Educational Aspirations

[Boba Ben]

I hate to ask this on a board dedicated to toy collecting, but I've consulted everyone in my real life and I'm still confused so I figured it's worth a shot.

I've been wanting to go back to school and finish up my bachelor's degree, but I just don't know what to do. I finished up my associates degree, and most of my classes were humanities related. I focused on English, philosophy, and law courses.

I had originally intended to complete my degree in English education and took about a year's worth of credit toward this pursuit, but I hit a few bumps in the road (the job that was flexible enough to allow me to work part time and go to school full time, laid me off). My current job doesn't allow me enough time to do this. I've been working for about a year at an insurance company and it pays okay but it's not really the career path I want to pursue for the rest of my life. I'm hoping to take a few classes at the community college at night and save enough money to go back full time in the fall of 2011. My collecting may soon have to be put on hiatus for awhile.

Working at this job and not being able to go to school has given me a lot of time to think and change my mind around multiple times. My biggest worry is that I really don't know what I want to do. I started out thinking maybe I'd just get my bachelor's in English really fast and go to law school afterwards instead of teaching English. Then I thought I might want to become a science teacher and redo some of my lower level education to do this. Currently, I'm thinking about possibly redoing a lot of my coursework to complete a degree in environmental engineering. I do fear all of the Calculus and high level science classes, though. I was an all A student thoughout high school and have a 3.8 GPA so far in college, but I worry that I haven't used the science/math part of my brain for so long that I just might not be able to cut it.

I guess I just wanted some insight from anyone else who has felt lost and confused like this. I want to work toward making my life what I want it to be, but I just feel really stressed and worried about it.

 

[Nitro]

I've been there Boba Ben. I took a 3 year break to finish up my remaining 2 classes to get my bachelors degree. I was scared to death to go back. Not only were the last two classes immensely difficult, I was questioning whether or not I wanted to follow a career path in the Business sector.

My major was Business Management and my last 2 classes in order to graduate was Quantitative Business Analysis II and Financial Accounting II. I wasn't fully sure that I wanted to continue the program, but with 2 classes left to earn a degree...it was a no brainer. When I got the money together for tuition, I jumped right back in to complete the program and finally earned my bachelors degree by taking night classes while working full time.

Please don't get stressed about going back to school and worrying about the difficult coursework on the horizon. I was scared to death and I made out okay in the long run. I winded up taking a job with a subsidiary of a Fortune 500 company. While the notion of returning to school is stressful, don't put off school because you don't think you can cut it. That rationale will only set yourself up for failure.

Picking a career path is never an easy thing, but it's a personal decsion that you need to make for yourself and nobody can make that decision for you. Make sure you find something that you'll be passionate about going to work everyday. It'll make everything worthwhile in the long run...Good luck!

 

[Boba Ben]

Thanks Nitro. I appreciate your input. It really is a difficult situation. I know that I want to finish school no matter what but it's very hard trying to figure out exactly what to do. That uncertainty is where most of my worry comes from. I know I'm going to have to figure it out for myself but it's tough trying to get to that point.

 

[agen_kolar]

Ben, I know the feeling. I feel this way from time to time, once fairly recently. I think it's in our nature to question things such as our future, what to do with our lives, and the like. So, first of all, don't feel alone!

As far as your education goes, a lot of people will tell you just do what will make you happy - but I say do what is best for you. What makes you happiest and what is best for you can be completely different things, or one and the same. In your case, I definitely think you should finish up your degree, whether that means you scrap some of your coursework and start a new track, or pick up where you left off. Even if this isn't what you want to do, it's probably what you need to do.

As far as where to go with your educational major, here's where you can have a little more freedom. In this case, do what you want. The economy is bad, jobs are few and far between, so take the time to go to school for what interests you or what you feel like would be best business-wise. I'm going to be finishing my Master's in Educational Technology next Spring, and hopefully the job market will be better for us then. I'm currently employed right now, but as soon as I can get a better job with my new degree, I'm jetting.

Your concerns about the higher-level academic classes aren't unwarranted, however just about anyone can pass them with enough help. Most schools have labs where students can come in and get tutoring. I'm not good at math, though, and avoided majors that were math-heavy. Additionally, since you don't have time to go to classes during the day, online classes are also an option. About half of my degree and probably close to half of my Bachelor's was taken online. Some can be frustrating, but overall I look at it as saving me the time it would've taken to go to class meetings.

Let me know if I can be of any help. Let us know what you decide.

 

[Boba Ben]

Thank you. I think I'm going to set up a few appointments at some of the schools I'm planning to go to. I want to get some input from the admission counselors there and go over my transcripts with them to see where I stand. If I do this, I think I'll have a better idea of what direction I want to go in.