Deciding a College Major?

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It is clear from your post and view points that you lack any experience remotely related to being in college. The way you describe schools sounds a lot like something you've read on wikipedia. It's great that you've been so successful, but for every person in the world such as yourself who has made it own their own, there exist hundreds if not thousands of people who fell flat on their face and are now broke and without a clue.

I'm not arguing that people shouldn't follow their passions, forget college and try to make their own way. If you're able to do that, great, but let's be honest the odds are not in your favor (I know I know, you don't believe in statistics controlling peoples lives, but this is a reality). I'm not saying it's wrong to be an entrepreneur. I'm just telling you, from experience, college has many merits, not just the elite ones, that can never be replaced, no matter how much you read/write/succeed as an entrepreneur.

I can say from experience that I met more interesting, motivated and intelligent people from all around the world in 4 years of school than I ever could have imagined. I have great friends in countries all around the world who are starting their own businesses (post college), buying land, and beginning their political careers.

Lessons from this thread:

- You can be successful without college. Many people on WF (for example) have and continue to do so. Make your own path, blaze your own trail, do it your way.

- College is a great experience and a worthwhile endeavor that can get you on your feet and help you get places you would definitely not be able to otherwise.

To sum it all up: chose Biology as your major, its the best.
 


Isostar13 said:
It is clear from your post and view points that you lack any experience remotely related to being in college. The way you describe schools sounds a lot like something you've read on wikipedia. It's great that you've been so successful, but for every person in the world such as yourself who has made it own their own, there exist hundreds if not thousands of people who fell flat on their face and are now broke and without a clue.

I'm not arguing that people shouldn't follow their passions, forget college and try to make their own way. If you're able to do that, great, but let's be honest the odds are not in your favor (I know I know, you don't believe in statistics controlling peoples lives, but this is a reality). I'm not saying it's wrong to be an entrepreneur. I'm just telling you, from experience, college has many merits, not just the elite ones, that can never be replaced, no matter how much you read/write/succeed as an entrepreneur.

I can say from experience that I met more interesting, motivated and intelligent people from all around the world in 4 years of school than I ever could have imagined. I have great friends in countries all around the world who are starting their own businesses (post college), buying land, and beginning their political careers.

Lessons from this thread:

- You can be successful without college. Many people on WF (for example) have and continue to do so. Make your own path, blaze your own trail, do it your way.

- College is a great experience and a worthwhile endeavor that can get you on your feet and help you get places you would definitely not be able to otherwise.

To sum it all up: chose Biology as your major, its the best.
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Good summary of the merits of going (or not going) to college. In this particular case, the thread starter was already in college so I'll assume he wants to finish up school. His parents likely want him to get that diploma so I'm sure there are alot of those outside factors to consider.

Odd though, I think statistics do control our lives (especially as an AM). All I do is look at opens, clicks, CTR, conversion rate, payout, ecpm, etc etc. all day. College seems like a better converting offer on life than the independent/entrepreneurial route and has a higher payout.
 
Isostar13 said:
It is clear from your post and view points that you lack any experience remotely related to being in college. The way you describe schools sounds a lot like something you've read on wikipedia.
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I have been to college, douche. Your post is a strawman full of personal attacks and references to vague, unspecified benefits of college. This is similar to how people defend religion once they've run out of rational arguments. You cannot rebut anything from my previous post.

And to anyone who believe that statistics control their life's outcome: you might as well say it's god or any other supernatural force. The fact is, you've already made an emotional decision that your life is out of your control. You're trying to use a misunderstanding of statistics to justify that after the fact. It's clear that you don't understand what statistics are.

If 1,000,000 people run into a locked door and give up [due to irrational beliefs sapping their motivation, lack of resolve, stupidity, laziness, or any other reason], that has absolutely no bearing on the one guy who keeps trying until he finds the key to open the door because he was hell-bent on success.

Convo with you is over now Isostar, I don't want to turn this thread into a flame war.
 
Education is never wasted.

And I never get why some people think that

a) going to college = employee = teh suxxorz, dude!
b) not going = rebel entrepreneur = I win!

During the day, I am an employee. And although I went thorugh some bad work places, it rocks! I get to manage projects and people in IT. These projects are seen nationally and internationally and even changing the world (a bit) for the better (I hope).

I get to interact with young, smart people and people who will run circles around me intellectually. And I am no lightweight when it comes to brains (shameless pride? Fuck yeah!)

I get to play with the newest technology and still have a laid back workday (most of the time, not right now), lots of laughter in the office (always) and good pay.

And you know what? BECAUSE I got the education. And no, jobs like this are NOT open to people without education.

And above all this, the University also gave me the intellectual framework, the tools to handle any new challenge. And THAT is what is the thing you will learn to value most.
So yes, it will give you the tools to be a good entrepreneur as well.

So yes, if you decide to just drop out, either be a good entrepreneur (it is possible, but not likely) or flip burgers.

Or get an education, have some cool jobs and the education to become a good entrepreneur if you decide to do so.

Get an education.

::emp::
PS: Other than that, I was surprised at how great ridarhussetgal's post was. +REP for sure.
 
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Woah, thanks for all of the helpful information guys. Yes I am attending colleges for more benefits than the degree, luckily my family can afford to pay for it without loans and if I do decide to venture into the realm of entrepreneurship (like my father and grandfather before me) I will have something to fall back on, and hopefully I will be able to utilize my degree to help with my quest to start a business.

In my first 3/4th of a year of college I have grown more than my whole highschool career, I used to be the shy kid in the back of the classroom and my grades suffered because of my lack of motivation. I used to be extremely introverted and unconfident about everyday life. Now I surge with a gleaming light, I can hold witty conversations and make people laugh all of the time. I have grown so much, going to college has been definitely worth the money spent and what will be spent in the future. I think most of it was just getting out of the same everday environment, meeting new people, and really becoming aware of my surroundings.

I have heard time and time again that the best advice for choosing a major is to follow your intrests, do not worry about money or career options and just follow your passion. I am trying to take that to heart, but sometime it is good to prepare for the future and do some research on the amount of money I would be making with that career. I know that your major does not decide your career, but it does have some influence on it.

I'm not big time AM yet, and while I may look to doing it full time somewhere in the future, I would really like a fall back plan. I have heard never to put all of your eggs in one basket, and that is what I am doing.

I think the biology/chemistry/biochemistry world is what I might be intrested in, I have always been fascinated with zoology and the likes. I want to do something with environmental science/hydrology as both are huge growing feilds at the moment. Every company wants to get green, and the earth is dying people! Next semester I will take a biology and chemistry course and that will tell me if I want to do those majors. I think I am going to get my core classes out of the way, and every semester just take a course that I may be intrested in. I know my major will come to me, I do not need to fret.
 
Pick a college major that will actually help you do things you want to do...

It bugs me like no other seeing kids graduate from college with some random degree that amounts to 0 in the real world and gives you no real skills.

But... I never was much of a school person.
 
If I was going to do it all over again (I have two degrees), I would choose a degree with a heavy emphasis in business, or law, or advertising. Or a business/advertising double major. The more skills and concepts that you can learn and do yourself that you'd otherwise have to pay a significant amount of money for, the better off you are.

Also, having a fundamental understanding of some of the concepts and methods can prevent you from being ripped off - much like understanding how to identify if your car air filter needs to be changed or not.
 
emp said:
And you know what? BECAUSE I got the education. And no, jobs like this are NOT open to people without education.

And above all this, the University also gave me the intellectual framework, the tools to handle any new challenge. And THAT is what is the thing you will learn to value most.
So yes, it will give you the tools to be a good entrepreneur as well.

So yes, if you decide to just drop out, either be a good entrepreneur (it is possible, but not likely) or flip burgers.

Or get an education, have some cool jobs and the education to become a good entrepreneur if you decide to do so.

Get an education.

::emp::
PS: Other than that, I was surprised at how great ridarhussetgal's post was. +REP for sure.
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Excellent post, I would add its always good to work for someone else when you first start off, learn the trade, find out if you like it etc. all on someone else's dime. Take what you like about the company, dislikes, the inefficiencies so if you do start your own company someday you know where to begin.
 
Skip college and go into business yourself -- don't depend your income on a job, it's fucking stupid (for the most part)
 
Also, there is one point I failed to mention. Please, please, please PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE (are you getting my point here) study abroad if you can!

This is so fundamentally important if you are American. Our fellow Americans need the experience of living abroad to help us better prepare for the future.

Did you know that in a MSN poll something like 1/3rd of America thought the population of the US was about 1 billion?!

Can you fucking believe this (at the risk of sounding self-righteous, lol....)

Americans need to have the experience of living abroad, and if you can visit Asia and even Africa (poor continent GDP wise but most of the world's natural resources come from here...). Only about 17% of Americans have passports and at a time when societies are more interdependent than ever, we run the risk of becoming more isolated...

We will not be able to compete if we do this. Most of the world knows so much more about us than we know about them and this lack of perspective hurts us.

Another fantastic advantage of college is that it is way too easy to get a student visa. Also they have programs like Bunac (please google it) which will let you actually work for like a year abroad, i.e. you get a work visa.

It's rather hard to set up a business or get a job abroad, but as a student you can do this so easily!

You will make friends and form relationships and this can only help you if you decide to go into business.

This point is so important, I can't stress it enough. There's loads of business opportunity in Eastern Europe, Asia and even in Africa as well (my dad worked for oil companies there so I know a little about it).

You can really do well if you are able to leverage your business contacts between American capital and int'l opportunities. All this, once again, can be facilitated in college....

Please look into it if you can, not only will it be an experience of a lifetime it will make you much more competitive if you decide to work for a company or start your own...
 
For fuck's sake, don't get a journalism degree like I did. Just put your writing skills to use promoting your own websites, ebooks, and blogs.

Otherwise you're throwing money down the drain. Of course, that's true with any college degree. You could take a year or two and live in Europe while you're getting your head together, keep working on building your online businesses. Then when you're making serious bank you won't look back at the group mindfuck that is college ever again.

Dan
 
I was an English major with a focus on creative writing. Best choice ever. Nothing better in this biz than knowing how to write.

Also was a copywriter at a big interactive agency for a while. Just cause you major in English does not mean you need to teach...
 
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amazing way to look at it pal, seriously, the way you put it you can honestly study some BS like women's studies and be able to monetize that without a job.

riddarhusetgal said:
1. Study EXACTLY what you want. Don't listen to ANYONE who will tell you otherwise. If you like psychology, study that, if you like philosophy, study that.
2. Take some classes in accounting, economics, finance, and if you can stomach it, multivariable calculus, vector calculus or some other applied math.
3. Take a class on entrepreneurship or business. The purpose of 2)-3) will be to give you some quantitative skills that will help you monetize what you love to do from (1)
4. During your summers, get an internship in something business related to get gain some business exposure. (which will further help you monetize your talents)
Your goal is college should be to 1)learn what your talents are and 2)learn how to MONETIZE your talents (am I sounding redundant? good.....)3) build relationships that will pay for themselves 1000x over the years

Happy people learn that their INCOME SOURCE DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THEIR LIFE'S WORK

Got that? it's one of the most important things you can learn in life, so I'll say it again.

YOUR INCOME SOURCE DOES NOT HAVE TO BE YOUR LIFE'S WORK!!

In other words your Job cannot and should not be your main source of Income...

Your goal in college should be to 1)discover your talents 2)build relationships with people that really matter (more on that later) 3)learn how to monetize your unique skills.

College was the most amazing experience of my life. Sometimes I wish I was back. The good times, the laughter, it's not just about "go study what everyone else says to so you can get a good job".

You are alot more informed than most people because you are reading WF. Here you can learn how to take the talents that you learn about yourself and monetize them.

Set some goals for yourself. Let's say you decide you want a 6 figure a year income. That breaks down to a mere $350/day (or so) online. What you will do is hone your talents in college, then you will use your skills from (above) your business/quantitative related studies and WF university to monetize them.

So if you like biochem, great, study it! You can set up a business-to-business directory for companies marketing biochemical products. Your inside knowledge into biochem will give you a leg up on everyone else online (or whatever) who might be doing something similar....

The bottom line of what I am saying is to take your experience in college to discover and hone your talents and unique skills, then take your non-academic experience (ex. reading WF, networking, etc) and learn how to monetize them. While your friends in class are just trying to study whatever they think will get them a good job, you'll be using school to hone your talents which you can monetize online. That way if you want to get a job in biochem, great, if not, you will have learned how to monetize your skillset in unique, entrepreneurial ways so you don't have to rely on a "job" as such to live well.....

Just my thoughts....

PS
The one thing many colleges don't teach people to do is monetize their talents. So everyone is rushing for the associate consultant job at McKinsey or BGC, or the analyst job at Citigroup or Goldman (if they'll even be around in a couple of years, who knows). When I get a free moment, I really want to do some volunteer work with my old school on this. If people were taught that they can have multiple streams of income (esp. via the internet) and that the internet provides an amazing way of building a business around doing what they love, boy would there be alot more fulfilled people online.

And not everyone has to be a coder. If you don't like coding, fine maybe you study psychology which helps you write sale content better. Because you know you're good at that, work like hell to make friends with some of the computer science majors at school. Form partnerships. That's the real payoff of college. I've paid for my education 10x over with the relationships - social currency - I was able to acquire. Make it a goal to not leave school without forming relationships with at least 50 people who have ambitious plans in the area of:
-politics
-the arts/entertainment
-business/commerce
-social policy
-international students (great for deals abroad..as an example, I want to get into investing into some .cn domains...and who am I getting to help me out? that's right, my chinese classmate....)

Whatever you may want to do in life, you'll need great contacts in the above areas. If you're going to a reasonably good school, rest assured some of your classmates who are ambitious will be moving and shaking years from now. Develop relationships with those people......


ps...typing fast here excuse any typos :P
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