so what are you planning on studying?

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Amusingly enough, I had to declare a major on my freshman application. Ha.

I haven't even studied the course catalog, to be perfectly honest with you. But I picked "Computer Science" out of the list of majors offered, since I had to pick one for purposes of the application. My mom has been telling me I should seriously think about getting into GIS (Geographical Information Systems), as that's a more and more desperately needed field that hasn't yet been invaded by legions of know-nothings armed with pieces of paper and expectations of getting paid without having to actually know anything, like the general IT field has. From what I've seen of it, it's also still got lots of room for improvement in its tools, and an open enough mindset to accept improvements if somebody makes them. Mmmmm, complex relational databases and willingness to accept change if it works... definitely something I'm considering heavily.

It was REALLY refreshing looking at the job listings at the GIS job clearinghouse website and not only seeing how fucking MANY of them there were, in areas large and small, but also how little corporate bullshit there was to be dealt with in the listings themselves. From what mom and her folks tell me, and from the way it looks in the job listings, it's pretty much just "got the union card (college degree)? actually understand what we're doing? COME DO THIS FUCKING JOB, PLEASE!" in sharp contrast to the general IT world's current state of being choked to death with HR departments.

But I don't know, we'll see. The biggest thing motivating me right now, to be honest, is just a need to shake up my life. It's too small, and the bar scene doesn't really seem to be the way to fix it. I go out with friends every now and again, but I don't meet anybody that way; not in any meaningful way, at any rate. Maybe mixing it up in the college world will turn out to be better.

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Having dealt with the GIS department in several counties I would generally agree with this. Also, GIS people that can talk to people, in v short supply.

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That's actually one of my biggest marketing points in my IT business... you know, not being a horrible troll that needs locking in an IT dungeon somewhere. Sadly, the IT business itself is so choked with HR departmental crap and over-regulation that any actual worthwhile traits don't seem to factor into hiring decisions much.

I can get LOTS of companies to bring me in to fix shit that their IT departments can't... but I couldn't get hired into the IT departments that, um, can't fix the shit to begin with. Ironic.

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vis-a-vis shaking up yr life: you could do worse than getting a diploma and getting a job Somewhere Else, in Far-away-land. I might have a lead or five in Gibraltar (or spain or england) if you're interested.

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Parts of this post make it sound like one of your motivating factors to go to college is meeting women. This, I hope, is not true.

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That's not entirely inaccurate, although perhaps a little narrow. "Meeting interesting people" would be a little better fit.

What's wrong with that?

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I met a lot of neat people last year, in my first year of college. Even going to a place lovingly referred to as Redneck Tech. Like Dave said, you can do worse than going somewhere to meet people and ending up with a degree.

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OH! Almost forgot, as a vet you might be able to take the SAT on Ft. Jackson. They schedule them more often than the local high school. I took my tests while I was deployed in Utah, for free. You may have to be active duty for that, but there's no harm in checking. Good luck!

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Because $5,548 is a lot money to spend just to "meet people" even if they're interesting.

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$1,200 is a lot of money to spend on the GI Bill if you never get any use out of the damn thing later. This is my last year of eligibility to get any benefits from it, and yes, you have to pay for the fool thing, and yes, I did pay for it. I've already sacrificed 2 out of the 3 years of benefit eligibility I had by waiting this long; be damned if I'll throw the whole investment away.

The GI Bill alone is (more than) enough to pay for the tuition. I'll probably also qualify for Pell grants or the like; my taxable income bracket isn't very high at all since I'm solely supporting myself through running a very new business.

... incidentally, anony-mouse, do I know you? =)

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No... just a troll...

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Hmmmm... well, I HAD been signed up for some movie watching thing with the Democracy something something Meetup, but frankly it sounded kinda painfully lame. So hell yeah, I'm down!

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I've returned to school as well after effectively ending my 10 year IT career last year...Permanent recovery.

Man, I do not envy you at all for having to slog through the first two years of lower division undergrad work. The airheads that you will meet will make you weep for the future.

The good thing is that it gives you a chance to really take a good hard look at your options. The GIS thing is an interesting idea, but you might want to cast your net a bit wider...Just to see what's out there.

I found that I really got a kick out of chemistry, so I decided to major in Mechanical Engineering with an emphasis on Materials...A very different direction than my original plans. Who knew?

I wouldn't be too worried about the application, though. Older = non-traditional student, and colleges like that.

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The GIS thing is an interesting idea, but you might want to cast your net a bit wider...Just to see what's out there.

I dunno, we'll see. It's probably worth mentioning that I'm not one of the "in it for the money" IT types, I'm in it because it's what I always wanted to do. I've accumulated one hell of a lot of practical knowledge in the field that I don't know that I'd really want to (effectively) throw away moving to a COMPLETELY different field, either. But yeah, we'll see. =)

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Yeah, I hear that. While I definitely enjoyed the money, I valued the independence, responsibility, respect and challenges that came with Sysadmin work.

Nowadays you can remove money, independence and respect from that equation. IT work in the corporate world is now just another cost center to be minimized as much as possible.

The thing that really pushed me off of staying in IT was seeing 20/30 year veteran guru-level guys getting laid off...And struggling to get another gig at all over the past couple of years. They have the passion as well, and yet all of their experience has been devalued.

Looking at the trend, I couldn't see myself still being a Sysadmin in 10 years.

With hardware becoming such a cheap commodity, disk space becoming so cheap that users don't even bother to manage their files anymore...Disk quotas are becoming a memory...Users with gigabyte-sized mail files because they keep ever-fucking-thing...Network connectivity being considered a "free" resource akin to air...And so many companies don't even bother to consider their information infrastructure as something valuble because now it resides on a $10,000 file server and disk array instead of a $100,000 file server and disk array.

System Administration has become devalued as a result.

I'm ranting...Sorry. Leaving my Sysadmin career behind was a tough choice.

But the possibility of creating things...Real, tangible things...In a science/engineering career is a powerful draw. I doubt any of my efforts over my 10 year IT career survive to this day.

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You should wear a shirt that says "Mustache Rides 5 Cents" to the SATs.

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Um, I think it would probably be advisable that I stay the hell away from giving any more teenagers mustache rides.

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I don't think it's going to be an issue; the registrar's desk said that all they were looking for was a 2.0 GPA, and I'm pretty certain I should at least have that. My ... typical report card was generally something along the lines of an A, two B's, a C or two, and a D or an F, even at my worst.

Portrait Of A Troubled Teen, but unless my math fails me, "2 point oh" shouldn't be difficult at all to squeeze out of that.

Also, they WILL accept 1988 SAT's, and it turns out that yes, my high school DID keep my old SAT scores as well as my transcript, and USC will accept SAT results sent in from a high school. So I don't anticipate any difficulties.

Now I just have to see what I can squeeze out of the system for financial aid...

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I think it's awesome that you're going to college...not too sure why anyone would think furthering your education and wanting to meet people in the process is a bad thing.

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My guess would be that it's some chick who's going to USC herself and is like "OH NOES, SKETCHY GUY ON TEH PROWL!!!1" =)

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wow, financial aid??
australia wins.

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