What do you plan to do after undergrad?

Student Lounge International Students
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<p>As it is now time to receive admission decisions and decide where you are going to be for the next 3-4 years, I was wondering what plans you guys had after undergrad? I don't mean academic plans like what you're gonna study etc, but more like a life plan. As the time to leave is comin closer and closer, it's making me realize just how big the decision to study abroad is. For one thing, it is practically irreversible. Once you're there, you can't just leave and come back. Secondly, by the time you are done with undergrad, even if you come back home it just wont be the same. You won't be able to come and live like a kid again at 22 or 23. So it seems like these are the last few months we have left at home where we can just be teens and do stupid sh1t! I don't know about you guys, but that is something pretty huge for me to digest. Going abroad, knowing that this may very well be the last few months I will be staying in this house with my parents, is becoming a huge decision for me, and I find it surprising because I usually used to think of myself as not that attached to staying @home and stuff, but I guess now that the time to leave has come, I'm actually starting to appreciate how convenient it all was.</p>

<p>This is even more so for those of us planning to go on to grad school immediately. For those of us attending a small LAC rather than a big, prestigious uni, grad school is even more important, which makes the minimum time spent abroad atleast 6-7 years. As excited as I am, I can't really ignore the fear building up.</p>

<p>Just wondering what you guys think. Sorry if the content is weird, I tend to keep rambling on.</p>

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<p>Its not really weird.. I tend to think of such stuff too. But then, it seems really disorienting to think of all this before the admissions decisions are in hand :) As for leaving home and going abroad, man I am going to miss it a lot!!! I mean, you wont get the comfort of home anywhere irrespective of how much you might get used to a new place, or how much you love that college....</p>

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<p>It's true that probably we'll not really live home ever again, but we'll get used to it. Time goes by and involuntarily we adapt to it. We are moving on. At 22-23 we'll not even want to be treated like teenagers anymore. And besides, even if we stayed home, how many of us would remain for college in our hometown and live with our parents? It's true that they are closer, but we still won't see them every day. It does not apply to all of us, I know, but I still think think it's true for many of us.</p>

<p>What concerns me a little more than not living with my parents anymore is the fact that I will probably lose many of my friends and other people I care about now. Not all of them will have Internet access and, as a Romanian proverb says, eyes that don't see each other forget each other. However, think of how many new friends we will make in college. One of my freshman friends in US came home in the winter for about 1 month and in the last week she couldn't wait to go back to college and be with her new friends.</p>

<p>Let me tell you a related anecdote that happened to me recently. At the end of my junior year, I lost my favorite teacher (which by the way, moved abroad). I was feeling extremely depressed and was sure I won't like her classes anymore this year, until the teacher who replaced her appeared on the scene. In like 2 weeks, she became my new favorite teacher. Now, part of me is even glad my former teacher left, because otherwise I could have never met my new teacher. Before I realized it, I was feeling something like you about moving abroad. But now, I figured out there is probably going to be the same this year, when I will lose so many people I love (supposing I am admitted somewhere!) but they will be replaced by new faces.</p>

<p>I have deviated from the topic, so let me tell you I have no clear picture of what I will be doing after I graduate, if, as you said, I let academics apart. Now, I hope I will return in my country some day and do something for my people. But think about Marie Curie who left Poland for France and never returned because of Pierre Curie. Because we are moving on, we cannot predict what will happen to us in 4 years, nor what possibilities studying abroad will bring on the long-term.</p>

<p>But cheer up, people, remember why you wanted to study abroad in the first place!</p>

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<p>Continue studying... :(</p>

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<p>what a deep thought from angelutza!!
3 posibilities:
find job, if fails
go grad school, if fails
return home country hoping find jod....
:-/</p>

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<p>S33D- its nice to know that you plan to return to India- so do I- and not many people who go are able to come back.</p>

<p>as for being wierd- i thought i am crazy- at times when i am walking down my lane -i think in five months i won't be here anymore and i try to remember the details of my house and garden!</p>

<p>Going abroad at undergrad level is a huge decision- and it scares the **** out of me at times- but as angel said- its not like i would be living with my parents in my homecity- and truthfuy- i don't even want to. I want to step into my adventure!</p>

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<p>Undergrad:
Year 1 - Internship
Year 2 - Study abroad
Year 3 - Internship
Year 4 - Internship</p>

<p>Work for 2-3 years @ some bank in NYC. (:P)</p>

<p>Grad School.</p>

<p>Come back to India.</p>

<p>PhD. IIT Delhi.</p>

<p>w00t !</p>

<p>;)</p>

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<p>plans after undergrad? hopefully get into a good grad school or get a decent job. if that doesn't work out i will be joining the ranks of the unemployed.</p>

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<p>OK, I haven't planned THIS far ahead :D</p>

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<p>OK, you have it ALL mapped out! :D</p>

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<p>Yup, I know. I think I'm one of those rare american-educated people who have everything mapped out like that. Why I deleted my previous post I'll never know. </p>

<p>Anyway, just so this thread doesn't sound weird, post #10 that tetrisfan was supposedly referring to was this:</p>

<p>I don't think it's weird to think about your future....frankly I think more people should do it. I've been here since like elementary school, so I have no intention whatsoever of going back to my home country, whatever that's supposed to mean (frankly it doesn't mean anything to me....I was educated here, I spent the entirity of my short adult life here, and I intend to spend the rest of my adult life here, for all intents and purposes, I AM an American, just not an American citizen-I think there's a special word for it-assimilated). I like it here, and although the US has its faults, I think I'd like living here more than someplace else.</p>

<p>My parents INSIST that I stay here forever. They think that because I was educated here, I wouldn't culturally fit in if I go back to where I was born-I agree. :)</p>

<p>So assuming everything goes my way:</p>

<p>This year-get a part time job at a law firm, keep getting As
Next year-score 179 on LSAT, Keep getting As, Law school apps (OMG :P )
May 2010-BA, NYU (hopefully I'll make magna cum laude)
Summer 2012-Summer associate at (insert biglaw firm du jour here-currently it's DLA Piper, because they're the only firm that I can find that has an aviation law practice), get fulltime offer
May 2013-JD, NYU School of Law (or insert top10 law school du jour here)
June 2013-Go to Hawaii for a week, study for the Bar
July 2013-Study for the bar, TAKE THE BAR (scary :D )
November 2013-get letter in the mail congratulating me for passing the bar
November-December 2013-Admitted to the New York State Bar Association
Sometime 2014-naturalize to US citizenship
Sometime 2020-Make partner at said biglaw firm du jour, take first vacation in 7 years.
Sometime 2020-2025-MBA, Stern School of Business, NYU
Sometime in the next 70 years-retire, move to Hawaii or something</p>

<p>I'm really afraid of growing old though. I wish I can like freeze the aging process at age 30. Then I can stay 30 years old, like forever.</p>

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<p>^ thats cool! maybe we'll be colleagues at that top law firm :)</p>

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<p>^Yay! :)</p>

<p>My friend and I have an arragement: we graduate from college together, we go to law school together, we work at the same firm, and whoever makes partner first votes the other in. She wants to practice divorce law or personal injury law or something. I want to practice aviation law, M&A/securities/corporate law, commercial litigation, maybe white collar defense.</p>

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<p>international law for me</p>

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<p>Sounds awesome. And later on when we're practicing, we can go on the law school forum and scare those gullible undergrads. :D</p>

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<p>definitely! :D</p>

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<p>Law....I could never do that</p>

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<p>postgrad.</p>

<p>(to make it 10)</p>

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<ol>
<li>Come back to India.</li>
<li>Join the Indian Air force. Become a test pilot.</li>
<li>After taking 3000 flying hrs under my belt come back to US.</li>
<li>Get a Masters.</li>
<li>Find a job at JPL or Ames.</li>
<li>Keep applying for the Astronaut Corps. </li>
</ol>

<p>Apart from the above keep working on my own organization.</p>

<p>If not the IAF, I'll probably join the French Foreign Legion. YouTube</a> - Uncovering the true face of the French Foreign Legion</p>

<p>AND FINALLY one day fly to Moon/Mars.</p>

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<p>Hey hey! I thought an American education was all about flexibility and spontaneity. While planning is good, I hear most internationals change their 'plans' abruptly after the first year and study things they never thought they would have.</p>