Applying to University was probably the most exciting time of my young life. I knew for sure that I wanted to get a higher education and it seemed like an opportunity to finally prove myself by going from some high school to an institution that people recognize and will forever judge you for (you meet someone new and they tell you they go to MIT, what is your first thought?). I know some people toyed with where they wanted to go and made lists of their dream schools, their realistic schools, and their safety school all ranked in terms of who they would accept if they got in to them all. The big question around the hallway was “where did you get in?” and "whats your first choice?".
For me I never really got into that whole circus. I was reserved as a kid, but knew I was better at math and science than english and history and the University of Waterloo was focused on those areas, a great school and the perfect distance away from home. UW is most famous for their engineering program so it seemed like the right thing to do as it was a combination of those. They also had this internship program that seemed alright but I didn't really think much of it. There wasn’t an ah-ha moment, or one conversation that I could point to that changed my perspective in a big way. I never did extensive research or make even one college trips (some people made a career out of it and went to 10 schools taking weeks off of class). It was completely undramatic. At the time I did not have the foresight that we would be heading into one of the greatest economic recessions of history, and that I would probably graduating at the worst possible time to be job hunting, or that there were a lot of benefits to having a professional degree at a school with an internship program that is geared towards getting you to graduate with a job and no student debt. I got to that place completely by accident. Now that I am here I want to make sure that if you are reading this you can get to this place by being smart and not lucky.
The very first question that you should ask yourself is "what do I want to do for the rest of my life?" and then "how can this decision set me up to get there?". For most high school seniors that question hasn't crossed their mind and that is a big problem. Every time you make a decision about your education you should have those two question plastered on the front of your brain. Whether its picking a class, joining a club, accepting a university offer, or choosing a major at the end you be able to explain how this is going to help you get where you want to go. University is a time to build the resumé that you will present to the job market at the end of four years. Things like the social situation will sort themselves out and whether you like it or not you will have to do some adjustments to your lifestyle after you go from the high school down the street to the big university, thats just part of life.
Asking what you want to do with your life is not by any means an easy question. Not many of us grow up knowing what they want to be, most of us have some interests but its not easy to translate those interests into a specific job (If I like being outdoors does that mean I should be a forest ranger?). If that is your case realize that majoring in medieval history may be a blast but it is not worth the paper value of your diploma in the job market, especially if you have no job experience (maybe working at Medieval Times would be a good internship if thats what you are really interested in?). People tend to get interested in the things that they get good at so follow something that you think you might be able to get good at and can get you the most best graduation present you could ever ask for: a JOB IN YOUR FIELD.
