Things I wish I had known as a new college student

So you’re in high school and you have everyone telling you that you need to be thinking about your future and about college. That can seem like such an overwhelming task when you have no idea what you want to do with your life! If you are someone dealing with college confusion, or even whether or not you should go to college in the first place, then you’ve come to the right place! This blog is here to help you determine whether college is the right step for you and, if so, what the next steps should be.

If you’re like I was when I was a teen then you have no idea what career you might want in the future. I went through phases where I wanted to be a pop star, a lawyer, and a marine biologist; I also thought that I was sure I had no interest in working in healthcare (which I ended up doing for over a decade! Never say never!). I thought the best thing to do would be to go to a 2-year university here in my hometown and figure out what I wanted to do with my life along the way. Looking back, I wish one of the adults in my life had discouraged me from going to college right away and instead urged me to go straight into the workforce (aka “get a job!”) and gain a bit of life experience and wisdom for a few years first. A bit of advice- when you aren’t sure what sort of degree you’d like to get it’s better to skip college and figure that out first, otherwise you may end up in a ton of school debt (which *never* goes away, even if you declare bankruptcy, and can also be passed on to your estate, your children/grandchildren, in the event that your debt outlives you).  So, I repeat, *Do not go to college unless you have a degree in mind and have a career path laid out*. I know that a lot of students go to college and get degrees in various studies but after graduation have absolutely zero job prospects- Yikes!! You definitely want to make sure that the degree you’re going to work so hard to obtain will actually help you land a job in the career of your choice!

Personally, I got my bachelors of science in psychology and I can tell you from experience that alone isn’t enough to land me a job. The only reason I decided to get my undergraduate degree (See: UNDERGRAD VS GRAD DEGREES) in psychology is because my goal in life is to become a counseling psychologist and the best way for me, personally, to do that was to get my undergrad in psychology before applying to graduate school for mental health counseling. Once I finish my current Master’s program then I will work as a counselor for a while before I go BACK to school to obtain a Ph.D. in counseling psychology.

So, with all of that being said, take some time to really stop and think about what you want to be doing as a future career. You will most likely have to go into debt to earn your education but as long as you have a clear path in front of you that ends at a paid job then you will most likely be fine! See other issues like: WILL YOU BE ABLE TO PAY OFF THOSE STUDENT LOANS? WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOUR COLLEGE OF CHOICE IS OVERPRICED AND YOUR FUTURE CAREER IS UNDERPAID

As always, if you have questions that aren’t answered here and you don’t see a blog post available then just leave me a comment below and I’ll happily create one! Take care, everyone!