T O P I C R E V I E W
orca
Member # 33665
posted 03-15-2009 07:28 PM
This year I've probably driven my advisors crazy with constant questions and moaning about what I'm going to do after I graduate. So this is a little premature of me, seeing as how I'm only a junior and graduation is still more than a year away. But I'm a planner (to a certain extent), and I like to be prepared. Or rather, I like to think about all the awesome and wonderful things I want to do but feel I never can. I've been wondering, though, how other people nearing the end of college are handling the freak-out, or if they're even freaking out at all. After college, what do you all plan on doing? Graduate school? Time off to travel, work, figure things out? Enter the job market? Anyone having any doubts about what to do after college? Feeling conflicted between what you want to do and what your family wants you to do? Or is anyone like me and planning on 20 different and divergent things but will probably just end up as a barista in Italy, eating gelato and writing crappy novels about the adventures of a spoon named Norman? Also, anyone who's already been there and back care to share a few words of advice or encouragement on how you came to find your profession, passion, or calling in life? [ 03-15-2009, 07:34 PM: Message edited by: orca ]
not_a_hobgoblin
Member # 29206
posted 03-15-2009 09:07 PM
My plans after college are actually rather specific- I want to teach for a year (hopefully not a lot longer) in the town where my girlfriend's in college. She'll graduate after that year, we'll get married and move to Boston, where I'll teach elementary general music. Her dream is to do manga translations from home, so she could be the stay-at-home mom for the kids we'd be thinking of after the first three years or so. Of course, to do all of this I have to really make excellent contacts, and will have to get relicensed when I move, never mind getting licensed the first time in this state. I'm nervous that my networking skills aren't up to the task, or that my hands will get too injured for me to stay in the music program. Never mind that the whole two girls getting married and having kids thing has a million opportunites for trouble. Very scary. But that's my dream. (Plus, I'd love to read a novel about a barista in Italy who loves gelato and writes crappy but goofy novels about adventurous anthropomorphized tableware ^.~) edit to add a point of reference: I'm a college sophomore. [ 03-15-2009, 09:08 PM: Message edited by: not_a_hobgoblin ]
Karybu
Member # 20094
posted 03-15-2009 10:45 PM
The world is woefully short on novels featuring adventurous anthropomorphized tableware. I felt completely clueless when I graduated uni - so I took a year off and traveled to Australia, worked, and tried to figure out what I wanted. After that year, it was pretty clear that going back to school was a really good idea. That's where I am now, doing my honours year (the last year of an undergrad, something not so common in North America) in medical anthropology. I'm still in Australia, and while it is definitely not where I thought I'd end up, I freaking love it here, love my school and my program, and hopefully I'll go on to do a PhD after this year is up. Erm...I guess what I'm saying is that time off can often be a really good idea if you have the chance. Don't think doing what you want is impossible though; if you want it badly enough chances are there's a way to make it happen.
September
Member # 25425
posted 03-16-2009 04:05 AM
I'm starting my MA in English next month. I've actually been working on the MA for a semester already, but I was still officially a BA due to an administration screw-up and some credits that mysteriously went missing. That'll take me another two years, approximately. Once I'm done, I want to try and find a job teaching English Lit in the US, preferably at an IB or international school. I'll work for a while to make some money and figure some things out, and eventually I want to think about going back to school for my Phd. And that's all I'm planning for right now. No details, no going beyond the next five or so years. I tend to find myself at the opposite end of what I planned, so I want to leave myself some room for changing my mind. Or for life going wierd on me.
KittenGoddess
Member # 1679
posted 03-16-2009 09:24 AM
When I was finishing my BS, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I loved my major, but the idea of a "regular job" was just...eh. My mentor suggested that I go to graduate school. MA programs are only a 2-year commitment and he suggested finding a program where I could be a TA, so that I could see if being in the classroom was really the thing for me. (If you find a program where they will fund you as a TA or RA, you can actually do it without really being out any/much money.) I loved it, so I decided to go on for the PhD (which is in-progress as we speak). I will say, orca, that if you're thinking of graduate school as a possibility, it is not too early to start thinking and looking. Applications are usually due somewhere between August-January...and grad school applications usually take a while to prepare. (Plus, you'll need to take one of the graduate exams at least...GMAT, GRE, etc. You want to leave yourself enough time to re-take it if you don't like your score the first time.) [ 03-16-2009, 09:25 AM: Message edited by: KittenGoddess ]
Gumdrop Girl
Member # 568
posted 03-19-2009 11:56 PM
Well, let's get this out of the way. I and digging myself out of a terribly profound funk that was just destroying me. I resent my job, but I'm scared to leave it under current economic conditions. I haven't gotten into a doctoral program. I didn't make it to medical school (which if you have followed me on this board long enough would know is my entire life's ambition). I'm running out of options. Basically, I hate everything that I've become, and that's why I fell off ST for a long time. I'm digging myself out now. My job doesn't suck. But it's not where I wanted to be at this point. Don't F***ing tell me to try to apply to med school again. It isn't that simple, and frankly if I hear it one more time, someone will get punched. Next up, I'm going to apply to physician assistant programs. It's only a masters, but at least I can do primary care in California. I'm also going to shoot for a PhD in epidemiology because I've come to realize I enjoy teaching. If I don't do this, I am going to live an die in my dark little cubicle, surrounded by papers, binder and gym clothes. I think LA has managed to destroy my soul.
bluejumprope
Member # 40774
posted 03-21-2009 12:14 PM
(Gumdrop Girl, I've only been aware of you for a little while, but I'm really sorry to hear things are so bad right now. I totally hear you on the suffocating job front, and about living in a place that's not good for you. I've been dealing with those things too, and it's been awful.) I think I've been going through some post-college turmoil, but pre-college. I'm 21 now, the age I thought I'd be when I was finishing up college, but I haven't even really started yet. During middle and high school I always assumed I'd go right to college, then to grad school, and then to more grad school. Then, when I was 27 or something, I'd start doing whatever it was I was passionate about. But, I dropped out barely into my freshman year. As a teenager, I suppressed a bunch of health problems and inner distress, and once I was away from my family I finally had the space to have a breakdown. For the last 2+ years I've been living on the opposite coast as my parents, working various jobs and I guess in many ways having traditional post-college experiences. I've had a lot of intense freak outs about my future. I've felt really trapped and powerless and directionless. Growing up, a major sense of my "specialness" was about being precocious, so "falling behind" people my age has been a big source of anxiety. Things have settled a lot though, especially since I've had a game plan. I've been feeling pretty good about myself and like I'm on the right path. Here's my current plan: For the next year or two I want to continue to do what I'm doing now academically, which is taking one, maybe two, classes per semester at a nearby university. I'd like to accumulate enough credits so that I can return to college full time at least as a sophomore. I imagine I'll return to the college where I started, or a similar small liberal arts school. I don't know what I want to do after college, but I'd like to not return until I have some idea. Or, I guess that's not so necessary for me as not returning until I feel more stable--like, more solid in myself and better able to follow what feels right for me around other people.
cthulhu_hungers
Member # 47022
posted 05-11-2010 10:12 PM
quote: Originally posted by Gumdrop Girl: Well, let's get this out of the way. I and digging myself out of a terribly profound funk that was just destroying me. I resent my job, but I'm scared to leave it under current economic conditions. I haven't gotten into a doctoral program. I didn't make it to medical school (which if you have followed me on this board long enough would know is my entire life's ambition). I'm running out of options. Basically, I hate everything that I've become, and that's why I fell off ST for a long time. I'm digging myself out now. My job doesn't suck. But it's not where I wanted to be at this point. Don't F***ing tell me to try to apply to med school again. It isn't that simple, and frankly if I hear it one more time, someone will get punched. Next up, I'm going to apply to physician assistant programs. It's only a masters, but at least I can do primary care in California. I'm also going to shoot for a PhD in epidemiology because I've come to realize I enjoy teaching. If I don't do this, I am going to live an die in my dark little cubicle, surrounded by papers, binder and gym clothes. I think LA has managed to destroy my soul. That sucks, Gumdrop Girl. If epidemiology doesn't work out, how about biomedical sciences? There are several majors you can get that will allow you to work with doctors or do the work of doctors, either in the "helping people get better" sense or the "medical research" sense. My family doesn't have the money to put me through medical school (I attended undergraduate on a scholarship, and I will be taking out student loans for grad school), so I ended up in biomedical engineering, which would allow me to do medical research, which is what I really wanted the doctorate for. Do whatever it takes to get out of the hellhole. Good luck.