It's great to hear that you're thinking about this stuff already. And everyone has added in great advice, and I'd like to throw in a few pennies of my own:
1. College or Uni are an experience. No two people's experiences are alike and it has a lot to do with how you approach it. If you approach it as a chance to meet new people, have new experiences, learn a wide array of exciting stuff, then that's what you'll get.
2. Instead of thinking to either get a degree or not to get a degree, consider taking a year off to pursue your other interests. This doesn't mean taking a year off to slack off, but to consciously work on finding more and new stuff you like. Fortunately, that's something you can do at school, too, because of the multitude of different clubs and people you'll meet. Be open to having new experiences.
For me, then, the highlight, and the main reason I am going back to school (I'm taking a year off right now) is to challenge myself (I intend to finish my degree at a faster pace) and to have a bunch of new experiences. While I joined a whole bunch of clubs and did a whole bunch of things last year, there's so much more I want to do this year (like join the rifle and revolver clubs, learn to dance, etc). You can do that on your own time, but college provides you with a unique opportunity of having a lot of different stuff available in the same place. My focus is not on getting a degree so much as the experiences I'll have throughout it. In my opinion (and experience) the expense and time are worth it to have those experiences.
One thing to keep in mind is that a lot of times, you can just sit in on diferrent classes. So if you have an interest in philosophy, you can go sit in on a Philosophy 101 class for a year. You won't be pressured to learn crap to do well on tests, you get to pick what you choose to remember and you'll have more fun because you're doing it voluntarily. Remember, extrinsic motivation decreases intrinsic motivation.
Be careful of having a homogenous group of people you interact with, or indentifying yourself solely as a college student (if and when you do decide to go). It's easy to have friends who think like you and/or are you age, but for a whole new set of experiences, consider going out and finding people who are older, younger and different from yourself.
You can also push yourself and run a business or do whatever alongside your academic work (or it'll come easy for you, whichever).
In short, don't go to college to get a degree, go to college to get an experience. Try to find something you are geniunely interested in learning, but that won't solve all your problems because you'll still have to take classes and do tests and exams and learn things which you have little interest in. In fact, for me, it's worse if I go in with that attitude because then what I learn has to do with what I think is important or what I enjoy, which is not necessarily what's going to be on the test. I learn the stuff I want to learn in my own time.
Hope this helps.
|