This experience has shown me so many things. I think that the most important things that I have learned is that you have to choose what you want to study before you go into a college or university and be sure that that is the subject you want to study because my mentor told me that she changed her major more than 3 times because she wasn't sure if that is what she wanted to do in the future. I also learned about the one thing that concerns me the most, the student tuition. My mentor strongly recommended to me that I should start getting as many scholarships as I can get because colleges and universities is where you spend the most money. Learning all this has changed some things that I was planning for college. A major thing that changed was that I was going get job while in a college of university (still going to get one though) so that I would be working everyday so that I could pay my student tuition off by myself but school is expensive and no matter how hard you try to pay them off you will always end up in debt after college. So getting scholarships turned into a priority and something I am planning to start applying for soon. My academic & professional preparation has yet to be completed, but I think by the time that I finish my academic & professional preparedness, I would become someone great that is prepared to take on the world.
I don't think it is as important that you have your major picked out. I did have 6 majors but in doing so I accumulated a lot of credits and was able to really see what I was passionate about, and what I would finally decided to complete my degree in. As long as your credits are counting towards your general education or can be applied within your degree somewhere (electives, various requirements) it isn't such a terrible thing. You DO NOT have to have life figured out at 18 when you enroll in school. I promise. I regret none of the career paths or choices I have made, the way I went about things only resulted in me finding out what my real passion was and what I wanted to study and was eager to learn more about.
HOWEVER...yes scholarships are the answer. You won't always have college debt if you play your finances right and really try hard to get academic scholarships, scholarships related to personal things about yourself, passions, activities etc. There are millions of dollars out there for students. Find them, and start considering now which you want to apply for and what your options are. Be prepared.
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Dr P
6/8/2014 03:40:58 am
I agree with Mrs. White - I started at the University of Maryland without a major (I ended up majoring in English with a "citation" in French a whole lot of music classes), and it wasn't an issue for me. College provides a good opportunity to explore different things and find out what you're most excited about.
And the fact is, you'll probably do lots of different things when you're an adult. Since I graduated I did a PhD (which I think of as a job, because they paid me to do it), ran an oral history project, worked as a university education researcher, and worked for a nonprofit, all before I became a teacher. These days, that's pretty normal!
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Francisco Diaz 11th grade student at HTHNC who loves books, football, and more stuff.