planning for college

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I have decided I am going to Eastern Mennonite University for six years and get a Major in Emergency Nursing and Minor in Medical Technology. I am deciding now because these are the years I devote to college and careers.

You know, people make all of these plans for college and yet they never ask themselves what is probably the most important question:

Am I ready for college at this point in my life?

The most sobering statistics on college are not how many go to college after secondary school but how many actually complete a degree program at all (and I do not care how many do it in 4 years because I think that number is arbitrary). I think about 50% of the people who start a college program never complete it. That is a huge waste because then they have paid, in some cases, $20,000 - $30,000 and have nothing to show for it but student loans that have to be paid back from a job that does not require a college education.

I did not go to college right after High School (actually I only missed one semester). What I did in the intervening time was work and travel. When I was ready for college, that is when I went.

There are many option available to people today who are not quite ready for college. Examples what I did (work at a local job and use your free time for whatever, including obsessions), tour Europe, hike the Appalachain Trail, etc. If a person is not socially ready for college, there are between places such as The Minnesota Life College. Rather than frowning on stuff like this, colleges look for it because it shows that you have the maturity to know when to take a break.

And parents, please do not look down on your child because they made a choice to not go to college right after High School. Just make sure that they have plans on doing something else rather than sitting in their bedrooms/at home all day.

I am not putting down your choice. Maybe you are ready to start such a program. Please though, ask yourself the question I put above. It will put alot of things into perspective.

This advice BTW is for NTs as well as those on the spectrum.

I am in Intermediate School right now. This is my first year. That's the whole reason why I am thinking about going to college and becoming an EMT after I graduate Secondary School.

I'm actually really looking forward to college. I want to test my life skills.

My plan is to major in Biology with an inclination towards continuing to veterinary school. I also want to minor in linguistics.

Well, most scholarships wouldn't allow me to miss a semester so I pretty much had to go for it. As well, I wouldn't know what I'd do with an extra semester anyway. I figure that an important part of high school is college planning though and see the reason why people drop out is because they simply don't plan and don't prepare. I would say that middle school is a bit early to come up with ideas but if you think it is a good idea then go for it and prepare for it. Take more classes in middle school that will help you learn about what you are interested in, like nursing might benefit from more science classes as it is both medically oriented.

This is an excellent post! I started college straight out of highschool with a "plan" and ended up changing my major a bunch of times before finally dropping out completely. It took about 4-years of working before I finally decided to go back and finish what I started. I'm doing very well now and will graduate soon.

I attribute my initial struggles to the fact that I just was not ready to be committed to college. I didn't have the self-discipline I required to get through my courses and I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life.

ljbouchard is totally right. when i left school i went studying, and chose a course that was not right for me at all. it is only now at 32 that i actually know what my vocation is that i have finally got it together to study for a degree. another point i would make is that studying when you are older, perhaps even just a year or two older, means that you mighttend to focus a lot more on the subject and get a lot more out of it, rather than being distracted by all the other aspects of student life in general.