<p>Here on CC.. I have seen high schoolers who are.. to-be-bankers, preparing to take part in banking ECs and internships and do banking.. seen scientists who are prepared to do research during all their summers in college.. seen prospective lawyers who will work for their GPA and LSAT........</p>
<p>what I want to know is.. is everything these days (IB jobs, science grad school admissions) so competitive that only the ones who know from the start of their college days what they want to do in life will succeed? How about those who are less certain what they want to do for life.. will they lose out as they certainly can't build up their ECs, grades towards one area they will pursue later.. Well.. I mean we can only do so much in college..</p>
<p>PS I am sure there are many who are uncertain about life too..</p>
<p>Haha, you couldn’t be further from the truth. Although I went into college knowing exactly what I was going to do (and I’m entering junior year and it hasn’t changed - and won’t) Most go into college not knowing what they want to do. On top of this, you’ll notice in your freshman year of college everyone likes to say they are going to be pre-med, pre-dental, i-bankers… most end up changing out. </p>
<p>Knowing what you want to do early doesn’t make you somehow more competitive, but you should however be working hard whether you know what you want or don’t. When you are in college, you can do anything you want as long as you have a good gpa … so just study hard and get good grades and you are no further behind anyone on this website. You’ll notice most people on here are stuck up pricks anyways - not a lot on this particular section as many have been in college now for a year or two.</p>
<p>EC’s are pretty easy to do and it really isn’t that hard to spice up an application if you really try hard. Just do a few things and it’ll look better and better. You don’t have to do something academic in the summer, because many professional schools like to see you worked even regular jobs, people get so high strung on here when in all reality, it is not how things work. Just chill out through college, have a good time, try new things and meet a ton of people… just make sure to study hard and get good grades and you will have the profession of your dreams.</p>
<p>Can knowing your interests early on give you a leg up in getting the the career you want? To a point, certainly. For example, if you decide the summer before your final year of college that your calling is not early childhood education, but instead medicine, you’ll have some issues. If you can commit yourself to spending the additional time and money, you can overcome this problem and qualify yourself for medical school admissions. But do you really need a 10 year plan? No way. Think about how many English or Chemistry majors go into ibanking from elite schools, and who’d never had the intention to take such jobs before.</p>
<p>A lot of people start with one major and end up changing to something different. It is nice to know what your interested in becoming so that you can pick classes and all that, but so many people are undecided. Just try to do the best you can in all of your classes so you will have a competitive GPA if it comes time. You don’t necessarily need to join clubs that are specific to your major–Just pick some that you think look fun and enjoy them. If you have a general interest in a particular field (let’s say the medical field), you can always join a club that relates to that (like chemistry or biology or HOSA). Don’t stress over anything too much.</p>
<p>During freshman year at my school, 1/3 of the 5,000 students say they want to be pre-pharmacy. By the sophomore year, most of those kids have dropped because they found something else they like better or they realized that there is more work to it than they realized.</p>
<p>You need to remember the limited sampling of students on CC. There probably are students somewhere else that had no clue what they wanted to do until later on, missed out on some EC’s, and didn’t have the “perfect” resume that got in.</p>
<p>Just have fun in college, join some clubs that look interesting, do well in your classes, and find something you truly enjoy.</p>
<p>i would venture to say that most kids probably end up changing majors and what they want to do in life – i think at our age it is easy to say we know what we want to do, but until you experience college and a little bit of everything, i dont think you can really know (even at that point you might still be unsure) which is the reason i’m not committing myself to anything beforehand…all of my sisters changed their career paths – one went from pre-med to architecture, one went from history to journalism, and the other went from english to child education</p>
<p>a lot of times people that don’t know what they wan to do don’t wind up in worse schools or with lacking careers, they just ake different paths. A lot of people that know what they want to do go to very specialized schools or universities, whereas many ppl with no clear idea s go to LACs. I don’t think that’s a bad thing- that way ppl that know their path get trianing and those who don’t get a chance to explore and become well rounded before choosing what they want out of life.
it takes all kinds!</p>
<p>I started out in Engineering and switched to English. Then I picked up physics minor and dropped it (after finishing Calc III and spending a month in Physics III), and then I picked up a Religious studies minor and dropped it, and now I’m picking up a Spanish minor. I want to teach high school English</p>
<p>haha i just realized how absolutely stupid my last post sounded… i wrote it at like midnight… i usually make more sense than that (and spell much better!) lol</p>
<p>Many of the kids who enter college “sure” of what they want to do are not making well informed choices; often people switch, and even among those who don’t they end up regretting the career they entered. Seems like at some schools every 4th frosh is pre-med. Nationally the drop-out rate for engineering is 50-65%. I know this is a sweeping generalization and doesn’t apply to everyone, that there are clear counter-examples. Still many kids who enter college with some impressive-sounding future career (“I’m going to be a lawyer and become a partner at a big firm”, “I’m going to work on Wall Street”) are making decisions based on teenage impressions of well-paying jobs and have no real knowledge of what the working conditions are like on the job or whether they’d really like it compared to other things they could do.</p>
<p>That said, the answer is not to ignore the issue until after college. For some majors or career fields its useful to have at least a general idea when you enter college (for example, might you be interested in a career in the sciences?) so you can start early on, but the most important thing to do in college is make career exploration as much a part of each semester as your classes. You should be attending career fairs and talks, meeting with alums who have signed up to take to current students once you start to get an idea of areas you’re considering, be pursuing internships and jobs in areas you like. Over 4 years of fairly low-level effort you can still accomplish an impressive amount, and you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you’ve explored various areas and made an informed decision.</p>
<p>oh gosh no haha…honestly the kids who are the most hard-driven tend to burn out at some point…let’s be honest, MOST kids don’t know what they really want to do when they’re 18 (of course there are some exceptions but there are few and far between) and end up changing their minds. I know plenty of people who pushed themselves so hard that eventually they broke down and chilled out. You’ve got time, don’t worry that you’re not dead-set on being an Ibanker or a doctor…it’s fine.</p>
<p>It helps if you know earlier because you can start working towards your goal and have more time. However IMO it is much worse if you realize that what you wanted before is not for you but still stick to it. I have seen kids sticking to majors and career paths they hate just because at the age of 21 they think it’s too late to change because they’d lose 1-2 years of their lifes, which is ridiculous… It’s never too late for anything at that age.
I’d say better spend a couple of months on trying out different things and choosing smth that’s right for you (most probably it’s not only one option and it’s not perfect) than doing smth that you don’t like for quite a lot of time.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I’d suggest not to expect a 100% match… I went into college with my expectations too high to find smth that’s super exciting and that I’d enjoy doing for the rest of my life, and after I tried out 2 majors that I hated I got severely deppressed. So hesitating too much and trying to find a perfect solution is also not good… I’d say try out different things and chose smth that you like and then follow it for some and see how it goes. You can’t expect to become awesomely passionate about it right from the start… sometimes it takes some time and efforts for that.</p>
<p>I was undeclared for two years and sort of fell into my English major. It worked out very well for me because I truly enjoyed my upper-level classes and then did fairly well on the LSAT, so despite my major I haven’t doomed myself to a life of poverty.</p>