Another HS junior who needs parents' wisdom!

Parents Forum
1

<p>Hi!</p>

<p>First of all...
to give you my little background..
I am relatively recent immigrant from Korea (came here when I was 14 years old)
Currently, I am a HS junior in US high school
(If my bad grammar bothers you.. I'll apologize in advance.. my grammar is still akward)</p>

<p>There was a issue that was concerning me these days..
and I want to hear what other "parents" would think about my this issue of "choosing career"</p>

<p>Well..
From my early childhood, I always had vague "dreams" about being an archeologist...
and now as a HS junior, I begin to find archeologist as a career more and more attractive.
In fact, now I'm thinking about archeologist as my "real" future career, and these few days I actually had done some research about what college has good archeology programs and so on.</p>

<p>But here is where my problem comes along..
I'm pretty sure my parents is NOT going to like about the idea of "me" becoming an archeologist....
Well.. It's not like I want to blame my parents for this or anything..
In fact, I perfectly understand why they would oppose my decision to become an archeologist..
Well.. I'm an asian (I dont know what other folks think about this, but I begin to see why so many fellow asian students like me wants to have professional carreer such as "doctors" and "lawyers" ).. and I'm not even a perminant residency or anything yet (we are in the progress of getting the perminant residency though...)...... also archeologist is much less secure job in comparison to careers like "doctors" and "lawyers"</p>

<p>Moreover, my parents really expect great things from me.. (like becoming a doctor)
well.. and so far my grades and all have been great.. and I see why they would expect things from me...
(I'm not bragging myself or anything.. I know there are many students in cc who are much, i mean, much brighter and smarter than me)</p>

<p>My parents sacrificed so much things for me! (my mom just returned from long and hard 11 hours of work....)
and here I am saying I want to be an archeologist!</p>

<p>I understand archeologist is a "hungry" and "unrealistic" job as my father once said when I first told him my interest in archeology [sigh..] but..</p>

<p>What do you think..?
is "archeologist" such an "unrealistic" job for me?</p>

<p>Should i think about more realistic choices like doctors and lawyers?
Well.. other than histories and archeology stuff, I like biology very much...
will that give me more options? [sigh..]</p>

<p>If I was one of your kids :)
What would you have said?</p>

<p>I'm finding this issue very stressful...
Do you have any advices or perhaps some counsels to give me?
Now that I'm a junior in high school, I think I really need some kind of guidence about this issue...</p>

<p>I would really appreciate your concerns and answers..
Thank You!!</p>

2

<p>Go ahead and major in archaelogy. It's true that job prospects for a speciality career such as archaelogist aren't plentiful (like they are for other fields), but that doesn't mean that you won't get one a job or become a world famous archaelogist someday.</p>

<p>And if you figure out that you can't find work as an archaelogist, then you can always go to law school. Law schools don't require a degree in a certain subject--they just require a college degree. So archaelogy is an acceptable major for someone looking to attend law school.</p>

<p>To keep the peace at home, you may want to tell your parents that you are thinking that you might want to go to law school and that archaelogy is a perfectly acceptable major for someone who is interested in law school. </p>

<p>Fact is, you really don't know what will strike your fancy as a field of study or as a career once you get to college. So chill out--which is not easy to do with Asian parents I understand.</p>

3

<p>If you want to major in archaeology, then you will be majoring in the sciences. You will be taking chemistry, physics, geology, biology as part of your archeology preparation. You will want to continue and obtain a graduate degree (Master's degree) and then probably a doctorate as well, for archaeology. If, at any point in your journey in the sciences, you decide to switch directions and head towards a medical field, you will be well positioned. Your current interest in no way precludes a future in medicine. Furthermore, a career in research and teaching at the Univeristy level if you stay in archaeology is nothing to sneeze at.</p>

4

<p>The archaeology programs I've seen don't require sciences. Most are specializations within anthropology departments. Of course, some science is called for if the intent is to be a specialist (geoarchaeology, for instance).</p>

<p>Here is a web site I ran across once that has information about a career in archaeology <a href="http://www.museum.state.il.us/ismdepts/anthro/dlcfaq.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.museum.state.il.us/ismdepts/anthro/dlcfaq.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Perhaps you can search the net a bit and see if you can find some job openings/salary information.</p>

<p>It is your life. I know you want your parents to be happy and proud -- but to get through all the law and medical training, it really has to be something you want to do.</p>

5

<p>I'm with the posters who favor majoring in science-based archaeology. You will then be well positioned for law school, grad school, or (making sure you take the few absolutely required science courses) med school.</p>

6

<p>i'm not a parent but here's what i think - </p>

<p>major in archeology but follow the premed track (which usually just entails taking a couple extra chem/bio classes)
in four years, you might find your passions have changed. you'll still be well-positioned to go into archeology, but you'll also have the preparation to be able to go to med school if you want, and also law school (as mentioned).</p>

<p>in any case, it's still too early to stress about such things... as long as you continue to get good grades, none of the doors will be closing soon.</p>

7

<p>Thank you for all of your inputs and thoughts..
I guess I just was worrying about it too much...
Anyway again thank you!</p>

8

<p>You are only a high school junior and your career choice may change many times (when I was your age I wanted to be a doctor...then a lawyer...now I'm a jounalist). Go to a college or university where you can major in archaelogy if you want to, but where you will also get a good, general liberal arts education, so you can easily change your mind. You do not need to make any permanent life decisions at your age. Work hard in school, have a little fun, too, and you will be able to do whatever you want as an adult.
There is no "pre-law" major, by the way, so even if you major in archeaology you can still go to law school if you change your mind at some point.</p>

9

<p>All this about positioning for law or medical school, yet the OP seems not to have the slightest glimmer of interest in those.</p>

<p>Interests sometimes change, and sometimes they don't. My advice is to learn a bit about all sorts of things (in school or outside of it) and then follow your interests and abilities -- not to let parents dictate what can and cannot be studied or to let their preferences turn one to a field for which you have no passion.</p>

10

<p>IMO, the point of the previous posts was to advise OP on how to pursue her own interests while being in a position tactfully to address her parents' concerns. </p>

<p>I think everyone agreed that she should pursue her interest in archeology at the college level.</p>