I’m at school right now. About ten minutes ago, I checked my email. Lo and behold, I had a letter from Virginia Tech informing me that they had reached a decision. I went to my application status page, and it said that they were offering me Early Decision admission. They said that that page is for informal informational purposes only, which means that they mean it, but I can’t do anything yet.
WOOOT!!! I don’t have to do any more college apps! I’m into my first choice college before second quarter is half over! GODDamn this is good news!
(This doesn’t mean that I can slack off now, however. They can rescind their offer of admission if my grades plummet.)
Great news Captain Carrot! Now go study hard, graduate and get a job. I am depending on you younger dopers to support me in the luxurious retirement I am planning for myself.
Do you have half an idea what kind of stuff you want to study? Being from a country where you have to select your major before you get to college, I was very surprised by how many of my own students Over There didn’t know anything except “I want to party an’ then I wanna be rich”
I realize that a place saying “Tech” in the name is probably not famous for its liberal arts programs, but that doesn’t mean they’ve got a bad one
I think it is a little unusual. When I first went to college, I had no idea at all. I decided on a double major program in Management and Computer Info. Systems. I changed my mind to teaching, mostly because I wanted to teach college eventually but would settle for high school. I finally decided on a career path instead of a job, wanting to get my BA in English and MLIS and hopefully (this is when I cross my fingers, because I’m more nervous about the job after I get done) going to be a research assistant at a large college, with the opportunity to become an assistant/part-time proffessor.
Good luck, and if I can give any advice about college, it is this.
[ul]
[li]If you are sure that is what you want to do, stick in it as long as you can. I changed and it set me back a quarter or two, plus I have a ton of classes I can’t use anywhere unless I take a few more and make a minor out of them…[/li][li]Work ten times harder than ever. I was a slacker in high school, and I started college at a school that I did horrible at. 4 months later I had transferred to another school and finally decided to work hard. It has paid off…[/li][li]Enjoy it. I spent a year of college working my ass off at a 50 hour a week job, and I didn’t do anything involving school other than classes. Now I’m involved on campus with several organizations, plus I work at the school now, and I definitely am having a better time than I would if I was still spending every hour of my day at work. You have the rest of your life to work full-time, so enjoy college…[/li][/ul]
Now, if you’ve got a mean streak like I do, when you get the letter, you can wave it in the faces of people who didn’t think you could do it. It’s evil, but it is oh so satisfying…
What’s really unusual is if you still want to do the same thing in 5-10 years. If you do, that’s great, but there’s no shame in changing your mind.
I don’t think it’s that unusual to know what you want to do (although many people don’t). But I agree with people who say that knowing what you want to do now doesn’t mean you won’t change your mind in the next 5 or 10 years.
(I’m thinking of smacking the next person who boggles when I mention what field I got my undergraduate degree in. Then again, considering that I’m applying for jobs right now, maybe I better wait until I have one.)
