[TheKantian]

You'll never know until you take the courses.

I know a lot of people didn't like mathematics once it switched away from being computation based like the calc series usually is and more towards proof based mathematics.

[beta_plus]

#1 thing you must do right now - Read Worthless by Aaron Clarey (aka Captain Capitalims)

In engineering - don't do Aeronautical (no jobs left - have a good friend w/a masters from MIT who ended up programming websites). Chemical & Petrol look great until you realize that they are very correlated to commodity prices (going down right now), much of the extra pay is danger pay (have fun with exploding pipes & corrosive organic compounds!), and require you to move wherever the work is (not many EE hotties in the Bakken/Fort McMurray/Saudi oil fields). Electrical never seems to pan out. Study Mech Eng, because in an economy slightly less shitty than this one everyone will always happily hire a Mechie.

If you can't hack engineering, study Physics and move to Chicago to trade futures or Houston to trade energy.

If you can't hack Physics, study actuarial math.

If you can't hack actuarial math, study a degree that combines economics, finance, and accounting plus lots of math, stats, and computer science.

If you can't hack that, don't go to uni and study a trade.

[Deluge]

(11-03-2014 09:15 AM)Krusyos Wrote:  

Thanks for all of your advice, guys. A big concern seems to be that I should only go into something if I love it. I really do love computers. Combining my manly calling of creation with computers obviously yields software engineering or computer science. Thankfully, the school I am almost definitely going to (FSU) offers both a BA and BS in Computer Science. I did some researching around online, and people say that the difference between the two in the eyes of employers is marginal. The BA will be great because I can spend more time focused on perfecting my programming ability while having a pretty easy time with the humanities associated with the degree. The math requirements are mercifully light, allowing me some free time to let loose a bit, not to mention, I'll hopefully be able to CLEP out of some of my Freshman classes if I get good grades this year. My boss who has some experience programming has also agreed to teach some some stuff. I'll probably get a minor in entrepreneurship or business.

Here's another question I have: I may have the opportunity to go to an Ivy League School (UPenn), but it may cost me a lot more money than FSU. I'm not sure, because Ivies often give a shitload of financial aid thanks to their large amount of funding. My dad just got a new job, so we're unfortunately not going to be dirt poor when applying for Financial Aid. Do you think the Ivy League will be worth more debt for the connections and huge advantage in the job market?

If you're in a middle class family Ivy League tuition and board would be about the same as a state school, if not cheaper.

https://college.harvard.edu/financial-ai...calculator
https://npc.collegeboard.org/student/app...start/edit

If your family was dirt poor till this new job I'm guessing they're still not high income by Ivy standards, even if UPenn's more expensive it's still most likely worth it. If you get good grades and relevant internships then you're set.

[igottapoop]

(11-01-2014 03:29 PM)Krusyos Wrote:  

Well, if you are familiar at all with my frequent posts concerning advice for my future, you'll know that I wanted to study business/entrepreneurship. The Manosphere has made me reluctantly change my mind. It's simply not worth the money to study something that is non-STEM. My problem? I've always been a liberal arts "genius," and rather average when it came to Science and Mathematics.

I still have plenty of time to decide my major, seeing as I'm still a senior in High School, but I need your advice on what I should study. I'm leaning towards a computer science or similar computer related degree, because I love computers and have even dabbled a bit in some very basic programming (C++ and Java). I found a great deal of satisfaction even from creating simple little "Hello, World!" messages and small "Click on the Moving Clown" games. I don't know any languages, though, and that might work against me in college.

There's no way I could survive an engineering degree because of the sheer amount of math involved... I kinda cheated my way through trigonometry and don't know jack shit about sin and cosine other than the calculator functions (even though I'm barely surviving Calc 1 this year). Another thing that I've always been interested in is computer hardware, and circuitry in general. Again, however, the mathematics will kill me if I attempt Electrical Engineering.

Physics for me is kind of interesting-- I understood things quite well during my course and found it enjoyable to an extent, but I don't know if I'd want to just do that the rest of my life (unless I was unlocking the mysteries of the universe with Stephen Hawking or something). I assume most physics careers are of the f=ma rather than e=mc^2 type, if you know what I mean.

Chemistry is not my favorite. I'm studying organic chemistry this year, and I'm not too thrilled.

As for Health Care, forget it. No way I'm spending 8 years busting my ass in books and getting myself half a million dollars in debt. Granted it could be interesting, but I also want to get my life started sometime before I turn 30. It's not a very mobile profession either, I'd imagine, seeing as you'd be tied down to your practice or a hospital.

Anyway, I'd appreciate your advice greatly.

I do some part time college admissions consulting so I'll give you the gist of what I tell people...

Learn to code. You have 4 years to learn. Put some time in and you should be competent by graduation.

You need to weigh how much you value a traditional 4 year college experience. Personally, if I was a high school senior and I didn't get into an elite school I'd go to my state university for 2 years then transfer to the best school I could get into. If you do 4 years at a mediocre private school that costs $65k then I think you've made a big mistake.

Economics is a great semi-quantitative major that will open a lot of doors. Economics+programming skills will get you a job making $70k minimum if you go to a decent school.

That ".edu" is hugely valuable. Use it to network like crazy.

INTERN early and often.

[Krusyos]

I'm definitely focusing in on computer stuff, mostly deciding between Computer Science and Management Information Systems now. I just got accepted to a private school along with a big scholarship... it might be my cheapest option and it's located right next to a few RVF members.

[iknowexactly]

(11-03-2014 09:15 AM)Krusyos Wrote:  

Do you think the Ivy League will be worth more debt for the connections and huge advantage in the job market?

Two things to consider:
1. the network the wealthier other students will offer-- find out what it translates into--go to the schools and talk to the students at both places and ask them who's getting hired at what salaries.
2. both schools should have post graduation employment stats you should find out.

[iknowexactly]

(11-05-2014 11:12 PM)beta_plus Wrote:  

#1 thing you must do right now - Read Worthless by Aaron Clarey (aka Captain Capitalims)

In engineering - don't do ......

Might be useful to read actual statistics on salaries too. The unglamorous fact is college graduates make much more over their lifetimes that non-grads.

There's a I've seen a significant sour-grapes factor among those who didn't graduate college, although I guess it's true you could start welding at 18 and be making 80K but 21.

But what does your life consist of? Looking at pieces of metal and melting them together? How interesting is it to do that for 15 years?

Here's Forbes on college degree lifetime premium worth, about 830K.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/troyonink/20...l-diploma/

Here are bureau of labor statistics science salaries. :
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-...g/home.htm

Reasoning from exceptions, and discounting statistics without knowing what's behind them shows poor math and analytical skills lollzllzl.

For one, I learned computer programming simply to get out of the kitchens of the world, and it worked, but eventually I hated the office environment of the times ( pre-broadband) , and co-workers (no offense to anyone here) who were necessarily quite cold and boring. Some would pass by me in the hall for years and refuse to answer a simple "hi" greeting--too in their own world.

One thing no one mentioned that should be pretty lucrative is network security. I imagine people HAVE to pay for this, whether they want to or not-- no one wants to be CIO when 30 million credit card numbers get stolen.

I went in to health care but you have to be sympathetic. I'd way rather be helping someone out than helping Chevron make their next trillion.

[Goodtimez]

If upenn or other school with prestige consider a quant-ish business major like finance.

Easier than engineering, but lots of good opportunities if scho has some prestige