When i'm a senior and still unsure of where/if I even want to go to college?

Question

I'm a senior, school starts Wednesday. I'm unsure if I want to go to college. I want to go to a music school, and I was looking at Full Sail University. But now i'm unsure. The thought of college and scholarships and all that makes me really anxious. I know I shouldn't avoid it. I don't know what to do.

Comments

Not an answer, but just some words of wisdom.  After this school year, the timeline of “have to” ends.  Take a gap year- or don’t.  Go full time to school- or part-time and work/volunteer.  The best thing you can do after high school is manage your debt.

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First of all, hugs for going through this tough decision! For many of us, it's tough to make decisions about our career at such a young age, with little surety. I'm not from your country so I cannot guide you around this, but Bluesavannah71's comment sounds good.

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When you say that school starts on Wednesday, did you actually mean that its your college that starts on Wednesday or is it high school? The decision about whether to go either way needs to be taken before Wednesday or is it after you finish this school?

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Sorry for the multiple comments, but could you elaborate a little on why the thought of scholarship and college makes you anxious? Is it because of the academics, or you think that getting a scholarship is compulsory for you somehow, or do you just hate going to school altogether?

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High school. I'm a senior. It feels like now that i'm a senior, I can't do anymore avoiding about whether or not I want to go to college, or even my career choice. I have to do a senior project. It's basically where you pick a career and have to look around for colleges for it, and talk to people in that field, and all this other stuff. I'm not even sure what I want to be (I want to be a songwriter but I need something that's "realistic").

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It's okay. I don't really know. I think it's just the uncertainty of if I want to go to college. I want to, but I also know I don't have the money for it. So that stresses me out. I just don't know if I should go or not, and it seems like i'm running out of time to decide.

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I don't see how wanting to be a songwriter should be unrealistic in the eyes of the school staff. I can understand if parents and elders around generally dismiss that idea because they come from a different time. However, the school staff would probably have met other students like you who want to be a songwriter and are thinking about it and might even have witnessed some people going down that path. Have you tried speaking to some school staff who is approachable, or perhaps the music teacher in your school? Perhaps, speaking to them and revealing your anxiety inside might help make the decision easier for you. I wish you good luck with your decision. If you still need help then feel free to ping me back. :)

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Thank you. That's the problem. Barely any of the staff or teachers in my school are approachable. I don't know why but the music teacher dislikes me. And I guess it's not really unrealistic, but I feel very judged. I'm not very liked in my school and everyone views me as a talentless loser. But you know, that's a personal issue. It's just me having to get control on my anxiety. And I feel as though everyone has their lives figured out, and colleges they want to go to. I feel behind and i'm afraid I won't be able to catch up.

Answer 1

This could be an opportunity for me to do a couple of things. So far, I haven't tried speaking to other musicians / people who have careeers in the music industry. Perhaps I could discuss with them about my situation and quiz them on a couple of things about how they felt. This could be an opportunity for me to learn more about the music school. A couple of ways forward would be:

• Check on LinkedIn and see if I can spot any person who's graduated from Full Sail University. Perhaps, I try to contact them.
• Check on Facebook if Full Sail University has a page or a group. If they do, then I could go there and make a post asking for help for this decision or try to ping some of the members individually.
• Perhaps, I could try to meet some musicians in real life. And then interview them about whether the decision was tough for them too, and whether it worked out for them.
• I could even go to the Full Sail University and try to speak to the Dean over there, or the teachers and discuss with them. If they're teaching/working over there then they too might have faced this tough decision some time in their lives.

Perhaps, I'll be able to decide only after I've discussed with some of them.

Comments

This actually helps a lot. Thank you for all your great answers! The only thing really stopping me from doing this is my anxiety on the whole college subject. Which, I need to work out, obviously. But i'll definitely keep this stuff in mind.

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You're most welcome! You could also try to make a post in reddit.com/r/mmfb, /r/musicians, or /r/advice

Answer 2

Although this is a tough situation for me, but I'm not along in this. There are many of us who have to make this tough decision about whether to go to college or drop-out, or whether to even continue school.

Answer 3

Even though I am unsure, it doesn't mean that my life is bad. It means that I have the capability for actually survivve both the options. This only means that if I go through music school I'll survive or if I go through the normal high school then too I'll survive.

If I was incapable of surviving school then the choice would have been easy to make.

Answer 4

Although I have a tough decision to make, my life itself, isn't bad because anxiety is a very normal thing before school or college starts. There is anxiety of various forms just before it starts:

• "Do I even want to go to school"? - the uncertainty about my own feeling
• "Should I go to this school or go to a different one instead"? - the fear of making a wrong choice
• "School is about to start. Will it be okay if I just let things be?" - the anxiety around being inside school perhaps
• There are other anxieties when our mind starts imagining scenarios around both routes.

Answer 5

I'm staying up all night thinking about this burning decision on my head. The anxiety makes me feel like I won't be able to decide. But on the other hand, anxiety surrounding a decision also means that I don't have enough data in my hand to make a fair decision.

• Will I make sufficient money if I go to a music school?
• Would I still like music after I went down that route?
• How did people who go to a music school feel after a couple of years? Did they go to college? Did they graduate?

Perhaps, this is an opportunity for me to discuss with some elders around me about this decision.

Answer 6

Because school sucks for many of us! College usually gets a little better and later by the time you're working a job and earning for yourself you're kinda out of academics. You still need to study and learn new stuff but it's not as on-the-head as academics are.

Answer 7

But I think that I will still survive in either choice. If I continue going through normal college then I could still persue music as a normal hobby. If I somehow find out the process for getting into the music school and complete it, then I think that I will still survive that way too.

Answer 8

Once I pursue it as PASSION and not as responsibility the stress inside me will vanish.

I feel SONG WRITING is passion and I love doing it.