<p>I am not trying to talk you into going to college but am going to discuss your interest in math for a bit.</p>
<p>I NEVER studied in high school, found school boring, and was not intellectually curious … but did have the math / analytical mind. College started the same … skipping classes not very engaged academically … basically I was almost flunking out because I was playing cards and goofing around with my friends all the time. I was in engineering school and as a sophomores we had mini-courses to check out the various fields in engineering. The first day of one of the mini-courses we started to learn how to play poker using analytics … it was my introduction to field of game theory and the operations research major (basically applied math) … and my life changed. After finding a topic that I loved and great environment in which to learn and my intellectual curiosity finally kicked in and thankfully I was in a place where that interest was nurtured. I went from someone who wasn’t engaged to someone who stayed up all night taking a topic beyond what was the required within the span of about a month. </p>
<p>I certainly believe an analytical person can find an intellectually and financially rewarding career without going to college. However I also believe for something with a serious math gene college is the place they are most likely to learn about something that they are intellectually compelled to pursue and with a concentration of people with similar intellectual interests that will make the intellectual pursuit more interesting. My high school academic experience had little to no resemblance to my college academic experience.</p>
<p>If you were my kid I’d like to understand more about why you don’t want to attend college and if there might be some colleges that minimize that which you don’t find appealing about college and maximize that which you would like. I’d also like to talk about maybe taking a gap year or two to see if your interest in college eventually kicks in.</p>
<p>All that said … there are many paths to a successful life. One of the smartest people I have ever met was an electrician … and he made a decent living and found his work very rewarding.</p>