Summer Break – Post High School Edition

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Last time, I discussed tips that would be useful for a student entering their final year of high school. This time, I will be discussing tips that I believe would favor a college-bound high school graduate. By this time, I expect that students already know which college they’re going to. I know that I made these tips pretty hefty so I’m keeping the intro and closing short, so let’s get straight into this. Here are a few tips that I would give to an incoming college freshman:

  1. Rethink your possible career path(s) interests

You have a short time left before beginning the college life. Many students have a hard time still trying to figure out what they would like to do with their future. And I mean, why wouldn’t that be the case? Going to school for most of our lives, students miss the chance to explore their ambitions. We are put into the school system, which pushes greatly to continue towards college. But this can often lead to students that are going to college simply because it is strongly recommended, or to “get a job.” If you’re about to attend college with this type of mentality alone, you have a lot of thinking to do. Anyone with this mentality should look into different careers that could be of interest. You aren’t just going to college for a job, or to make your family happy. Although these can be good motivators, they shouldn’t be primary motives. Having those reasons as primary motives can leave you with a low effort lifestyle for the next four years or so. You might settle for almost anything, whether that be bad grades, no initiative, etc. Having a career in mind allows students to have an end goal to focus on for their duration in college. It leads to greater motivation when working on college classes because you will have a concrete reason for working so hard.

Now for those who believe they have a set career in mind… think again! Haha… no seriously. This isn’t to belittle anyone’s thoughts and actions at all. Instead, this is for insurance. Interests change over time, and not realizing and acknowledging these changes can lead to regret later on. For example, your reason for going to college could be that your whole life you’ve been thinking that you want to become a medical doctor. This has been your career goal from the time you were 6 years old. However, you’ve grown a lot since then. You’ve gained new interests, lost old interests, and have learned a lot over the past few years of your life. You may have made a decision to go to a school known for pursuing medical track. You get accepted there, attend the school, and went along with the medical track. It’s your 3rd year in college and you realize something… you don’t really care about becoming a medical doctor. That, in my opinion, is a SCARY realization. You’ve already completed two years of your college career in the medical track when all this time, you could have been on the computer science track because you took a class one day and realized programming was the best thing you’ve ever done in your college career!

Now, honestly, don’t you think you should rethink what your career goals are? You may think that I made up the story above. I did, but I’ve seen situations very similar to it. Like, why do you want to become a medical doctor? Why do you want to be an engineer? Rethink your career goals because your interests may have changed. One method I had for this was to watch videos about the career I wanted to focus on and those that seem interesting. I would watch YouTube videos where people gave their reasons as to why they went for engineering, the difficulties they went through, what they do now on the job, etc. These types of videos helped me to gain a better understanding of engineering and gain insight as to what it entailed in more realistic details.

  1. Deeply research your intended major

Once you have a few ideas of possible career goals you would like to pursue, it’s time to think of which major to stick with. This can be a simple choice, but I tend to see it as part of the strategy of life. For example, let’s say I change my mind and decide that Software Engineering is what I would like to pursue after graduating. Right now, I’m a Junior double majoring in Electrical Engineering and General Mathematics. I’m two years deep already, similarly to the example I gave earlier. However, I have a few advantages over others who change their mind later on. With my current major, I can actually easily still pursue my new career goal of Software Engineering. For example, I’ve already taken Computer Programming I & II. I’ve also already completed the requirements for receiving a minor in Mathematics, which at my school, engineers must take these for their minor: Calculus I, II, & III; Differential Equations; Linear Algebra. Basically, I’m on track for getting a minor in Computer Science. All I would have to do is drop one of my majors to have space to pick up an emphasis in Computer Science. I prefer Electrical Engineering, so I could drop my General Mathematics major to pursue the emphasis in Computer Science. Checkmate!

As you just read, it’s possible to have a career strategy in college. I knew that engineering and math were big interests of mine, but when I started searching up the different careers (like I mentioned at the end of Tip 1), a few more caught my eye. Computer Science was one of them. Since then, I entered college with the thought in the back of my head, “Computer Science may be a possibility for me.” Because of that, I took Programming I & II within my first two years of college, while also completing my math minor requirements and completing a good amount of my Electrical Engineering requirements. This way, I received experience in all three of my big interests. I want you to notice a key feature of the three interests I chose to focus on. Similar classes. I started off with only Electrical Engineering because it held most of my interests at the time. However, by choosing this, I automatically would receive a minor in Math (because of the curriculum at Lincoln University of PA) and I would have to take Programming I &II. I receive experience in my smaller interests even while I pursue the main at the time. Since STEM majors usually have to take a few classes in other types of STEM fields, it’s always possible to get a minor in those other STEM fields. Biology majors pursuing medical school must take Calculus, so that helps in the incentive to get a minor in Math.

Do your research on the majors of a school so that you can try to play some strategic chess with your college career. It’s beneficial simply because this can help you to not have too much stress based off of being in the right major later on. Remember, this is your future you’re playing with if you make choices without much thought.

  1. Look into the classes you’re likely to take your first semester

After all the classes information I mentioned above, you may be wondering what I will try to say here. Not as much as the first two Tips honestly. This is just another big insurance policy that you should consider in this game of life. Many freshmen take classes that they absolutely do not need. Now, this isn’t me bashing people who take extracurriculars that have nothing to do with their major. I believe that can be healthy if it’s something of interest or can be beneficial for other factors of the life game. My problem is this. Many students take a class, thinking that they needed it to graduate with a certain major or to take certain graduate school exams, like the MCAT. Now, this is a problem. If the student knew that the class was not necessary, they may have decided to use the space in their schedule to take a mandatory class or one of great interest. That would be frustrating if I was in the situation. What’s scary about this is that your advisor may be the person telling you to take the non-mandatory class, telling you that it’s necessary. That’s ridiculous. Make sure to double check your sources by getting the opinion of more than one person. After I was helped with my first-semester class scheduling, I looked elsewhere to double check if taking those classes were mandatory and beneficial at that point in time for me. Up to now, I don’t fully really on my advisor. I check the classes mandatory for me in the Academic Catalog, where the classes for every major (and minor) could be found. College websites show what classes are expected to be taken by students in certain majors during their Freshman year so take advantage of that. Make sure you know what’s mandatory for your first semester, what’s greatly recommended, and what can be taken as well as part of your strategy to checkmate your college career.

  1. Look into the possible clubs/organizations that will benefit your career

Joining a club/org is beneficial in various ways. The main benefit I want to speak on is the gaining of experience. Experience, like I said in the last blog, is an asset. If there’s a club/org that involves your major or career, joining opens opportunity of gaining experience in your field. Even if there aren’t any clubs/orgs that hold similar interests to your career, try to join one that interests you, and eventually aim for getting a leadership role. This is another experience that is very beneficial because it prepares you for the corporate world. Joining a club/org helps you to meet and work with peers that have similar interests to you. Social interaction is very important. Knowledge and experience are great, but try not to forget about the social part of your life. Like it or not, your social life has an impact on your mental health. It may not hit you during college, but after you’ve left there, you may find yourself regretting not having some fun with others. I’m personally an introvert, so I don’t tend to want to hang out with others often. However, I do make sure to get in a healthy amount of social interaction with others.

Not sure how direct I’ve explained it so far, but what I’m saying is to look into clubs/orgs of interest early on, before you begin the school year. My reason for that is so you won’t get distracted by other clubs/orgs during your orientation period. Simply, you shouldn’t be in everything, because you may end up stretching yourself thin. Instead, try to get yourself concentrated in a few select stuff, although, the first priority would be your classes.

  1. Keep busy during the summer

Now, this may be opposed by some, but it is helpful in the long run. You should not be at home without anything to do during the summer break. No, chores do not count as something! Make sure you get relaxation in, but, that shouldn’t be the only thing you’re doing. There’s so much that can be done! Do you need some extra money for college? Try to get a job. Does your college give a mandatory placement exam for English and Math before the classes begin? Study for those exams to ensure you aren’t placed into remedial classes or get placed into the highest possible English and Math classes for the freshman year. That would be a great head start by the way. Are you thinking of going towards the Computer Science track? It really wouldn’t hurt to try to learn about programming during the summer. There’s a summer program for recent high school graduates? Go for it. Whenever you have huge amounts of free time, strive to use a good amount of that time doing something that can benefit you and your goals. Keeping busy also maintains a working mindset. This is beneficial because when you start college, you won’t go through that situation of not being able to stay focused in classes. You can also build a habit of consistent effort. Habits are hard to build. When it’s time to look for internships or research, your effort building during the summer can be the start to you keeping a habit of striving to gain great opportunities during the breaks, and even during the college semesters.

Thank you for reading through these five tips! This period between high school graduation and the beginning of your freshman year of college is a time that can be used very resourcefully. It can be used to get some relaxation before starting your higher education. That’s great and all, but you should use your summer better than that. Use the summer resourcefully so that you’re prepared for your new lifestyle, that of college.

Please let me know how if you find these tips helpful in the comments down below. Also, if there’s any topic you believe I should discuss, let me know. Make sure to check out my YouTube channel as well!

This is the link to the video I made on this topic: Heading to College Soon?