Needing some serious help here.

[DrizztFan24]

Well, let us (me) begin. I am a high school senior and I have no idea what I should do. I have usually considered orthodontia but due to recent events I have began to wonder what I should really do. I have a wide range of interests and hate that school offers so few electives. On the other hand, I have been told I have a good mind for law and would make an excelent attorney. While I did enjoy my time at Boy's State I have no idea what I would get into if I were an attorney.

Does anyone have experience in either of these fields? Or is someone abel to direct me to a resource about the different possiblities for a law degree? I need to turn in applications soon for school and I need my scholarships in (I have to pay for school myself, and my church mission).

That guy drowning in a sea of possiblities,

Drizztclone9.8277364510 x 10^24

[valadil]

My advice would be to go to a big university rather than somewhere specialized. Try out introductory courses for everything you may be interested in. With orthodontia and law, you'd be doing most of your learning in grad school anyway, so I wouldn't worry too much about finding an undergraduate experience that specializes in anything in particular. If you really want a huge variety, look into locations that have several nearby colleges. They often let you get credit for taking courses in the other local schools. I'm not sure how common this sort of arrangement is - I'm used to being in Massachusetts, which has more colleges than churches per capita :-P

[Telonius]

Biggest suggestion I can make for you: if you're going into law, do it because you want to be going into law, not because of any other reason. I attended Georgetown University, and I'm guessing about 50% of the graduating class went on to law school afterwards. A lot of them really wanted to be lawyers, or needed a law degree for further opportunities. But a good chunk of them just went on to law because it was what they're "supposed to" do, or because they had no idea what they really wanted to do. They ended up with tons of law school debts since there are not as many scholarships on the graduate level (unless you get some truly awesome grades and get a Rhodes scholarship or something - and we did have a couple of those).

There aren't that many jobs that give you enough money to pay off that kind of debt - lawyer is one of the few that will. So they're now stuck in jobs they don't really love, working ridiculous hours paying back money for an experience that they didn't really choose in the first place. There's nothing wrong with that - and after they pay off their debts, they'll be making a lot more money than I do. But they'll have spent a lot of their time, which is the one resource that (imo) matters most.

[reorith]

1. skip college.
2. go off grid.
3. find yourself.
4. ???
5. profit.

[averagejoe]

Don't sweat it too much. I had no idea what I wanted to do out of high school, so I went to city college for two years, and now I'm about to graduate from friggin' UC Berkeley with a math/physics degree. (I actually think the junior colleges are a great system, by the way.) I know little of the fields you're talking about, but you have time.

[Kcalehc]

If you can afford it, take a year off. Be a volunteer at all sorts of different places and see if anything takes your fancy. Get an internship at a law place, see if you like it, or just a temp job at one, see what they do. Find out what you want before you start a long degree course in a subject - changing is not always easy part way through.

[Bonecrusher Doc]

I wouldn't say take a year off before college, but if you can take a summer or winter job or volunteer position at a law firm or an orthodontist's office that would give you a good behind-the-scenes perspective.

If you google search "career test" you'll find lots of links. Those tests might give you some other ideas: "Hmm, a park ranger, I could see myself doing that..."

Make a list of 2-4 jobs you might be interested in. Then find out what classes will be needed prerequisite to going further down those career paths. That should at least help you decide what to do your first semester. For example, if there's a good chance you could go into any kind of health care field, you might want to take Introductory Biology and Chemistry.

So as far as classes go, keep your options open. But you might want to sound a bit more bold and decisive in your scholarship application essays. Nobody will mind if you change your mind a couple times after you win a scholarship, but they won't be very inclined to give a scholarship to somebody who just says "I guess I want to go to college, not really sure what I'll do..."

EDIT: A couple random links you might try:
http://www.colorado.edu/aac/lawprep.htm
http://career.berkeley.edu/Health/dentprep.stm

[wxdruid]

I didn't know that I wanted to be a meteorologist til I took General Meteorology in college...

Then I graduated to find out that finding a job in my career field was hard, so I joined the AF.

When looking through your various choices, keep in mind ... do you know anyone that has this job? Is there a market for it? Do you want to do it for however long?

Enjoying your job is one thing in life that is nice to have. I prefer to go to work and enjoy, or at least tolerate what I do.

[Moff Chumley]

The biggest piece of advice I can offer you: DON'T PANIC.

[RandomNPC]

i got in a print shop right outa school makin 16 somethin an hour, i get to work a steady time, none of the calling in that a minimum wage burger joint would be trying to pull, and i can afford a smaller student loan. If i go to a local school at night if it relates to what i do the company i work for pays a percentage based on grade.(computer classes count as we do digital layouts on most jobs)

why don't you look for a company that pays employees to learn? after all: "it is better to educate your workforce and have them leave, than to not educate them and have them stay."

[Don Julio Anejo]

I took a year off. Glad that I did too, otherwise I'd be in engineering right now and hate every minute of it.

[Faceist]

1. skip college.
2. go off grid.
3. find yourself.
4. ???
5. profit.

You know, it sounds good, but then you find yourself awake at 6:09 on a Sunday morning reading posts on a forum, in-between bouts of playing Rock Band, thinking to yourself "jesus, I miss learning things". And it doesn't help looking on Facebook and seeing all my friends in various states of drunken undress, leaving comments that invariably boil down to the same basic message: "WOO! WOO! WOO!"

Aheh, so uh, I'd advise thinking over your choices logically, dipping your toes into a few courses, and seeing how things progress from there. And if you're not a needy, whiny nit (like me), you could consider a gap year, maybe get some practical work experience or travel.

[DrizztFan24]

Well I'll be gone for two years (19-21) for a church mission [/religion], but other than that I think that the job during school seems like my best option. Otherwise I will have to wait for four years on scholarships. You don't ahve to declare a major until second semester of second year correct?

[Crispy Dave]

1. skip college.
2. go off grid.
3. find yourself.
4. ???
5. profit.

ya know reorith posts these get rich quick ideas all the time and ivee yet to make any money. The market must be too crouded with others following his advice.

[Flame of Anor]

The biggest piece of advice I can offer you: DON'T PANIC.

Good advice, but the letters aren't large and friendly enough. Here:

DON'T PANIC

[Arlion]

A rock star

and if it doenst work,you can always be a Pop star.........

[Zanthur]

I say the best thing to do is to go to a community college since you arent sure what you want to do. No point in paying out your nose to go to a huge university just to take classes that you could take at a community college for a fraction of the cost. I live in Michigan and the college I go to is much cheaper than going to to MSU. At some of those big universities you may pay anywheres from $10,000 to $40,000 a YEAR, no matter what your major/minor is. Some will definatly be more. I am at $10,000 in student loans for my first TWO years of college. If you dont know what you want to do, dont waste your money. Only go to a big university if you know what you want to do. Same with trade schools. No point in going to a school thats much smaller than a university but you pay just as much.