To take part in discussions on talkSFU, please apply for membership (SFU email id required).

A high school student that knows -nothing- about post secondary. Basic questions?

edited September 2008 in General
Hey SFU,

I've currently just entered my last year of high school and now more and more questions are beginning to arise. I do plan on going to post-secondary, but the problem for me is trying to find what courses to take, where to look , etc.


What im interested in:

Multi media (video editing mainly)
Graphic design (photoshop etc)
General music related (music creation, anything in that broad category)
Pop culture-
internet pop culture -
some general psychology (a sub interest not my top priority)
some buisness stuff (entrepreneurship marketing kinda stuff)

im aware this is a very diverse amount of interests and split it up if you need to. im more interested in multi media/graphic/internet related stuff than anything else.

What im trying to find is courses that support things like this (mainly the first few) and possibly some links to help me look around.

Also, if you think SFU is not the place to be looking for things like this, feel free to reccomend any other place as i have not yet committed to any institution.

Links would probably be the most helpful thing, but any information will help me out.

Please help! The amount of questions i have is killing me.

Comments

  • edited September 2008
    School of Interactive Arts and Technology seems like your best shot at SFU based on your interests. I haven't taken any IAT courses though so you'll have to ask someone else about that...

    Communications can also give you credentials for a job in media, technology, or publishing, but the knowledge you gain is less technical... it's mostly theory and cultural studies.
  • edited September 2008
    I second the SIAT, go to one of the open houses on the surrey campus
  • edited September 2008
    Thank you ! keep this great information coming, im looking this up a lot.

    Another question to throw in:

    Is one able to take coarses from both the SIAT and another faculty at the same time? as in a media related course as well as a buisness related course?
    or are you restricted to faculties
  • edited September 2008
    Hey, I'm going to give you advice that I wish someone gave me when I was younger.

    I wanted to design video games for a living when I was your age. I built all my education plans around that. What happened later is my life took a full 360 on me and I became interested in COMPLETELY different things.

    I think that you should pay our campus a visit, sneak into some lectures, hang around with other students (it shouldn't really be that scary because people generally won't even care that you're there). See how you like it here first.

    Finally, I'm not saying that you shouldn't pursue your life goals, just keep in mind that there's a chance that you might want to do completely different things once you get into university and start learning more about life.

    Best of luck to you buddy and take care out there!
  • edited September 2008
    heggie88;36304 said:
    Thank you ! keep this great information coming, im looking this up a lot.

    Another question to throw in:

    Is one able to take coarses from both the SIAT and another faculty at the same time? as in a media related course as well as a buisness related course?
    or are you restricted to faculties
    Yes, in fact the university MAKES you take courses from other faculties. I say you take advantage of that during your first year to explore before you decide on what to concentrate on.
  • edited September 2008
    Go to Surrey.

    I don't think they have Graphics and Multimedia courses at Burnaby. Unless you major in Computing Science and take upper-level courses cause there are a few graphics and multimedia courses in upper-level.

    Seems more like a side-dish though.

    Either Surrey or Emily Carr I guess.
  • edited September 2008
    blackhat;36305 said:
    Hey, I'm going to give you advice that I wish someone gave me when I was younger.

    I wanted to design video games for a living when I was your age. I built all my education plans around that. What happened later is my life took a full 360 on me and I became interested in COMPLETELY different things.

    I think that you should pay our campus a visit, sneak into some lectures, hang around with other students (it shouldn't really be that scary because people generally won't even care that you're there). See how you like it here first.

    Finally, I'm not saying that you shouldn't pursue your life goals, just keep in mind that there's a chance that you might want to do completely different things once you get into university and start learning more about life.

    Best of luck to you buddy and take care out there!

    Thanks, i definately agree, i plan on keeping my subject area broad becuase i dont want to close any doors. Going onto campus would be a good idea, but im sure you cannot simply just walk in and start creeping around in rooms and such. Where do i go , when do i go, etc? im assuming i needa guest pass or something?

    and also another question, is there any pop culture/internet pop culture/psychology based courses that anyone can link? having trouble finding them and there admission requirements.
  • edited September 2008
    heggie88;36311 said:
    Where do i go , when do i go, etc? im assuming i needa guest pass or something?
    Nah not really, people will just think you're another university student. There's virtually no way for you to get into trouble. You could always ask for a tour but I think that's a little fabricated, go out and have your own experience on-campus. Get a map too and not down places you want to visit during the day.

    http://www.sfu.ca/about/maps.html
  • edited September 2008
    go the SFU website and find a catalogue for the courses provided in the fall semester, and just walk into them and sit in, they dont take attendance in lectures, someone might say something in a tutorial, and most definitely say something in a lab or seminar, but go to lectures

    but the giant lectures just walk in, personally i dont think a lot of the classes are all that interesting, like i dont know anything that would provide any insight on popular culture...maybe communications...maybe

    i know someone in SIAT and from what hes learned there ive seen some good things churned out
  • edited September 2008
    ok, i will definately look that up. thats probably my best bet in terms of ''demo-ing'' courses i may like/not like.

    So you dont think theres much courses on pop culture/internet culture etc?
  • edited September 2008
    I think you might want to look at Communications Faculty for that.
  • edited September 2008
    heggie88;36311 said:
    Thanks, i definately agree, i plan on keeping my subject area broad becuase i dont want to close any doors. Going onto campus would be a good idea, but im sure you cannot simply just walk in and start creeping around in rooms and such. Where do i go , when do i go, etc? im assuming i needa guest pass or something?

    and also another question, is there any pop culture/internet pop culture/psychology based courses that anyone can link? having trouble finding them and there admission requirements.
    Actually you can.

    In big lectures with 100+ students, you won't know anyone and no one will know you unless you personally know them. The instructor doesn't know who's in the class and who's not and they don't care if someone not in the class drops in to listen to the lecture.
  • edited September 2008
    ok cool. i'll definately look into it. what do you think is the best time to do it?
  • edited September 2008
    Beginning of the semester (i.e. now) - that way the material is still introductory to a lot of people, not just you. :)
  • edited September 2008
    heggie88;36324 said:
    ok, i will definately look that up. thats probably my best bet in terms of ''demo-ing'' courses i may like/not like.

    So you dont think theres much courses on pop culture/internet culture etc?
    Communications is the place to look. I've taken CMNS 221 (Media and Audiences), and CMNS 223 (Advertising as Social Communication), they are both great courses if you don't mind reading a lot. There are some other courses on TV and music too if you're interested.

    Keep in mind though that SFU's School of Communications is predominantly leftist and critical (as opposed to mainstream), so you'll probably feel a bit depressed about pop culture after taking some of these courses.
  • edited September 2008
    ok, i'll keep that in mind, thanks.

    These courses are so confusing. For example when i look at the SIAT site, it gives information on each coarse ,but i dont understand howthe simple things like timetable (how i fit all these courses into a semester if they all vary) and what i do after i have completed each course, theres only 20 courses say offered by SIAT, and im only interested in maybe half of them. Some of them are 13 week long coarses, does that mean i woudnt even acheive bachelors degree? wheres the option to find the SECOND year version of this course or something? im so confused ://
  • edited September 2008
    Heggie88

    Besides what blackhat said i'd also say that pay attention to what you'd like to do with your degree and not only about studying what you like. I love history for example, but i wouldnt want to be a teacher or a professor, so it wont work for me, as my options afterwards are very narrow.

    The advice i wish someone had told me before i got into university was to be less of a dreamer and to experiment working/volunteering in areas that i had interest.

    Co-op after the 1st semester is a good option since it gives you insight into the "real life". If you think that it'll take longer to graduate, just think that better to find out you didnt love something from the beginning that to find out after you graduate that you want something completely different.

    Take my example, I was on 4th year of Law school in my country ( there, it's 5 years total not undergrad and graduate like here) and i decided to drop out when i started working for the university's legal department, I saw that it wasn't what i wanted. Some people called me crazy, some people called me brave.

    the only sad part of it all is that sfu only accepted 15 credits of the 90 that i had..

Leave a Comment