<p>My SAT's seem to indicate I should go into math/science</p>
<p>yet
i'm going totally into humanities and i want to study literature and classics...even though i don't have the strongest natural talent in that area....am i screwed for college level work?</p>
<p>What you need is a t-shirt with the following printed on it, front and back. This will guarantee your success in whatever you pursue:
_________________**
800 math
760 verbal
800 Chemistry
780 bio
770 spanish
790 writing **</p>
<hr>
<p>ok, sorry
i don't think that came out right
but i know my own abilities
and i'm better intrinsically at math than verbal things</p>
<p>i guess i shouldn't say that it's my sat's as much as the knowledge of my own abilities. i'm not a "natural born reader"...a bit worried if you know what i mean, about long long long reading assignments in college</p>
<p>I'm intrinsicallly better at math and science and my math SAT was much higher than my verbal. Yet my love was always for humanites. I ended up in the social sciences which is a good combination of both. You need to do what you love - that's the most important thing. If you do what you love, you will have the most success.</p>
<p>By the way, why are you slumming on the parents board?</p>
<p>Because I think parents give the best advice.</p>
<p>Cookiemom is quite right. Some of the social sciences are quite math-heavy, beginning with economics, and including political science, sociology and psychology. Take courses i n different fields in your first year and see which kinds you enjoy most.</p>
<p>The SATs do not dictate your interests and pursuits in life unless you force the issue. There are plenty of people in fields that do not correspond to their test scores. Many of us do not even remember our test scores, particularly the old Achievement tests. </p>
<p>I worked with a young man last year who scored an 800 in the writing SAT2 and a 780 in the Verbal SAT1 with much lower scores in math which threw him for a loop as he was interested in being a physics major. He had been working on a high level physics project for a couple of years, and had won several science fairs and prestigious science awards. He was also a top student in the maths and sciences. He kept his choices and majors as he like them for all but a couple of schools but added the HS&S option to his CMU app which was easily done and gave him another option. He got into all but his "lottery ticket schools" which would have been crap shoots even if the scores were reversed. Actually a high verbal and writing score has a bit more cache at the selective colleges unless you are applying to a school of engineering where the math and science course choices in highschool, grades in those disciplines, and test scores in math and science are scrutinize and heavily weighted.</p>
<p>I am going to print out your post "Because I think parents give the best advice" and save it!</p>
<p>MisterHeyU is hilarious. Keep 'em coming.</p>
<p>My only advice would be to think about how much your interests might change if you find out you can make a better salary on one side of the verbal-math divide than the other. For young people who have a lot of "natural" aptitude, the developed aptitude that you build up in college will set a career path, and you may want to consider how much income difference will still sustain your passion years from now. I write this as an adult who had high SAT scores on both sides back in the 1970s, and who invested on the verbal side. With benefit of hindsight, I would have invested on the science/engineering mathy side of my State U.'s course offerings instead--as it is, the friends from high school I most like to see at parties and talk shop with are engineers, not the friends who took foreign language majors as I did. </p>
<p>The parent who replied earlier about taking courses that straddle both domains is giving good advice--just make sure, if you desire to follow my advice, that the focus on and development of "quantitative" and science skills is clear on your college transcript. </p>
<p>Good luck in figuring out what path to follow. The first two years of college won't irrevocably fix your path, but the last two might.</p>
<p>Make sure your passion can pay the bills. But also make sure that the bill-paying career does not make you miserable.</p>
<p>Over the weekend, we attended a concert whose conductor holds a B.A. in chemical engineering from Princeton, a Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in conducting at BU. He seemed to be having a great time, probably much better than he would have had as a chemical engineer or biophysicist. And, probably, he is not earning as much as he would have in either career.</p>
<p>Encomium, you think parents give the best advice, yet you do not hesitate to insult them. I am not sure you are in my list anymore to give advice.</p>
<p>i don't insult parents; i only lampoon the crazy/insane/vicarious/arrogant ones. I only have two of those in mind</p>
<p>Encomium, going with your interests is the way to live a more fulfilling life. Going into literature and classics with high math/science scores will just make you a more interesting person, though at times you may feel a bit half-caste. I will say that having a heavy math/analytical background coupled with being able to write well did very well for me for years of making a living.</p>
<p>If I'm one of the parents you don't respect, then never mind.</p>
<p>Oh, by the way, the bills. I want to be an educator. So yeah, i'm screwed in that department.</p>
<p>Actually, it depends on what parts of literature and the classics you're interested it. The basic tenets of organization and evidence apply to both writing and science. In AP Psychology, I'm reading several articles about people with William's Syndrome and the anthropological aspects of this biological disease. </p>
<p>For centuries, people have spoken and written myths about the "little folk," or elves, distinguished by their puckish facial features, enchanting music and warm personalities...also very common aspects of personality among those with Williams syndrome. This child of literature and science is just one indicator of the diversification of career paths found today. </p>
<p>You're fine. Having a math background in a literature/classics field is a bonus. You have the logic and structured discipline required of the maths in addition to your love of words. Bon chance!</p>
<p>I saw Prime Time Live on thursday when Diane Sawyer interviewed the cast of Oceans 12. She spoke to Matt Damon on why he pursued acting and he spoke about parents; his mother who is a college professor who loves what she is doing and makes no money and his father who is an investment banker who makes money and hates what he does.</p>
<p>i only lampoon the crazy/insane/vicarious/arrogant ones.</p>
<p>Well, we don't really appreciate those so-called 'lampoons', E. </p>
<p>When you're all grown up and old you may realize that humans have lots and lots of flaws. For the most part, grown-ups make an effort to look past the flaws. We make an effort to be tolerant on the Parent's Forum and I, for one, would appreciate it if you would make the effort too.</p>
<p>Rather than a Maths tendancy, I'd wager that you have a tendancy to see things in black and white, ie; Some CC Parents Are Horrid! or Am I All Maths or All Verbs? </p>
<p>Life isn't black and white. Thank goodness. What a bore that would be. My career as an architect is a big messy mixture of Maths and Verbs and Arts. Love it to bits.</p>
<p>Cheers' post makes me remember how black/white I saw everything when I was 18-20. Oy.</p>