I think it would be nice, but it would need to be carefully moderated with stickies to answer the most common questions (most of which have already been answered). Anything marked “education” tends to turn into bait for the under 18 crowd who will whine about school for the most part. Feel free to steal this post for stickies.
Most common education questions:
- should I go to college? If so, should I take a year off first?
- Which is better: college or trade school?
- I’m interested in X Y and Z. What should I study?
- What should I do in high school?
And the answers in order…
If you want to be in law, medicine, “I work in a lab” science, or anything ending in -ology you need college. Don’t take the year off unless you really, really need it as it limits your scholarship options. You will want as many scholarships as possible as school for these professions isn’t cheap. Look around- there’s tons of scholarships for freshly graduated high schoolers at many money values so get as many as you can. Even the ones for 100 or 500 help. For anything else, avoid college.
If it involves your hands, go to trade school or a vocational school. These places are taught by people with real world experience and will provide good references as well as practical training for you. College is useless to you as it doesn’t provide much if any of these things. Example careers include electrical engineer, automotive repair and carpentry. Get an apprenticeship if you can. The school can help you find one!
If it doesn’t involve your hands outside of using a keyboard then self-teach instead and go to your local vocational school or trade school if you need a certification for something. The only exception is video game anything: you aren’t going to get hired as it’s liberal arts for nerds. The career options are limited, competition is insane, and chances are you’ll hate your life as making a game is nowhere near as fun as playing one. Work with programming/animation because you love to create an have the iron patience of a Buddha, not because you’re a game fan.
For everyone else with computers, go on Monster and look up your dream job. Do it again and again until you see a pattern of programming languages people want. Now, go buy books on those languages and MAKE THINGS. These things should be useful- no games! Make a database for your game collection. Create a program that lets you track prices on groceries to help your spending habits. Re-invent the wheel a little if it helps you learn. You can always make fancier stuff later. Take up a boring job to pay the bills and create things once you get home. Once you have been making things for a few years and have a nice stack of useful programs, approach companies with your portfolio. There you go- great job, no debt!
As to what you should study, choose something you can’t stop learning about but avoid picking your favorite hobby. When a hobby becomes a job, the hobby loses it’s appeal and you’ll end up hating it. The reason I say “can’t stop learning about” is because stopping is not an option if you want to stay hired. You must keep learning for the rest of your life or else you’ll fall behind and some kid will get your job. If you pick something you like learning about you’ll be happier in the end! Don’t like learning? Stick to retail (that’s selling stuff in a store) or do grunt work like construction or paving.
In high school focus on good grades, avoid girls and try everything once. You’ll never know if you would have loved programming, tending sick animals, or rebuilding cars if you never tried it. Ignore what’s cool as the cool kids will be losers when they’re older as “cool” changes with the seasons. Do a little bit of every school activity possible even if people call you a nerd! Don’t let your parents push you to do things to “look good for college” as college is not required for most professions so looking good for college is a waste of time unless you really, truly need to go to college. Try things because you have not tried them or they look interesting, not because you want to “impress” people. Don’t worry about your social life. You probably won’t see any of these people again once you graduate. Focus on learning and improving yourself and you’ll be fine.
That should answer the most common questions about education!
Beauty fades, dumb is forever.
Umbreon 4 years, 4 months ago.
