-
Cannibal wrote on 2010-04-22 20:31
Alright, right now I'm a Junior in High School. I go to a Tech Prep school for Culinary Arts (Basically, I take a Culinary class half the day, and then I go to my academic classes.) I'll be graduating in a little bit more than a year, so I've started looking into colleges. I know I want to go somewhere for something that has to do with Culinary, what it is isn't important.
Well, I've been thinking. I don't think I want to go to school right away. I think I want to take a year or two off to focus on working and making money, getting settled in an apartment (not that I have to--my mom would be more than happy with me living with her forever) or something...I don't see the need in going from school to school, know what I mean?
So, I was wondering if this was a bad idea or not. I don't see any problems with it, but I can't know for sure. I honestly don't know anything about colleges or how they work. If I go right away, will I be better off? Or will me going to a school like mine, will it still be ok for me to wait?
-
Chiri wrote on 2010-04-22 20:35
If you live in the US, it's a lot easier to get into school than to find a job and hold on to it. It's even harder to get a job without a degree or experience... But you might be lucky. You should probably do research into both areas, and send applications to both.
Once you have offers from both ends, then it's easier to make a choice like that.
-
Chockeh wrote on 2010-04-22 20:36
It should be okay, just don't be lazy.
-
Cannibal wrote on 2010-04-22 20:37
I'm a very non-lazy person. >:|
(Not really. I'm extremely lazy. x-x)
-
Chockeh wrote on 2010-04-22 20:38
Well, just work hard ._.
-
Bankai231 wrote on 2010-04-22 20:39
Well if you are taking the time off to think about work I think its a bad idea. If your thinking about work BEFORE you go to collage it is almost a waste of time imo (If you know what you are gonna do). you could be going to work and school at the same time. You can work at some school campuses as a chef I think to make money for an apartment.
But dont go buy what I say Im 14 and a freshman with no idea what ima do in life :)
-
Chockeh wrote on 2010-04-22 20:41
I'm 15 and trying to live up to my father's expectations...
-
Bankai231 wrote on 2010-04-22 20:43
Quote from Chocklitshop;15367:
I'm 15 and trying to live up to my father's expectations...
same but switch father with mother.
-
Osayidan wrote on 2010-04-22 20:49
Taking time off in itself is fine, but there's two big things wrong with it.
1) Some employers or even schools see it as a weakness when they check up on your info to decide to accept you or not.
2) Why get a job with no degree if you don't absolutely have to, when waiting another few years to get a degree will land you much better jobs instead? If you take a year off and work at some low wage, then go to college for 3 years, you just wasted 1 year of potentially higher salary if you had simply inverted the order of doing things (college then work instead of work then college).
-
Cannibal wrote on 2010-04-22 20:52
I understand what you're all saying.
I was just thinking, a year would be a bit less I'd have to pay off going to school, right? And if I can save money, I'd prefer to.
Taking a semester off was also another option.
-
Chiri wrote on 2010-04-22 20:54
Tuition prices increase every year, at a rate higher than inflation.
If you're taking a low wage job and living on your own, you really won't be saving much money.
-
EndlessDreams wrote on 2010-04-22 21:01
Apply for Government Scholarship/Aid and loans. Go to school, and stay until you can graduate.
Go to the Culinary Collage or whatever, get a job inside the school to fit your schedule or something.
-
Melchinoir wrote on 2010-04-22 22:30
My view on this:
I suggest not doing it. First, if you WERE to take a year off and work, then it would only look good to college if you worked in a good job or did some sort of internship, something that would further your academics. However, these jobs generally require a degree or a degree in progress. So you'll probably end up being stuck with a non-impressive looking job and that will just hurt you when you're applying to colleges. You could try to do an internship during college instead, and that would really help your transcript look good, as opposed to just skipping school for a year to work. Second, taking a year off will most likely deprive you of many scholarship opportunities because a large majority of them are directed towards high school seniors about to head off to college. This might cause you to be stuck taking out large amounts of loans (many of which have extraordinarily high interest rates) and then after you graduate you'll be stuck paying back a ton of money.
Your idea USED to be pretty viable back maybe like, 10 or 15 years ago I'd say? Nowadays though, with the push for higher education in the US and the growing competitiveness for getting a good job (I know people with bachelors degrees who can't get a job because everyone nowadays has one and it means almost nothing anymore), taking a year off to work after graduating really only works if you've just graduated from college and want to go to grad school, and even then, it's only really beneficial if you do some hard core work, like internining a law firm in preparation for law school or volunteering to serve medical needs in a third world country before going to med school.
-
Chockeh wrote on 2010-04-22 22:38
My dad just called me, he wanted me to go into marine engineering, and got me a few recommendations to attend the school, though if I join I'd have to go to Nova-Scotia ~.~, this has lot's of perk's because, very good education, free food/dorm (They even let you attend the school for free), 100% Get a Job after college...But I don't know if this is what I really want...
-
Chillax wrote on 2010-04-23 06:04
Personally, I think you should go into college right after graduation. If you decide to take a year off, you'll need to explain to the college of your choice why you took that year off, and it'll have to be closely related to your field of study.
Take the time to delve into each option yourself, without anyone's interference, and ask yourself what you believe you could spend most your life doing.