Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Planning Vs. Spontaneity

In the past, I have had a lot of trouble with making decisions too late. I decided to transfer schools about one month before the next semester began, and had to wait another whole semester because of it. I decided what school I would enroll in about two months before the year started and had to rush to finish everything on time. I barely made it here.

That being said, I am currently struggling between the two ideas of:

1. Planning out the rest of my time in college

2. letting things happen naturally

I know that it’s a give and take but Bill Gates and Donald Trump didn’t get to where they are by just letting things happen, right? Every day I wake up I want to have a plan. I want to better myself, get an edge on my career, become more culturally aware, make friends, get involved, and so much more.

Right now my major is Documentary Journalism, but I can’t decide whether I should minor in Political Science or double major. I have the time; I’m ahead in my credits. This brings up the question of when should I get an internship? Where? How do I even go about finding one? How does it work? When should I study abroad? How much time do I want to spend away from campus? All these questions happen in about the span of 30 seconds, over and over.

I want to hear some success stories, tips, and advice, from anyone! What is a good balance between the two? I don’t want to wait until senior year and realize that it’s too late to do the things I wanted to. I have a goal to get into NYU for my masters degree, and even if I can’t afford to go, I just want to be good enough to have the option to do whatever I want to. I don't want to be held back because of my lack of action anymore. 

2 comments:

  1. As someone who studied abroad four times, and worked in the study abroad office, I recommend going your junior year of college. If you have the credits, and the time, I think double majoring is better than minoring. In fact, after I graduated, I realized that minors are somewhat pointless.

    As for internships, you have to decide what fields you would like to get a foot in, and then start researching which companies/organizations have internship programs, and then once you decide that you should figure out which semester your schedule will allow time for the extra work.

    I was definitely a planner, and because of that I was able to have 3 amazing internships, 4 study abroad experiences, great jobs that related to what I was interested in, and a 3.9GPA. Go for it all!

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  2. I would definitely recommend figuring out the double major vs. major/minor thing ASAP because then you'll have a better chance of getting some of your classes to count for both majors. If you wait until later, and find a course that COULD have worked for both but you took a different one instead, you'll end up having to take an extra class, which will take longer! So keep an eye on the course requirements and see if there are any crossovers!

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