Hello, lovelies. Today, I’m doing something a bit different. I’m going to tell you three pieces of unpopular advice that teachers have given me. I would like to preface this by saying that it was good advice, so I’m not wasting your time with this.
I attended two really good charter schools for middle and high school and had pretty amazing teachers. Without further ado, let’s get into the advice.
1.//”C” Equals Degree
This came from one a teacher in my senior year of high school. I went to a college leveled STEM high school, so it was difficult, to say the least. People who got straight F’s at my school would go back to public school and get straight A’s.
By our senior year, our class had lost over 150 students, so the students who were still there were very academically driven (and stressed to the max). This teacher gave us this piece of advice in order to ease our stress. Grades in college do matter in terms of grad school, but your GPA isn’t the end all be all of your future. It will only matter for your first job, and after that, experience is what will advance your career. Not your GPA.
This advice was a breath of fresh air in many ways because it was a reminder that the most important thing is that we get a degree. Not just the grades. He was telling us that we’re better off taking harder classes that will advance our major and career, rather than easy classes that won’t teach us anything!
Overall, my teacher’s point was that we shouldn’t take our grades as seriously as we do. Sometimes, grades can be a way we define our worth and that can be daunting when it comes to our mental health. Even though I still take my grades seriously, this advice has reminded me that I sometimes need to consider the big picture when it comes to grades and that I’m better off taking harder classes if they help me in the long run. My experience during internships, volunteer work, and club participation are just as or even more important than my GPA when it comes to getting a job.
2.//Brand Name Colleges Are Not Worth The Money
I got this advice in middle school from my math analysis teacher. I went to an all-girls charter school back then and it was relatively strict. (It’s the only reason I have good posture.) The reason this topic came up was that the homerooms at the school were all named after Ivy League/Brand Name colleges. Fancy colleges were indirectly shoved down our throats, so this teacher gave us some real-world advice.
Private colleges are not worth the money. They cost almost four times more than a public university and still won’t guarantee you a job. Not to the extent that we think they will.
The college you go to does play a role in job opportunities. I’m not going to begrudge that. Putting Harvard on your resume does turn some heads, but not everyone can go to Harvard, and you could get the same type of job without crippling amounts of debt.
I carried this advice with me through high school and when I applied to college. I never really wanted to go out of state for an Ivy League college and I didn’t bother applying to super expensive universities because I knew that in the long run, it wouldn’t be worth the money.
Related – An Extensive College Application Timeline
3.//Don’t Major In Something Super Specific
This advice actually came from my dad. Going into college, I knew that I wanted to work with people with special needs. I wish I could say that it was for my brother who has autism, but I don’t think it is. I just think it’s just a field that I genuinely enjoy and am good at. Prior to college, I had done numerous internships and volunteer work related to what I wanted to do, so I knew the potential majors I could pursue.
I almost majored in something specific to a certain type of job, but my dad told me that I was better off just majoring in Psychology. If I had majored in something specific, my job opportunities would have been slightly more limited in the long run, while if I major in something a bit more general, I’d have more flexibility if I wanted to switch careers.
I would also like to add that I knew that I would need to go to grad school for any type of special needs job I wanted to pursue, so we both knew that I would have a focused degree in something anyway. If I only needed a bachelor’s degree for my career, I would’ve specified my major more. But because I chose to major in Psychology and focus my classes on disabilities, I will have the flexibility to apply for different types of jobs in the future.
This post is shorter than most of the posts I write and I’m not sure it made the most sense. I feel like I didn’t explain the advice well enough. Even so, I hope you enjoyed. These pieces of advice aren’t exactly prominent, but they have influenced how I made decisions in terms of my college life.
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What are some pieces of advice your teachers have given you?