<p>I'm what you would call an above average slacker. I've got great Math skills and a good use of logic so I can skate by with low 90s in all my classes, even if they are honors and AP classes. I'm a High School Junior and apparently this is the time to start really thinking about what your going to do and where your going to do it. But I just feel lost and quite frankly Apathetic. My short list of my colleges is about 30 and majors I'm thinking of is about 6 or 7. They range from Math to Education to Film Studies.</p>
<p>Okay, so you are not sure what your major will be. That is no different from someone who goes into school thinking the are set on engineering and finishing with a philosophy degree. Look around the parents forum for threads on what you majored in and what you are doing now. Most everyone drifted a bit or a lot.
Can you narrow down some other areas:
suburbs? rural? urban?
big school? medium? small?
care about Greek life? not at all ?
religious school? party school? </p>
<p>Anyway, you get the drift. Go visit some schools that are a day trip from your home. Pretty quickly you’ll realize that there is a LOT you know about what you like and what you really don’t like. </p>
<p>Start with that.</p>
<p>You should look at schools that are large to huge. You are starting with a wide range of interests, so should go to a place that can fit the bill no matter which you settle on. One path would be to start out as a math or applied math major since you like it and have ability. Get a really good math background. From there, you can move into business, engineering, the sciences, statistics, computer science, actuarial work, accounting, quantitative social sciences, etc. Or, you can stay in math.</p>
<p>Slack, don’t worry about not knowing what you want. Find a school that has a wide range of strong classes. College is nothing like high school, and smart apathetic students in high school generally enjoy college much more. Just be sure to choose a place that you will enjoy.</p>
<p>Also, as long as you are keeping your grades up, that’s good, but also be sure you don’t let your study and organization skills slip. You’ll need them in college, with little room for error, and you’d be surprised how high school slacking can make those skills really rusty.</p>
<p>The vast majority of high school students, even seniors, have at best a vague idea of what they would like their college major to be. Many of them can come up with a quick answer when asked, in order to satisfy inquisitive parents and others and get the subject changed in a hurry to something more pleasant to think about. But most have no real idea.</p>
<p>And even most of the ones who really do think they know what their major will be will change their minds once they get to college.</p>
<p>The American higher education system is set up in a way that encourages college students to spend a year or two exploring different subjects before settling on a major. Most college students do not declare a major until the end of their sophomore year or later. At some of our best colleges they aren’t even allowed to do so.</p>
<p>So relax about that.</p>
<p>Furthermore, with a few exceptions, your major won’t matter that much. Only 1/4 to 1/3 of the courses you take in college will be in your major. Taking these 12 or 14 courses in your major will not make you an expert, or even employable, in that field. A political science major will not make you a political scientist. You will not be a historian after majoring in history. Nor will an undergraduate degree turn you into a biologist, a chemist, or a journalist.</p>
<p>For better or worse, the idea of college in America (we’re somewhat different from the European countries in this regard) is to produce a broadly, generally educated citizenry. Your major gives you a deeper understanding of one particular field, and it may prepare you to enter graduate school in that field if you are academically inclined, but for most students the major is not the point of college. The point of college is general education: learning to think, to understand evidence and reason, to speak, to write.</p>
<p>Most college graduates, at least in the liberal arts, do not end up working in a field directly related to their major unless they get further graduate training later. The exceptions are students who attend undergraduate professional schools in fields such as business, engineering, and education. If you know that you want to be an engineer, a business person, or a K-12 teacher, the best way to do that is to attend one of these professional schools. Some of them (e.g., many engineering schools) take students right out of high school. Others want you to take a year or two of coursework in the liberal arts before transferring in.</p>
<p>So all in all, relax about this. You’re fine. You don’t need to have you life mapped out at this point. (In fact, you never do, but that’s another subject for a few years down the line.)</p>
<p>I think I disagree with the advice that you mainly consider large universities. There may be some advantages in attending one of these. For instance, most big universities have schools of education, and you mention teaching as one possible career option. But plenty of small colleges offer education as well, and there are ways of becoming a teacher without majoring in education. I would look at small liberal arts colleges too. They are often the best bet for smart students who know they want to get smarter but don’t have a career trajectory in mind.</p>
<p>Visit a few colleges in your area, maybe a small one, a medium one, and a large one. They don’t have to be on your list. They don’t have to be places you’re serious about attending. But as a junior in high school who is at a loss about college, you can learn a lot by doing a few formal visits. Just call or go to the website of two or three colleges in your area, sign yourself up for a visit (it’s best to do it formally, through the admissions office), and go. Just for the learning experience. Go when classes are in session so that you can get a real feel for life in the place. Get your parents’ okay to get out of school for this (most high schools are fine with it), or find a day when you have off for a teachers’ convention or something but the college is running.</p>
<p>Most of all, take it easy, don’t work yourself into a panic about this. I was a high school slacker (I had about a 2.8 GPA). I knew I was actually smart. In college I decided to start trying. I ended up loving it and never stopped until I had a Ph.D. and a faculty job at a great university, a much greater university than the one that let me in with a 2.8 high school GPA! In this country you can do whatever you decide to do.</p>
<p>look into different LAC’s that you may like</p>
<p>I was a real slacker in high school. A few things made me snap out of it:</p>
<p>Realizing I would be wasting my parents’ hard-earned money if I didn’t take studying seriously.</p>
<p>Being away from home and feeling like I had to take care of my own future.</p>
<p>Getting swept up in the enthusiasm for academics that my fellow students and instructors had. I’d go for a medium-to-small college. Big schools offer more majors, but there is also likely to be more opportunity to continue being a slacker (less faculty interaction, more likelihood you’ll gravitate toward other slackers).</p>
<p>I agree that you’d probably do better at a small college. In smaller classes, it’ll be a lot harder to slip through the cracks if you’re having problems. There will also probably be fewer distractions on campus, making it easier for you to focus on work when you need to. The caveat about selecting a small college is that some of the programs you’ve expressed interest in are a little unusual - e.g., film studies - so it will be harder to find a small school that offers everything you’re interested in.</p>
<p>When you’re looking at schools, take a special look at what their advising programs are like. A close relationship with your advisor is invaluable if you don’t know what to do - they’ll help you figure out a broad assortment of classes to take, find a sense of direction, and keep motivated.</p>
<p>If you’re used to skating by in high school, you might find the transition to college academics to be a rude awakening. So it’s also a good idea to look at academic resources like study skills workshops, tutoring, writing centers, etc.</p>
<p>Don’t forget that you don’t have to go to college immediately if you don’t want to. You can always take a year off from studying, look for interesting programs or internships, and take the time to really think about what you want to do and where your priorities lie.</p>
<p>I’d definitely first look at where you want to go, as in area. Then I’d look at those colleges and see if there is a major that really interests you. If there isn’t, try to find a school that will let you take a bunch of classes, then let you weed out what you want to major in from there.</p>