I’ve gotten the impression that the Cat also likes to argue (at least with her Mom) - has she thought about law? A good understanding of logical reasoning is absolutely essential, and it sounds like she has it. (One-third of the LSAT is made up of those “What color are John’s socks” questions). Does she like to write?
A downside will be not doing the crafts thing, but she may find that that’s better for recreation, anyway. A lawyer is likely to be able to afford to buy an old house to tinker with, for example.
Incidentally, I’m a materials engineer, and it’s a lot of fun. And you definitely do the finicky hands-on things in a lot of areas. But if she’s bound and determined not to take calculus, it won’t work.
As a high-school senior in the same general vicinity, going through the exact same thing, I have to say that it isn’t easy.
I’ve got many, many things which I enjoy doing, or at least think I would enjoy doing. For example, here’s a list of things which I could possibly major in and be happy:[ul]
[li]elementary education[/li][li]secondary education[/li][li]music education[/li][li]CAD/CAM[/li][li]journalism[/li][li]journalism education[/li][li]business administration[/li][li]technology education[/ul][/li]
Yeah. So, I don’t really know. Right now the probable ones are the ones dealing with education, but still, that’s a lot to pick from.
I’m considering a few places, but I haven’t visited nearly enough. There’s Illinois State, Wesleyan, University of Illinois, University of Chicago, Lincoln Christian College, and those are just the ones I’m decently familiar with, that are in state, and relatively nearby.
And all that helps you absolutely not at all. I guess I would say to figure out what she could be happy doing. Then visit. Visit many places. Go someplace that isn’t so specialized she can’t change her major. And remember (at least this is what my guidance counselor told me), that you’ve got until Christmas break to turn in all your application stuff, so there’s still a little time.
Let me tell y’all about my pal Brent. Brent always knew he wanted to be a journalist. On his own, he wheedled his way into press passes for the 1992 Democratic National Convention, making him the youngest journalist present (17 years old). He applied to Northwestern Journalism school, but was rejected. Undaunted, Brent went to U Wisconsin/Madison and worked on the newspaper there. But the Big 10 environment was not for him so he transferred to Wesleyan (Connecticut) and was the editor of their paper. On the side he worked for the Hartford Courant.
Later, Brent graduated and moved to Raleigh-Durham. Fulfilling all of his hard work and dreams, he got a job covering the education beat at a Raligh newspaper.
After 2 years, he was sick of it.
He got a job writing newsletters for a trade organization.
But it wasn’t very fulfilling.
Want to know what Brent Who Always Wanted To Be a Journalist – Always! – is doing now?
As a high school Senior I know exactly what I am going for. I think that everyone in my family (cousins too) is majoring in computer science. It seems like a really popular field right now.
I think that web design can be more than a hobby if she is willing to learn a databasing language. Those are easy.
I agree that it’s probably too early to pick a career and carve that choice in stone on a plinth in your front yard, but at the same time, it’s never to early to start thinking about careers, because everything she finds out will lead her to another thing, so at the very least, she will have a better idea about how various careers intersect and interact and create entire industries.
Has she ever thought about art therapy? It’s a very interesting field (IMHO) because it encompasses things from working with children who have suffered emotional traumas, to designing crafts to help patients recover fine motor skills. Since she also has an analytical mind, she might welcome the challenge of planning and charting specific therapies and evaluating results, both for individual cases as well as larger segments of the care population.
If she’s doing anything that involves a database, it’s more web development than design, and web developers are higher up on the techie-ladder than designers.
One piece of advice I always offer to people looking for a field of study is to study what you enjoy, but take a couple courses that’ll help get you a job.
You’ve already got quite a few responses, and I’m going to write this before I read 'em.
First thought out is that, while Cat may have innate talents that may find expression in something like computer graphics or design or even data base programming, if the curriculum puts her off, she should go in tabula rasa. If she even goes in right away at all.
At 18 I’d never heard of geophysics. And I went to school “late;” I was 22 when I started college and at 22 I’d never heard of geophysics - it’s something I found late in the journey. If she’s going to go to school right away then I’d suggest a liberal arts education - get a B.A. with a major in something interesting such as History, English or Psychology and try to pick up as much of the “hard” sciences as possible within that course of study. A light may appear during the years at school and a new course may be plotted.
Outside of a few who knew they were going to be doctors or lawyers, just like Dad, most of my friends went off to school with vague ideas and found themselves there or continued on through with a “general” degree such as a Business B.A. and went off to do whatever. Most of my acquaintance are involved in careers they had little foresight of when they approached college. I think it’s ridiculous to expect an 18 year old to cast their die before they’ve had a taste of adult reality.
Keep your options open, but continue apace, Cat; and (yeah, I realize I’m actually talkin’ to your Mom) good luck!
Way to be insulting to web designers (not to mention auto mechanics). Web design is an artistic discipline. My job is website design and management, but I am an artist. As soon as I saw the OP, I thought of web design (of course that was before I reached your casual dismissal of my chosen career as a “hobby”).
It is extremely shortsighted to choose a career based on the fact that this year some people in the profession are having economic difficulties. Would you tell someone not to become an airline pilot because at the moment the airlines are struggling?
When I went to college there was no such thing as web design. And now I do it for a living. Your daughter should find something she loves to do and become good at it – the jobs will come. If she is a creative person, she should choose something that allows her to express that creativity. I am 1000 times happier now that I have a job that lets me express my artistic side.
Chas -
If someone wants to be an auto mechanic, by all means she should go for it. Unless she judges herself solely on the basis of salary and how other people rate her profession, she’ll be a lot happpier than she would be as an automotive engineer, if that’s not what truly interests her.
BTW, the best comparison I’ve seen for web designer is cinematographer. Are they somehow second-class citizens because they only film the pictures, and don’t write, direct, or produce them?
Sorry if this is a little bit of a rant, but it truly hurts to have my profession described as a hobby.
As for the OP, the best career advice is always to follow your bliss.
What ever happened to Liberal Arts? Going to college in order to learn the skill of critical thinking and to develop a broad range of knowledge. I went to U of Ill. more than two decades ago. Started out in the Business school, finished with a BA in psychology and a BS in biol going to med school. What I felt best about was that I knew the most I ever knew about the widest variety of subjects. The rest of my life has been spent learning more about less.
IF computers are what excites her, then she’ll find a way to get past calc. She’ll never make it anywhere if she’s going to let any one class stand in her way.
Yeah, I second DSeid. I’m a high school senior and although I know what colleges I plan to apply to, I’ve no clue about what I want to do when I “grow up.” I mean I have areas and stuff that I’m interested in/good at, but I have looked through some college course catalouges and all the selections they have- it’s unbelievable. Things like psychology, sociology, studies of different cultures, many languages…And since there are so many things I have not yet tried, but want to be exposed to, I can see why one might need a couple of years (what is it, end of sophomre year?) to declare a major.
Courses at university are so vastly different from high school, that I believe that career decisions should be delayed until after a year of two of university for all but the most focused students.
Order in or download some full calendars from a handful of very large universities.
Have her go through the specific course descriptions for all of the courses, regardless of which year, and write down the courses which take her fancy. Don’t worry about careers while doing this.
Once she has identified courses which interest her, then have her determine the pre-requisites, and trace them all back to what she would have to take in first year. Then consider if she will enjoy these first year courses, and if she will, she should consider signing up for those courses.
Keep in mind that it is far more important that she excel in whatever courses she takes, than that she take any particular course, for she can always take an extra term or two later on to pick up prerequisites, but bad grades in any course or courses will weigh against her when applying to professional or graduate schools.
What knocks most kids out of the running in the intense competition for professional and graduate school admission is not a lack of basic smarts, but rather that they do not have the motivation to put in the hours of work as undergrads. One way to help deal with this is to take courses which are fun and interesting. Yes, there will be a few unavoidable grunt courses, but try to keep them to a minimum.