<p>Okay, so I am a senior this year and so I've accepted a place to Marymount Manhattan College's BFA Acting program. However, the thought of going to college literally makes me feel nervous and sick, not excited and thrilled like it should! I don't think that I feel this way because I'm leaving home or going to be in a new setting. My friend and I wanted to move to LA for community college but it didn't work out. When we were seriously discussing that and looking into it, I felt excited and hopeful. I just don't know if I'm made for the college setting. I've never enjoyed school although I do do well in it. I want to get into the entertainment industry, either in front of or behind the camera and figured college was the best way to do that. Now that decision time has come and it's become real, college seems like something terrifying. I'm not exactly 100% thrilled with my decision either, since I was rejected from my top choice and this school was one that was never at the top of my list. I just don't know what to do. For the last couple of months, college hasn't felt right. In my heart, I don't feel like this is the right choice for me but I don't know what else to do.</p>
<p>I've thought about attending a 2 year conservatory type program in LA and living on my own and the idea of doing that seems much, much more appealing to me! However, my parents are very iffy of me living on my own on the other side of the country (I live in PA) and I wouldn't have a four year degree.</p>
<p>Well, since you are still in HS, why not look at some other choices. Going all the way across the country is a pretty big step. You probably don’t realize how tough it will be to adjust to living on your own and starting up at school. You could be feeling scared just because you are nervous about jumping into a school full of kids that are serious about the business. Being the opposite of a big fish in a small pond??</p>
<p>if you are not ready to go to Marymount Manhattan then it is always possible to go to something close to home for your first 2 years. You don’t want to miss getting your first two years of the basics behind you. I’m sure that no one needs to tell you that getting into that business, on either side of the camera is tough. You need to have some education to fall back on if you decide to major in something else.</p>
<p>The business is not going anywhere and you will only become more skilled as you get older. Aren’t there some short term programs that you could go to during the summer months so you can meet people and make some connections, without leaving to spend all that time in a conservatoryprogram in LA?</p>
<p>Missj212, trust your instincts. </p>
<p>For most people, college is a waste of time and money. Vanishingly few on this message board realize that the college education of their obsessions won’t prepare them for the economy to come, and that their time (and money) would be better spent developing skills to survive and thrive in a world that, in short order, will bear scant resemblance to the world in which their parents were raised.</p>
<p>When it comes to college, just say NO.</p>
<p>College graduates earn 84% more than high school grads.
- From a study reported on in the LA Times, Huffington Post, etc.</p>
<p>"[S]ince March 2008, the unemployment rate for college-educated Americans has remained within a fairly narrow band, between 4.3 percent and 5.1 percent. … The seaonally adjusted unemployment rate for high school graduates without any college experience and who are 25 years and older was 9.6 percent in October. The highest that number climbed since the onset of the most recent recession was 11.2 percent, in October 2009."
- From PolitiFact, numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics</p>
<p>Explain to me how a college education doesn’t help in the economy.</p>
<p>That’s not to say that college is for everybody, or that it’s necessary to commit right after high school, but there are definite benefits. Money aside, from an intellectual standpoint, I wouldn’t give up college for anything.</p>
<p>Google “college bubble” and you’ll get lots of answers.</p>
<p>While it’s true that college loans are a huge issue that needs to be resolved, and that degrees are becoming more ubiquitous, the new standard of having a degree also means that not having one may put someone at a disadvantage, should degrees just be expected at this point. It still stands that a good number of jobs will always require a minimum of a bachelors.</p>
<p>Malapropism. Too late and tired to write on this at the moment, but will weigh in on this important subject ASAP.</p>
<p>Bottom line: The best and most secure jobs in the impending economy will be those one creates for oneself. To the extent that the current college fixation encourages kids to focus on winning the favors of an employer, it fosters a passive and entitled mindset that leaves these folks horribly vulnerable to changes in the economic landscape that they will hit by the time they reach middle age.</p>
<p>FWIW, I am the product of UChicago, Harvard, Stanford. My wife went to Wellesley and Harvard. We have two children: One is three years, the other six months.</p>
<p>It is my hope that they never go to college.</p>
<p>To be continued…</p>
<p>College is overrated. Don’t go if you don’t want to.</p>