[sciguy125]

It seems that my friends and I (maybe there's a connection here) are in college because it opens doors to various professions. I realize that there's more to it than that, but thats why many of my friends and I are going to college.

To the point of not having a direction, however, several of my friends are in that position. They're in school to get a degree. Not to get a degree that will help them with their career goals, but simply to get a degree. The reason is that they still don't know what they want to do, so they don't really have any career goals to work toward. Actually, I know someone that changed their major because they weren't happy with their academic career, not because they didn't like the jobs it was going to give them. To me, being in school just for the sake of being in school seems like a waste of energy. There's plenty of more productive things you could do while you try and figure out where you want to go with your life.

A few have mentioned that college gives you an opportunity to see new things and possibly find a direction. Coincidentally, I had one of those "this is what I want to do with my life" moments a few days ago. Apparently, my school has a microelectronics processing lab - it's in the heart of Silicon Valley, so of course it does. There's enough equipment in there to start with a raw silicon wafer and end up with a working IC. My class was only there for some simple stuff (not IC related), but while we were there, we got a tour of the lab. And you know what? That place is so awesome! I've been wanting do do something in the neighborhood of control systems, but after being in that lab, I'm seriously considering IC manufacturing. That decision is a little impulsive for me, so there's no guarantees. But I'm going to at least try to take the IC processing and design class. So, I'll definately agree that college can show you new things you might be interested in.