Time to start looking at colleges... :(

[Kevin]

Yep, it's my Junior year of high school, and I got to start thinking about what college I want to go to and for what
Here's what I have in mind:
Choral Director at a high school (I'm in a top choral group in the state
At least I got over a year.. =\
and Junior year sucks.

[Will]

I went to college for a degree, so that I could get a job that makes more than $!5 an hour. The type of degree didn't really matter (I chose psych because it was interesting), it was just having a diploma.

Choral directors should have a BA in teaching/music, preferably from a state school. Don't expect to make a great deal of money, the current music teacher at my old high school makes about $32,000 a year. Still, teaching can be a real blast if you have a knack for it.

Winding back the clock, my Junior year I was doing a lot of SAT prep. I took a class on the SAT and took two practice tests. It ended up paying off with a decent score, and that score helped me get quite a few scholarships (because my family was poor when I was that age). I contacted about 24 schools I was interested in and on my own I selected a dozen from the list that wrote back with something that I liked. Brown didn't even write back. My parents and counselor helped me choose 6 of those 12 and I went to visit each of them during the summer between Junior and Senior year. I ended up liking Santa Clara U. the most.

Then I went crazy for funding. I applied for something like 2,500 scholarships. I only got a small fraction of that, but it was enough to let me get through college without outrageous student loans.

The biggest mistake I made was not having a decent job to help keep me afloat during college. At one time I was taking over 20 credits and had 3 minimum wage jobs. Had I worked at getting a $15/hr job, I could have taken a great deal of stress out of my life.

This might all seem stressful, but college was one of the happiest times of my life and everything I did to earn it was worth it.

Let us know if you have any questions.

[Kevin]

(Sorry if it seems like I didn't read the rest of what you said, I did)

Was getting a degree in Psych worth it?
I have considered that before.

[Will]

Was getting a degree in Psych worth it?

I enjoyed learning about psychology, but it hasn't applied since I graduated. I went into the business world instead of getting licensed and opening a practice. A BA from a good college really improved my resume and allowed me to move into a managerial position. That was the value of the degree.

[curiosityandthecat]

Degree... Asia... teach... blahblah.

You know my take on it.

[Kevin]

Why didn't you follow through with Psych?

And no Curiousity, I don't know

[Will]

Why didn't you follow through with Psych?

When I graduated I was engaged to a woman that was pregnant. I had the whole fatherhood nesting impulse thing going (you'll find out about that some day). I had the opportunity to get my license, but it would have taken quite some time and I wouldn't have been financially comfortable for maybe a year and a half. On the other hand, I had a professor that recommended me to a local CEO for an upper management position where I'd immediately move into a position where I was financially comfortable. So I guess you could say my decision was a financial one.

I could probably follow through with psych now, but to be honest I have career ADHD. I only spent about 3 years at the web company before getting bored and switching. I work at a non-profit company now that deals in helping low income individuals and families. Next I was thinking of taking the bar exam and being a public defender for maybe 5 or 6 years.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Where do you honestly want to see yourself at about 26 or 27?

[Mister Joy]

I didn't want to go to uni at first. The high-school/6th form college that I went to ('college' means something else here) was very up-market, charging £9,000 a year in tuition fees etc. (about $17-18,000, I think that translates to) Unfortunately that meant there was a lot of academic pressure. This involved them constantly drilling it into everyone's heads, right down to the 11 year olds in the bottom year, that if they didn't get into Oxford, Cambridge or Harvard it was the absolute end of the world, their lives would be over and they may as well kill themselves. They were extremely manipulative about it as well. Now I could see that this was all rubbish and I could also see the school's strong incentive. They just wanted to have a nice statistic to show prospective rich parents trying to figure out where to spend their money. Because of all this pressure, I didn't feel fit to make a judgement as to whether I wanted to go to uni (what if some of their insideous bullshit had actually got to me and I didn't realise?) so I stubbornly refused, much to their annoyance. I left with my A-Levels, gave it a year to clear my head and think about it, then decided to go and do a BA in Creative Writing.

The trap people fall into is that they look at university as just an extension of school and go just because. Because their parents say so and it's just the thing to do. Also, they prioritise the certificate, the thing they can write in their CV, over the actual material that they're going to be handling. If you do that, then you may as well not bother; go do something else that you actually enjoy. The point of going is to be set challenges, to explore the fields you're really interested in - literature and art in my case - to be surrounded by like-minded people and most importantly to learn. If that's what you want then it's definitely worth going. Just look at the piece of paper you get at the end as a pleasant bi-product, not the meat of the thing itself.

Oh and, as I say, half of the stuff your highschool will tell you is likely to be total garbage. Ignore them completely and don't let them get involved. If, when, where and why you go, ideally, shouldn't be any of their business. Handle it on your own, at your own leisure. It's so much simpler that way.

[Whitney]

I hate how teachers make college sound like SO MUCH work.. Sounds like it sucks, to be honest.

In my case the workload did suck...but I went to school for architecture...or more appropriately architorture.  We had to spend a lot of time (practically all waking hours) on our projects in order to expect a passing grade.  It was worth it because I am now in a career I enjoy.

If you go into music I would suggest also getting a minor or double majoring.  I have a friend who went into music and apparently it is very difficult to find a job once you graduate.  So, if you went to school to be a music teacher you could also focus on being trained to teach another type of class.  That way if you have a hard time finding a teaching job for one you can look for a job teaching the other.  I doubt it would be that many  more classes either.  Or, you can major in music and move to a state where you can fast track your teacher's certification instead of getting a degree in teaching...that's why my husband is doing now (he majored in philosophy).

[Squid]

College eh?  Well, I'd recommend thinking long and hard about what you want to do because it's a large investment to make.  I originally started college by entering into a local community college first for art and design with dreams of becoming a commercial artist.  At some point I realized that I didn't want to do that as a career as art was more of a personal thing for me and not something I wanted to do as a career.

I later entered into the Navy where I learned photolithography but didn't want to do that as a career either.  I finally entered back into school for psychology which I was/am interested in, especially the more biological/medical aspects.  I received my bachelor of science a couple of years ago and am currently finishing up my masters in health psychology.  I realized that if I wanted to get a decent paying job I'd need a more advanced degree - so I went to grad school.  I'll see what kind of job I can snag once I'm done but also I plan on getting my second bachelors and possibly masters in biology (preferably neurobiology) while I'm working - it'll be a slow, slow process but that'll give me time to build up experience and job time to find something more lucrative later on.

Really decent paying jobs in psych are hard to find if you don't have some sort of licensure or a lot of experience in research and quantitative methodology - so if you want to make more than $20,000 a year in that field, you'll need an advanced degree.  The best money making area in psych is I/O psych with average annual wages of around $80,000 for those holding a doctorate.

However, that is if how much you make is an important factor.  It used to not be for me but that was before I got married and wanted to start a family.  So I'm seriously considering getting into occupational health psychology as a career move if I can.  But if you have anymore questions I'll be happy to answer them for ya.

[curiosityandthecat]

There's a reason this conversation happens all the time:

"Why do you work at (insert random non-degree required job)?"
"Because I majored in something I liked."
"Aaaah."

It's about finding that balance between things you enjoy doing and something that you know will actually land you a job. Look at me, for instance. My undergrad was Integrated Language Arts. I'm licensed to teach 7-12th grade English (including AP, journalism, yearbook, reading, etc, etc, etc). My masters degree is in Cultural Studies in Education (where I focus on Christian privilege in the US public school system). My doctoral degree will be (at least, that's what I'm leaning to right now) in Instructional Technology where I will be looking at the relationship between video games and education, and how to integrate the two (not by making educational video games, but by using video games as texts).

Phew, that's a lot. Point is, right now I'm working as the night and weekend supervisor at the Circulation desk in a university library. Does that have anything to do with my degrees? Nope. Only because I don't want to teach right now; I want to go to school for free.  

My take (as I mentioned earlier) is this, if you're not entirely sure what you want to do with the rest of your life: your bachelor's isn't really that important. I mean, you need one, but your advanced degrees are more important. So, pick something you enjoy doing, get the BS or BA or whatever you want, then, if you're still unsure, think about teaching English in Asia. China, Taiwan, Japan (though the standard of living is higher in Japan so you won't feel like you're making as much), Korea, Thailand, just about anywhere but Singapore (because they already speak English, heh). It doesn't matter what your degree is in, normally. Just as long as you have one. If you teach in Taiwan or China, especially, you can live frugally, teach ~30 hours a week, do some private tutoring on the side (many schools have exclusivity clauses in their contracts, but nobody pays attention to them), and you can save thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars to put a down payment on a house (or, if you're really good, buy one outright) when you come back. Plus, if you've learned Chinese, that'll be a big pad for the resume, as Chinese is becoming other international language of business. 真çš,,!

tl;dr

Ph.D > Master's > Bachelor's.
Graduate, travel to Asia, profit.

[karadan]

tl;dr

Ph.D > Master's > Bachelor's.
Graduate, travel to Asia, profit.

It all sounds so easy..

As much as i'd love to teach English in Thailand (my most favouritist country in the world) i have ties in the UK which prevent me from leaving long term...

Maybe someday i'll be able to.

[Wechtlein Uns]

you know what sucks, and I mean REALLY sucks? My first semester in college; after I turned in my ver first freshman comp paper, the professor took me aside next class and told me that my writing was good enough to start a graduate degree right then and there. Unfortunately, I still couldn't apply, because I didn't have enough credits(obviously). So here I am, stuck in a frickin community college, slaving away to earn credits.

You know what sucks even more? I've taken precalculus about 5 times, and failed all 5 times. I know the material like the back of my hand, but I can't frickin pass the damn class. And so long as I can't pass precal, I can't get into advanced computer science courses! GRRR!

Yeah. I was trying to get a degree in Computer Programming. It's fun. But over here at backwater community college, the computer courses I need were canceled due to lack of enrollment. Damn.

Other than that, though, it's pretty good.

just one piece of advice: GPA. It's all about the gpa. Doesn't matter what the hell you do, KEEP YOUR GPA UP. Without it, you are not qualified for almost all financial aid. Don't do it, man. Kepp that gpa up.

[Whitney]

just one piece of advice: GPA. It's all about the gpa. Doesn't matter what the hell you do, KEEP YOUR GPA UP. Without it, you are not qualified for almost all financial aid. Don't do it, man. Kepp that gpa up.

GPA is very important for getting scholarships.  But, my major is one of those special cases where I didn't have to care about GPA, I just had to pass any classes related to my degree requirements with a C or better.  That being said, I still tried to do decently just for my own reasons.  I ended up graduating with a 3.2 (I think)...I could have done better but sacrificed almost all of my study time in order to work more on my architecture projects.  We use portfolios to look for new jobs and don't list gpa unless asked (and they never ask).  I think architects are simply determined to do everything differently than everyone else   We were supposed to be part of the engineering college but created our own administrative infrastructure often ignoring whatever the engineering college was doing.

[Kevin]

Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Where do you honestly want to see yourself at about 26 or 27?

I really don't know, that's what sucks. I know that around this time next year, which will be my Senior year of high school, I can start taking classes at ________________ School of Recording Arts (Not going to say fully
But that chances of that becoming a career are WAY to low

But I really don't know. Something in music, like Recording Arts, would be a great job.. But I don't know. But if I can get certified, or have some kind of education in it that would show on a resume, would be great for getting into a college for it.