Alright home boys and girls. This topic concerns post secondary education. Mainly discussing the situation im in concerning my parents not approving my education.

My enrollment in open studies is viewed as a waste of time by my family. they suggest i stay at home and work until I decide what exactly i want to take and blah blah blah, typical child/parent drama.

So im curious as to the opinions of blurrypron users of the open studies program, and of its usefulness, or lack thereof.

Your parents have a valid point of view.

What's important here is 2 things.

1- Whos flippin the bill. If your parents are the ones paying for it they have a say in the sense of your tuition and stuff like that You know? It's important to discuss in great detail why you want to do open studies. If you're just doing open studies to get out of the parents house and be out on your own I'd highly recommend against that. Instead you should move out and work for that year or two, you're still out on your own and not living at home, but not paying $20K for a year of school you dont need. This is probably what your parents are referring to.

2- Are you going to use these years of your schooling towards something you want to do? I mean most people who decide to take post secondary classes know in general what they want to go to, maybe not specifically but at least somewhat.

Anyway, if you need someone to chat with about college and stuff let me know. I might be able to shed some light on some stuff for ya.

Don't make the mistake I did and just throw away 3 grand on something you aren't 100% sure you want to do. Only go to school if you have a valid reason to.

alot of people will also say taking a year off is a waste and that more than likely you wont go back to school but i took a year off myself and i realized what i wanted to do, my suggestion is if your not sure what you want to go to school for then taking time to go live on your own and figure out what you want to do with your life is what you should do, worked for me

Both of Mikes points are very true... take a bit of time and figure out where ya wanna be for a career... biggest thing is make sure you enjoy it.

The thing is, I have already taken a year off. Im anxious to get out of the ol' basement and start making a life for myself. My current job of residential moving is gving me much motive to stay and work another year either.

Im a fairly indecisive person to begin with. It took me like an hour to decide which class i wanted to be on mass effect. and that was only six options. It took my mom til she was fourty to start settling in on something she thought she was sure of. And that was after roughly 22 years of living off my dad. If "Marrying for money" was a viable, dependable life option, I would be all over that shit. And we cant all just be big rock stars...

My point is it could take me forever to find my perfect career. Would an exploration of open studies not give me a certain idea of what would and wouldnt be well suited for me? Discuss

It very well could give you an option. The problem with open studies is that it's costing you money to go and decide. There are other viable options that are offered free of charge.

Lets take for example that you're interested in Computers. First thing you do is decide where you want to take your schooling. If you're unsure of your options in the area, this is a good time to go and talk to your High School advisor (Even though you've been out for a year, they will still book time with you to figure things out.. or SHOULD I guess I should say.)

Once you get your list of schools you can either visit their websites, or get course calendars from them (A course calendar is a list of courses offered and dates they're offered. Most will be from september to april, but this depends on the course and classes)

Once you get your schools list you find what you're interested in, in this exaple its computers. So you flip to the computers section and they list everything off. Example:

Computer Networking (Hardware Specialty), Computer Science (Software Specialty), Computer Engineering (Wiring and theory), etc etc etc

Each course will have a description and a list of classes, skim through and see ify ou like what its offering.

You can also call the school to arrange a student for a day. This is where you basically sit in on the classes for the entire day and audit. It gives you a preview of the course and this is a great time to ask questions, talk to the teachers or students and find out the good and bads.

Then, after all of that. If you're still unsure, BEFORE you sign up on open studies.. Talk to the Counselor at the college you are most interested in and explain what you're looking at. They can help you choose classes or courses that best suit your needs, the other best reason to speak with them are Scholarships. There are a stupid amount of scholarships offered to students just coming into college, just for signing up you're eligable for free money. So be sure to make mention to them.

You dont want to just show up and go into open studies, you might luck out and find something you really want to do, but if you dont then like dukey said, you drop a huge amount of cash and come out of it with nothing at all. Open studies should be used after you do this entire process. That way it's still an option, but you're not soloing out on just that.

And make sure the professor is not named Amanda Ling.

I went into open studies not having a clue what to do, and now I am on a career path that will make me lots of money. And I did the whole research thing, it wasn;t until about the 3rd month in I knew exactly where I wanted to be. But I am glad I took that leap.