I just completed Junior year and summer is about to start but I am still lost. I don’t know what I want to do for a career
thus I don’t know what college/university’s I want to apply for. Is it necessary to send admissions on Senior or could
I just apply to a community college to take my core classes and then transfer when I’m done with community college?
Everyone is pressuring us to begin picking are top choices for college, but I don’t want to choose until I know for sure what I want to do. I feel like Senior year and some community college will help by allowing me more time to explore subjects without wasting money on a careless choice.
Explore your options before you commit to a CC. As a transfer student, you may miss out on scholarships/aid only available to freshmen. Are you familiar with the concept of a gap year?
It will be very hard to go to a private or an out of state school out of CC. If you want to go to your state flagship, CC can save money and work, as long as you do well there.
I’m aware of missing out on those scholarships, that is why I am working on applying for as many as I could. How does a gap year work?
In a gap year, you basically just take a year off and apply in fall 2016 instead of 2015. In the meantime, you have a year to get a job, volunteer, travel–or do something else, as long as it’s productive.
Unless you are planning on taking a gap year, you really should apply for college in the fall of your senior year. And of course I don’t know your high school, but hopefully it has a college guidance councilor who can help with the application process. If you don’t apply until after you graduate you will miss out on that resource.
Have you taken the SAT or ACT yet? What’s your GPA? You may be eligible for merit aid at some colleges, if cost is a concern.
If you are unsure of what you want to do, I would chat with your GC about your options, but also keep all your paths open. Meaning, apply to CC, but also apply to some 4 year schools. If you get accepted and then decide against a 4 year option, so be it, but IMO it would be much worse to only apply to CC and then realize in March that you want a 4 year school.
You are actually NORMAL! Don’t worry that you don’t know exactly what you want to do: many, if not most of your friends who are ‘sure’ that they know what to do are wrong- and that’s ok too. Most colleges DO NOT CARE what you think what you want to do when you enroll. In fact, the AdComms assume that many, if not most students, will change their minds while in college. In part, that is the gift of college in the US: the opportunity to explore different areas at a more meaningful level than in high school.
CC may well be the best path for you, if you really have no idea what direction you want to go. If you do go to CC, though, look at what your state universities require for graduation requirements, so that you don’t end up with a random collection of classes that don’t add up to anything.
But, I would also suggest checking out your in-state universities directly: many are now offering ‘exploratory tracks’ for undecided students. For example, at ASU, you can choose from one of four exploratory tracks: Engineering, math, technology and physical sciences; Fine arts, humanities and design; Health and life sciences; and Social and behavioral sciences. You choose a track, and follow it until you are ready to declare a major within the track (it’s usually easy enough to change tracks in the first year). A significant number of state universities now have some sort of program for ‘undecided’ students, b/c it helps reduce drop-out rates and shorten degree completion times- better for both the student and the school!
My son, who graduated from high school last year, didn’t know what he wanted to do when he was your age either. He applied to a schools that had a broad range of programs so he could change majors if he wanted. You can apply undecided or apply for whatever major interests you, but you don’t have to declare a major until your junior year. (The first 2 years of classes have a lot of gen ed requirements anyway, so there’s no rush to pick a major.) I think it’s a good idea to apply the fall of your senior year because you don’t know at the beginning how you’ll feel at the end.
My son was accepted everywhere but was debating between 2 different majors, so he decided to take a gap year to explore both. He started looking for a job instead of going to a cc because the best aid goes to freshmen and he didn’t want to lose the opportunity to get grants. And he did some MOOC courses (free online, noncredit courses). By the end of summer he knew which major he wanted. He applied to a few schools last fall, was accepted, and will be attending his orientation in a couple weeks.
Take your time, but apply to some schools (maybe a nearby state school, a school that offers merit money for your stats, maybe a school or two that your parents and/or GC recommend) and see what happens.
The a look at The Gap Year Advantage, a book by Karl Haigler and Rae Nelson. Lots of great ideas for a gap year and how to finance them.
Other suggestions: Get your letter sof rec from your teachers this coming year and, if you decide not to apply, ask them to hold them until you do. That way they can write while you are still fresh in their minds. And take your SAT or ACT (or both - some people do better on one than the other). The score will still be valid a year later and this won’t be hanging over you.
As others have said, it’s not uncommon to enter college not knowing what you want to study and where you want to end up. But if you want to reduce the risk of spending four years and not figuring it out, take that extra year to explore and mature. You do not get a prize for graduating a year sooner or later. (And don’t forget - you are allowed to take a gap year while you are in college at many schools. If you do decide to go straight to a four year college next year, check on their policy regarding time off if, after two years, you still don’t have a sense of direction.)
Be careful with scholarships: you don’t apply to them separately from college. The #1 source of scholarship is the college itself. In other words, when people speak of merit scholarships, they speak of BIG scholarships given to freshmen applicants only. If you attend community college, you lose that opportunity (look for the thread “did I really cost myself tens of thousands dollars?”)
What state do you live in?
Most universities allow you to apply Undecided or Undeclared. It means you take your time to explore your strengths before you decide what you want to do. That’s what most freshmen do (even if they declare an interest in January, most have changed their minds by September…)