pretty sure you owe me 5$

I'm 22 now and I quit college when I was 18 and although I'm pretty happy with where I am right now, I regret not doing at least one full semester. TDomeski's posts make me a little sad because he is so, so right about forming relationships at that age and how hard it is to make new ones as you get older. You guys who are 17-19 have no idea how fast life goes by when you're in the real world.

He can take a class or two as a non-matriculated student just to meet people, see if school is for him, and he can pick whatever classes he feel will be most beneficial to him at this time (perhaps something like psychology or a foreign language). These activities will only take a few hours out of the week but further help develop a social circle and stoke the flame of learning. In my opinion entering a degree program when you aren't motivated and/or don't know what degree you wish you obtain doesn't make a lot of sense and I think a lot of kids that age don't really have a plan in life and kind of just do what society deems acceptable.


Although in a vacuum I think not going to college is -$EV and -LifeEV (refer to the example of the dentist versus the janitor in Fooled By Randomness for more information) I wouldn't want to tell Brandon what to do with his life. Most 18 year olds don't realize how difficult the decisions they face at that age are because they just don't have the life experience, but I feel like he is smart enough to consider the pros and cons of his choices.

Good work. Nice thread.

Good post.

This is my favorite out of the college posts. There's a lot of good advice ITT, but I'm not sure it'll help Brandon that much right away, because he has to figure things out for himself through experience.

I just want to add that being older than everyone else in your class isn't that big of a deal, especially if you already have a good circle of friends and you're now more focused on career goals. Life is long, if you decide in two or five or even ten years that you made a mistake then it's not too late to change. I'm 27 and most of my classmates are 20 or 21, and I don't think this is bad for me in any way.

To get back to asking Brandon questions, could you explain more about how online high school works? Do you have teachers that you talk to over the phone or online? How much control do you have over the pace? Do you ever interact with other online HS students?

the more tdomeski posts the more i like him.

Also, thanks for that BFI link domeski, I'm sure that will be a helpful read for a ton of people.

really? the more he pushes his values on other people and says hes gonna "bug the ****" out of some 18 year old kid he's never even met to do something he might not even want to do, you like him?

weird

i do agree that domeski is a really good poster most of the time and im sure his "advice" is coming from a good place tho

You're coming off much worse in this argument no matter who's right fwiw

You said you may want to start a business at some point in the future. Go to university and get a business degree. The things you learn will be useful in everyday life as well as understanding the economics of what goes on around you. Take game theory classes if you think it'll be interesting or help your poker. Taking 5 classes is 15 hours per week and it isn't completely necessary to go to every single class. It's a good habit to get into and will help your grades but you're not going to fail out by missing once in a while.

The connections you will make doing a business degree will definitely help if you ever do decide to start a business. Between classmates in every field and specialty you can imagine as well as your profs they will have the ability to have value to you down the road if that changes your degree usefulness calculation.

And I know it isn't the favourite thing for poker players but it can be helpful to have some structure and a reason to go do things away from poker (not that this part directly relates to you because I don't know if it does but in general)

yea, wanting brandon to do what makes him happy and allowing him to make his own mistakes rather than pushing what made me happy on him is so douchy of me

look i go to college! i agree with tdomeski that college is > not going to college. i have told brandon many times that going to college would benefit him

i do, however, see why he mite not want to go and why he mite find it "useless"

i just believe in letting people make their own choices- maybe that does make me come off "bad" though

we've had the "should I take a year off college" threads and they're good reading. I'm of the opinion that you should wait to go to college until you are sure you want to work at it. You can get socialization elsewhere.

agree with geoff 100%. the "im gonna bug the **** out of him" is def a little weird, even if it's coming with good intentions.

bingo

Hey Geoff I totally understand your position. I rarely, if ever, comment on peoples' personal decisions. At the end of the day it's just something I feel really strong about, and it's a rare opportunity for me to be able to offer some "advice" in a situation that I feel like I might be able to help out. I'm not trying to be self-righteous etc on the issue, but I can see it coming off that way.

The whole "bug the ****" out of comment wasn't exactly literal. I was in a position as a high school senior where I was living alone in an apartment and had to take care of all the administrative stuff (college apps, SATs, etc) that you have to do to go to college by myself. It's really easy to just not think about it or brush it aside if you don't have parents/teachers/counselors telling you what you need to do at each step. I'll shoot CD a PM or AIM msg in the Fall just reminding him that if he's interested he should start getting the ball rolling b/c deadlines come quick. That's all I meant by that.

Geoff, you didn't even need to respond to that. No one is coming off bad in this thing (except possibly me). It's a bunch of dudes who have been there, done that and are trying to offer advice.

FWIW I don't really even know CD. I've talked to him maybe 3 times on AIM. If he was one of my close personal friends I think I'd come off even worse!

enjoyed the well much more when there werent so many fkn words

I didn't take tdomeski's words as "pushing his values" on CD or anyone else at all, and I thought it was obvious the "bug the **** out of you" comment wasn't literal. Come on. He's not going to try and get CD's cell # and call/text him relentlessly about it or something or stalk him. He knows CD has heard from many many people on the subject and just felt like adding his thoughts on something he had experienced/was adamant about.

That being said, I completely agree with tdomeski/JP for the many reasons already stated. You don't even have to go to half your classes. I definitely don't and I'm graduating in May with a high-3 gpa. I know there's something to be said about "if I'm going to do something, do it right", but many of the classes that didnt apply to my major or anything I was interested in I just skipped and got the notes from someone. It's pretty easy to make like a 3.25 or better in college regardless. Saturday's in the fall during CFB really are the best, and from what I understand you'll still be able to experience most of that part living near campus anyway so that's good.

Anyway, this subject has gotten a bit drawn out and you're obv not the only person faced with this decision, but I just wanted to give my two cents while on break. Either way, it's been a fun read and GL in whichever decision you make!

OP, if you're still here, I'm curious if you harbor any resentment towards Dipthrong for "outing" you several years ago.

tdome i thought your posts were thoughtful and not weird fwiw

think if oyu don't go to college you can still meet people that do, go to college parties, etc. this is what i do now

ya like every time i walked over to your table u were all in and won the pot. did u end up taking it down? cuz i left when u were HU to go blow a 1K in that fun home game

got 2nd

luv al dis lyfe advise dat dese 21 yr old kidz r givin

few times you have mentioned in this thread you have made some money staking. care to go into any details about that?