Forums > Social Chat > "my life on stage"

Posted: 15th Jul 2004
lol well if you're equally interested in all of 'em, pick the one that you're gonna make the most money with later on in life.

Imma be at a British Uni in two or three years. Dunno which one, looking like Brighton right now. I'm sure I'll have chosen and rechosen what to study a thousand times by the time I actually start school. Tis difficult.

~Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come.

Posted: 15th Jul 2004
I worked in university admission for several years and have seen many people with the same dilemma, and I'll give you the same advice I gave them; don't go, not yet.

If you have no idea of what you want to study, much less do long term you are basically wasting your time and money. there's a chance that you'll find something you really like and stick with it, but a much greater one that you'll begin to wish that you were doing something else and end up swapping over, having wasted a year's fees.

Take a year out, go travelling, get a job somewhere or whatever and spend that time thinking about what you really, REALLY want to be doing, try picturing what you'd do if money was no object, what your true passion is, and work from there.

Just don't end up doing some cop-out degree because everyone thinks you need to go to university right now, this instant, you don't.

There is a slight possibility that I am not actually right all of the time.

Posted: 15th Jul 2004
Is that why gapyears are so strongly encouraged over there, Eara?

~Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come.

Posted: 15th Jul 2004
I wasn't aware that anyone else encouraged gap years any less... They seem like a reasonably good idea to me, if you can handle a year out of education. I couldn't, myself - I'm doing all that when I leave uni. I think that if I didn't have to write an essay for a year, the work would hit me really hard when I started again!

If I wasn't doing a degree I was absolutely obsessed with, I wouldn't be able to cope. I've just finished my second year of computer science at Southampton uni, and I'm a massive geek, so I get by quite nicely. If I wasn't so into computers, though, I'd be screwed - I would never do the work. Maybe that's just me, of course. I think I've just had enough of doing subjects I don't want to do in education, and now I'm glad to only be doing something I'm interested in.

Brighton is pretty ace, incidently. Not sure about the uni, but the city is well cool.

"Take that, math!"

Posted: 15th Jul 2004
Most Americans have never heard of them. That's all they ever get on us about in high school, starting with freshman year, get ready for college, gotta go to college, join the military, go to college, you'll never go to college if you skip a year or two. They tell us even if we're not sure to go to college anyways, can always decide later. To me its still difficult to decide after two years of studying random classes. I dunno. Education's allll screwed up in the states anyways.

~Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come.

Posted: 15th Jul 2004
just on the GAP year thing; im doing one next year. they are generally encouraged over here; however not advertised so much, more a case of if you tell someone in the industry (teacher etc) they will say its a wonderful idea (or at least that's my experience)

my grandparents are really worried i wont end up going to uni, but mum's theory is that if uni isnt for me then it isnt for me and it cant be forced on me.

so basically i'm going to join Eera in saying to take some time off to travel. get some life experiences forst and then see if they lead you somewhere different.

i would have changed ***** to phallus, and claire to petey Petey

Rougie: but that's what I'm doing here
Arnwyn: what letting me adjust myself in your room?..don't you dare quote that on HoP...

Posted: 15th Jul 2004
well thanks to you guys all .. good info .... but heres the delema ..... i have been out of high school for , i think ... 7 years .... and i have done quiet a few things under the sun .... ! by the way .. the gap year thing ... awsome , everyone should do it , you grow ten fold and the experience is worth its weight in gold !!! however i have 7 pieces of gold now , and the one thing the realy baffles me is , how do i apply them to uni ? thats the question???

i feel as though my only hope is to go against your advice 'eera' (sorry no harm intended) but just to go and find out .... if i stumble , then ill know that thats not for me ... , what realy grates me ... is that i still feel as blind as when i first left high school!!! and i think that thats the thing that sucks the most!

but hey , its just life and you gotta live it one day at a time .... so come on people , pick your chin , suck in that chest and put a on your face ... come on its just life ... how bad can it be ?


your friend

i like breaking the Law , of Gravity !

Posted: 15th Jul 2004
Yeah, we don't normally do gap years here...

-Mike

Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella



A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura

Posted: 16th Jul 2004
Advice is freely given and not easily taken. I wish you well with whatever your life throws to you.

And if you feel any inclination towards to civil engineering go for it; I'm a geotechnical engineer myself (the dirt end of civil) and I can tell you that the industry is crying out in desperation for new blood.

Have fun in whatever you do.

There is a slight possibility that I am not actually right all of the time.