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When I get to college, what should my priority be?
Should I be searching for internships right away when I know what I want to pursue in the future? Or should I be exploring my options, for example maybe focusing a majority of my time in studying, or out making friends?
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Xiaonan (Shannon)’s Answer
I believe if you manage your time well all of the options are not exclusive! Internship is very important, that's something that can bring you to the real world and understand what's going on/if you like this career path. Internship can also introduce you to the career network!
Meanwhile, studying is important too. I don't suggest to study for a perfect GPA, but at least try to connect what you learnt and real world experience and make the knowlege "yours".
You can for sure make friends at school! Classmates, friends from clubs, students groups, etc. You'll also make friends from your internship.
Time managing is important!
Always remember, you probably only attend college once (maybe more times but less possible), so try to explore as much as you could!
Good luck!
Meanwhile, studying is important too. I don't suggest to study for a perfect GPA, but at least try to connect what you learnt and real world experience and make the knowlege "yours".
You can for sure make friends at school! Classmates, friends from clubs, students groups, etc. You'll also make friends from your internship.
Time managing is important!
Always remember, you probably only attend college once (maybe more times but less possible), so try to explore as much as you could!
Good luck!
Robert Rossi
Many things! But mostly chemistry and chemical engineering
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Robert’s Answer
College is your very best, and sometimes your only real, chance to explore a truly wide range of intellectual pursuits and possible career paths. (Note that even at a huge college, some are not available, though! Like naming pharmaceuticals, as one example: you can't take classes in that, per se!) If you can at all afford it, explore when you are in college. Take classes in topics that are new to you. Try different things. You might be shocked at how much your future plans change, and college is the best and easiest time for that to happen. I thought I knew what I wanted to do when I grew up and barreled through in four years hell-bent on a career path...only to realize I was very good at it, but really didn't like it. Reinventing after college has been much harder than it would have been being more open-minded while I was there.
I was a real bookworm, but still found time for fun and friends...I think that's almost impossible to avoid in college. While you are there you feel like you are soooooo busy, but after college is over you long for the long conversations you had time for, the extracurriculars, even the time to daydream, and you feel like you were so carefree, footloose, and fancy free in those years. College requires more hard work and discipline than you have probably had to put in up to now, but it is a step on the path to adulthood, in which the hard work and discipline you learn in college are a baseline for survival. Growing up I kept thinking "Once I get through this, everything will be easy!" Life doesn't work that way...doing well and working hard begets more hard work and success...you have to find the right balance yourself--nobody else will do it for you--and the sooner you manage it, the better. Walking through every door open to you, all the time, is a sure-fire path to burnout. Choose what you pursue: don't let it choose you!
If you *think* you have a good idea of your career path, an internship is a great way to give that a reality check! But you often won't be eligible for one until you are several years into a course of study, so there is usually little point in pursuing one as a means of exploring your options. (Companies want people for internships who can actually contribute, and who they have a chance of hiring after graduation.) They are much more important for some career paths (engineering or applied math, as examples) than for others (pure math or philosophy, for example).
I was a real bookworm, but still found time for fun and friends...I think that's almost impossible to avoid in college. While you are there you feel like you are soooooo busy, but after college is over you long for the long conversations you had time for, the extracurriculars, even the time to daydream, and you feel like you were so carefree, footloose, and fancy free in those years. College requires more hard work and discipline than you have probably had to put in up to now, but it is a step on the path to adulthood, in which the hard work and discipline you learn in college are a baseline for survival. Growing up I kept thinking "Once I get through this, everything will be easy!" Life doesn't work that way...doing well and working hard begets more hard work and success...you have to find the right balance yourself--nobody else will do it for you--and the sooner you manage it, the better. Walking through every door open to you, all the time, is a sure-fire path to burnout. Choose what you pursue: don't let it choose you!
If you *think* you have a good idea of your career path, an internship is a great way to give that a reality check! But you often won't be eligible for one until you are several years into a course of study, so there is usually little point in pursuing one as a means of exploring your options. (Companies want people for internships who can actually contribute, and who they have a chance of hiring after graduation.) They are much more important for some career paths (engineering or applied math, as examples) than for others (pure math or philosophy, for example).