Slashdot Mirror
Making the Transition to University?
fracex asks: "I am currently finishing my last year of high school, and have some important decisions to make about next year. Pretty much all my life I have seen myself as going to university as soon as I finished high school, but recently I have been considering taking a year off from school to work and travel. Not only this, I'm not even totally sure what I want to take in university, is what I still want to take. So, taking a year off could give me time to find more direction and focus. What was your experience with your transition between high school and university, and are you glad you made the decisions you did?"
I have no particular regrets about my University experience. I'm the guy who picked his major right off, and stuck with it through a Masters because I knew what I wanted, going in.
I say "the guy" because so far, I have yet to meet anyone else in real life who took this path. (I'm sure there are many on Slashdot, but that's a much larger pool, so obviously there will be some. My point is the relative size.)
My wife regrets not learning there was a vet tech program in college, instead getting a Zoology degree. And again, note the phrase "not learning"; she never explored enough to find out, and certainly nobody told her.
If you don't know what you want to do, don't declare a major in the first year. Ignore the U requirements for a bit, and just start taking every 101 class you think sounds interesting. Personally, along with my Canonical Computer Nerd path, I also could have majored in music (abysmal earnings potential, I don't think I have "it"), psychology (fascinating), hell, even sociology (useless discipline for supporting me, though). And that's not even a complete list.
It's especially helpful to do this if you're intellectually diverse, because I don't believe in the "one true job" idea. If you find many interesting things, you can pick the one most likely to support you.
That said, while a year off can focus you (or the complete opposite, only you know), and you might find that thing you want to do, it's a relatively limited selection compared to what a University would offer. How are you going to find out if you like Psychology? Or math? (What you've studied up until now isn't math, it's just number twiddling and formula memorization, unless you've done a ton of proofs.) Or chemical engineering? I'm not aware of a way to discover that out of University. (Sure, you might pick up a chance at one of them, but you're not going to get a chance to choose from the entire selection.)
I have no answers, just more questions, but that's a good start, too.
"What was your experience with your transition between high school and university, and are you glad you made the decisions you did?"
Well, between high school and university, I got arrested for Public Intoxication, 2nd Degree Criminal Mischief, and Burglary and I pretty much had to leave the state.
Am I glad I made the decisions I did? Not really.