Troubled 17 year old. Which path should I take?
Hello fellow monkeys!
I have been browsing this forum for quite a while and I took the decision to express my worries here.
I am a seventeen year old student from Greece (the country) and I used to be misguided about what I wanted to do in life. I always wanted to become an entrepreneur. You know, build on a great idea, expand it, commercialize and who knows, even sell the company to a corporate leader. I have been a really good student through the years (GPA never fell below 3.88, we don't have 5.0 GPA here, max. is 4), but I realized that I focused on wrong subjects. My mathematical skills started to wear out. I used to excel in math, until I reached 10th grade. Topics like Set Theory, Inequalities, Quadratic Equations etc. were fine and I scored high scores on tests. But I started failing (quite miserably) this year in vectors, Trigonometry and Polynomials. I partly blame my teacher, because he barely cares for our performance (he has a side business, private tutoring services, which is illegal here in Greece, since he is a civil servant, but I have better things to do than reporting him). I'm still performing well in Physics, Chem and Biology (and most Humanities like History and Political Science), but I'm worried I'm not "cut out" for IB, even though I really want to work on Wall St. one day. I figured out what I want to do. I'm pretty sure I'll make it into CS at one of the best unis in Greece, but I don't know how to make it in the US. I figured out there is an MSc program at Columbia, Financial Engineering. Maybe this could be my ticket to the Land of Opportunity.
Any general or specific tips? I would be deeply thankful if you helped me out of this situation.
Thanks for reading!
TL;DL: Misguided 17 y/o, didn't know what to do in life, is quite good at school, figured out he wants to make it to US, become an IB and then an entrepreneur. He likes Computers (every aspect of them), Maths (even though he struggles every now and then), Legal Studies and more. Any tips?
Relax, you're 17. My biggest worry when I was 17 was who I was going to get to buy me beer for the weekend.
Just focus on getting into the best University you can. High school classes have little relation to University courses. You seem to be really insure of what you like which is totally fine. Go into undergrad and take a bunch of different courses and figure out what you like. You may end of hating finance, maybe you'll love it; who knows. Maybe you'll love CS, maybe arts, nobody knows at 17 what they want to do. Don't be worry about math courses, I barely scraped through high school and have done well in my university calculus courses.
I don't know anything about switching to the US so I don't have a comment on that. But don't worry about that now. Plenty of opportunity in Europe, be thankful for that. I feel I'd rather live in Europe that NA.
Chill out, go out and party and have fun. Just don't let the grades slip. You have an entire lifetime to be stressed out.
Don't listen to that guy, i'm not saying his advice is bad I just think he gave you the advice he'd give to any US kid. Unfortunately, the same advice doesn't really apply especially considering the current economic state of Greece and the political turn of Europe.
Now, what country do you want to live in? Greece? US? do you have the money to pursue a master's degree in the US once you graduate from Greece? you have to do your research regarding financial-aid or scholarships regarding master's degree in Financial engineering or whatever you want to do if you don't have all the money.
Whether you like it or not, YOU NEED MATH. I'm not saying you're going to use it in real-life but you will need to meet prerequisites of financial-engineering programs. And these programs have a lot of math prerequisites. There are some pre-financial engineering diplomas that prepare you for financial-engineering programs but i'm not sure if you're willing to spend money on that.
Mandatory math courses are: Single variable calculus, Multi-variable calculus, linear algebra, Statistics & Probability(i'm not sure if this is supposed to be a proof-based course) and differential equations. There are some websites like Khan Academy and MIT OCW that have videos that cover the math courses I mentioned, especially MIT OCW.
If the CS program you want to attend in Greece is any serious, you will be covering all of the math courses I mentioned.
I'm not trying to discourage you from studying computer-science or getting a master's degree in Financial engineering but you need to be aware of the program prerequisites and demands. If it is of any help you won't be seeing any trigonometry in college but polynomials are pretty important.
In most software engineering jobs, having a good grasp on syntax, algorithms and data structures is way more important than how much math you know, unless the job requires you have a good grasp on certain math concepts.
How do I know all this? I did a bachelor's in Finance in my country and was interested in financial engineering as well, I also did one year of CS and programmed in C and C++. I'm currently doing an MSc in Economics.
Hope I cleared up some things for you.
I see, I am not saying that when it comes to math I am in a state of tabula rasa, but I have noticed that sometimes I solve problems that are considered "hard" or atleast "challenging" and fail at simple applications of formulas and stuff. Funny fact, I scored top 5% of my county at a local math contest while my "good at math" friends didn't pass to the next stage. Peculiar me. Anwyay, thanks a lot!
EDIT: I was thinking applying for Sallie Mae's non-cosigned MSc Student Loan. What do you think? Thanks.
Phewf. I thought you meant you were from Greece the movie
Haha! Good one, but I have to admit that I have met people who thought I was from a city (?) in the US, named Greece. They mentioned something about a place named Ypsilanti (Ypsilanti was the name of a hero during the Greek Independence War).
Thoughts: HGA
"I am a seventeen year old student from Greece (the country) and I used to be misguided about what I wanted to do in life." -You have not even gone to college. You have not declared a major. You have not joined the workforce. There has not been real opportunity for you to be 'misguided about what you want to do.' You have not even had a opportunity to ACT ON what you what you think want to do in life, aside from the classes you take.
Secondly - referring to yourself as a 'troubled 17 year ' is somewhat offensive. Specifically, referring to yourself as 'troubled.' There are individuals who truly are troubled - mental/physical disabilities that disallow them from having the same chance of success as us, enjoying everyday life, or simply being 'normal.'
Not one thing from your narrative indicates that you are troubled, nor are you misguided. Frankly it makes you sound immature, weak, and kind of stupid.
Yes this was harsh, but eliminating these ideas from your head may help you in a job interview some day.
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