<p>I'm about to finish up my first semester of college and it just isn't working for me. I am involved in different groups (marching band, ambassadors, ballroom club) and I have quite a few friends who I really like. Also, I am doing really well in my classes and will probably be finishing the semester with all A's. All my professors, as well as other employees, know my name. There is nothing specifically wrong with my life in college, but I don't have any real desire to be there. Even when I was applying to schools I didn't have a lot of interest in any of them. I went to college because that is what was expected of me by my family and I figured I'd regret it later in life if I didn't. I applied to several places not too far from home. I got into all of them with scholarship so I was able to pick the one that felt the best to me. The only issue I have had so far is with my major. I came in as an Electrical Engineering major and quickly realized I had no interest in it. However, I liked my Computer Science class so I am giving that a try to see if it works for me. I have never enjoyed school. I don't like learning for the sake of learning so taking random classes without a clear goal is very hard for me. I feel as if I'm going through the motions in school. Has anyone else had similar issues? Does anyone have any advice?</p>
<p>My question would be: if you aren’t in school, what else would you be doing? </p>
<p>Nobody HAS to go to school. It isn’t a definite must or a need to get a good paying job. It definitely helps, but if you don’t want to go to school, what other plans do you have to make money and survive?</p>
<p>Yeah, I have some advice. Stay in school. You’re only setting yourself up for a life of disadvantages in this current economic climate unless you are seriously willing to work your butt off to get to where someone could get there easily with a college degree. </p>
<p>If you enjoy computer science, work your tail off so you can get some internships.</p>
<p>I get what your saying, BUT I think going to school is the best option. I know your really not into school, but it will really pay off in the future. Going to school can bring many good opportunities to you, opportunities that you may not get if you aren’t in school. I think that you should stick it out , and finish.</p>
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<p>This was exactly what I was going to say.</p>
<p>College is, by no means, a requirement for a happy and fulfilling life. But you need to have some sort of plan to support yourself without the degree. Learn a trade, get some sort of certification, etc.</p>
<p>Something that might help you is figuring out what you want to do after college. Find internships, job shadow, get work experience, etc. Even if you’re just doing informational interviews, if you can figure out what type of work you’d like to do or what kind of environment you’d like to work in, you can start to figure out what degree you need to get (if any) and what experiences would help you get there. That’s a process and it won’t happen right away but it’s a start.</p>
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I have.
Give computer science a try. Take a CS class next semester. Play with Python scripts in your free time. Coding is therapeutic. CS blurs the line between theory and practice. You seem to be experiencing a problem very common for engineering majors: you want to use your knowledge to create things, but lower division classes make you learn a lot of mathematics and abstract “ignore friction” types of science before you can build anything. In computer science, you immediately start writing software (albeit trivial). You incrementally improve your skill by building things, observing problems due to limitations in your capabilities, expanding your capabilities piece by piece, and putting your new knowledge to use rapidly.</p>
<p>In contrast to the often expensive needs of a university’s electrical engineering department, much state-of-the-art technology in computer science is available on the internet for free. You can’t just steal a fancy electronic device from someone and disassemble it because you’re curious about how it works, but you can always download open source software, study its code, and even rewrite it.</p>