Undecided junior and Father of two; need advice (Warning long post)

College Majors
1

<p>Hello all! This is my first post here and I am greatly looking forward to any assistance you all may be able to offer me.</p>

<p>I am 23 years old, a junior at Wichita State University in Kansas, and I have two small children. I also suffer from adult ADHD that was not diagnosed until recently. I'm also undecided and I don't know where to turn with my major/career. At this point, any constructive advice is wholeheartedly appreciated.</p>

<p>A little background about me and my work/college experience. I actually spent two years at community college majoring in music. I look back and feel like I wasted two years of my life on a hobby that had no real career prospects and only hurt my family and my future in the end. Plus, with two small children, there was no way I was going to be able to compete/practice/rehearse/perform at the same level with students who didn't have the same issues. Now I have transferred to university and I am finishing up my Gen Eds/pursuing a new -and as yet undecided- major.</p>

<p>One big thing I feel I should mention... I have been out of work for over four years. I spend my time at school in the mornings and taking care of the kids at night. My wife works full time and attends night school. My mother graciously watches the children (who are three and one) in the morning while I am in class. I also didn't have any jobs longer than one eight-month stint at a local McDonald's before becoming a full-time student/stay-at-home dad. So I have no real job experience WHATSOEVER.</p>

<p>Now that you know a little about me, I'll explain my college major situation that I really need advice on.</p>

<p>Skills that I feel I excel in:
Written Communication
Spoken Communication
Memorization (Dates/Vocabulary)
Foreign Language (already almost fluent in spanish from family background)
Solving Patterns
Starting Projects
Leading Projects</p>

<p>Skills I do NOT excel in:
Math (despite my love of patterns, math bores me incessantly)
Science (again, interesting but overall boring)
Following through on projects
Reading Technical Articles/Journals</p>

<p>The dilemma I am having really boils down to what I want versus what my family needs. I have been considering majors such as Creative Writing, Philosophy, and Communications because they are all things that I am good at and I would enjoy doing (I think). I really crave a working environment where things are not stagnant and no two days feel the same. If something gets too boring or repetitive, I tend to become disenchanted, bored, and uninspired.</p>

<p>I think I might do well as either an author, editor, or in public relations. I love to write and I am extremely good at it. My highest marks, even in college, have always been in English. I am also a great speaker and have been delivering speeches since I was 14 years old to various organizations (civic organizations, schools, masonic organizations, etc.). I think that PR may be the field I could be best at and so I was thinking about doing the communications major trying to focus specifically on public relations, but I don't know.</p>

<p>I have also been considering future careers such as professor or lawyer. But in today's world, neither are safe bets at all and I don't want to hurt my family by amassing huge student loan debts for little to nothing. Also add that I do not want to practice law in my home state (Kansas) because I am far from the right wing, republican consistent with the mid-western mindset; I feel I would lose A LOT of cases simply to judges who disagree with my cases. (I know the law should be unbiased, but we all know it isn't always).</p>

<p>I consider law school because I am an analytic thinker, a great speaker, and passionate about social equality issues and human rights. I am also a strong believer in the idea that everyone deserves a proper defense and that someone must be there to ensure the justice system is working properly (ie people are not going to prison without the proper evidence to convict them; innocent or guilty, the evidence must be there).</p>

<p>But I understand that politics, law, etc. are not great fields to go into right now. Also with two children, a wife, coming from Wichita, Kansas, the odds are not stacked in my favor of getting into -or being able to afford- a top-tier law school. Also, I'm not sure right now that I have the study abilities necessary to be a successful law student; my ADHD is pretty severe and I have yet to get on a medication that is working to help me adequately control my focus and attention.</p>

<p>So if not law or academia, what could I do? Business? </p>

<p>Business is not a terrible thought, except that I really don't want to "owe my soul to the company store." I don't want to be a "corporate stiff" for the rest of my life and miss out on actually living life, seeing the world, writing, things of that nature. Also, I have no real working experience right now so I don't know if I have what it takes to be a business major.</p>

<p>On the other hand, business affords a better chance to make money and support my family. I don't want to be a "loser" for the rest of my life and never help my family at all. I think I could be a great manager or I could be good in International Business with my familiarity with foreign languages and my desire to travel the world. But I don't know if that is even a feasible option for me, especially with my family.</p>

<p>Some days I think about just majoring in French or Spanish and attempting to move my family overseas and finding a new job and a new life in Europe. I love the culture, the language, the history. But I guess that is a bit of a tangent. It would be nice to live in Europe as a writer though...</p>

<p>Anyway, should I break down and get a business major so that I can make more money or should I pursue law/communications/creative writing or something else even though the money isn't really there? What would you do if you were in my shoes? Also, what sorts of careers might I be able to pursue with a communications degree or an international studies or international business degree?</p>

<p>I apologize for the extremely long post... Thanks</p>

2

<p>You’re not going to like this, but, despite being a family man with a spouse & two children, maturity is not your strongest asset. Get your college degree, then get a job. Any job that pays.</p>

3

<p>OP, I also had two young children by the time I was in my mid-twenties. I know it’s not easy to go to school while caring for young children (I finished a MS when my younger children were 4 and 6 yrs. old). It sounds to me as though you would do very well in Public Relations or Business Management (leaning towards PR). You need great communications skills for either. Make a decision then jump in with both feet. Go to school during summers and go full time if you can. Finish as quickly as possible. You will have to pull some all nighters, but it’s worth it. You will be able to work in your field more quickly and begin providing for your family which is what I know you want to do. You can do this, but you have to get going on this degree. Good luck!</p>

4

<p>Quite frankly the idea that he wants to go back to school to better himself and stabilize his monetary input to his family is a mature decision. Not to mention the amount of mature housework he does to maintain two children.</p>

<p>Regardless.
Business Administration
Philosophy(hard job market)
History(teaching, no 2 days alike! but tough market)
Journalism(somewhat repetitive)</p>

<p>My friend has his Communications degree. He wrote articles for a newspaper, left there and went on to produce podcasts, a radio show, an internet website based for sports, and now he is back writing articles for local sports teams.</p>

<p>You’ll go wherever you want, my friend!</p>

5

<p>You won’t like this either, but . . . Get a teaching degree. No two days are ever the same. You can parent effectively. There is job security. You can play music or write - and at work! In the summer, you can follow your other passions.</p>