I am a high school student who just finished junior year and i am no sure what to do with my life and not sure how to select a college until i know this. my grades are not amazing i am pretty average. i took a computer technology and networking cisco college class last year and this year. they were not my thing but i know I want to get into the computer field. next year i’m taking a programming and a web design class but by then it’ll be too late. should i go to community college then transfer. what is a commuter field job you suggest. not sure where to go to college or what to do. my parents keep asking me but i never know now the pressure is on me and i don’t know what to do.
Its so sad to see this play out. Maybe you can change things, I dunno. But, to be honest, you’re on the road to crash-and-burn. You’re not “pretty average”. According to your other thread you have a 2.15 average. In HS. And probably not taking AP or Honors. You tell yourself “i get C’s and B’s” but in reality they’re almost all C’s in order to add up to a 2.15 average. So you don’t even seem to have an accurate picture of your own life, a la the Dunning-Kruger effect. You are not “pretty average”, you’re a sneeze away from driving off the road as far as academic are concerned.
Why dwell on this? Not to slam you or make you feel bad, whether you believe that or not, but when you say “my parents keep asking me” the truth is that you’re about the last person around who can come up with a solid plan for your future. In a better world now would be the time for your parents to act like, well, parents, and help you explore options and build plans for the future. But the kind of people that didn’t seem to notice or care that you’re barely afloat academically and did nothing to help you improve (whether that be getting tested for learning disabilities, helping plan out study times, get tutoring if that was what was needed, etc) are obviously washing their hands of the whole mess and counting on YOU to figure out the future. Well, at least they are consistent.
What really makes this so sad is that you are probably 17 right now and have 70+ years of life ahead of you. While nobody can say decisions now are irreversible, you are at a point where moving in a good direction is far easier than it will ever be again. And it seems likely you’ll fumble the chance. You say “i know I want to get into the computer field” which makes as much sense as saying “I want to be a paleolithic etymologist.” You don’t know what either field entails, but you hear people talk about computers and it sounds good to say (much as lawyer or doctor did a few years back among HS-age kids) even though you have no idea about the types of jobs in the field except that you didn’t like the 2 classes you actually took that explored branches of the computing field. Yet you are convinced its right for you.
So what would I suggest? If your HS has any class on vocational guidance, take it. Start making appointments with your GC to see if they can help you figure out a way to plan your future, although if you’re like most kids you go to a public where the GC are of little help. You can go to the local library and ask the librarian to help you find books on career selection appropriate for HS or college age kids.
The above information is helpful but a little harsh. I do believe that you need to address the grade situation first. You are the only person who can change your path, your mindset, and your situation. If you want to be serious about your academics, get your grades up as much as possible and go to your community college. At the community college, you can continue the upward trend in your GPA, focus on your academics, and figure out what you want to do with your life.
There are plenty of people who don’t know what they want to do and waste their money going to 4-year colleges on an undecided track. You can do research on the Internet and talk to your GC and figure out what you THINK you want to do. Based off of your personal interests and EC’s, you have to have something in mind for a solid reason (besides seeming good and/or impressive.)
@TheDidactic I am sorry for sounding harsh but it needs to be said. This poor kid is being set up for failure; by his parents, his school, everyone. It doesn’t HAVE to be that way, and it isn’t fair, but it is. I know there are exceptions, parents stuck with a recalcitrant kid that resists every attempt to help, but I get the sense here that we have a floundering kid that nobody is going to help until its too late.
I have to take a bit of issue, though, with the community college suggestion. The unhappy truth is that CCs, for the main part, just grease the skids to failure. If they transfer they do as well, often better, than 4-year students in terms of percentage earning their degree. But to use CA as an example, only 23% of those at a CC who entered intending to xfer end up doing so. Probably 75% of all HS kids in the US start at college of some kind, but only 25% of the population has a 4-year degree and about another 8% have a CC degree. The rest gave up. CC’s work great for good students, and we can be proud of a system that gives kids that want it a 2nd and 3rd chance. But for many…
Why does this happen? Take our OP, with weak academic skills and little direction (except “I want computers”). How do you think he’s going to do when given real college-level work? And what kids do you think he associates with in HS? The high-achievers, or those closer to the margin? If the latter he’ll quickly find a similar peer group at a CC. Remedial help is available for those who ask, but our OP doesn’t think he needs it; after all he says of himself “i am pretty average” so he’s not going to be too worried about not passing his classes.
Its sad all around. The web isn’t the right place for the kind of help this kid needs. Some adult he knows and trusts needs to lend a hand to give direction, encouragement, and the occasional kick in the behind to help this kid change course. And its not bloody likely to happen.
I understand where you’re coming from. It’s like I said, the person has to WANT to improve and change things. The cold fact of the matter is that even if OP got a 4.0 senior year, his GPA will still not really be good enough for a four year college. The odds would be slim that he would get accepted to a four year college and even if he was, what is the rate for success then? Community college is the only place where OP can be accepted and work towards improvement.
Yes, an adult should have stepped in sooner and done something to steer this kid in the proper direction but alas, here we are now. What’s to say that if an adult did step in that OP wouldn’t still be in this place? There are so many variables that we can’t measure being an avatar behind a screen.
Not to bring you down, but your grades indicate that college may not be the right place for you. And you know what? That’s 100% perfectly fine. It doesn’t mean you won’t be successful and certainly doesn’t mean you won’t be happy. Ask yourself WHY you want to go to college. Do you want the experience? Do you want to go because it seems like everyone else is? Or do you truly want to spend 4 years of your life studying something you don’t like and in a life that you’re not very good at. If we are wrong and you are capable of getting a 3.0+ in college (to make paying $$$ worth it) then go to community college first to work on your skills as a student. Don’t get prideful and say, “Of course I’m smart! How dare anyone say otherwise?!” It’s not just smart that gets you through school. Believe me. You have to 1) Love it, 2) Be motivated to pursue that education, and 3) Be willing to accept that you are not the best and work on the stuff you’re not so good at.
But I wouldn’t say you would be an average college student at a true university. You would be far below average and in danger of falling into the lifestyle of college and forgetting about the academic stuff that doesn’t come easily to you. The whole idea of doing “something with computers” is screaming that it’s going to fail. You didn’t like the classes at all. Even though I found AP Biology and AP Chemistry boring and not perfectly what I wanted to do with my life, I still was curious about material beyond the classroom. It led to me being super happy as biochemistry major. Have you ever tried a vocation? Do you have an interest in something that you would do if it seemed more “acceptable”? Because if you do, what seems to be unpopular now may end up being a great life for you.