<p>okay so im top 1% of my class, high SAT scores, great EC's everything a good student applying to top tier school posesses. the problem is, i don't know what i want to do when I'm older. i want to pursue a career in either law, psychology, real estate or film. being such distinct career areas, im not sure what to do about colleges.</p>
<p>most people pick certain schools for their per se medical programs or law grad placement or location in cali (film) but i dont know what i want to do!</p>
<p>i like penn which has a great business program for real estate related things
i like USC which has a great location for film and great film program
i like duke just because i love duke but i don't know that any of my majors are focused on here; same goes for vanderbilt</p>
<p>but where would you go? like if i go to USC to pursue film and end up wanting to go into law then im screwed or if i go to penn and end up wanting to go into film then im also screwed. helppp.</p>
<p>1) You can major in anything that you want to and then go to law school. Law school admission is based primarily on grades, LSAT score, and letters of recommendation. Art History majors get into law school every single year, so do film majors, government majors, and biology majors who originally were pre-med.</p>
<p>2) You can study whatever you want, and then go to graduate school for film. A fair number of people do this.</p>
<p>3) You can start at one place in one major, and then transfer to another place with another major. Even more people do this than 1) and 2).</p>
<p>4) You don’t mention once in your post here whether you can actually afford any of these schools. Sit down with your parents (or whoever it is who is helping you pay for your education) and run the financial aid calculators here at CC, at [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org), and at the College Board website. Talk with your parents about whether or not they can pay the EFC, and how much debt they think is reasonable for you to finish college with. Knowing your own personal truths about money will help you make better decisions.</p>
<p>and, please don’t forget</p>
<p>5) Most people have multiple careers in their lifetimes. Ask the adults you know how many different professions they’ve practiced. Here are some examples from my circle of friends: philosophy professor to executive secretary to non-profit grant writer to retail sales clerk to social worker; field archeologist to lab scientist to ESL teacher; lab chemist to cardiac re-hab therapist; Broadway musical theater performer to office administrator to computer systems analyst. </p>
<p>Instead of focusing on your current list, why not consider a nice warm LAC where you can spend the first two years figuring out what you want to major in, or taking a Gap year so that you can get a bit more real-world experience before choosing your major? Both of those options have helped a lot of people make these kinds of decisions.</p>
<p>^ I wouldn’t recommend graduate film school. It’s VERY expensive, hard to get into, and not really worth it. For film, it’s not something you can necessarily be taught. The most valuable thing you can do for a career in film is get experience and just get out there. I also was considering grad film school at once point and decided against it. I talked to some people who had done it and they said while they learned a lot, it hasn’t helped their job prospects. In fact, some of them said that they don’t even list their graduate degree on their resum</p>
Apply to USC, Penn, and Duke and see what happens. Along the lines of what happymom said, you’d be surprised how flexible they are – any of them will get you wherever you want to go.</p>
<p>All three of them have distribution requirements and an enormous array of majors, so you would have plenty of time and opportunity to select a major that’s a good fit for you. Film at USC is an exception, of course, so you’d be best off applying directly to that program since it’s easier to transfer out of it than into it.</p>
<p>Given your interests, you might want to give Michigan and Northwestern a look.</p>
<p>I would go to Duke because you love Duke. Unless you are absolutely sure about a specific program (which most high school students are not), it is more important to choose a school where you feel you belong. Your decisions will be influenced by your experience in college and the people you meet there. You will get an excellent education at Duke. You wouldn’t go wrong at USC, Penn, Michigan, Northwestern or Vandy if your passtion takes you there.</p>
<p>agree with the previous poster; if you love Duke then go there. And I wouldn’t be surprised if 2 years from now you have a career direction that is completely different from what you’ve listed. Many HS students don’t have a very clear idea of the broad range of jobs that are out there or of what people in a given field actually do; the ones you’ve listed are visible to you now, but if you start working with the career center starting frosh year in college (attend workshops, career fairs, etc) you’ll find there’s lots more out there; and furthermore for the areas you’ve listed already there are tons of jobs that you probably aren’t aware of in the field. To take film as an example, look at the credits on any movie as they roll by for 5 minutes and think that each of those people has a full career doing that job. Not only that, plenty of people work in the industry that don’t ever get their name in the credits. The point is there’s more jobs in the film industry than the ones a film degree is aimed at preparing you for. And when someone lists “law” as a career interest, have they narrowed it down any more than that? There are lawyers that handle civil or criminal cases, that work in firms of all sizes from 1-man-shop to mega-firm with hundreds of partners, that work as in-house counsel for corporations, that are in courtrooms regularly or never in their career. Just saying “law” is a career interest doesn’t mean much, and those that assume they’ll go to law school and figure it out then may be in for a rude surprise.</p>
<p>The median college student changes majors 2-3 times and the median adult changes whole careers twice. Go to a college that you love and invest four years in building as wide a range of skills and interests as you can. Learn to communicate, to question and to seek answers, to work in groups, to lead others and to support others’ leadership. I don’t know all that the future holds, but I know that for the rest of your life those skills won’t become obsolete or go out of style, and they’ll greatly enhance your success in whatever career(s) you ultimately pursue.</p>
<p>I would choose Penn because it has all the areas you mentioned. It also has a broad curriculum in case you change your mind. It has film history and criticism but not film production. Are you interested in film production?</p>
<p>When in doubt, choose a great school that has a wide number of majors. That way, you can change majors without having to change schools (and possibly have some classes that won’t transfer well).</p>
<p>But, since some on your list are reaches (even for the most stellar student), you need to have several choices that all include a broad spectrum of majors of your interest.</p>
<p>Best to you!</p>
<p>BTW…is money no object? If not, do you know what your EFC is and how much you’d get in F/A?</p>