Does College get more fun? (study wise)

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Before it was read textbook do test,research paper( this was kind of fun you chose what you wanted to write about found quotes etc.) get A/passing grade, but otherwise is College ever MORE than that? I have all these ideas for research studies and I don't even know where to begin. I don't even have an Associates yet (obviously start finish THAT first) but from what I've read of the coveted OMG research it's working under someone and probably on a topic of NO INTEREST to you. I want to flex my idea muscles but not wait until I walk across with a Master's or PhD!! ! Is all the Bachelor is test,book,paper,grade? (My local University has for Bachelor internships BUT again that's areas of Psychology OF NO INTEREST to ME!) Being an Aspie is HARD As Willard said I'm interested in one area of it but also as Willard said (in describing NT's) I am kind of NT in that I have AWESOME study skills but the specific area of interest is what's getting to me DARN IT!

I think you've summed up the science part of college pretty well there. You may get a chance to pick your subject (or choose from a few) later on in your degree, but you will still need to research, read textbooks and articles and plan and carry out experiments.

Depending on your degree, you may be working under a professor or pHD student who may have their own ideas for research topics and expect you to follow them. Choose your tutor very carefully if you are given a choice; even if a topic is interesting, if the person running it is a total *rsehole, you won't enjoy it much.

If you really have your heart set on a particular field of psychology, stick it out. It's only a few years and after you get a masters, you get more opportunity to pick and choose your research field.

I think it depends on where you go to college. I know it's not like this everywhere, but there are pretty much no opportunities at my junior college. I don't know if it's the same at yours or not. When you start looking at 4 year schools I would ask about stuff you want to do...you should probably go to a school that is really focused on their undergraduates. From my experience, a smaller school would suit you better just from what you've described. The school I'm planning to go to in the fall has opportunities for undergrad research, academic clubs (psychology, biology, etc), study abroad, chances to travel and present your research, stuff like that. It's more than just the 'in classroom' experience, and it sounds like you're wanting more than that.

When I say does college get 'more fun', I also think of learning outside of the classroom, but I am also thinking of making friends, social things, etc. But I don't know if you mean this as well, or just the academic aspects of college.
*edit* Oh, you did say "study wise", I guess that would mean just the academics :]

No, I would say it doesn't get more fun at all. In my experience, college has taken what I wanted to study and made it absolutely horrible.

I think you're overestimating your ability to produce research in any meaningful capacity, which is why students usually need to go through core requirements, electives as well as lab work or field work or any other relevant background necessary. There are undergrad research experience programs, but barely anything at the junior college level, and frankly, these are more of a developmental step than substantial research. The same usually holds true for undergrad theses and in general, even very, very good students aren't expected to have any meaningful research under their belt before well into grad school. so I think you should really reassess your priorities about researching or publishing anything, and focus on working at something you like. I think you'll find that when you expand your knowledge of psychology you'll be in a better position to appreciate this specific topic (or who knows, you might find something else that interests you more).

That being said, if you've gone over all the psychology at your junior college, you can always look for information on courses and curricula online, like mit ocw or your local university if you want to see firsthand--or try asking your old professors for advice, I'm sure they'll be able to go into more detail than anyone here.

It's true, you won't be running any experiments on human subjects until you're in graduate school, and then it will be your professor's experiment you'll be running. The best you can do is find a professor who has published works in the area of your interest and apply to their clinical program and ask them to be your advisor. Then at least the experiments you'll be running will be in your area of interest.

To get to the point of applying to a graduate program, though, you're going to have to study a lot of stuff that ISN'T interesting to you, and make good grades in all of it, or you won't have a chance of being accepted for grad school.

It sure did for me. It took me a while to find what I liked and was good at but being able to choose my own classes and focus on things I like made a big difference for me. I wasn't a great student before college but I did well there. Now I'm contemplating going back for a Master's maybe in Psychology, either that or bet a second BS in teaching.