Before going into medicine, you should have some idea of your scientific skills. Becoming a doctor and becoming a scientist are very different things, but you need to have a good solid academic base, and be fairly comfortable with the sciences, with an obvious emphasis on the life sciences. If the thought of memorizing another biology term is too much for you to bear, you should probably look elsewhere for a career. If, however, you’re excited to learn about the human body and how it works, then you might have what it takes to become a doctor.  If you still love helping people but want something less technical, consider going to nursing school.

Why It Rocks

As stated before, being a doctor is one of the most honored professions in existence. As a doctor, you can directly impact people’s live by attempting to improve their health. For many, this is the most rewarding thing in the world.

In addition to this, you will also enjoy high pay and status as a side benefit. Though this should not be your only motivation, of course, but its not a bad thing as far as perks go. Doctors, because of their high level of training, are highly paid. Because of the difficulty of achieving the position, as well as nature of the job, doctors also enjoy a very high social status. Not bad things at all, if you can get them.

Why It Sucks

Stress. Throughout your entire career as a doctor, from the education to the practice, you will be under intense stress. Starting with the grueling, demanding medicals schools,continuing through the sleep free residency years, and finally practicing medicine where people’s lives and health are in your hands, being a doctor is always an intense experience. Make sure that you perform well under stress, or else this career won’t work well for you.

Additionally, those who go into medicine just for the money and status tend to be very unhappy with the profession. Yes, they have money and status, but now they also have a hectic work schedule with long hours and lots of pressure. If you don’t have a genuine love of medicine, all this will make you hate your life. “Love what you do” is a common platitude, but only because its always good advice.

How To Become A Doctor

As you probably already know, becoming a doctor is a long, difficult process. As might be expected, the first thing you’re going to need is a bachelor’s degree. It doesn’t actually particularly matter what you get this degree in, as long as you fulfill the core requirements for getting into med school. In most cases, these requirements include basic math and science courses, with an obvious emphasis on the life sciences with labs. Other than these requirements, though, you’re pretty much free to major in whatever you happen to enjoy. Be sure to get good grades and participate actively in the student life to improve your chances of getting hired.

After you finish your undergrad education, its off to med school with you. Applying and getting into med school is a whole other topic which we’ll cover here later, but basically you’ll need to take theMCAT exams, and have a solid undergrad resume to show. Once in medical school, you’ll study for four years or more to learn the basics of practicing medicine. This will be a lot of hard work, but if you’re dedicated, you should make it through. Medical schools have a very highretention rate in general, because most people going through it are committed to achieving their goals, and will do whatever it takes to stay in.

After school, you will most likely have to complete a residency period of some sort, where you will practice in your specialty to learn how the day to day operations go, and gain real experience with real patients. The hours during this period are often long and hard, so be prepared to work. However, once you get out of this period, you’ll be a full fledged doctor ready to go out and practice medicine! Your long journey is complete, or possibly just beginning, depending on your perspective.

Conclusions

As you can see, becoming a doctor is not a simple thing at all. You will face many challenges along the way, but if your life’s true passion is to become a healer, then this long path is certainly worth the trouble. Just be sure that you’re being motivated for the right reasons, though, or things will not go well for you. For those who have the passion, though, every bit of the struggle will carry with it the reward of achieving a dream few others ever will. Don’t give up, and you too can experience this feeling.

First, though, a word of caution.  Be sure that you really can’t fix the situation with your current school.  Transferring can be costly, and can set you behind in getting your degree.  Perhaps you should try giving yourself more time to adapt.  Sometimes, a school might clash with your initial expectations, but wind up being quite good in the long run once your get over your preconceptions.  Just make sure you know what you’re doing, as endless school hopping will get you nowhere.

So, you’ve decided for sure that you need to get out for sure.  How do you go about making the right decision the second time around?  There are a couple things to keep in mind.  First of all, and most importantly, be sure that you identify the issues that made you leave your old school, and make sure that these do not come up again with your new school.  If your old school was too small, make sure you find a bigger one.  If the lack of parties at your school was an issue, be sure to pick a known party school.  Whatever your issue was, be sure that you don’t repeat the same thing by choosing a similar school.

Another issue to consider is that you’ll be going through transfer admissions, which often work quite differently then freshman admissions.  You’re application and criteria will be different, and you need to be prepared.  If you have an interview, be sure to have a good explanation about why you’re leaving your old school, and how you think the new school will be an improvement.  More weight will be placed on your college performance to date than on your high school achievements, so be sure to update your resume with everything you’ve done since.

Another issue to consider is the matter of transfer credit.  You likely completed some classes at your previous college, and you’ll want them to transfer over so you don’t have to take them again.  Be sure to check in with your prospective schools and see which of your credits will transfer.  Different schools all have very different policies, so you’ll definitely want to get this issue straightened out before transferring.

So, you can see that this process is not easy at all.  You’re making a big decision, and going through the admissions/acceptance process all over again.  However, if your old school wasn’t working out at all, you owe it to yourself to make the big decision and switch on over the the real school of your dreams.

We know, of course, that the truth is in between these two extremes. As with any profession, there are good and bad eggs, but the majority of lawyers are honest, hardworking professional who offer an essential service. Those who have good logic and verbal skills might find that becoming a lawyer is a great career choice for them.

Is Law For You?

So, is going into law the right choice for you? This depends greatly on your interests and skills, and is complicated by the fact that lawyers carry out a wide variety of work. The day to day life of a patent lawyer is completely different than that of a prosecutor. In general, though, if you have a very logical mind, and a knack for analyzing complex situations in different ways, you may be well suited for law.

Lawyer’s also need to be motivated by love for law and order.  If you’re going into it just for the money, you’ll find the work can be a quite soul sucking if you don’t have a higher motivation.

Why It Rocks

Lawyers get a challenging job, high status, and a very decent wage most of the time.  You are the grease that keeps the legal machine rolling along (and occasional the sticky stuff that gums up the clockwork, haha.  Sorry, couldn’t help myself.).  You will perform a variety of tasks, depending on your position.  You might get to prosecute evil doers in a courtroom, analyze technical schematics, or prepare paperwork for giant business mergers.  Your options are broad, and limited only by your own abilities.

Why It Sucks

Being a lawyer can really suck at times.  If you’ve always dreamed of becoming a big shot trial lawyer, but find yourself stuck at a desk processing horrendous amounts of paperwork “paying your dues,” its easy to become disgruntled.  No matter what you do, though, you will be working long, hard hours, and must me mentally ready for this.  This is only made worse by people who go into law solely for the money, who will have trouble finding motivation to make it through those long slogs.  Additionally, lawyers often come out of school heavily in debt.  Though lawyers have the reputation of being highly paid, this pay doesn’t always kick in until later.  Additionally, some areas of law, such as non-profit work, never pay much anyways, making the debt crippling.  Many people overcome these obstacles to have successful careers in law,  but you need to be keeping  all this in mind.

How to Become a Lawyer

Becoming a lawyer requires first getting a basic four year college degree.  Typically, any subject will work, though specific areas such as pre-law and engineering (shows good thinking skills) can sometimes have a higher acceptance rate.  There have been lawyers that have studied philosophy beforehand, so just find something you can enjoy and excel at, since GPA tends to be very important for law schools.

Near the end of your bachelor’s degree, you’ll need to take the LSAT, the standardized test for law school hopefuls.  Prepping for this test can be a good idea, since its fairly different from anything you’ve probably taken before.  You’ll also want to start sending in your law school applications around this time.

Apply to several schools, making sure you get into at least one.  Once at law school, you will complete a three year course of study, giving you your law degree.  During this time, it is helpful to be building up your contacts and getting internships to aid you in your future career.

Once you have your degree, you’ll need to take the bar exam to be licensed to practice law in your state.  Study hard for this test, as you’ll need to pass in order to work.  Not to worry, though, if you’ve been paying attention through law school, and attended a few review courses, you should be just fine.  Now, find a job, and you’re officially a lawyer!

Conclusions

As you can see, becoming a lawyer is not an easy path, nor is it for the unmotivated.  You have to have a deep drive to make it all the way, but for many, the rewards are worth it.  If going into law is what you really want, go ahead and go for it as hard as possible.

Is Engineering for You?

This is the first question you need to be asking yourself. Ignoring every other pro and con of engineering, the simple fact is that if you don’t like it, you shouldn’t do it. No matter how much money you might one day make, you’re not going to be able to motivate yourself through hours of differential equations homework unless you actually want to do this. That being said, if you have a strong desire to create new things, and have solid math and science skills, you might find engineering to be your dream job.

The biggest single factor, in my opinion, that determines whether or not someone will make a good engineer is whether or not they are fascinated by the way things work, and have a strong desire to create similar items themselves. I can say for myself that whenever I see an amazingly well engineered system, I have an immediate urge to learn how and why it works. I feel an urge to create something as elegant and useful myself. Channeling this urge leads to the profession of engineering.

Why It Rocks

As stated above, if you have the drive to create technology, engineering will allow you to fulfill this directly. You will get to work with some of the brightest minds in the world, and create technology that will aid the daily lives of thousands. You will get to play with cool toys, work in amazing labs, and see your finished product in action. Every time you see it, you will have the satisfaction of being able to say “I built that.”

Of course, I would be remiss in not mentioning that engineering jobs are fairly easy to come by, and that they pay quite well. However, none of this matters if you don’t enjoy the work, as you will not be able to make it otherwise.

Why It Sucks

Of course, no professions is without its downfalls. One of the biggest suck factors for engineering is the education. Engineering school is long, tedious, and can take up an incredible amount of time. May of your nights will be spent huddling over textbooks, trying to complete large problem sets before morning. The grading can be tough, and the environment of an engineering department or school is quite different for the normal college environment. The majority of your classmates will be male (whether this is good or bad depends on your preferences, but it important to know) and tend towards the antisocial side.

You go through all this pain in school to develop the skills, discipline, and problem solving skills you will need to succeed in the real world. However, when you’re in the midst of it, it can seem tedious and soul sucking, so you need to be extremely motivated and optimistic to keep going. This isn’t to say that its all bad, but you need to be willing to stick out some pretty tough schooling to become an engineer.

How To Do It

Engineers are slightly unique among high end professionals in that many do not have graduate degrees. Many engineers simply attend a four year program in engineering, graduate, get jobs, and have great careers. Since the process of becoming a professional engineer does not require you get any extra education beyond your job, a Bachelor’s degree can get you a long way.

If you’re interested in becoming an engineer, you should start about by finding either an engineering college, or a university with a solid engineering department.  Be sure to do all the normal homework on the school, and see if its a good fit for you.  In the case of engineering schools, having a low faculty to student ratio is key, since having the instructor available for personal attention can be a lifesaver at times.  Also, look out for nice lab facilities, since you’ll likely be using them a lot.

Another consideration is what type of engineering you want to go into.  Civil, mechanical, chemical, and electrical are the  most common types, but there are many, many other disciplines you can go into for undergraduate engineering.  Be sure to check out all the options.  It likely you won’t have to decide which specialty you’re doing right away, but its important to be thinking about.

Once you’re in school, work hard, but try not to stress out too much.  Though it may seem like school is the most important thing going on in your life, keeping a balanced perspective is important.  Join clubs, play sports, and have a good time.  Try hard to find good internships (fairly easy to do in the engineering field) by talking to potential employers.  Always be making connections, pass your classes, and you will do well.

Conclusions

This isn’t by any means a comprehensive guide on becoming an engineer, but I hope I’ve at least set you off on the right path.  Read around the site to get more tips on choosing the right college, subscribe to my feed, and be sure to comment if you have any questions.

Image Credit

Sometimes, despite our best efforts, we don’t get what we want. If you applied to the college of your dreams and didn’t get in this article is for you. Even though it may seem rough now, if you have the right perspective, you can move on with your education and goals and be quite happy with the outcome.

The hardest thing for many people about getting rejected from the school of their choice is the blow to the self esteem. I myself wanted to go to Stanford, and put a lot of work into my application. When I was rejected, I felt really terrible. Why didn’t they want me? Why wasn’t I good enough? I felt like there must be something terribly wrong with me. This brings us to my first tip:

1. Get Some Perspective

While I spend some time feeling that I must be some sort of idea, doomed to forever roam the streets in search of little bits of food and shelter because of my failure to get into Stanford, I quickly came to my senses. It turns out Stanford *is* a pretty selective school, and they reject many valedictorians every year. Driving this point home more, I began to meet other super smart, ambitious people who got rejected as well. Maybe my future wouldn’t be all working at Taco Bell after all.

Getting perspective like this is a great help in the “healing” process. Once you realize that you can still accomplish your goals and ambitions without the approval a certain school’s admission board, you will feel much better. Realize that many smart, hardworking people fail everyday, and what separates the winners from the losers is the ability to get back up and keep working for your goals. Which leads to the next tip:

2. Pick Your New Path

Now, if you’ve been approaching this process properly, you’ve applied to several other schools, including some that you’re pretty sure you can get into. When choosing among these secondary options, try to keep in mind what it was about your first choice that appealed to you so much, and what you wanted to get out of it. It my case, I wanted to be close to Stanford’s top notch research faculty. So, I choose as my second choice a school that also has a strong research presence, with excellent opportunities for student to participate. By finding whatever it is that appeal to you about your first choice in another school, you can still achieve your goals, just by taking a different path.

3.  Embrace Your New Path

Now that you’re next pick school, don’t look back.  Enjoy where you are, get involved, and make the best of your experience.  You’ll begin to forget about your rejection, and learn to love what you’re doing at the moment.  Remember, you and you alone are in charge of your own success, so if you work hard, try for new things, and are persistent, you will be able to achieve what you want even without that fancy degree.

1. Application Fees
Now, to some it may seem silly that a $50 application fee would stop someone from applying to a school that costs thousands a year, but if you’re applying to a lot of schools, these fees can add up really quickly. The good news is that many schools can waive the application fee if you ask them. Simply call up the the admissions office and explain your situation, and most of the time they will waive the fee. You have nothing to loose by trying.

2. The Essay/s
This is a big one for a lot of people. I’ve written previously about writing application essays, but even if you know what you’re doing, the shear number of applications essays that need to be written can make it a daunting task.

Here’s what to do. Look through all of your applications, and see what the essay requirements are. You may find that some of the are similiar to each other. Once you’ve identified these similarities, you can “modularize” your essays in order to save time. Once you have these, you can simply copy, paste, and modify the sections into the appropriate essay. Just be sure to change any references to the school name, or else the Duke applications people might be puzzled about why it has been your life long dream to attend Columbia!

3. Letters of Reccommendation

These are easy to automate. When you’re asking for the letters, simply request that the letter be generic enough to swap a few words (preferably just the school name) out for different schools, and give them a list of schools you’re applying to. Then, give them pre-addressed and stamped envelopes to send the letters out in (and maybe pay them another favor for doing all this for you). This will be much faster if you can “batch” the letters rather than constantly hastling people to get letters written for you.

I hope that this helps a bit to take the sting out of the applications process. Remember, you can’t get in unless you apply! This may not get you into your dream school, but you’ll always have the satisfaction of knowing that you tried.

Image Credit

Quite often, when you’re looking through piles of college brochures, its easy to loose site of the big picture.  Of course, you want a college that challenges you, fits your interests, has a vibrant student community, and all sorts of other benefits a good school can offer you.  However, don’t overlook the location and type of community of your prospective school.  Even if everything else about the school is great, not considering the following factors can lead to an unpleasant college experience.

1. The Climate

This can be huge.  Most people have very strong preferences as to which climates they enjoy being in, and if your school is outside your normal comfort zone, you might have cause to be wary about attending.  If you don’t like the cold, attending a school in New England with long, freezing winters is probably a terrible choice, no matter how great the school is otherwise.  Alternatively, if you love the snow, attending school in Houston is probably going to leave you yearning for a colder location.  Don’t overlook climate, ever.

2. The Town

Your college or university doesn’t exist in a vacuum.  The town or city your college is located in will have a great impact on how much you enjoy your four or more years of studies.  If you’re in a big city, be prepared to deal with heavy traffic, noise, and higher crime.  If you’re in a small town, be prepared to have very few late night entertainment options.  Some college towns are vibrant and fascinating, while others are extremely dull.  Also, consider how well the school fits in with the surrounding community.  If your school is a integral part of the community rather than at odds with it, your experience should be a lot better.

3. The Regional Culture

Ok, so this is stereotyping to a certain extent.  However, very few will deny that there is a huge difference between the cultures of warm weather, party oriented schools in the southwest, and the high achieving, competitive New England schools.  Obviously, every region in the country has its own flavor, and you need to be prepared to deal with the culture, even if you don’t fit in 100%. Talk to people from the area, and get an idea of what the region is like.  If you’re a “blue” person in a “red” state (or vice versa), you may find your stay a little tedious, as fewer people will share your mindset.  However, if you’re really trying to push your boundaries, this difference in opinion might be just what you’re looking for.  At any rate, never discount the the regional culture.

Overall, this is all fairly common sense, but it can be easy to overlook when you’re trying to sort through a large number of schools.  Just keep these factors in mind, and you should be able to find a college that’s a perfect fit your unique preferences.

MIT Open Course Ware

This is the most popular online college course resource. 1800 real MIT classes are freely available online, covering a broad spectrum of subjects, from the sciences to the humanities. Some of the classes even have full videos of the lectures available for viewing. Highly recommended.

Berkley Lectures Online

If you’re looking to listen to some stimulating lectures on the go, check out Berkley’s set of downloadable lectures in a MP3 format.

Open University

An amalgamation of a large variety of open course materials. Not as thorough as MIT’s offering, but still useful.

Open Learning Initiative - Carnegie Mellon

Carnegie Mellon University’s online class offerings. Still under construction, but looks very promising.

I hope this list pointed you to a few useful resources. Even if you don’t work through a whole class, these materials can still be helpful resources for other studies. After all, you can’t beat the price.

It’s no secret, applying to colleges can be tedious and unpleasant. You’re required to find the application, fill out pages worth of personal information, get letters of reccomendation sent, write an essay, pay an application fee, and get all this sent into the school before a deadline. It’s a lot of work, and too many, it can be daunting. On top of these, there are many financial barriers, including the cost of the applications ($50 an application adds up quickly!) and the cost of actually attending.

All these barriers combined make many apprehensive of even applying to certain schools, ones that are perceived as being too hard. Instead, many people wind up attending a school simply because there were few barriers to getting in. This is a mistake. Let me tell you a story.

The college I wound up attending after high school actually had a super straightforward application process. For those who were “preselected”(not sure what that actually involved, maybe every high school senior in the state was “preselected” as well). No application fee, no essay, fill out your information online. I applied to other schools with much more complicated application processes, similiar to the one described above, but did not attend.

At any rate, when I arrived at school, I met many people who were attending simply because the application seemed easy, and they got in by virtue of there good grades. They had no special interests in the programs my school offered. Some, when asked what they wanted to do, would tell me about how they wanted to pursue a career that had nothing to do with my school’s speciality, engineering.

One by one, I saw these people drop out. Though though were low barriers for applying, when faced with the full rigor of the curriculum, they quickly dropped out and pursued other things. When I saw this, I couldn’t help but think that they would have been better served pushing through a slightly more difficult application, so they could get into a school that better met their needs.

Instead of letting the challenges of applying and getting into a school distract you from what you really want, plow ahead through the process. The reward of getting into your ideal school will be worth the extra trouble involved. Even if you fail, the risk is certainly worth it.

Be sure to check back here later, or subscribe to this blog via e-mail or RSS, as I will be following this post up with a guide on how to plow down the most common barriers to applying for college.

Of the two popular college admissions tests (ACT and SAT), the SAT is probably the most widely used and authoritative. For better or for worse, how well you do on this test will greatly affect your chances of getting into the college of your choice.

Gaming the SAT?

To make matters worse, there is some debate about whether or not you can even improve your SAT scores by preparing. The creators of the SAT would have you believe that there is no way to “game” the SAT, that your score is determined by your inherent intelligence and academic training, something you can’t change in a short amount of time.

However, there is evidence to the contrary. It seems that by taking practice tests, receiving coaching, and learning how to take the the test, you can certainly improve your score. Don’t expect miracles, but by being comfortable with the format of the test, and understanding some basic problem solving techniques for the various types of questions, you should be able to give yourself that extra edge.

How to Prepare

Preparing for the SAT can be done in many ways, but here’s how I like to break it down. Each of these stages will involve working through practice tests and problems, but having a different focus at each stage.

• Familiarization
• Problem Solving
• Test Taking

Familiarization

To do well on the test, you need to be comfortable with its format. Get a practice test (an up to date test from the Internet, library, or bookstore), read the instructions, and work through the test, untimed, no pressure at all. Don’t score the test unless you want to. The idea here is to become familiar with each of the different sections of the test, as well as the types of problems you will encounter. If you know what the instructions for each section are, you can save time on test day by just diving straight into the body of the test.

Also, when you’re taking this test, make note of the different categories of problems there are, and which ones you’re struggling with. This will help prepare you for the next step.

Problem Solving

This is probably one of the hardest areas to improve in, but if you put in some work, you may see some improvements. The key here is to start taking timed practice tests, and very carefully noting which problems you’re struggling on. Once you have identified these problems, try to break them up into general groups (i.e., statistics based math problems, vocabulary problems, etc.). Analyze what you’re doing wrong, and attempt to rectify any gaps in your understanding by studying. Remember any patterns or methods that work for the types of problems you’re addressing.

This step is all about working smarter, not harder. You can’t attempt to fix every area of weakness, so spend your time working on the areas that you stand the most to gain. For example, boosting your vocabulary significantly in a short amount of time is near impossible, but learning about correct subject/verb/object relationships may not be so difficult. If you focus on correcting your simplest to fix weak areas, you will get much more bang for your SAT prep buck.

Test Taking

Here is the stage where you need to buckle down and take timed tests. One problem that many people have with the SAT is running out of time on a section. This typically occurs because its very easy to spend too much time on a hard problem. Remember, you’re better off answering more questions that you understand than burning all your time to correctly answer one hard option. It may feel bad leaving that question blank, but try to get into the mindset when you’re practicing that it will improve your score by allowing you to get more done.

In the same vein, it sometimes help to take a “layered” approach to test taking. First, go through the section, answering all the easy questions as quickly as possible. Then, start working through the harder ones, but move on quickly if you feel yourself getting too bogged down. Finally, once you have as much as you can done, spend the rest of your time (if you have any) working through the tricky ones. This will ensure that you finish as much of the test as possible.

Another thing to get worked out is how you work out guesses. The SAT actually penalizes you a fraction of a point for wrong answers, so there actually is a downside to just guessing. The good news is that, if you can eliminate one or two answers, you’ll probably come out ahead in the long run. If you have absolutely no idea, just leave it blank, since you don’t loose any points for doing so.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, prepping for the SAT is not an easy task. It will take a lot of hard work, but it all may be worth it if it gets you into that special college you’ve been aiming for. As a final help, here are some useful resources for preparing for the SAT, listed on the College Board website:

CollegeBoard SAT Prep Center

Good luck with your studying!