and going to automotive school. I'm just not enthused about anything I was before. I have had a hard time these pass few years deciding on what I want to do. I know that I dont want to sit behind a computer all day. I did want to major in sociology and psychology but going to graduate school is something I'm not looking forward to. I was thinking going to automotive school and then to one of those tuning schools so I can tune and work on cars. It's a sweaty and hot job but I think it would make me happier cause I'm out doing something with my hands. Any opinions?
Asian dropping out of college? UNheard of. Unless you are playing WoW 24/7 like the other asians i know dropping out of college. Automotive school...could you learn to drive well there too? That sounds pretty good imo. I've heard always have a job that you really like doing...so this sounds like it makes sense.
hahaha! I quit my WoW addiction months and months ago. I dunno if automotive school is the way. But I feel getting a tradeskill from a technical school might be a better way to go. I know people who have wasted years in their degree and done nothing with it. I figure with a skill atleast I'll have come out with something I can use.
Calmnothing, Let me tell you a bit about my background first. My generation is the first generation that was even allow an opportunity to go to college. Like yourself, I was a car freak my early teen and didn't care so much about education. I didn't think that I'd get a chance to go to college and was thinking about pursuing in automotive like yourself. After paying for my own car (1995 integra ls), I thought this would be a road for me to really test how mechanically incline I could be. I did a lot to her, engine swaps, customizing motor, etc... basically testing out all of my car theories. During the big project that I was working on at a friend's garage for about a week, I notice that he was getting some highend cars which includes the Supras, STis, Evos, Lotus, GT2, etc... It really got me asking about pursuing automotive fulltime. While you'll get to work with highend cars, the chance of you owning one is hard; unless you're undoubtedly gifted like SS or some other topend mechanic, it's hard to make it big in that industry. I thought that I would enjoy working with cars, but the work at the garage was rough, dirty, and painful. I give props to all your mechanics out there. I know, for myself, that I wouldn't be able to drive Ava (my STi) today if I chose the path of being a mechanic (then again, I could be a really horrible one). Between all that and the job at the restaurant that i was working to pay my way through college, that really got me the encouragement to get through college as best as I could and try to get a job. Your first job may not be what you expect, but going to college and finishing it up, opens sooooo many doors for you. Colleges teach you how to deal with life. I can honestly say that most of the things that you learn in college, you will never use in your career. But being perseverance and staying and fighting in school, proves a lot about yourself to others. I could be absolutely wrong and may not know the kind of money a mechanic makes, but those were my experiences. Most importantly I am in noway trying to insult any mechanics out there. I think you guys are great and I really envy you to be able to combine your hobby and your job into one. There are a lot of great mechanic out there, so please feel free to comment on the boy's situation. As for myself, I'd encourage you to stay in school and finish it up. A degree would open a lot of doors for you.... and you could always work on cars as your hobby! Good luck!!!!!
I'm just kind of unsure about a degree at this point. I know a lot of people with chemical engineering degrees and psychology degrees that have came out of graduate school that do nothing with it. Some of them work at starbucks or bestbuy. Why get a degree to do that? I'm not saying automotive might be the way for me to go at this point, but I feel that maybe a technical school could provide me with better tools to go out and get a job.
man im terrible at school, im in what should be my 3rd year of college and have 20 hrs to my name at most. I have pushed around so many different degrees. Automotive crossed my mind at first but after working on cars in my spare time, and doing it for a part time job i quickly decided its a bad profession for me. School sux yes, but i would just make sure you figure out what you wanna do and what you would enjoy. If it takes you 10 years to graduate, then so be it. Just put some heavy thought into it.
i used to go to gt casue it was the right thing to do.. my parents wanted me to go there . blah blah better school blah blah but i knew that wasnt for me and i now go to gsu and ive never been happier.
As a chemical engineer from georgia tech call complete BS on that. When i graduated tech, the economy sucked but I still managed to find a job. While I admit there isn't a huge market for chemical engineers in atlanta, I had over 15 interviews during my last semester at tech for jobs outside of atlanta.
I cannot stress enough how much you should stay in school!!! I realize that you may decide you do not want to go into the field that your degree ends up being in, but having a BS/BA offers you so many opportunities that you won't have if you don't graduate. Besides, just because you finish a degree in something doesn't mean you can't still decide to go to some type of automotive shcool after you finish. Only then, you will have that degree to fill out your resume and or fall back on. Many jobs these days don't even require a degree in a specific field, just a degree. My cousin gradutated from GA State last year with a degree in MIS and is now up enrolled in a program for automotive racing at a community college up north of Atlanta. When he is done, which guy do you think will get hired first, the other guy whose only education is that Associates course or my cousin with a degree and the course (skill being equal..) point is, it may seem like a PITA now, but trust me, you will end up having to do it at some point and right now, your young and will have plenty of time to do other things post graduation...
DOnt make an important thing quickly sit on it for a little bit and think of the future a tad. A balance of happpiness and income has to be in the planning. Write down your priorities and rank them then all will be clearer
This was from 2002 but it makes a good point. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2002-07-18-degree-dollars.htm
Having a 4 year BS in a technical discipline like would probably help your credibility, if you are planning on tuning EM systems on vehicles.
I went through something similar, but before I started college. I decided I would rather have money to spend on what I enjoy(anything fast) than not making much money doing what I enjoyed *most* for a living. I like working on computers thankfully so it pays the bills. Also, once you start a family going for a low paying fun job could come back to haunt you and your family. Not to mention getting medical insurance. College took many yrs to get thru, but it's paid off. And if my hobbies/interests change, I don't have to change jobs. Good luck whichever you choose! P.S. If I could do it over again, I would probably start my own business at a young age.
As somebody who *did* drop out (though my reasons were different; I opted to move to the US to see what life could be like here when I was 20--long story), let me make a comment or two. If you at some point, once you are all 'grown up' with a house and a wife and maybe even a kid or two, decide to go back and pursue that degree, be prepared to sacrifice most/all of your spare time and probably a good 5-6 years to get to a BS or BA. Unless you're in a position where you can not work or work part time, trying to squeeze a college education in while working your normal 8-5 is more than a little painful. While you're young and have flexibility and options in your life, THAT is the time to take care of college if you ask me. If you drop out now, chances are you'll never make it back. And as Ava pointed out above, you can always do the automotive stuff as a hobby.
Like Meredith ( I think is her, pinky), the chemical engineer from GT. I had a hard time finding a job out of college. I was due to graduate in about 03 where job market was harsh. I decided to take an extra year in school to wait for the job market to be better and to really drill on what I want to concentrate in. If you don't know what you'd like to do, seriously take sometime and think about it then pursue a degree in that. I graduated from Souther Poly, which is a commuter school and hardly anyone heard of it. It was a challenge to find a job right out of college but if you keep pushing and try for it, eventually you'll land one. It took me nearly 6-7 months to find a job. For the most part, I was afraid of having a real job and interview, but if you don't push and fight, it'd be hard to have a good career.
exactly... back when i finished my BS, some of my friends who just sat back and expected jobs to fall into their laps ended up getting nothing... they didnt seek out interesting companies, they didnt go to career fairs, they didnt try for interviews, etc... on the other hand, some friends who were serious about the job hunt started looking 6 months before graduation and had multiple offers in their hands
M-chan I dont know a LOT of chemical engineers without jobs just one. I do know a few psychology graduates though. It just sounded like more than one cause I lumped them together. I realize I need school....to some degree. I'm just not sure of which direction I want to go and how about it I want to proceed. Just having a huge confusing academic crisis lol
heh, sounds like i'm at the beginning stages of your dilemma. I'm just entering UGA and to be quite honest i don't really know what i want to be doing in the long run. Working on cars all day long for your education dosn't sound too bad but it's not bring back anywhere near as much green, as say if you were the one desiging the systems that worked the cars. If you're GT i should imagine that you're fairly gifted at the sciences. Why don't you see what mechanical engineering is like. That way in the future you could still incorporate your hobby into your work place by coming up and desiging new cool setups for cars. I opted to go to UGA over the other GA colleges as it seemed like a real nice atmosphere and i'm currently set up for the Broadcast News course which seems like it could be some fun. But i'm still not sure if i want to take that line of career but bugger it, i'm only 18 and you're only young 20's. So just take a bit of time and see what courses you enjoy and then try and make a career out of that. Personally i see myself switching over to some sort of business school and i'm having more aspirations to run my own business in the future. Hopefully something related to cars but who knows...cos i certainly fuckin dont!
if you want to try to start a business, the best time to do it is when you are young and without responsibilities of family... however, you must realize that MOST businesses fail so you should have something to fall back on... i believe theres no better insurance than a good degree
Scooby is right, if you're interested in mechanical sense, why not pursue something in ME at GT. I have a friend graduated from GT with mechanical engineering and is now designing turbo jet engines for Royce Roy. I have been trying to get a turbo from him...lol a slight problem would be they are the size of about a car engine =).
A degree will show accomplishment to an employer and pove that you can adapt at whatever they throw at you. No matter what the job. My wife graduated in Psyc and is now the operations manager for a small consulting company. There are jobs out there, how much do you want them. Like everone else has said in the long run you will wish you had it. There are people that sit arround me that spend every lunch and evening doing school work to get a degree. That = no life when they should be living it up. Is that where you want to be in 5-10 years once you realize that you need it. My brother dropped out for a year and said oh crap and got right back in and finished. He is now an accountant doing mighty well. You are young enough that finishing will not put a damper on life at all. If anyhting it will make life more enjoyable since you will be able to be paid more and do what you want. Just my $.02 Andy
Finish school, even if you get a degree you don't want, just finish. You can always go back and take a few classes and get another degree. You can't have too much education. Take it from someone who runs a multi million dollar business and didn't even finish high school.
Stay in school, and since everyone is telling their stories might as well throw mine in.. I went to Tallahassee Community College, got my AA in NIS, then continued on to Florida State U to finish my BA in CS.. Well I got offered a great IT job there in town for the state. Well 8 months later my whole dept got downsized, and outsourced.. I was pretty devastated, and kinda got angry at school, and decided to quit, and go to trade school. I went to a Art/Design school, called Full Sail, and graduated with another AA in Recording. Moved here to atlanta, and started off great, tons of work.. then the economy got really crappy, and since it's been really hard to land a steady job w/o my BA. I've been highly debating going back to school to finish my BA at GA State, just having no steady job has hurt that choice. So if anything change that degree to something else, theres tons of choices when your in school, to quote an earlier statement made, you dont have to stick with that field of work.. Ive seen tons of jobs that just want a BA degree in field close too or somewhat similiar , or just a degree. I got a buddy whose still in school at age 26 and not going for a master or phd.. just a BA. So dont worry it happens to us all, stick with it, and trust me it'll be worth it.
I say stay in school as well...My dad is a mechanic and my brother does autobody....they enjoy cars, but the bottom line is that you can't do it forever, it's very physically demanding. They always told me to get paid doing something with my head, because the body gets old and eventually your stuck....and it really hit home when I was in school and my dad got hurt on the job and was let go after 25+ years at the same garage...he had nothing to fall back on, now he sells parts and absolutely hates it...he can't go to another garage because he can't do any heavy lifting anymore....It's kinda scary because my brother is heading down the same path...They always told me to take advantage of my opportunity that wasn't offered to them and if I want to wrench, keep it as a hobby.... but that is just my experience with the whole thing...
I'll try not to be redudent, but I'm 23, and i work as a Network/Systems Engineer. If you do not know what you want to do, then pick an area that you think you may like which can be incoporated into many fields. If you persue an automotive career, well, thats basically all you will be able to ever do. And belive it or not, you will change your mind at some point in your life. If you choose to get a degree in an adapatable(sp?) field, you don't have to worry about changing your mind. Basically you persue something that gives you freedom. For myself, I persued an MIS degree because like it or not, computers are a part of every type of business nowadays. If i get fired, or quit, no big deal, i get another job because I can be used ANYWHERE and i can still be serious in working on my Legacy on the side. Follow your heart... ok, but also follow your head. Money may not equal happiness but its one big thing that you won't have to worry about when you move further in life. Can you get married, buy a house, raise/pay for kids easily on a mechanics salary? Maybe, but while you kids grow up you'll be busting your ass 18 hours a day to feed them. Got a little off track, but whatever you do, get a f-ing degree. Otherwise it'll be floating over your head and holding you back from opportunities.
I only knew one ChemE that didn't get a job when he graduated, his career at tech was marked with sub 2.0 grade point averages. I don't even know how he graduated! Mechanical engineering is definately the way to go for doing car stuff. Try to get plenty of interships or research. I work with a ton of companies that supply to the automotive markets; at first I thought it would be cool but now I realize that there is bunch of boring crap that goes into cars. I guess my point is not everyone gets to design an engine or turbo, so keep your options and fields of study open. A mech E degree from tech will give you ALOT of opportunities, so keep your mind open and you may even find something that sparks your interest more than cars. Just my 2 cents.
That sounded kinda cocky so Ill try and make myself not sound like an ass. There is not a single day that goes by that I don't wish I had a degree in business, business law, sociology, psychology, marketing, etc..... Its important to set goals for yourself and achieve them. Its also important to not get down on you're self if you don't achieve you're goals. Just make up for them. Finish college its a good short term goal, if I had the time to do it right now I would go back to school.
Guys I really appreciate everyone's input. I guess I am just kind of put off by the fact that I have to study and do work. I was always the type to just breeze right through school. So now that I've got something difficult before me I'm just frustrated. I am going to finish college. I am however, going to change my major. I've always had a difficult time trying to make up my mind on something so I am going to just bite the bullet and change over to Information Security. I figure this can pay my bills and let me have play money so I can mod the hell out of my RS and travel like I've always wanted to do. I just need to realize that not everything is going to be easy. I do have to take school more seriously than I have. Even if Information Security isn't what I end up doing atleast I will have the degree to fall back on. Or there is the chance that I will end up elsewhere. I appreciate the extra lil push guys and gals. Figuring out one's future is a ginormous task.
heh, i know how you feel about this figuring out one's future. I've just moved in and i already feel like dropping out lol!