Not sure what I want to do
 

Alright most of ya'll know I'm a college kid, with no direction. I don't have the slightest clue what I want to or should major in. Anything that starts to get interesting also turns impractical fairly fast, or I just don't have the necessary skills (it seems) to follow through. So I bumble along and take classes. Well its about time I see the counselor at school, find out what exact classes I need to complete an associates. I think I'll get a science associates, that's about as specific as I can get.
I just can't find any focus, most things I like just seem too implausible.
So I think I digress some. Lately I've been wondering about finding a mission trip to go on. Here are my big hang ups though, I don't want it to be religiously associated, no converting the natives! I have never traveled out of the country, or even on a plane. I don't speak a foreign language, just a tiny bit of spanish.
I do want to go outta the country because I should. Everyone should attempt to travel I think, and it would be a good experience, beyond you know helping people. If I do do this it wouldn't be until Summer 2010 at the earliest. Any ideas though?

:D
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What do you find implausible about the things you like? You can make a living out of almost anything. Most things don't take anything more than average intelligence and drive.

People who hang onto their limitations get to keep them.

MTP, I immediately thought of Voluntary Service Overseas but it seems there is no US branch ... must be something similar. I recommend travel!

Travel is great, as long as you don't harbor any illusions about it. It'sfun, educational and may broaden your mind but you're still the same person when you get off the plane as you were when you got on it.

Making the investment and commitment to see a bigger piece of the world won't necessarily give you direction. However, it is a decent use of your time until you settle into a direction.

Peace Corps, mtp? No religious overtones. I know many former volunteers; they're all stellar people.

Perry, I disagree. One volunteer I know got off the plane in Africa as a brash 19-year-old, returned to the States twenty three years later, a well and truly different person.

It can be a very life-altering experience.

I've always regreted not doing Peace Corps or something like it. I say it's a good thing MTP.

If I were 18 and just done with HS I would consider Peace Corps. Usually its a 2yr commitment, atleast to start out, I only want to be gone a few months. I might not be done with my associates by then. After I reasses my curricular path, I'll know better when it will be complete. Who knows, mebbe by 2010, if I'm done with the associates, I'll feel like I could leave for 2years. Just incase though I'm tryin to find shorter-commitment time alternatives.

The time will pass anyway...

I would say it was the time and commitment to do something significant more than the going somewhere that changed him. Of course the environment and the person at his core determined who he became. It's the twenty three years that changed him. Not the fact that he went somewhere.

No, the fact that he was exposed to a very different set of people and circumstances than he grew up with. It challenged him in a very real way. He did accept the challenge in the first place, but it was the work, the people and the place that changed him. (According to him.)

The Marine Corps wants you.

There are many options for you to teach English overseas. Anyone with a college degree (and many without one) can get work in most countries. You don't need a teaching or English degree.
It is a great way to travel and see the world and either make some money or at least pay your expenses as you go.
You can earn and save quite a bit in Korea or Japan, earn a living in most other Asian nations. South America, Africa and the Middle East have lots of earning-a-living opportunities too, although Europe is harder for anyone without a British passport.

I cannot find the link but there are schools in Thailand where you come for 4 or 8 weeks and they teach you how to be a teacher and get you teaching.

I know someone who is teaching English in Japan. She studied history at University, and only spoke English and German, but now she's over there working in a school. Costs a little for the training, of course, but it does seem a good career. Or did, at least, I think finances may be changing that right now...either way, its something worth looking into.

The problem with many travelling and doing aid type jobs is that they cost a lot. The Peace Corps sound pretty good, but with many of the other charities, you pay to go, and if you have no or little money, that can be very hard. I did one for World Challenge which cost a few thousand to go on, when everything was totalled up. And that wasn't even for a year.

I do expect the costs. I have some savings that don't have a real designation, that is what I would plan on using. Hopefully I'll still have those savings by the time. You never know what'll happen.

good luck, mtp.

OK so I think I have decided on Peace Corps. I mean, what else am I gonna be doin anyway? Yes I have family obligations here, but they're just gonna have to live without me.
I'm thinking about volunteering with Cross-Culture Solutions before I join Peace Corps. 2 reasons: to be sure I want to do this kind of work, and to get experience for my application for Peace Corps.
If CCS and Peace Corp don't work out, I might try AmeriCorp, but they don't thrill me. I don't have good reasons for not likin AmeriCorps tho. Just how I am.
First I have to finish my associates, which I still haven't found out how many more classes I need. I will though, soon. Very soon.

Anyway, I know ya'll weren't curious, but I thought I would update ya'll anyway.

mtp, I was always under the impression that you had to have a bachelor's degree to join the peace corps, so I went to find the qualifications. You have probably seen this, but here is a "am I qualified" section. They say a 4 year degree isn't absolutely necessary for some programs, but can increase your chances of being accepted.

http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?...howvol.qualify

Good luck.

MTP I am in your boat and I to have chosen the core. And according to both my recruiter and my advisories you should finish as much school as you can before you began with a bachelors being required or about 10 years experience in construction. With the peace core they will pay you and deferred your loans, if you have any, for school. All the info is on the site.

Yeah I know, I just have no clue what bachelors I would get, and where, ect.
Plus its takin me over 4yrs to get my associates, I shudder to think how long it'll take for me to get a bachelors. Its not that I don't have the dedication to do so, but I have to work and right now I'm damn lucky I don't have to work full-time. In other words, not wanting to go for a bachelors. So I'm gonna try to be an exception.
I did take that little test or whatever and it says "Your responses to the quiz suggest there might be a place for you in the Peace Corps! Take a look at the link below to find out more specifically how you may qualify with your associate degree. If you find your education and experience appear to match our needs, we recommend that you to read the remaining links on this page to find out what you can do next."

They have a list of associates that qualify, right now I haven't committed myself to any, and I was already planning on getting 2 associates.

One bachelors is general better than two associates, and from what I have seen most people don't do what they went to school for anyway. So get it in whatever you like. Perhaps one of the humanities.

Whatever you decide to do, do it before you get married and have kids.

I know you're not in a relationship now, but so many people feeling like you do tend to view a relationship/marriage as the solution to "I don't know what to do with my life." Ask me how I know, heh. That will definitely settle a few things for you, by means of removing options. :(

I envy you. I wanted to travel, or at least move away somewhere and be independent for a while. But I got guilted into being a good girl, staying home, getting a job and settling down because I had parents who would've been "heartbroken" if I had been more adventurous.

What tora says is absolutely true. Unless you're in a highly specialized field, it does not matter what your degree is, just that you HAVE one. My Associates is in liberal arts. Nothing wrong with that.

Do not be the woman in the rocking chair asking yourself "why didn't I...?" We all make, have made, and will make choices about the paths we take, but if you want to try to do something DO IT.

mtp, I've said that you are wiser than your years. YOu can do anything!

I reckon your work experience and independance should offset some of the "harm" of not having a 4-year degree. Anyway, I'm sure I read 4-year degree, not bachelors. Well you said you took 4 years, so I reckon you're sorted! :lol: Good Luck.

Lots of great advice here MTP. You are in the place my son is right now. Study what you love and the rest will fall in place later. For the PC and many other service organizations it really doesn't matter what you get your degree in, only that you have one. Good luck.

what is an associate?

it's like half a bachelor's.

can you add two together and make it a degree?

That came out clumsily..What I mean is, is it like bachelor level but only half the course, or is it a level before bachelors?

mort,

learn pharmaceuticals. big job market there. look at how many pharmacies there are springing up.

Two associates won't make a Bachelor's (4 year degree) - an associates IS a degree, but is usually equated with more technical skills - X-ray, nursing (though nursing can be a 4 year degree), computer repair, heating and air conditioning, etc.

associates are more hands-on and less philosophical. They don't require tons of general education classes.

it's a level below a Bachelors.

an HND would probably be the closest equivalent -do they still do those?

ooh Bri explained it much better, sorry, didn't see that

Thankyou! Yes that makes sense now. Not sure if HNDs still around. Might be. We don't have any polytechnics now, they're all *coughs* 'universities'. Apparently we're aiming for 50% university attendance...so in order to achieve that goal every area of training has some kind of 'degree' available. So, if we change the names of all the institutions to 'universities' and change the technical diplomas to 'degrees' then everybody will be fooled into thinking we've removed inequity and opened up educational possibilities to all.

A Bachelors is a 4 year degree there? It's 3 years here mainly, I think. Though there are 4 year bachelors available. And if you did a foundation year then that ends up as a 4 year degree.

Mine's a 3 year Bachelor (honours) degree.

Actually, over here a 4 year degree can take up to five years to get and a two year degree can take 3! It's all in supply/demand of the required core classes.

One of the things people do here to help defray cost is take all the electives they can at a (much cheaper) two year school and then transfer all those credits to a four year Univeristy and get the Bachelor's that way. and yeah, Uni's will take tons of two year schools ('colleges' over here) credits - they work hand in hand with a lot of them.

main disadvantage in having a 2 year degree is advancement in management. for example, an RN in Ohio will make the same salary whether she's a 2 year degree RN or a four year degree RN. Experience will dictate raises, etc. BUT, if you want to go into nursing management you'll need that Bachelor's.

Brits start school a year earlier and specialize much earlier (although degrees are getting broader in the UK now) here, bachelor's students study a more diverse range of topics than even A-level students (16-18) in the UK. generally, the first year at Uni here is similar to the last year of high school at UK -then we all finish in the same place! Many American students in Birmingham (where I was a TA) had to do an extra year to get them "up to speed" in their major, but they had a much more advanced general knowledge base than their UK counterparts.

Another option is inspired by a friend of mine.
He dropped out of uni and worked in a restaurant, first as kitchen hand then as assistant chef/cook. He saved and bought a round-the-world air ticket, flew to London and got a live-in job in a pub there. SG might be abe to advise you on these. Within months he was "head chef" and on the strength of this experience has been able to wander around the world at will and get cash work in any English speaking country. He has spent years overseas, seen most of Europe, North America, and some of Asia, and a lot of Australia, and can get work within a week in almost any place he needs to. They always need dishpigs, and a decent cook is always in demand. He has no formal training or qualifications but has years of experience.
Longer term, he has returned to his home town, and by juggling part-time restaurant work and house renovation, he now owns his own very nice house with no debt, has wife and child, works about 20 hours a week. He is 36 and basically semi-retired.
If you want to see the world AND set yourself up with a realiable schtick, this is one good way.

We seem to be reversing the trend rather, over here. Kids are arriving in uni with a very broad but disconnected knowledge base and very little experience in detailed study. Where the big jump used to happen between o-level (gcse) and a-level, and a-level was very much the preparation for Uni; now the big jump seems to be between a-level and degree, and the gcse's are a prep for a-level. The first year of the degree often has to sweep up a lot of stuff they wuold once have learned in a-level. Not so much in terms of content, but rather study-skills and learning approaches.

I was talking to one lass who had come straight through sixth form into uni; and in two years of doing her a-levels she had to visit the library once. Anything theyhad to read that wasn't in thge coursebook was provided for them in photocopy form. She at no point had to learn to use an index effectively. At no point was she expected to find information. What a crippling disadvantage to give a kid who is intent on doing a Humanties degree.

The longest essay she'd had to write was two sides of an a4 sheet. Not much effort seemed to have been put into linking the different topics and periods covered in her History a-level. I recall the a-level I did in history very much did. But that was a long time ago. The system's changed completely now.

They've messed about with the a-level that much it's tacitly recognised by all concerned that it is no longer either a preparation for degree, or a worthwhile method of deciding capabilities for entrance to university. So...they tagged on an A* grade. If you want to get into a good uni, an A is no lomger enough *smiles* now you need an A*. Now they're shifting away completely and trying to move to a bacheloriate (sp?).

They've fixed the fuck out of A-levels, let's see how well they can fix the rest.

OK, found out I can only get 1 associates, not sure why but 'dems the rules. So, just gonna get my associates in science, which I have less than 2 full semesters left. A total of 20hrs, 6 classes and I'll be done. Of course I can take other classes for the hell of it :). So, guess I need to talk to a recruiter for peace corps and see what they might want. Talking to people face to face makes me nervous, I don't like the phone much more.

PROTIP: be sure to pronounce it "core", not "corpse". They hate that.

Yes...er thank you UT.

Are there people who really not know that?

For a second I forgot I'm not on a Discordian board and I was thinking "but it IS pronounced core" and I was confused. :lol:

I knew two people who went off to the peace corps. One went to Mali, and the other went to the Dominican Republic. They each spoke highly of the peace corps, but both of them had poop stories to regale friends with afterward.

They were just unlucky, such things will not happen to me.
:greenface

mark that post!