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Need advice on school/work

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shannn Netherlands2891 Posts August 28 2011 13:25 GMT #1 Need your help reader! Read the full post or else you might miss some context or relevance to my question in the end. College starting again tomorow. It's my senior year and after this school year I would be able to get my HBO degree (for US people it's equivalent to an undergraduate degree iirc). I'm thinking to start a new study after this in the US but I haven't made concrete plans yet so I won't really go much into this. My results past 3 years at college are average at 6-8 marks (B/C/D?) without any effort and books (saved me around 3k euros / $4.5k~ so far). Only because the things I've been giving lessons so far at college is just economical / company stuff while I study computer science >< So I haven't really been putting effort into the majority of my studies since most subjects are in my opinion not closely related to my studies at all. Every quarter past 3 years I've been doing some kind of economics/management subject while I study computer science. I can understand the reason though since my school prepares for the practical things in the world. They expect some students to go start their own companies and with it comes economical/management stuff and my school focusses on these kind of things. This year however I've been told that all subjects are specialized for my study (Design Patterns/.NET/ advanced PHP lol / etc). Now I have 1 question. I'm positive that if I actually bought books and study for my exams that I would easily pass the tests and get near perfect scores. But I wonder if companies outside of Holland (English based countries like US/UK/Canada) look on your results of your last year or your average of all years. Or schools for that matter as well. Basically due to my almost no studying/practicing for exams I have more time for myself to work and help out my brother's company to earn money. I'm wondering if I should just pass the exams like how I've been doing the past years and help out family company or really go for perfect scores to show off on my resume or for my school achievements but I might (read: will) have less time for work then. Basically when I have school I usually have about 6-8 hours of school then I help out 6-8 hours a day. I help out my brother every day so 7 days atleast 6 hours on average. So basically for Dutch standards that's a full time job along with my studies and my work saves my brother quite some money if he were to hire someone else (like ~60-80k euros of work, he calculated it when he went on to search for people who could do the things I do now). Bear in mind that my brother's company is basically an IT company specializing in smartphone apps so it has quite relevancy to my study. Since I want to study in the US/Canada my school results will obviously be affected whether or not I get in. Should I really just lessen up with work and focus more on my results this last year or won't it have any use?

Hypertension United States802 Posts August 28 2011 13:52 GMT #2 Your last year will be weighted a bit more than the years before it, especially if you are planning on continuing your studies. In other words a B student who was a C student, then pulled A's the last year looks better than a straight B student, and much better than a B student who started with As and finished with C's. I was a big fan of buying textbooks and reading in general, but I know some students skipped this by going to class and taking good notes, basically writing their own textbook that would be closer to the final exam anyway. It is always better to put in full effort in whatever you are doing. Just like Starcraft it is more fun to be winning, you'll find school is more fun when you are getting top marks.You won't regret working hard now in school. School will seem like a cakewalk compared to what ever job you end up working, so you might as well get used to pushing yourself now.

bellhop United States165 Posts August 28 2011 13:54 GMT #3 I don't know much about foreign applications into American graduate programs. My only advice would be, decide on what you really want to do (be it study in US/Canada or help the family business for awhile) and then do everything you can to ensure that you will reach your goal. If you want to study in the US/Canada, that means working hard and studying even if people tell you it's easy to get into the school of your choice.

eVolvE342 157 Posts August 28 2011 14:16 GMT #4 I would say that you should put a little more time into studying for your final year. Post undergrad schools will tend to focus on the grades that you received in upper level classes within your concentration. Obviously they will look at all your grades but they usually aren't too concerned if you had a bad grade or two in something completely irrelevant to what you are pursuing. Therefor I feel like finishing strong would be wise, especially since you said the classes are all directly relevant to your subject of study. On the other hand I wouldn't completely disregard your brothers business. Partly because its your family, and also because it sounds like the kind of experience that would really boost your application's appeal. So maybe spend just enough time with your studies to get decent grades while still keeping good family relations. (no time for starcraft wuuhhhh???)

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