Resources for continuous learning

[AtomicRuby]

Hi all,

I'm finishing college in 4 weeks and as much as I would like to go straight to university, it's just not something I can afford right away. I plan to spend some time working and saVing, but during that time I do not want to get rusty. I'm used to being very busy, I take two full time programs and I have two part time jobs. Once school ends, things are going to slow down and I want to continue to take either free online courses, or cheap courses, or simply read textbooks of subjects in science that interest me (and could be beneficial in my field). I'm looking for suggestions to online resources, courses, and reasonably priced texts. My two fields of study are Environmental Technology and Biotechnology. All suggestions welcome, thanks in advance.

[NimrodTheGoat]

Try internships or shadow someone in the field you are interested in.

[AtomicRuby]

Try internships or shadow someone in the field you are interested in.

Thanks for the advice, I actually gave that I try today and reached out to a professor about doing an internship. It looks promising and he's getting back to me on when I can start! I wasn't originally thinking in that direction but I'm glad you suggested it because now it looks like I will be doing an internship at an exciting facility and helping with some research.

[helpfulcounselor]

How about staying current on the research...maybe use the current research to write articles on the topics that interest you?

 

This would give you a nice portfolio of interesting topics while allowing you to stay sharp!

[keyestothefuture]

I assume you're in the US but here in the UK there are courses called MOOC's. I'm not sure whether you could access them but I don't see why not. They're like tasters but they can go in to a lot of detail and I'm almost certain that they'd keep you sharp enough for uni. Alternatively/additionally, you could see the reading list for your university course and then see if you could get these out from a library? Most would probably only let you look at them inside though, as reference material. And if you're saving for uni you probably shouldn't spend the money on buying the books yourself. You can get them really cheap on the internet though, especially from graduates at around this time of year so best to keep your eyes open.