Ah, undergrad research.Not sure if this is applicable for you, but one thing I wish I did different was getting more research experience early. I didn't even really know about undergraduate research somehow until the summer before my junior semester (a peer asked me what lab I was in and I said "Uh, I didn't know the lecture had a lab component" and he was like "Oh, that's weird, seems like most people are doing research") and I didn't get started until my senior year. Oh yeah, and try to get any grants you can. Maybe I'm just lucky due to certain family financial situations, but I've basically had a free ride through college, making ~$500 a semester to go to class my first couple years and having to pay about the same in the last couple. Throw in a $5000 research fellowship thing from last summer and bam, no financial worries whatsoever.
Still in college btw (fifth year now). As far as the social stuff goes, college for me has been only slightly different from homeschooling, but that obviously isn't the case for most.
Well what kind of college? Hardware engineering? Cyber security? At most traditional colleges (either "liberal arts" or "institutes of technology"), you don't really get that specific, at least not via coursework. The closest thing you'd get to hardware engineering is electrical engineering, the closest thing to cyber security would be computer science or math, and you won't be learning anything about the specifics of anything, but instead very basic (doesn't mean its easy) things.
As far as I can tell, there are two extremes of people: academics, and non-academics. Non-academics see college as something needed to get a job, so in general it doesn't matter to them what they learn or don't learn in college. Academics are genuinely interested in the subjects and hence enjoy studying them for the sake of studying them (I'm not saying this is a good thing, at some point you might realize doing that is pointless).
I feel like everyone is on this path where you like school up to the point where you give up on it, and decide to make a living/do something real. Everyone reaches this point at some point. Some people leave as early as high school. Most people leave after college. A minority after a grad degree, etc. Some never leave.
Traditional college is not career training, per se. You go there to open your mind.
Vocational school, on the other hand, is training specifically so you can find a job.
The main thing I learned from college is that I'm not too smart and barely know anything about anything, and that everything worht learning about has a level of sophistication you hardly imagine. You can choose to keep pursuing it, trying to "understand" it until you give up or become a professor, or choose to not deal with it, enter a job, and instead deal with non-intellectual challenges.
I guess I don't even know what I'm saying anymore. I used to write a lot better before I went to college.
I'm currently considering University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Get my citizenship. Apply for coop with the NSA while working on major(software and information systems) ( http://www.nsa.gov/careers/opportunities_4_u/students/undergraduate/csp.shtml) then get major in sis (co op again with a company or government)
You are currently not a citizen and you want to work for the NSA? Why?
Do you enjoy math, particularly number theory?
Having said that it's good to have a plan and stick to it.
If math isn't fun you are really not going to like cryptography or really most security related programming.I plan to apply for citizenship the day I turn 18 (25th of December 2013).
NSA/other government agencies, I know the pay isn't all that well but I don't know, their internships are great though. Lots of good opportunities.
Math isn't as fun to me as it used to be.
I like puzzles if that helps
If math isn't fun you are really not going to like cryptography or really most security related programming.
I'll die trying.
The problem is, 75% of the graduating class goes to the same two colleges. >_<
Well, you can find out. You can "take" a intro crypto course for free, i.e., listen to online lectures and do homeworks:
https://www.coursera.org/course/crypto
See if it's your kind of thing.
I've always found this topic very cool, but also very very hard.
No, they went to either KU or Kstate or Washburn. No one from my graduating class went to the college I did.
Well im not basing it off purely their opinions. Most of the stuff they said are true.You can't make these decisions based upon what other people are telling you to do...you're going to end up miserable.
How does one obtain a job without a degree?College is honestly not for me, and I think its mostly for stupid people :/
How does one obtain a job without a degree?
How does one obtain a job without a degree?
College is a good vehicle to get your parents to "invest" into you at a young age. My parents blew all their money though, and the opportunity costs are definitely there.
People don't realize their after-tax income versus student debt payments. Its a sort of "income inflation" where you post up impressive W-2 numbers but your disposable income is just like everyone else who makes 35-45k. You could make 60k and have $500/mo payments or $95k with $1,500 payments or make $35k with no payments and get your taxes refunded, its like all the same shit up until age 40 where degrees pull ahead.
College is a good vehicle to get your parents to "invest" into you at a young age. My parents blew all their money though, and the opportunity costs are definitely there.
People don't realize their after-tax income versus student debt payments. Its a sort of "income inflation" where you post up impressive W-2 numbers but your disposable income is just like everyone else who makes 35-45k. You could make 60k and have $500/mo payments or $95k with $1,500 payments or make $35k with no payments and get your taxes refunded, its like all the same shit up until age 40 where degrees pull ahead.
Well they want me to succeed.
My dad wants me to make more money than he does (100+K a year)
Not everyone who went to college is in debt. I think I paid $10K total for college, I went to an "expensive private school."
In a few years you'll stop caring as much about what your dad thinks. If you want fast money, NSA or any government work is not the way to go.
Fast money right now means either Wall Street or Silicon Valley. Wall Street? Be smart, get a job as a trader, see if you don't get fired or quit within 6 months. If you don't, you'll make some good money until you get sick of the job. Silicon Valley? Major in computer science. Get a job at some Silicon Valley company, I don't know, Zynga. Because of the neverending boom there, entry level pay is easily $100K. You have to be above average, but you don't have to be exceptional.
In either case, you might love it, or you might hate it. Bottom line is what you actually want to do is not really correlated at all with how much money you make doing it.