if i could do it over again i would keep my career and hobby seperate (cars)

If I could do it over I'd go to a bigger school.
~300 kids in my graduating class (program) is nothing special

College is overrated. It all about who you know and who you blow.
I dont have any college under my belt. I am in I.T. and I make a decent wage doing it

My friend is a mechanic, and he gave me the same advice; keep your most favorite thing as your hobby, and make your second favorite thing your career.

I went to William Paterson COLLEGE (yeah, graduated in 1996 before they became WPU) with a BA in Music Education. I've been teaching music appreciation in a high school for the last 10 years. It's been an interesting gig, complete with crazy students, summers off, and roughly 180 days a year to work. Hopefully I'll retire in another 25 years when my kids have graduated from college and can support me. :)

went to monmouth and mercer for criminal justice, never finished, got a job in the area

BS in Environmental Science at William Paterson. I should have a degree by next may depending on the class rotation. Somehow I landed an awesome fellowship with the NJ Meadowlands Commission...

Business & Finance Glassboro (yeah I'm old)
Masters in Logistics Univ of Madison Wisc.
Teachers Cert State on NJ

I went to Bergen Community College for 3 years taking as much engineering courses as I could with plans to transfer to NJIT or Rutgers for mechanical Engineering. I lost interest and through some persuasion ;-) took up business. More specifically, Accounting, and transferred to William Paterson University.

Here I am two years later and I will be graduating in early January with my BS in Accounting. From HS up until the beginning of this past summer I've worked at Fed Ex for like a year and 2 different body shops. I currently work at the North Jersey Federal Credit Union as a part time financial service representative and I'm learning their teller procedures as well. I've been in contact with the CFO and there has been talk about offering me a FT position in the Accounting department come January but I'm still going to be attending job fairs at school and sending out my resume to other companies to keep my options open.

GCC for automotive technology (Its a co-op program) Ill be done in april. Its a good idea to keep your hobbies and work seperate. I change oil all day and hate it and then never ever work on my nova which needs to be finished. Work my car is the last thing I want to do after fixing everyone elses cars all day.
Im definatly doing more school. Im thinking of going for bio-medical tech, or pharmacist, and definatly going away to school I think I would regret it if I dont

Art institute of Philadelphia for photography, 2 years.
Camden county college 2 years photography major.

currently work at a advertising company that makes those infomercials on at night. i make sure were not paying more for airtime then we are making in return.

right now i go to SUNY Maritime college in the Bronx. im majoring in Marine Engineering but thinking of switching to marine operations. When i graduate I will also receive my USCG 3rd assistant engineers license or i can get my 3rd mates license and go to work for shipping company like maersk, mobil, etc. the good thing about my school is that there is 100% job placement for anyone in the regiment, which is what you need to be in to get the license.

so its sorta like military school, but its not. i have to wear a uniform and go by stupid rules freshman year. right now im acutally on watch...haha. but i figure 4 years of this bulls*it is worth making 100k plus a year right out of college.

criminal justice at bergen community. in my last class now, gym:) i guess you could say i use it, i dispatch lol

I'm a Mechanical Engineering major with another major in Physics (minor math) at Stockton College.

I'm expecting to gradutate in 2010, and get a job in the Auto Industry.

I was origionally a Bio major in hopes for vet college but that kinda didn't work out.

Went to The College of New Jersey (formerly Trenton State)...majored in Finance and double minored in Economics and Spanish.

After school I did a stint at a financial planner and now I've been working day jobs as a Staff Accountant for Philips-Van Heusen and Hess while building up my shop at night. Hopefully within 6 more months I'll only be restoring cars...which has nothing to do with my degree...but I'll always have something to fall back on.

Calc 4 isn't that bad. I found Calc 2 a PITA. Calc. 5 isn't bad either.

To those that think college is overrated, I can agree with you that it's just a piece of paper in some cases depending on major. However, sometimes to get even considered, that piece of paper can be necessary. In my line of work, you need an engineering degree to handle what we do. Sure there are plenty of self-made non-college grads who have made out just as well if not better than many college grads, but that's always been about the kind of people they are and what drives them.

BS in Computer Science at RIT in Rochester NY.

I've been doing different computer programming/development with the same company for 19+ years now. I think the best plan is to start with basic classes at a community college for 1-2 years as you try to figure out what you want to do. Then transfer to a better school to finish. Most of the people I work with went to college for something completely different from what they are doing now. It's not easy to really know what you like doing when you start college and be able to follow it through all the way into the workplace. But definitely try to separate your hobbies with work. I don't spend any time on the computer at home doing programming, I fish, play golf, do car stuff, etc.

Running a successful business seems to tie back to your major, IMO.

Well said

I have my PMP. Its not just about the classes and the test, its about having years of demonstratable experience that you can have referrenced by other companies. Some of your experience has to be with outside companies, not just inside projects.

Graduated with a BS in Criminology.

Worked as a Corrections Officer for a year during my senior year.

Moved to NJ and went to work for a software company to get white collar experience before applying to Federal Law Enforcement agencies.

Decided a few years ago that white collar experience (and hours, salary, danger level) trumps federal law enforcement dreams.

So I started down the path of doing what I went to school for be ended up changing.

Funny you say that... I was very very close to going FBI but a regular job proved too appealing for me.

I went to Ramapo College, graduated in 07 with my BS in Business Administration- Finance. Right from there I went off to law school and i'm just about halfway done here. I go to Touro Law in Long Island and I have about a year and a half left. I want to do something in the Trusts & Estates field I think.

If you aren't sure what you want to do, it's ok. Pick a good liberal arts school and figure out what you like. If you definitely want education I know William Paterson has a good program, so does Ramapo and Caldwell College-- I don't know how far you're willing to go. Again, so many people start out on one path or graduate with some degree and end up doing something completely unrelated. Whatever you do, make sure it's something you will enjoy every day. It's tempting to follow money but high paying careers always require putting in a lot of time and hard work, and if it's not something you love, you won't stick with it.

I attended CCM for computer networking, changed my major to photography went to SCCC graduated from there with a AFA degree, now at Montclair State University working on my Ba specializing in photography. Currently looking for an internship/job for next semester.

I think that is one of the best pieces of advice ever. I was #1 of 25 picked to go do McPherson College in Kansas for automotive restoration (very sweet gig!) but I decided that if I enjoyed it as a hobby, I was never going to work on my own stuff after work. Whether or not it was the right choice, I will never know but its what I came to the conclusion at.

I went to Mercer County (as a history major) for a year to kind of get my head on straight, and then went to Rutgers (as a psych major). Me and Rutgers didn't get along so I left there and went back to Mercer for a year (as an education major) and eventually went to Rider where I started out thinking education. I took a Marketing class, the professor was awesome and really made me decide on Marketing. My curriculum though was all over the place and I was only 20 credits out of graduation from when I started. I finished with a BA in Liberal Arts so I could get done earlier. As of this moment it was the best choice I ever made. I don't think I could have gone on with school much longer. Its really tough to find out what you want to do, I can attest to that. Just sit back and really think, but don't worry you could possibly change your mind a few times.

Started off in accounting - did it for one year - did well but got bored.
Then went for Fire Science and Fire Safety - did very well in the fire related classes - got bored in the core general classes (english, etc)

College wasn't for me. Been working since 16 and prefered real world experience.

I'm a customer service supervisor at MBUSA?!?!?!

I guess I could burn my employees if they get out of hand?

I graduated from William Paterson in 2005 with a BA in Political Science and Mathematics and I work as a Pre-K teacher. I'm saving up money for law school.

Went to Middlesex county college for Electrical Engineering got my AAS and decided that I really wasnt interested in it anymore so I went back to the Ford ASSET program for Automtive Technology and again got my AAS and started working as a tech at Loman Ford. I really love working on cars but it got tiring. I left Loman and became a career firefighter. Great job with a great schedule. I work part time now as a tech one or two days a week.

My favorite thing is to work on cars but as a career it wasnt so fun anymore. Now that I dont do it full time anymore I can still enjoy it.