Managing Risk
I think its interesting to analyze decisions in this fashion,
debating whether it was for future risk protection or current utilization. There are a couple decisions that I can turn
to and take the current circumstances and future effects into consideration.
Most notable is the collective decision to accumulate some student debt. I say
collective because it was not a completely independent decision, I had the help
of my parents. It initially seems like a choice being made because it seems
good at the time, as I would not have to commit as much financially in the
current year (and the couple years after). But, the intention all along was to
be able to take advantage of financial aid opportunities to decrease the
financial burden in the five or ten years after I graduate. So the financial
aid discussion was definitely a long-term approach. In terms of the choice of college,
that was more of a choice that sounded and seemed good at that time. This is in
no way saying it was a bad choice, I’m trying to say that you can’t truly know how
each different school is going to shape you until you actually go through that
process. So when choosing Illinois, it was the school that seemed like it would
fit me the best at the time the choice was made.
My older sister had an interesting path through college, especially
towards the end. She got accepted for pre-med, and ended up changing her major
multiple times (as late as her junior year). It still amazes me to this day how
she was able to still graduate in four years, but she found a way to complete
the course load and graduated with a different degree. She entered the job market
with many different offers right after graduation, and found her current
position working for a start-up museum in downtown, Chicago. I’m sure that it
was not her intention to change her major and course of study multiple times
when she applied to Illinois. The circumstances were unexpected, but she
handled it very well considering how much she had to do in not a lot of time.
Even though her career expectations changed in a short span, she now enjoys her
line of work more than she would have enjoyed going in for pre-med. She made
these decisions to switch based on a mixture of what seemed good at the time,
and in the end wanted to limit the amount of risk involved with adjusting your
career path many times (when committing to a major that she truly enjoyed).
In her career journey, she endured some early turmoil and
the end product has turned out great for her. I can utilize that thought process
in my own journey, although I have yet to hit a wall with my current educational
course (which could change, it is not a foregone conclusion). It doesn’t matter
where you are in the traditional “trajectory” for an American college student,
it matters how you are impacting your future self – and those decisions are different
for each individual. I have adjusted my decision making in these past four
years to be as sensitive to future income risk as I can, by taking advantage of
all resources to educate myself on how to achieve my personal goals. My
decisions on financial aid, major selection, and even smaller decisions on a
daily basis (i.e., my personal spending habits), are all made with a slight
regard to how my future self will be impacted. Not just long-term, but a year,
month, or even week from now. These factors all play a role in my decision
making and being sensitive to potential risks in the long-term.
I think its interesting to analyze decisions in this fashion,
debating whether it was for future risk protection or current utilization. There are a couple decisions that I can turn
to and take the current circumstances and future effects into consideration.
Most notable is the collective decision to accumulate some student debt. I say
collective because it was not a completely independent decision, I had the help
of my parents. It initially seems like a choice being made because it seems
good at the time, as I would not have to commit as much financially in the
current year (and the couple years after). But, the intention all along was to
be able to take advantage of financial aid opportunities to decrease the
financial burden in the five or ten years after I graduate. So the financial
aid discussion was definitely a long-term approach. In terms of the choice of college,
that was more of a choice that sounded and seemed good at that time. This is in
no way saying it was a bad choice, I’m trying to say that you can’t truly know how
each different school is going to shape you until you actually go through that
process. So when choosing Illinois, it was the school that seemed like it would
fit me the best at the time the choice was made.
My older sister had an interesting path through college, especially
towards the end. She got accepted for pre-med, and ended up changing her major
multiple times (as late as her junior year). It still amazes me to this day how
she was able to still graduate in four years, but she found a way to complete
the course load and graduated with a different degree. She entered the job market
with many different offers right after graduation, and found her current
position working for a start-up museum in downtown, Chicago. I’m sure that it
was not her intention to change her major and course of study multiple times
when she applied to Illinois. The circumstances were unexpected, but she
handled it very well considering how much she had to do in not a lot of time.
Even though her career expectations changed in a short span, she now enjoys her
line of work more than she would have enjoyed going in for pre-med. She made
these decisions to switch based on a mixture of what seemed good at the time,
and in the end wanted to limit the amount of risk involved with adjusting your
career path many times (when committing to a major that she truly enjoyed).
In her career journey, she endured some early turmoil and
the end product has turned out great for her. I can utilize that thought process
in my own journey, although I have yet to hit a wall with my current educational
course (which could change, it is not a foregone conclusion). It doesn’t matter
where you are in the traditional “trajectory” for an American college student,
it matters how you are impacting your future self – and those decisions are different
for each individual. I have adjusted my decision making in these past four
years to be as sensitive to future income risk as I can, by taking advantage of
all resources to educate myself on how to achieve my personal goals. My
decisions on financial aid, major selection, and even smaller decisions on a
daily basis (i.e., my personal spending habits), are all made with a slight
regard to how my future self will be impacted. Not just long-term, but a year,
month, or even week from now. These factors all play a role in my decision
making and being sensitive to potential risks in the long-term.
I wish you had been more concrete when talking about financial aid. I simply didn't understand the alternatives that presented themselves to you and how you resolved which of them to take. So I would have preferred a bit more drill down. I understand you may not want to divulge things that you consider personal. Yet I wonder if you could have maintained control of your private matters while still making the reader better understand your situation.
ReplyDeleteLikewise, you were very broad strokes through the rest of your post, even when talking about your sister. You said she started out pre-med. But you never said why she changed major nor did you say what came next after being pre-med. I'm not sure the world is the same this way as when I was a student, but then many who were pre-med were quite mercenary about going that path, so took it because they expected it to pay well rather than to be helpful to humanity. The also were frequently grade grubbers. At the time, most other students weren't that way. I can imagine that your sister might not want to keep company with such students. But here reasons for changing major could be quite different, fo some explanation here would have been useful.
That she ended up in something where she seems happy is both good an interesting. It suggests, that if you let serendipity do its things, good outcomes might be reasonably expected.