Where are those darn rose tinted glasses?

I'm doin it today, droppin out of college. I cant stand the classes, nor Michigan Tech's Idea of a mechanical engineer, it's not right for me. So, I'm going to try to go to MSU for Agribusiness management and learn how to run the farm

 

Hmmm.. sounds like "Electrical Engineer " is the path for you!!!

Serionsly - what is wrong with the classes and how much time have you put it already?

It's not the GT that keeps tempting you away is it?

 

Though I'm not suggesting your drop out.

I did find my Illinois Institute of Technology Mechanical Engineering program TOO theoretical and to broad.

"Labs" were a joke and had us "rediscovering" stuff that was done 100 years ago (like how a thermocouple works and "proving" it - WTF just go buy one at the store - I don't care how it works unless I have to design one for the manufacturer!).

 

It's just too much pencil pushing, and i thought I would enjoy the professional, office type work environment, but i dont, looking back on the farm, I like how everyday I'm doing something different, most time is spend outside and working with 0y hands

 

I like your decision and you may be a better fit for MSU and the farm, but you're making a 'game changer' and the grass is always greener...and especially so when wearing rose colored glasses.

I thinking learning (any institution, any profession) can be boring and tedious with lots of pencil pushing and very little actual work/hands on stuff. Then after graduation when working, there's little pencil pushing and lots of work/hands-on/calls/deadlines/travel and data entering. In short, learning is harder.

MSU will probably look better than MT on a resume, but whatever you do, do it well.

 

Just in time to help the old man figure out how you're going to grow sugar beets without "Roundup ready" seed, huh?

Seriously though, unless your farm is going to go the way of so many family farms before it, you might be on the right track. Somebody will need to take the reigns, both lietrally and figuratively.

Good luck either way.

 

haha, my dad had me do a science project in the 6th grade on GMO's there's nothing wrong with them, i hope they become legal again, though this may be a good little break because some weeds are already developing a tolerance, though corn, wheat, and beans are still round up ready.

and ya, I'm the oldest of this generation so I would be incharge, and MSU will teach me how to do that.

and silver seca, yes, class is pencil pushing, and tedious, though they went and flat out told us how boring engineering is, they said that engineering is 40% writing, lots of official documentation of stuff, and how they're teaching us to engineer bores and upsets me.

I also dont think i'm smart enough, honestly.

 

whoah, whoah, whoah ... Droppin' out of school 'cause you're bored is one thing, but from what I have seen of your postings on this site there is no way you should go believing that you aren't smart enough.

 

Schooter I'll second the smart enough comment above.

On topic though, it's better to figure out early that you don't like something than get the schooling for it and do it for 10 years and then decide you don't like it. Which is where I am.

If I'm having a midlife crisis I'm dying at 60!

 

It's common to get bored with your course choice half way through, that's why so many students change their majors and end up with a mixed bag of unfinished studies. I say finish your course and then change to something else, then at least you will have something to fall back on. :wink:
Unfinished courses never look good to employers!

 

And I'm NOT buying that. You're smart enough to do anything you want to do. But wanting to is the key. And sticking to the boring stuff on the way to your Agribusiness degree is just a part of paying your dues.

Go for it. When are you harvesting the beets?

 

Oh ya fitz, you wanted to come up and watch.

we started i think exactly on the first of September (really good year this year thanks to Roundup Ready sugar beets)
usually the factory doesnt open til the 15th or 20th

actually all crops were early this year

I hope you dont have something against roundup ready crops

 

Schooter, I'm 53 and as old as dirt. I finished my degree because when I was 18 I thought electrical engineering was the thing for me. Worked in the fielsd for 6 years and switched to sales. Made a ton of money, got tired of travel, and switched to IT management. Worked my way up to COO of a high tech firm and after a few more years grew bored with it. Finally decided to do what I have felt for years I should be doing. My goal is to die at work while passing meds to a patient.

My points are as follows

1.). When you're 18 you really don't know what you want to do for the rest of your life

2.). Give it a shot. If its not for you make a change

3.). Life isn't easy. In the beginning its all about theory. It will provide you the basis for thorough understanding of the isuues you are faced with and provide you with critical thinking skills in order to implement a solution.

Follow your heart man. I could have saved a lot of time in getting to where I am now if I had listened instead of chasing the buck

Loren

 

why would you need to get a degree in Agribusiness management to run your own farm? you already know how, you'd be bored in a week
since you already know the business you'll find a lot of the things the teach is bs
if i were your age again i'd either join the coast guard or buy a snow cone machine and sell snow cones to scantly clad hotties on the beach
what the hell is "roundup ready" ? sounds like a cowboy thing

 

Undergrad degrees are all theory and pencil pushing. You're not going to get into anything "fun" until Grad School or working in the industry. I'd stick with it. Working with your hands all day now may seem like the thing to do, wait til your 50 and wonder why you didn't finish that degree that would get you indoors and without a backache at night.

Nothing wrong with changing as long as it is for the right reasons and you are being honest with yourself.

 

Round Up is a herbicide that kills any plant it touches, as soon as it hits the ground it becomes in active, and does not carry over, round up ready grops are genetically modified to be tolerant to round up, so it can be sprayed over everything and only kill the weeds

 

Schooter, I don't know why you went down that road in the first place, I bet someone talked you into it, anyway you're 9 hours from home & missing mummy's cookies.

 

For you to have had a successful Freshman Year at college; you should have disappeared from this distraction during the time school was in-session.

Instead of asking what we thought about all the wheeling and dealing you did, commenting (sometimes inappropriately) and engaging in the many off-topic bits of nonsense you posted; that time should have been spent concentrating on your studies.

The fact that you would come in here and make it known that you gave up is in itself testament to your immaturity.

Somewhere along the line, somebody should have told you that your Freshman Year at college is going to be an experience that will enlighten you to the rewards of toughing-out some hard work.

The challenge requires you to take a leave of absence from everything other than what is spelled-out for you to do on each Professor's syllabus.

Scouring Craig's List, Ebay, matters related to Yamaha Motorcycles and funny stuff you found on YouTube, ... probably NOT on the sheet!

 

Uh oh! Me thinks Rick just pi$$ed in the Schooters Cheerios!

 

+1 Rick

and that's not meant as an offense to you Scooter. I know exactly what Rick means. Since going back to school my time on everything motorcycle related (riding,working,forums..) has dropped to less than 10% of what it used to be. But then I see that same difference in attitude between older students (my age) and the younger 'kids' pretty much across the board. The older students are much more focused. They better understand the cost (financially, physically and emotional) of college because they have been out in the work-a-day work that will hand you your a$$ if you're not prepared. Many of the younger students I have met will change their course major after having a bad semester grade wise.
I have seen (or should I say sensed) some level of change in maturity in ya Scoot, but sometimes you seem a little ADD and prone to changing with the wind. And that's ok...you're at an age where you can recover and adjust. But ANY kind of schooling takes perseverance and plodding through the "weeder" classes that they throw in to clear out the riff-raff, the seat warmers that have no real interest in the subject. As a father of 2 boys around your age who are going to school I understand the frustration with not DOING and feeling like you are treading water and learning useless stuff. Good luck in whatever you decide Scooter and if I can offer any (unsolicited) advice it would be that whatever you decide to pursue, do it with abandon and 110% of everything you have, time, energy and perseverance! There will be plenty of time during the summers and after you graduate to play and get distracted...we'll still be here if you disappear for the school year...
Good luck!

 

Another 2 cents worth. If you get a degree in something you find you don't like after doing it for four or five years the Farm may be run by someone else that won't be willing to turn it all over to you. Never forget that life is a one-way trip. Enjoy yourself along the way because future "good" health is never certain.

 

Totally agree. But since he's getting this crappy advice (link below), you can guess where he will end up.

http://www.thechopperunderground.com/fo ... opic=49627

College takes a lot more work than high school did. There is a reason some of us end up engineers and some don't.

You get what you play for.

For what its worth, I've got a couple Mechanical Engineers working in my group that are in their early 20's. They aren't doing mechanical work per se right now, because I have a software group in a major aerospace company. They are engineers nonetheless and understand the processes to engineer good products. They studied hard and they are making in the neighborhood of $65 to $70K per year. Once they have 5 years in, they will be close to $90K and still be under 30 years old. Think hard about quitting school. Oh, and we are in the field testing our software and installing the necessary hardware all the time and when I say hardware I don't mean computers - think rocketships and you get the idea . We definitely don't have dedicated desk jobs some of us get to see the world on the company's dime.......

 

Think of college as a test..........not just the information and technical skills that you'll be required to learn, but whether YOU have the capability of disciplining yourself to tough it out and work thru the process and the steps necessary to get whatever you can out of it, own it, earn the piece of paper which may or may not help you later, and challenge yourself to see if you've got what it takes to make it, no matter what the challenge, no matter how boring, etc.

Because if you don't learn how to discipline yourself, then---like 95% of the rest of the people in the world---you're going to find out that you're going to be at the whim and mercy of others, for the rest of your life, perhaps, who will be applying "discipline" to you in various and sundry ways (crap jobs, crappy bosses, crappier pay, no future).

Motivation, like shit, happens: and either it comes from within, or it comes from the outside....

Fram sez: "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later....."

 

Schooter is the prodigal son & primary sibling, dad owns the farm, working the farm would be second nature to ol' Schoot'.
I would use the solid platform of the family farm & when ready, start my own agricultural contracting company, I'm sure dad will lend you the John Deere to get you started.
University degrees are for the poor shucks that don't have your start in life.
Be the best contractor Michigan ever had.
Start by ploughing up Fitz's yard.

 

Schooter, getting a degree is just a "ticket to the action". That bit of paper you end up with is a door opener....and getting it is a test of your motivation and application, just as Chacal has pointed out.
You may not choose/you may end up in a job that is completely different to what you studied and love it. I did an Environmental Science degree, expecting to end up working for Dept. of Conservation....ended up working on oil rigs in geology: Go figure! I like my job, earn good money, have been places in the world I would never have been able to go to otherwise on the "company" expense account... but if I hadn't stuck it out and finished the task, (the degree), I would never have even had the opportunity.
Adding a post grad Agriculture degree to an already achieved Engineering degree would be a pretty easy task, no?
Hang in there and do the hard yards.
Everyone in tertiary education thinks of baling out at some point: if you bale now you've wasted all the work you've done to date.
I used to think, "If I just keep plugging away, one day I'll wake up and realise that I'm less than six months of finishing."

Take 2 tablespoons of cement daily and harden the f#ck up!

 

I'll put 2 cents into Schoot's college fund;

Changing your mind on a degree/career path, seriously who has not done that? Not a big deal

The beans don't care if you have a degree, and we need people like YOU to look after to them.

Drive on, get a two year General (A.A. or A.A.S.) from the local CC or TC, then decide to go on from there

 

Unfortunately farming and food has become corporate America and you need to be a player in order to survive. This means buying Roundup-proof seed from Monsanto on an annual basis, as they will not tolerate their seed being cleaned at the end of the season. A must see movie on this very subject is "Food, Inc", where Monsanto actually sued a guy that had a seed cleaning business in Indiana. Monsanto's lawyers actually had a copy of every check written, and every deposit this guy had made in the last ten years.

 

Methinks you are making a bad decision, but its your life. Only you know what your heart desires. I am cheered that you at least are planning to get an education, especially in something you are familiar with and like, or at least can tolerate. Do NOT, under any circumstances, take time off. Pretty soon, you'll be buying stuff to amuse yourself, start getting into debt and generally making it next to impossible to get down to work in a timely manner. Throw in a serious girlfriend, or, heaven forbid, an "oops" baby, and you are royally screwed. A lifetime is a long to to regret missed opportunities. I finally landed a decent job a few years ago, but I'm still the guy pulling the wrenches and wearing the steel toed boots.There is no shame in honest work, done with integrity and skill, but it is not something I ever desired to do. I just got good at it as I meandered my way from job to job. It is a bitter pill to swallow knowing your life could have been so much better than it is, and that you are as intelligent as the engineers you work alongside, but have no way to prove it due to a lack of investment in an education and a few years of hard work and self denial. Alas, I was far more interested in buying a motorcycle at the time, and decided to take some time off to enjoy myself. I have paid for it ever since. My buddies salaries are in the six figures and they are beginning to seriously think about retirement within the next 10 years. Me? Not so much.