uni. Anyway summernow, time to get laze around and get drunk

[Rían]

Whew! I'm going to have to read thru these posts again more carefully. I'll add my brief summary of school in the US - basically the school you HAVE to go thru is 13 years long - Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd ... thru 12th. Graduating from 12th grade is graduating from high school, which is a big deal, and people are usually 17 or so. All school from Kindergarten thru 12th grade is provided free to the public.

After that, if you want to get further education, you then go to what we usually call college (which seems to be what most Europeans call university, and we also call university sometimes) and you have to pay for it (often megabucks, but then you try to get scholarships to help out). Most college degrees take 4 to 5 years, and at the end of the coursework you usually get what's called a bachelor's degree (see Arien's post - she took 5 years to get a bachelor's degree, like I did, altho mine is in computer science). Then after that yo ucan get a master's degree (my husband has both a bachelors and a masters degree), then a doctorate (PhD) (one of my brothers-in-law has a bachelors, masters and PhD). And all of that is also considered "school" (I guess we basically consider school as a place where you sit and teachers talk )

[Jonathan]

Hi, I'm an 18-year-old Swede and I'm graduating this Friday. Immediate plans concern hanging out with my fellow graduates and partying.
Longer-term plans include applying for University and studying medicine.

[Rían]

Congrats, Jonathan!

[Hemel]

Originally posted by Twista
[B]You Lie. I remind you i come from Scotland, and we run on a different system. It is similar but not the same...

OI! I take exception to that accusation, Twista!

Hey, a good thing to learn to do is to make sure you have read and understood ALL the text, before you start commenting on it. Maybe if you'd done that you'd have seen this note in my post

(And of course, this is about England - there are variations )

So nerr nerr de nerr nerr!