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Education

Making the Transition to University? 168

Posted by Cliff from the college-plans dept.
fracex asks: "I am currently finishing my last year of high school, and have some important decisions to make about next year. Pretty much all my life I have seen myself as going to university as soon as I finished high school, but recently I have been considering taking a year off from school to work and travel. Not only this, I'm not even totally sure what I want to take in university, is what I still want to take. So, taking a year off could give me time to find more direction and focus. What was your experience with your transition between high school and university, and are you glad you made the decisions you did?"
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Making the Transition to University? More

Making the Transition to University?

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  • I have been transisting (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    from school to university for the fourth year now. No end in sight.

  • Hmm (Score:3, Insightful)

    by PrvtBurrito ( 557287 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @03:38PM (#12048361)
    Personally, I would go to the University. In my experience most of the classes you take the first couple of years are not going to be useful for you (in a specific sense) in the long term. I took Scandinavian literature in translation, for example. I think if you knew exactly what field you wanted to take you would be very frustrated because only 20% of your classes are actually in that field. Get the broad stuff over as fast as possible.

    • Re:Hmm (Score:2)

      by Otter ( 3800 )
      I took Scandinavian literature in translation, for example.

      You have more sense than me. I took a class in medieval Icelandic literature, *not* in translation. Instead of getting drunk the first half of my freshman year, I was busy translating the Njalsaga...

      Anyway, back to the original question: more important than taking a year off now is doing a year abroad, or at least a semester. Not doing that was the biggest mistake of my college career. (The Icelandic class being #2 and a girl named Estella being #3

      • more important than taking a year off now is doing a year abroad, or at least a semester.

        Absolutely agree with this-- a year is definitely better than a semester, because you'll be getting used to things the first semester, especially if it's in a foreign language.

        There are lots of ways to do a year abroad as both an undergrad and a grad student, often with someone else helping foot the bill. It's also not much more expensive to spend a year abroad than a few weeks or month, especially if you're living
    • _Very_ good advice!

      The more time you "waste" on not taking a traditional route to a degree is simply more time that you'll learn about whatever you're interested in - and the more you learn, the harder it will be to go back to school and get a degree; simply because you'll have to spend more time with things you already know.

      If you don't end up starting your own company, then that degree will be very useful; as just knowing something isn't as valuable as having a paper that says that you at least where s

  • Just go (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Scottarius ( 248487 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @03:38PM (#12048363)
    If you really want to go to college, then just go. If you decide to "take a year off" odds are you'll never actually end up going.

    • Re:Just go (Score:2, Insightful)

      by turtled ( 845180 )
      I agree, go right away. Get it done and overwith. If you take a year off, not only do you take the chance of not going, but you risk getting a girl pregnant, then its all over from there.
      • Nothing sucks more then going to school, working, and starting a family. Do it now, I however recommend you work while going to school. Don't be a freeloading student, grow up now.
      • I have to agree. I have yet to meet anyone who has taken a "year off" and has actually done something productive with her life -- especially right after high school.

        Mind you, this is from a small sample of about four individuals, so it's not really all encompassing, but my guess is the odds are against you.
    • I should have taken time off after going to a very sheltered high school, instead I went into college, was not happy and did poorly. I worked for 4 years then got into grad school, then medical school and did very well.

      I was more rounded, and knew what I wanted and this I know, helped me.

      There's no point in going to college, when you're not happy, or too naive. It's best to go when you are ready and WANTING to go - you'll do much better. If you really want to go to university/college, then you will - j
      • I would suggest getting accepted to college, and THEN taking a semester or two off. Most colleges will let you do that without a problem. Many scholarships and things like that are only available if you go to college directly from high school. If it's a highly selective school, they sometimes give preference to HS students. Of course, it all depends on your particular situation.
    • Good advice. Of my friends who didn't immediately enroll in college after HS, not one made it to college. They all were hijacked by: kids, car payments or drugs.

      Its college now or walmart later kid!

    • You stole my Subject line!

      I agree with this poster. Just go. Do it and be done with it. You'll have a great time while you're there; college is not that bad - I'd even go as far as to say that it can be quite an amazing experience. You'll meet fascinating people and learn far more than just your cirriculum.

      You don't have to decide what your area of study is for about 2 years; so don't sweat your direction.

      Also, I travelled much more while I was in college than I have since I've been in the working wo
    • Concur with the parent post... most people who delay going to university or take a break from college never return. I know there are excpetions... but the fact of the matter is that people take a break and get a job, comparatively start making a comfortable living and it is very difficult to go back to the student mac-n-cheese, cereal and two roommates life-style. You don't have to (and probably shouldn't) know exactly what you want to do when you start school... thats why the first two years are mostly g
    • If you were to take a year off... what would you do? Get a high-school-grad job that you'll hate, to motivate yourself to do better at university? Backpack across Europe/America (whichever you don't live in), and deplete your bank account? Hang with your dawgs and get drunk a lot? Unless you have something specific that you really want to do, you're probably just trying to put off making some kind of decision about what you want to do with your life, and that's what college is for! College is where you
    • Agreed. In fact, most four-year degree programs are set up so that, as long as you have a very general idea what direction you're headed (engineering, liberal arts, science), you can get probably to the middle of your second year before you need to declare a major and start taking the classes required by that major. The first two or three semesters will end up being all core classes required regardless of your major. If you get close to that point and still don't have a clue, talk to your chosen school's
    • Good advice. You don't need to "know who you are" before you go. College is a great place to find yourself while acquiring useful stuff like credits and friends. The first year curriculum is similar for all majors.
    • Taking a year off worked perfectly for me. I actually enrolled in university, attended for a week, but then was offered more hours at work and I just knew I needed some time off study so I "dropped out" so to speak. One year later I enrolled in exactly the same thing as before and I'm now a 3rd year student and doing well.

      Clearly your situation is very personal. Taking one year off to work and travel clearly will not lock you out of tertiary education. My advice is to take the time off only because you do

  • Keep the Momentum (Score:5, Insightful)

    by CTalkobt ( 81900 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @03:40PM (#12048374) Homepage
    My recommendation would be to go to school. If it's not to your liking after a semester or two - drop out. It's much better to say that you've tried at something than to never have even attempted.

    In addition, it's much harder to go back to school later in life once you start the drudgery of "life maintenance" : I work because I have to pay the bills. I pay the bills because I need a roof over my head. I need a roof over my head so I can sleep after working. It's a viscious cycle.

    Taking a year off to travel etc sounds nice now but it's the beginning of a very slippery slope known as sloth. Too much laziness will propel you into a life that's mediocre: it'll be okay but not great.
    • In addition, it's much harder to go back to school later in life once you start the drudgery of "life maintenance"

      The other big problem is that different things are important in real life and university life. It can be extremely difficult to get used to studying all the random information they try to feed you in college. It's also very difficult to re-adjust yourself to being evaluated not on the merits of your performance over several weeks, but on your performance on a 60 minute test.

      I would sugg

    • Re:Keep the Momentum (Score:5, Insightful)

      by WhiteBandit ( 185659 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @04:55PM (#12049088) Homepage
      My recommendation would be to go to school. If it's not to your liking after a semester or two - drop out. It's much better to say that you've tried at something than to never have even attempted.

      I completely agree. At the very least, enroll in a community college. It's a cheap and fairly easy way to get the basic general education requirements out of your way. You'll have to take them no matter what university you go to. It's pretty nice to pay something like $15 a unit at a C.C. (which adds up to $180 a semester or so) compared to knocking off the same GE classes at a 4 year institution for $1,000/$5,000/$10,000 a semester or more. Interestingly enough, some of the best professors I've ever had in my academic career were at my community college.

      It also gives you a chance to take some electives and extra classes to see what you might be interested in. After working a database administration job to pay my way through C.C., I realized that Computer Science (which is what I intended to major all along before going to college), just wasn't for me. After taking some interesting classes on a whim (that a cute girl I knew was taking... oh yes, pathetic!), I ended up loving geology. I eventually changed that to my major and by the time I transferred to a four year institution, I was ready to start the coursework, having completed all the GE stuff at my C.C.

      Regarding traveling, I think you should wait to do it. You do a lot of growing up in college (well... most people do anyway), and I think the extra maturatiy and knowledge of the world you gain will make any chance to travel and explore the world much more enjoyable. I'm planning on tooling around New Zealand next year for some field work and then perhaps explore parts of South America next year after I graduate.

      Mentally and emotionally, I don't think that I would have been able to try anything like that right out of high school.

      • I ended up loving geology. I eventually changed that to my major and by the time I transferred to a four year institution,

        Let me know how that job thing works out for you when you graduate...
        • Actually, there are a lot of jobs for geologists.

          Most of them have to do with finding oil and natural gas. I have a friend who is doing his geology postgrad work, and already has a couple offers.

          (btw, I graduated with a CS degree in '01 less than 5 months after the .com bubble burst - come talk to me about being able to get a job...)
        • Let me know how that job thing works out for you when you graduate...

          Troll all you want, but I'm sure it will be fine, considering geology encompasses a wide range of disciplines from seismology, and hazards analysis to hydrology (which is absolutely booming right now), in addition to countless other fields.

          Considering that there are something like 10 times as many job opportunities available to college graduates in geology as there are in biology, I'm not too worried.
        • I graduated in May 2004 with a degree in Urban Planning. I had a full-time job with all the tasty benefits by August 1st, 2004 running large unix systems.

          Happy?
    • going to school is like rolling in butter and sitting on top of the slippery slope of sloth. I highly recommend any type of program where you can work while you learn. You'll be one up on everybody since you'll have experience.
    • Taking a year off to travel etc sounds nice now but it's the beginning of a very slippery slope known as sloth. Too much laziness will propel you into a life that's mediocre: it'll be okay but not great.

      On the other hand, if you do things on your year off, it can make you a more interesting person when you get to university, since you'll have experiences to talk about other than 'I went to high school' 'really? me too!'.

      Being interesting will make it easier for you to make friends, making your university

  • Take the year (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Usquebaugh ( 230216 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @03:40PM (#12048377)
    I didn't go to college but ended up with a degree anyway. I was advised to attend college by just about everybody, but I started work and took my degree postal with an accredited University.

    If you can get accepted to a university do so and then delay entry for a year, most colleges will allow this.

    During the year off either travel or work like a dog. Either way you'll be in a better psotion to judge next year if you want to go.
    • I took a year off after high school. I worked full time for 6 months and then got unemployed and drank a lot of beer and smoked a lot of pot and had sex with my girlfriend and it was great. But eventually it got boring and I realised that my career prospects were pretty limited so I got off my ass and went to college and got my bachelors degree in computer engineering with honors. I'd say take a year off, live while you're young. The older you are the easier college becomes because you are more mature and

  • Time off? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by emmetropia ( 527623 ) <krewenki AT gmail DOT com> on Friday March 25, 2005 @03:45PM (#12048417)
    I took a year off to work/travel six years ago, and here I am, working like a dog, and still haven't returned to school. Go, and at least finish a bachelor's degree, or a diploma in something.

  • do it after uni (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Take a year off after you finish uni. You will be more cultured and appreciate the places you travel much much more!
  • If you want to go work, go work. Experiance is the best teacher. Too many times have I been on job sites with superb craftsmen complaining about engineers who have never been on the job site. "engineers think they know it all from behind the desk" Book smarts is over and under rated. What everyone needs is hands on and the vision of theory.

  • Stay in school! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Brown3y3 ( 810449 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @03:48PM (#12048455)

    The idea of traveling is great and all, but seriously, there's a lot of opportunity in going straight to University, and exploring your options there. There's always the option of studying abroad, which I HIGHLY reccomend if you have the bug to go see Europe or Asia or whatever. Not only will you get to see what you want to see, you'll be that much closer to the ultimate goal, graduation!

    Travel aside, University is an experience that I am grateful every day for having done, and would repeat again in an instant. I often have dreams about quitting my job and going back to school, and I like my job! Do yourself a favor and go, don't think twice, try everything that comes your way no matter what, and in the end you may even have a few good memories to reflect on along with an education.

    • there's a lot of opportunity in going straight to University, and exploring your options there.

      I don't know for sure, but I would guess that it's easier to get into college and then take a year off than it is to take a year off first. I wasn't sure that I wanted to go to college straight out of highschool, but I did anyway. After my 2nd year, I was clearly unhappy, so I took a year off (I was a City Year [cityyear.org] corps member if you're interested).

      Taking a year off was a great idea for me; it made things much

      • I don't know for sure, but I would guess that it's easier to get into college and then take a year off than it is to take a year off first.
        In the UK at least this was quite common (normally in the third year), especially if you were studying an applied subject like business, engineering or foriegn languages. Normally you'd be expected to do work experience related to your degree subject.
  • I skipped a grade in elementary school, and I thought about taking a year between high school and college. I ended up going straight through, and I had a great time. I had a bunch of friends, though, who did take a gap year. They loved that, too.

    Most colleges and universities are happy to let you defer your admission for a year (after you're already accepted, of course), as long as you have something interesting planned. Don't take a year off if you think that you're going to end up sitting around your
  • Definitetly travel. You'll gain perspective on your future. If you rush into a program you're not sure of you'll find yourself dfrained but half-way through and feel the need to finsh anyay. Travel and you'll mature and then you'll learn so much more. But do not take the year off and work. That is a terrible idea. It will numb your brain and you'll become dependent on that extra cash: do something that broadens your horizons not narrows them. Oh, and live in rez first year even if you live in town to begin

  • Use the time wisely (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Deanasc ( 201050 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @03:49PM (#12048466) Homepage Journal
    If you don't go right away do something like CityYear or another kind of job with a built in ending. Otherwise you run the risk of staying too long and never going to school. My "just for a year so I can decide what to do" job lasted 7 years. I would have stayed too but there was no room for further advancement without a college degree. Also, expect your social life to take a huge hit if you don't follow your age group to college.

  • GO! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by UP_Minstrel ( 70371 )
    Don't take a year off unless you're going to be working an incredibly shit job for absolutely no pay. Then you'll be glad to get out of it and into school, and you'll have a realistic idea what grad-school is like.
    • Work at Labor Ready or any work today paid today temp agency for afew weeks during the summer. You will want your education after that experience.
  • I took a 2 year course to be on the market in time for the dot-com period (I saw it coming) instead of going to university. I had the chance to travel through Europe (worked in Paris and Lyon and travelled all over Europe on my free time). I even travelled to Egypt. Mind you I was getting over paid at the time for my skill set and today it would be a different matter. Since the dot-crash I wouldn't do it because the money I would make wouldn't make it worthwhile and I couldn't travel as far and wide.

    B

  • Be general (Score:2, Interesting)

    by NewWazoo ( 2508 )
    I got burned out at college very quickly because I knew exactly what I wanted to specialize in, but saw three years of B.S. keeping me from getting there. Instead of focusing on classwork, I focused on my employment and building my skills outside of school. I've now got a 7-year-deep resume in a variety of very marketable fields, but no degree. I think that had I not known what I wanted to do I would have been more receptive to the "fluff" classes (which are valuable in their own right!), and might still be
    • One more thing: Don't rush. You've got the rest of your life to run the rat race, and believe me, it's not nearly as much fun as college can be.

      B
  • If you take a year off there is a good chance you will then enjoy life so much (especially if you get a job with good money) and decide university is not necessary. Later in life you will regret your decision.

    My advice would be to just get it over with education. Time off means having to get back up to speed.
  • School is fun. That's why there are so many movies about it. It's really not that hard the first year, but if you take off, you will be less likely to go and will likely have a harder time if you do. Most people forget stuff if they do not use it and the "basics" in college are not much harder than high school. If you think that you need time off, just sign up for a couple of basic classes and a couple of others that will let you just try stuff out and "find some direction".
    Weigh these facts though:

    1.
  • ...taking a year off could give me time to find more direction and focus.

    You're not really going to take a year to "focus". That's a convenient excuse for just not doing it. If you don't want to go to school, then don't do it. If you're not sure, there's no harm in taking some classes while you're deciding (assuming financing is not the issue).

  • what worked (and didn't!) for me (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TTK Ciar ( 698795 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @03:54PM (#12048514) Homepage Journal

    You may not realize it, but the time you've spent in highschool has developed habits of self-discipline which are all too easily lost, and hard to regain. I would recommend against taking a year out from school for this reason.

    To ease the transition, I would heartily recommend doing what I did, which is to take a year or two of classes at a Junior College (two in the California Bay Area are DeAnza (where I went after highschool) and Homestead). The atmosphere was a pleasant middle-ground between highschool and a "real" college, and they offered many "prep" courses specifically for students making the transition. It is also a good way to get some of your pre-req classes out of the way (the really basic, low-level classes) for a fraction of the cost (tuition at a Jr. College can be a tenth that of a Univerisity). I also lucked out in that some of the courses at DeAnza (higher levels of calculus, et al) were taught as three classes, whereas UCSC crammed them into one or two quarters. I feel that I retained more from these spread-out classes than I did from the crammed courses at UCSC. About 80% of the units I took at DeAnza wound up transferring to UCSC. Also, there were some courses offered at DeAnza (like Asian History) which were not offered by UCSC, so I got exposed to a greater variety of subjects this way.

    One of my mistakes was to take too many pre-req's at DeAnza, which left me with nothing but hard courses to take at UCSC. This made my quarters more difficult than they should have been (taking four hard-core CS courses per quarter wore me down).

    Some people say that the quality of education at a Jr. College is inferior to that from a University, but I disagree. Both will have some good instructors, and some not-so-good instructors, and the low-level classes are something you can learn pretty well from anywhere -- Calculus, for instance, hasn't really changed much since the 19th century :-) and the books will probably be the same no matter which school you attend. I know that my career has not suffered in any way for having attended two years of Jr. College before going to UCSC.

    Good luck figuring out your major!

    -- TTK

  • Wear sunscreen.

    If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

    Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you ca

    • Nice (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Safety Cap ( 253500 )
      Too bad those who need to follow this the most will never get it until it is too late.

      The only other things I'd add are:

      • Never stop learning. Ever. Once you're finished with your formal education, take a class on a subject you know nothing/little about at least once every year.
      • Get a library card and go read a new book at least once a month.
      • Always change your socks and underwear.
      • Never put off doing something minor that will save time/money later, no matter how much it sucks now. Trust me, it is always a
  • Most people don't know what they want to study when they go to college. That's what you first year or two is for - take classes in several different departments that interest you, talk to professors, maybe get a job with one to see if you like what they do. Taking a year off may or may not give you any exposure to anything that would help you make that decision.

    The travel, I can't speak to, except for this - my best friend is currently in the Peace Corps. She says that for the most part, the PC volunteers

  • Look for travel abroad programs and such, or take a leave of absence after a year.

    College was a rewarding experience... more rewarding than travel in alot of ways.
  • Seriously, don't. While it may appear to make sense, it will do you more harm than good. Not only will you waste a year - and the definition of waste varies here - but you may find it even more difficult to return. I have many friends who did the same and they regret it. Don't be like them, be smarter.

    Besides, it's not as big a deal as you appear to believe. As long as you have discipline and the desire to learn, you won't have any problems. The first year or so is easy enough as it is!

    P.S. If you *real

  • Back in my day, before MS DOS. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by dan.hunt ( 613949 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @04:05PM (#12048612) Journal

    Take the first year off. Get your own place to live. Nothing will motivate you into your studies better than a crummy job for a horrible boss.

    You will learn several life lessons required to succeed in your choosen occupation, and in school life. My year off working in a store as a department manager gave me a extreme advantage to those who came to the business classes with only high school and mom's cooking under there belt. YMMV, this happened in 1980.
    • I'm not usually a grammar nazi, but this happens to be a discussion about the merits of college education, so you should be held up to the standard of knowing the difference between there and their.

      So, what college did you say you attended, Dan? :)

  • Getting a firm idea (Score:3, Informative)

    by Jerf ( 17166 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @04:10PM (#12048658) Journal
    I have no particular regrets about my University experience. I'm the guy who picked his major right off, and stuck with it through a Masters because I knew what I wanted, going in.

    I say "the guy" because so far, I have yet to meet anyone else in real life who took this path. (I'm sure there are many on Slashdot, but that's a much larger pool, so obviously there will be some. My point is the relative size.)

    My wife regrets not learning there was a vet tech program in college, instead getting a Zoology degree. And again, note the phrase "not learning"; she never explored enough to find out, and certainly nobody told her.

    If you don't know what you want to do, don't declare a major in the first year. Ignore the U requirements for a bit, and just start taking every 101 class you think sounds interesting. Personally, along with my Canonical Computer Nerd path, I also could have majored in music (abysmal earnings potential, I don't think I have "it"), psychology (fascinating), hell, even sociology (useless discipline for supporting me, though). And that's not even a complete list.

    It's especially helpful to do this if you're intellectually diverse, because I don't believe in the "one true job" idea. If you find many interesting things, you can pick the one most likely to support you.

    That said, while a year off can focus you (or the complete opposite, only you know), and you might find that thing you want to do, it's a relatively limited selection compared to what a University would offer. How are you going to find out if you like Psychology? Or math? (What you've studied up until now isn't math, it's just number twiddling and formula memorization, unless you've done a ton of proofs.) Or chemical engineering? I'm not aware of a way to discover that out of University. (Sure, you might pick up a chance at one of them, but you're not going to get a chance to choose from the entire selection.)

    I have no answers, just more questions, but that's a good start, too.

  • Everybody has different experiences, and most people (hopefully) will base this off their own experience.

    What I recommend is to go to the University directly after school. Don't worry about not know what you want to major in, it will come to you in time, and during that time, you can be taking your general education classes (which will give you more of an idea of what you can possibly major in).

    There are a bunch of other factors that I'm sure can/will come into play for you. But also consider (maybe it


  • University will be a good life experience for dealing with people.

    Whatever field you decide to follow, find the oldest, brightest workplace mentor (not the photocopy guy that's been there for 39 years) and learn from him/her. You will gain from the experience from someone who grew up in an environment where having a degree was not a necessary requirement.

  • Go to university (Score:3, Insightful)

    by pclminion ( 145572 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @04:16PM (#12048707)
    You won't find your direction and focus anywhere else. You'll spend you first year feeling dazed and confused ANYWAY. How are you going to "find your focus" if you're not going to school? School is where the learning happens, so how will you know what you like and don't like unless you just go, and try things out?

    The university environment will provide much better guidance than you could ever provide for yourself. If you take a year off, you'll probably end up just hanging out, and come a year later you'll still have no clue what you want to do. At that point, you'll go to university and figure it out. So why waste the year? Go NOW.

    On the other hand, if you're on some kind of soul-seeking quest, that can only be done on your own. But it sounds like you're trying to figure out what you want to study. The best place to figure that out is at the university.

  • Work for a year (Score:2, Interesting)

    by harryman100 ( 631145 )
    I started university this year, I took a year our between 6th form (rough UK equiv of High School) and I really enjoyed it, I spent the year working for a large multinational company in the eBusiness section, although much of the work wasn't technically very difficult at all, the experience of simply being in the workplace was fairly enlightening.

    However, if you're thinking of taking this route (a year working) make sure you leave plenty of time to travel if you want to, make sure that the work is somethin
  • I have some important decisions to make ... I'm not even totally sure ... decisions, decisions...

    "Ever notice that 'what the hell!' is always the right decision?"
    - Marilyn Monroe (1926 - 1962)

    (I think Marilyn would take the year off.)
  • Study [buffalo.edu]! High school was a breeze compared to what you're about to get put through.

    And when you're not studying, please remember that the purpose of college is to exchange ideas... don't sit in your dorm all day playing video games, get out there and meet people!

    Get to know your professors, if you can't find a summer internship, maybe you can do research for one of them.
  • If you decide to head to uni, I'd advise you to take courses which will help you with your later studies. Load up on the English & writing courses; most high schools don't seem to produce people who can write in correct English anymore. If you're thinking of a certain field of study, perhaps take some basic courses in other fields. It's good to be able to relate to others. Take some foreign language courses. Take some history courses. Take some business courses and public speaking. It all relates.
  • I did. I travelled to Europe, worked, and got a start on figuring out what I wanted to do at school.

    Two years into university, I switched majors from education to sociology. Then I went to graduate school for a Masters in library science. Then I went to law school.

    Today, I'm running my own software company. Superficially, you might think that all that education has been wasted. After all, I learned how to program when I was 12. All my experiences -- the abortive education program, the sociology degree, th
  • Go straight into the University after school.

    If you decide it's not for you, then take off and do some traveling.

    Making the decision to not do it now might just lead to you never going back, despite your intentions, and you might end up regreting it.

    Life has a funny way of getting in the way of what you intended to do.
  • If you do decide not to go to school next year, I strongly recommend that you not position it as "taking a year off." Essentially, that suggests that you're putting your life on hold for a year. Nobody needs a year-long vacation. Instead, do something productive with that time. Set some sort of goal and meet it. Else, you end up risking the no-end-in-sight-job that many people here are warning you against.

    Maybe consider it this way: What can you do for the next year that will help you if/when you do d
  • Why not try what I always wished I had done? If you're planning to go to a high-powered engineering school or something similar, start off by taking a year of humanities and pure science courses at the nearest cheap state school or community college. You can adjust the class schedule so you can work at the same time, you'll get a good amount of experience in learning how to do your homework when no one else really cares if you do it, and hey...if you screw up, it doesn't matter! You could also snag some tra

  • Time Off (Score:3, Interesting)

    by aaarrrgggh ( 9205 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @05:18PM (#12049300)
    My recommendation is to not to do it between high school and university.

    Premise is that you are American, and are "average" when it comes to social adaptation.

    University is a great place to continue your maturity, learn to live away from home and parents, make good decisions and bad, and learn something academically as well. When you finish school, find a job and work for a while.

    After a few years of working (paying off student loans, saving up a little cash, deciding what you like and don't), then you are allowed to take off as much as a couple years. Don't set a timeline. Go to some place that interests you (and where you can live cheap and work a little), move around a bit, and challenge yourself. When you run out of money, figure out what to do next...

    This is what I did. I know that going back to school after spending a couple years on a tropical island wouldn't work for me. (Honestly, learning to write again was hard...) Also, I personally needed the extra time to "grow" as a person that college allowed me. I have noticed that the vast majority of Americans have this same need. Most Europeans tend to be considerably more mature at 18 than their US counterparts.

    I spent most of two years scuba diving on an island in Thailand, with trips off to Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Malaysia, Singapore, and Ireland. When I was done, I was ready to go back to engineering. After a few more years of engineering, I'm ready to head back again for a while. It was fun, and I am happy I did it. I am also happy that I waited until I was over 25 to do it, where I had some financial backup and a better sense of how things really work. It was also easier for me to find "good" work being a little older.

  • Here's a better idea: go to university and do a study abroad program for a semester or a year. If you take a major that isn't too demanding, you can fit in a free semester very easily, and maybe even a free year if you don't take too many electives. Otherwise, you can just tack on a semester at the end.

    Meanwhile, get a job on campus. Not fast-food or service work, either. There are lots of jobs in departmental offices and research labs. Assuming you're interested in programming or system administrati

  • Some of us are better at being auto-didacts, and teach ourselves relentlessly no matter what. In that case, taking time to de-school yourself and explore the hands-on world of finding biosurvival tickets like money and being evaluated on the actual use-value of your products will provide necessary perspective. That perspective will allow the inquiring mind to plan a course of university study that doesn't waste endless hours and dollars.

    On the other hand, some of us need peer involvement and impassioned di

  • basic (Score:2, Insightful)

    by BoomTechnology ( 832547 )
    Being a mere sophomore, I remember my transition quite well. In my opinion -- it's not a big deal. More than anything make sure you're happy. If you're not, you can always transfer but keep that to a last resort. Going into college you don't have to know what you want to do but a general idea helps -- take as many diverse classes as possible. Learn as much as possible. I will say this, coming in with AP Credit can help a bunch in the self-discovery process so you can bypass the basics and get to the good s

  • Later on, explore the job market- (Score:3, Interesting)

    by tweedlebait ( 560901 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @05:47PM (#12049623)
    I've seen *many* smart and logical people get sucked into the work vortex never to fully return to school- usually with regrets. Myself included.

    Many of them also took time off later in college with only a year or less to go. Same reasons- burnout, 'gain more focus', explore, etc.

    Most people don't know what they really want to do and change their majors several times. It's really common and once you're in you'll connect with people studying some very interesting things that you probably haven't been exposed to yet.

    Keep in mind the university isn't the real world. When you lean toward a field of study that leads directly to a career -investigate that career before going too far into the major! Don't trust the university to show you the real world version.
    For instance, architecture/arch engineering. In the university it draws many to the program and encourages / demands artistic expression. you get to sculpt and engineer! great! Walk out with a diploma with the zeal to build futuristic cities. Join the best architectue firm you can. be a CAD slave for 20-45 years drafting someone elses crappy designs from their napkins and then maybe when you're grey you can take over and do your own design, but then realize 90% of the 'design' is mosly just a million warehouses with a cheap facade stapled on to it.
    This happened to 3 of my friends who didn't check out the actual career first. The 4th one did an internship and talked with every architect he could early on. He kept studying architecture because he liked it, but changed majors. He also wasn't too thrilled with the 'culture' of architects. The other 3 are kinda bitter about the whole thing.

    Go to school, travel next summer. It's really not that long from now. Get a part time job if you need to, in fact definatley get a part time job if you can swing it. It can help keep you grounded from some of the academia glaze.

    best of luck!
  • Having spent something like 18 years in university (I swear to God!) this is something I think I know something about. I dopn't think there's a lot to be gained by pushing into University right out of high school unless you're very much certain you want to do University. Assuming that you've got the freedom to make the choice --- read "are your parents going to completely lose their minds?" --- you've got several options.

    Travel, as you've already suggested. You'd be amazed at what you'd learn from goin
  • I fully support the notion of not immediately going to college after high school. Few people are able to do so and prosper into truly happy human beings. Most will resign themselves to a stressful and boring life well below their potential.

    This period in your life is best time to learn about *yourself* -- and that's not a subject you can study in college.

    However...

    I promise you that no matter how much thinking you plan to do in your year (or more) off, you will not somehow magically gain "direction and
  • Just remember: 90% of what you learn at university isn't learned in the classroom.

    Don't worry about what you're taking so much. Just go. You won't regret it.
  • I would recommend going to school. As others have mentioned, you need to keep the momentum up. I personally found college a lot more relaxing than grade school.

    If you're not sure what you want to take, just take the courses you have to take for any degree. You know, the electives, liberal arts, and "social" stuff that you have to take no matter what.

    The truth is, it doesn't really matter what your degree is in. Most job places just want to know what your experience is and if you're any good. Your deg
  • Build up your speed and tolerance for all the beer boat races you'll be participating in... I know I wish I did!
  • Taking a year off is well worth it, but only if you do some non-permanent thing with it. If all you are going to do is start working, it's probably a mistake. Especially if you'll still be sponging off Mom and Dad. But if you want to do something to expand your horizons:

    1) Travel - if you've got a little bit of money and some git up an go, then - git up and go. You can also do this out of college, but the key is to wing it as you travel around. It doesn't take a lot of money, if you are creative. My wi
  • When I started school, I didn't know what I wanted to take either. At Ohio State, they had a program for people just like me. I wound up majoring in Anthropology and Religious Studies.

    I also did a lot of travelling. For my Spanish language credit, I spent 10 weeks in Quito, Ecuador in a Spanish immersion program through OSU. The next summer I spent 10 weeks in the Ecuadorian rain forest with a Quichua family through Arizona State.

    In the meantime I visited friends in other cities and traveled around Belgiu

  • I went straight to college from high school as a physics major and did pretty poorly. I ended up dropping out for two years and during that time I worked full-time and even traveled a bit and made friends and had a life. Basically, grew up.

    After I got all from that experience I could get out of it, and was tired of the same old same old and not living up to my potential, I was ready to quit my job and go back to college. I switched my major to computer science and have been having a good time since then

  • What do you plan doing in your year out? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Grab ( 126025 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @07:15PM (#12050500) Homepage
    If you don't know what you want to do in your year out, go to uni. If you want a year out sometime during uni then fine - most places are cool with that. But if you take a year out and spend the whole time sponging off your folks and watching the TV, you will find it *much* harder getting a job later.

    One big thing *not* to do in your year out is to do a year out with a sponsor company. In the UK, there are sponsorships going with engineering companies (to attract students to work at those companies afterwards). The deal is usually that you work two years with them, of which one will usually be before or during uni. I got sponsorship and decided to do a year out beforehand.

    Big mistake. HUGE! Why? Well, your typical engineering company needs graduate-level people as a minimum standard. If you've just come out of high school, you can't help them. Result: you spend a year working on the production line. Now some time on the shop floor is a good thing, but most intelligent people do *not* want to do this. Eventually you settle into a rut, because the job needs no intelligence so you "switch off". And boy, is it hard to switch back on again when you start uni! To be honest, I didn't really start getting back into it properly until the fourth year of my course.

    If you've got a real definite goal in mind, then great. "Me and my band are going to try and make a living off it." "I want to go to Africa and work with Oxfam." Or even "I want to travel round the world, just because it seems a cool thing to do." Excellent. This is the time to go and do it, while you've got no other committments. Get out there and go for it! But if you're not driven that way, you're wasting your time. A year flipping burgers is *not* a good use of your time and brains.

    Another thing to consider is that you will have forgotten at least half (and probably more) of everything you learnt in the previous year at high school. That's all the stuff you need as the base for your first year at uni. So you'll be starting at a disadvantage, and if you're unlucky then you may never completely catch up.

    Grab.
  • I am a high school history teacher, so I have some insight that others might not have. College is great, but...a few things to consider. One, taking a year or two off, to travel or work, is great. The experiences are invaluable. Don't piss away your youth, because you'll never get these years back, when your young, unencumbered, and healthy. Hell, I'm 36, got a wife, 3 kids, an MA in Education, 10 years teaching, and you know what, other than working for a few years prior to teaching, I did nothing. B
    • I think trying to get every kid to go off to a liberal arts college is a big mistake. I cringe when politicians use metrics like "percentage of kids who go directly from high school to college and graduate in 4 years" to measure the quality of the US public school system. For many kids, this is the wrong thing to do and by insisting that this is the only correct path to take, we are turning our youth into slaves to their student loans.

      Kids need to learn about all the other options out there including taki

  • Im assuming you're from a middle class family. Get a job at walmart, you will meet the most miserable people you can imagine...

    Then realize that taking a year off of college raises your chances of being one of these people enormously. Seriously, poor people in this country have it *very* bad, go meet them then make your college decision.

  • My personal mistake was thinking I knew what I wanted out of life. It took me some time to realize that the direction I had chosen wasn't the right one. Currently I'm studying AI in university and loving every bit of it, however I did make some mistakes along the way.

    The best advice I could give anyone who is fresh out of high school is to take half a year off to travel around the globe and see the world. Once you've gotten that 9-5 job you can kiss your freedom goodbye, so enjoy it while you still can. B

  • If you have or can get the money through loans/grants/scholarships, go now. State schools are always cheaper than private, but the differences in the education are a topic for another question. If you're particularly good at something, say drawing or coding, look for a summer job or internship or something along those lines. Even if you wait until spring to matriculate, do it now while you can still get money from the previously mentioned sources.
  • Asking a bunch of strangers on an IT-centric website like Slashdot gets you nothing if you really just want to learn to cook [cambridgeculinary.com], for instance. But here's my advice:

    1.Get a job for 6-12 months doing something you like. This step can be avoided if you have a trust fund or money already saved up. Unless this happens to be your dream job, PLAN TO QUIT in 6-12 MONTHS!

    2. Take the money and go outside your comfort zone. Travel outside the US for a few months, preferably in a country that doesn't have English as
  • I'd advise you to just go to college and get it over with. You'll get your piece of paper quickly and will be able to get on with your life. That way, you're 22 and can travel all you want without any worries or stress.

    If you go away for a couple of years you just wont be into it any more, especially having to put up with people who have just left high school and don't know anything of the world.

    But whatever you may read here on slashdot, DO get that piece of paper, however worthless it may be, or you wil
  • Not for any reason like "keeping up with studies" or anything like that-- if it's important to you, you'll go to school even if you take some time off now.

    See, the trick is you're just getting out of high school. And as such, you have absolutely _no idea_ who you are.

    (Yes, I know, you're eighteen and omniscient and I am full of shit.)

    (And no, I don't know who you are, either.)

    High School is a very sterile place. You get exposed to a very limited set of views and ideas from which you attempt to assimilat
  • If you know what you're going to do, and you are fairly certain about it -- as in you found someone in the Real World(tm) who does what you want to do, and you've taken a plant trip to see the environment, etc., etc. -- then go for the gusto to a university where you can, among other things, get more exposure to your intended major, even though you won't take serious major courses until your sophomore year.

    Otherwise, if you don't know exactly what you want to do, perhaps go to the community college to get

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