take a couple semesters off. Try to get a job. I am guessing that will hit you what wou are making before a degree and what you could be making with a deegree. It will be your motivation. I think that is what you do not have now (no offence meant I went through that as well for a few years while my parents paid for college out of state). When you are ready and determined go back and you will rip right through. At least this is what I did. I was not the 23 year old out of college but the 28 year old out of college. Fanny thing is after you get the focus and the motivation in check everythng becomes easier. Example : I finished my masters in 18 months while working full time. the service is a good idea but keep in mind Army ---> Iraq or Afganistan. Navy or Airforce is a bit more safe. The days of joining the army to gain all the benefits and travel the world are over (well you do travel the wolrd but lots of those world bastards take shots at you).

cheers and good luck.

Nick

 

i do agree with Nick in some way, but becareful when you start working full-time. Often people get stuck at it and not able to 'go back' to school. I just interviewed a guy. He had one semaster left and was unable to finish since 1995.

My suggestion is to do internships. I started my first internship since my freshmen summer. Every year, I 'fine tune' my interest/focus. now I am happy where I am. Best of luck to you.

 

One thing I've learned since I've graduated, is that there is no major that will guarantee a job. Just pick a major you like, work hard, and find out what you like to do. I think that's more important then a specific major (esp. if you do not know what you want to major in)

<-- majored in moving to India (I mean, Computer Science)

 

I was almost done with my Textile Polymer fiber science major at Davis.... and then I quit. I had to go to several JCs to be able to find what I wanted. Working fulltime as a paralegal/assistant now, It got me to realize what I really wanted and what I really enjoyed to do in school (at the JCs) when I was attending. I've been working in the law field now for 2 and a half years and I can't wait to start going to school again for the major I really want to pursue. Law is a hell hole. Sometimes you have to go to a hell hole of a job to wake up and realize what you want in life. The only hard part now is trying to get out of here.

 

i seriously think going to college is a waste of time...maybe the ge requirements are there to give you an idea of what you may be interested in career wise, but they should gear the classes so you get actual experience in the field that you want to work in...like relevant classes for actual real time day to day work...rather then this bs of taking so many units of classes that you dont even end up using in your job....

but gear your classes roughly in the career direction you are interested in and yeah like as mentioned above..internships are really helpful, not only do they give you a glimpse of the job, but heck if you do well after college that could be your full time job also if the company likes you...

 

Going through college has its up's & downs. I do agree that some of the courses required of students are a bit out of touch w/ the real world. Although the course work taken by a student weighs heavily in a decision by a recruiter to hire a perspective employee, it is the commitment shown by the college graduate that most recruiters take most into account when deciding to hire a college graduate over a non-college graduate. The bottom line is, no one particular major will guarantee you success in terms on monetary compensation. Just make sure to commit to a major you are interested in and finish it.

-Soren

 

well... i started off in industrial design...changed to graphics desing, changed to nursing... hopefully finish nursing in 2 years or so, work for a year or so, so i can pay for cal-arts or another high end arts school to finish industrial design... i wanna draw cars for a living, is that soo bad???

sometimes it takes time to figure out what you wanna do, after changing majors around a bit, i ended up wantin to go back to what i originally planned to do... :banana: good luck

 

i stayed undeclared soc. sciences til this year (my junior year), i had to change majors cause the powers that be at UCD wont let you reg. for classes if you are a jr and still havent declared.

regardless, those first 2 years really helped me out, and now i know what i want to do, its just how i get to what i want to do that is somewhat troublesome.

 

If you don't know what you want to do, get a general business degree, like management.

It applies to whatever you want to do. I ended up in tech and I only have business (non technical) degrees. If tech hits the fan, I can always get a job in pharmaceuticals.

Whatever you do, make sure you get some degree. My brother makes half the money I do and he works twice as hard, because he didn't have the patience to finish.

 

that is very true! I had to watch my sister struggle for many years before she was able to 'find herself'. I could only help her in time of need, but she has to make her own decisions so she can do what SHE likes. Same as you, do what YOU like. Good luck

 

NO! Majoring in something you don't care about is a recipe for mediocrity (like my spelling...I can't spell!)


This is EXACTLY what you should do. College isn't for everyone right out of high school because not everyone has a direction in life. But just living in the real world for a few years really inspires you (from what I've heard, never done that yet...) as to what you want to do in life. I have a couple friends who dropped out of college after first, and second years b/c they weren't getting anything out of it. They are both back in college 2 and 4 years later, with the latter now applying for business school, having graduated last year with honors.

The former friend tried to major in engineering b/c his parents made him, dropped out of course, and found his passion in novels and literature and he's back in school majoring in english, planning to go to grad. school and become a professor one day. And I have NO DOUBT he'll make it, because it's something he genuinely is passionate about and loves.

 

Well, you're missing the point of what a university is supposed to be. Pick up "University in Ruins" if you're interested. It's written by a professor of comparative studies and argues about how the "lost promise" of a college education comes about because the whole point of the university is this "bastion of national culture" which has either evolved/perverted into this mindset of "trade school"

So, the point is, you're supposed to go to college b/c you have a desire to learn about something in depth, not because you want to make more money, although sadly that's what 95 percent of all people go to college for...

 

This is actually not a bad option. One of my high school friends (and neighbor, whose got a turbo Civic Si that is faster than my car to my dismay)just got out of a 2 year tour of duty w/ the Marines and is attending a UC right now, paid in full by the Marines.


Now, you mentioned that care about how much money you make b/c it has society implications. Like I mentioned in my first post in this thread, if you go to college for the sake of making money, chances are you will not make money....

And do you want to make money right after school w/ a bachelor's degree, or have a masters'?


Let me break it down in terms of majors:

Sciences: useless unless you have a pHD. For Bio and chem, if you've got a master's you still can't do what people w/ pHD 's do you so you end up doing a crappy Research Assistant job, which isn't bad (30-40k/year) but not good for the effort you put into your education. Same w/ psych. Now this is of course if you go into SCIENCE. Many bio majors intend to go to med school, as do chem majors. Many psych majors intend to go to business school.

Physics and math are exceptions, they are good standalone majors b/c they impart hard skills, because all engineering is applied math and physics!

Engineering: yeah, this is pretty much the most surefire undergrad degree b/c you learn how to do something. But, it is definately not for everyone. On the other hand, PURE ENGINEERING has it's limits. There are people who graduated from my frat 10 years ago who, when they graduated were making 60-70k compared to 50-60k (this was 10 years ago so I suppose you'd adjust for inflation) , but now have bros of the same year making ungodly amounts of money while they are stuck in the low 6 figure pay range without moving on to business school or management. Although there's always the startup factor if you ever come up with a genius idea or something. I highly doubt that'll happen w/ an undergrad degree however, although startups don't necessarily have to be cutting edge tech. If you have engineering background, and you see a niche in society that needs to be filled, chances are you can put together a prototype and present it to VC's for funding. Engineering is limited in its pay partially because there are too many friggin' Indians and Chinese people outsourcing jobs. Hate those *****, but they are protected by WTO legislation, what are you gonna do about it?

Econ/business: Econ is a wildcard. You can hella fail, or be a baller. On one hand, some people majoring in finance/business/econ/industrial engineering can't find jobs b/c they have no real skills. On the other hand, as I mentioned in posts before on this forum, there are the I-bankers making 55k base, 10k signing bonus, and 45k bonus potential = 110K in their first year out of college, after which the 45k cap is removed. (I know from experience at CSFB, MSDW, I dunno about the other firms) For the business major, it's up to YOU to get the internship, get the connections (join a fraternity. no I'm serious. Or play a sport. Being an varsity athlete and being in a fraternity really does go a long way in terms of connections for school and work), do the homework on how to plan your major out to get the most out of it.

But if you do decide to join a fraternity purely for housing or job connections (cause you could always join it for the brotherhood....) then make sure to research the exact extent as to the particular fraternity's nationwide precence, what kind of rich and famous people are alumni of the frat, etc.