I Have No Idea What I Want To Study In College.

[anthonych414]

Hello, I'm 16 in the 10th grade honors section, and I don't really know what I want to do in life. I'm fascinated by physics and mathematics I'm also really good at both and I think it would be cool to study either pure math or theoretical physics but I'm concerned about the lack of job opportunities and limited salary, I've also considered going into computer engineering because I'm really good at computer stuff but I don't think a job in computer engineering would be fun, I've also considered becoming a doctor because the idea of solving medical problems and mysteries thrilling but I'm a little lazy and I don't study much and i think I might not be able to spend 12 years in college memorizing textbooks I'd rather be solving them. And some days i just feel like i should move to the regular section and study something easy like business so i could have more free time to surf and skate and enjoy life.

Sorry for the long post and thanks for any help.

 

[mathwonk]

College will give you the opportunity to take many different courses and meet many different people and find out what you will like. You should take advantage of this chance to explore as many areas as feasible. But none of them will offer fulfillment if you continue to be lazy and only want to ski and skateboard and goof off. That would be a tremendous waste of your time, your professors' time, and of a chance to prepare yourself for a rewarding life, and will result in a huge loss of valuable opportunity. If that is your plan it might be better to delay going to college, earn your own way for a while and find out how tough it is to make a go of life on your own.

 

[anthonych414]

Actually I can't in my country I have an extra year of high school(I'm from Lebanon) so I go directly into sophomore year so I don't have a freshman year to explore. And I think you've got the wrong idea about me I do well in school I just don't have to study as much as others in scientific subjects but I'm not a slacker.

 

[Vanadium 50]

I would suggest that you really don't need to decide this for a while. Work hard in high school, get into a good college that's strong in many programs, and decide what to major in 4 years from now.

 

[anthonych414]

Actually I can't I have to choose next year because I hve to decide whether I want to Go to the Life Science section (Doctor), General Science(Engineering, Physics, or Math), or Sociology and Economics(Business).

 

[sweetpotato]

Do you know anyone who is a doctor, engineer, scientist, or businessperson? If you do, perhaps you can ask them what it is like to work in their field.

 

[Angry Citizen]

If I were you, I'd start in engineering. It's easier to transfer from engineering than it is to transfer to engineering. Besides, the first year of engineering is physics, chemistry, math, and some basic engineering classes like statics and dynamics. The first year of physics and mathematics is pretty similar, but minus the basic engineering classes.

 

[AlephZero]

Actually I can't I have to choose next year because I hve to decide whether I want to Go to the Life Science section (Doctor), General Science(Engineering, Physics, or Math), or Sociology and Economics(Business).

I think your big choice is between Life Sci and General Sci. IMO it doesn't make any sense to start specialising in "Business" so early. You can do something like an MBA later on starting from any other qualifications, if that's what you want.

The choice between the other two IS a big one. Eng, Physics and Math probably leave more options open to you. With a physics or engineering background you could work in biomechanics or medical physics (developing Xray machines, body scanners, etc) later, but if you don't have the basic math and physics courses it would be harder to move from medicine into science or engineering.

 

[math.py]

If you plan it out correctly, you could double major in physics and pure math. I imagine that at any uni, a lot of the requisite classes for these two majors overlap, so you won't be taking twice the course load; more like 1.6 the course load. With these two majors you can specialize in a variety of areas later on. And although your future school's physics and math program may or may not require it, programming has become a requirement for doing physics and math in the real world, so you can use some of your skills with computer "stuff."

As for the lazy thing, there isn't really much to say besides; stop it now... or find something you enjoy enough so that this isn't a factor.