<p>grrr, so i talked to my brother last night for the first time in a while and he told me that my parents told him they were “disappointed” in me. they’ve never said that before and i’m frustrated and upset and sad. this is ridiculous and i can’t help but feel they’re the ones being irrational here. </p>
<p>i think i’ll just drop out and go to work at Mr. Burger, that’ll show 'em. >_<</p>
<p>There are other options besides going straight to law school. You could see if you can get done next year and work for a couple of years. However… as a political science major, you are likely competing with a lot of students who have had some solid internship experiences for the jobs that are out there.</p>
<p>But I have another question. There seems to be an assumption in your family that your parents will help pay for your grad school. Gotta say, plenty of families help with undergrad, but expect students to pay for their own graduate education (via loans, working, etc.) I can see why your parents have this attitude if they can see what could be a total of 7 years (4 undergrad, 3 grad) of tuition streching out for them. And you mention a brother… not sure of his age, but if they have his tuition to handle too, I don’t blame your parents for this perspective.</p>
<p>So… how much do you want your parents to back off and let you spend an extra year in college (with an extra year, you could probably study abroad and a semester in DC, and get your credits completed for a political science degree)? Enough for you to suggest to them to contribute less (or nothing, as in many families do) for graduate school? </p>
<p>Another thought… a semester abroad AND one in DC means you would spend no more time on campus than if you just graduate next year. I am not saying that is a bad thing, but many of your reasons for wanting more time seem to be about on-campus activities. So you would have to decide how important that is. FYI, my D is a junior who spent fall semester abroad this year and is now in DC on an internship program (political science major).</p>
<p>If you were my kid, I think this is actually a pretty good alternative. Ask them to help you through your undergrad for one extra year. Get yourself a solid internship in DC AND a good one for the summer after this one as part of that deal. Graduate one year early (not 2 years). Then work for a year or two, and try to save some money for law school, then go to grad school more on your dime than theirs.</p>
<p>One question – how did you get all those foreign language credits you mentioned? I know my kid got advanced placement in language, but did not actually get the college credits (except could get a few credits for a good score on the AP exam). Just wanting to make sure you math is right on all this (cuz that would take away some of the headache).</p>
<p>I don’t blame your parents. It’s a huge savings. Are they paying for your education? If so, it’s your education they may be paying for, not having “the college experience”. In our case, we committed to the college experience for 4 years, but there are parents who are paying for the degree in the shortest period of time. It’s really unfair to make someone else, especially those you love and who love you, pay so much, for something they do not want to pay for. It’s very selfish of you.</p>
<p>i don’t have time to write out a response but do note that i already stated more than once that i recognize that it’s unique that my parents want to help me out so much financially. i never said i was “entitled” to have them pay for it and i’m more than willing to work in order to support myself. my main issue is that they seem to be angry and disappointed with me for not having my entire life mapped out by my second semester in college, which i think is unrealistic. i haven’t done anything wrong by wondering if graduating in two years is really a good/feasible idea and i don’t think i’m being selfish.</p>
<p>I think you can share with your parents some of the neat things you are learning which is making you now more undecided.</p>
<p>Remember too that you will need to study for the GRE o LCAT is you are going to law school. If you take a really heavy course load, that might be difficult to do. Additionally many grad schools want to see service work in the field of study. That takes time–one needs years to build a resume. By rushing through, you may find that you have fewer choices for grad school.</p>
<p>I am surprised as educators that your parents are not more supportive of your intellectual curiousity. Sorry!</p>
<p>I know people who graduated in as little as two years, but got jobs on/near campus and stayed part of the college community until ready to move on. Some are still there. You don;t have to be paying the tuition and other costs to still be part of the community.</p>
<p>I am a bit confused, so your parents would like you to graduate in 2 years not counting this Freshman year? (I hope they didn’t mean for you to get your undergrad degree within a total of 2 years instead of 4.) Graduation in 3 years is tough but very doable if you only have one major and lots of AP credits. In your case, it would be hard since you don’t have AP credits and you just switched major.</p>
<p>I am speculating that your parents are just upset because you switched major and not discussing with them your future plan (etc…) which made them thinking that you are irresponsible and hence applying pressure to get you into taking college education more seriously.
It is very common for undergrads switching majors prior to their junior year. Perhaps you should have a long discussion with your parents on what prompted such switch and your plan and your difficulties.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>^ </p>
<p>1) two years counting this year. as in, at the end of next year (well, after two more semesters). </p>
<p>2) i had already kind of planned to graduate in three years under my old major - i drew out this scheme where i was able to still take a couple of electives/language classes while finishing up my major and minor within 3 years. i have no AP credit because my high school didn’t do AP, correct, but i came in with mountains of dual credit so that’s not a problem. </p>
<p>3) it honestly does not matter that i switched majors. the major I had before was very interdisciplinary and most of the courses i had planned to take i will still be taking, now i just won’t have to deal with the odd and harebrained restrictions of my old major. though, both majors are fairly similar course-wise; mainly it’s the administrative aspect that caused me to switch.
the reason it’s going to take so much less time is that the other one had a built in minor of 12 credits or something and was just an all-around “bigger” major. it also required study abroad yet offered zip financial assistance, something my parents were extremely worried about since i’m not eligible for financial aid and my school hardly offers any merit scholarships for study abroad. </p>
<p>sorry to be using this thread as a diary or whatever, it’s just that i don’t know what to think or even how i feel about all this. i don’t know what i want to do with the rest of my life. i am actually in the process of making an appointment with a counselor/therapist/quack whatever, even though my parents are against counseling (long story, i’m just sounding bitter now). i think it could help me see the light at the end of the tunnel… don’t know what’s wrong with me lately.</p>
<p>again, thanks to everyone for all your advice and sorry if I’ve stepped on any toes as tends to happen when students come begging for help on the parents forum.</p>
<p>Can you describe what you mean by “dual credits”? Not sure what that is… in our state, high school juniors and seniors are allowed to take college courses toward their hs graduation requirements. Is that what it is? If so, were those courses taken at the same college you are at now?</p>
<p>that’s exactly what it is. our local CC allows HS students to be concurrently enrolled and to receive HS credit and college credit at the same time. (so no, they weren’t taken here, they were taken back at home)</p>
<p>How about if you approach this as instrumentally as your parents are approaching it? For them, college is an expensive means to an end so if you frame it this way, you can very honestly and likely present them with several plans that all require more than two years.</p>
<p>Looking into about 2-3 possible paths you might take after you graduate: say law school, an academic PhD, and one other professional school or PhD program. I realize you do not yet know what you want to do but this is a good exercise for you to do anyways, it will help you and help your parents.</p>
<p>With these 2-3 possibilities, work out the details. Visit forums on these areas, visit some particular school websites, talk to a career counsellor at your school, and see if you can also get the advice via email from folks in each of the possible careers. Find out which example schools you would like to attend for each path, and how much each would cost (e.g. private law school is pricey, public law maybe less, and a PhD program worth going to will be funded by the school). Next, what does it take besides ‘a degree’ to get in? Often it is MUCH more than just course credits. Particular GPAs, work experience, research experience, volunteer or leadership roles, internships? As but one example, I know for a fact that if you don’t take the time to do research as an undergrad, it’s very unlikely you will get in into a decent PhD program (for lots of reasons). Fulfilling ALL of these criteria about your future schooling is not possible in just 2 years of undergrad. Figure out what you need to do and what time frame will be required. </p>
<p>THESE are the details and facts you need to present to your parents. They need to know you are making the best and most practical use of their funding, and they want some sense of security and certainty about your future. While I realize you can’t yet know what you want to do- that alone should be a reason to stay in school longer!- you can at least spend some time doing your homework and working out several thoughtful plans of action. This will also buy you and your parents time to calm down and take the emotions out of it. When you have all your facts, present it to your parents in an organized fashion, and discuss the best way for you to meet your goals.</p>
<p>I think you are quite amazing to have achieved so much to this point that you could potentially graduate from college in only 2 years. Wow! Please, take care of yourself. See a therapist or counselor, however, refrain from letting your parents know, at least for now. You seem to be under a lot of stress and it would help to talk and learn some copong strategies. No shame in that at all. Also, are you sure that taking all of your higher level classes in only 2 semesters will really be doable? I know in my major in college that would have been difficult at best.</p>
<p>I can see both sides of this. One of my kids graduated from HS very young, lived at home for two years of CC then transferred to a private. Many of her profs encouraged her to stay for 3, rather than 2, years at the private school. But she already had all her lower div GE done and transferable to check all the boxes. I agreed with them that she could be edified by that extra year; however it was not their money and it was a private LAC, so not cheap, even with merit aid. No one offered her free tuition and she graduated with honors after 2 years at that LAC.</p>
<p>But, this was the plan from the time she began the CC, her siblings attended public schools and she wanted a private. We outlined this as the way to achieve it. Also, her CC coursework was not dual credit (usually free) but rather we paid for it. We paid for 4 years of college, 2 cheap, 2 expensive.</p>
<p>She is now preparing to attend a funded masters program. Yes, she made tons of friends and loved her LAC and missed them all this year, but she did some other interesting ECs which actually helped her MA application.</p>
<p>Yet saying all that, I have read this thread and found myself on your ‘side,’ primarily because it was not the plan at the outset. And there is no certainty that you can actually get all those classes needed for graduating in a year. We had to plan very carefully to make it happen.</p>
<p>How much is your family paying? Is this a private? Public? Are we talking $50k or $10k OOP</p>
<p>Plus you do need to do the activities when in school that would lead to grad school admissions.</p>
<p>My DD in med school could have finished early, but stayed in school all four years in order to achieve her ends by continuing strongly in her major and getting wonderful ECs</p>