"When I grow up...", ** Featured Discussion

haha this is funny...did I really think I was going to double major in neuroscience and chemistry? oh, silly freshman mandy.

I'm still tying to narrow down the list, as it seems every time I take a different class, I come out with a new passion. Right now, I'm definitely set on law school, but I don't know particularly what I want to do with it. Health policy is interesting but overwhelming (and will hopefully not always be a problem?), but I guess I'm just interested in policy in general.


Don't worry Tyler, I think by admitting that you don't know what you want to do, you're actually way ahead of most of us.

I've always been weird and I knew what I wanted to do since I was in 3rd grade. Most kids would say they wanted to be ridiculous things at the time and never end up following through with that, but I never seemed to change my mind. In 3rd grade I decided I wanted to be a doctor, I didn't know much about it at the time but I knew that you needed to get a good education

I started setting goals for myself along the way but the end result was always me becoming a physician of some type. The first goal that I set for myself was to get into my high school which was competitive and would require a lot of work for me. I set this goal in 5th grade and I was extremely happy when I got my acceptance letter. I actually decided I wanted to go to Hopkins in 7th grade (even though I changed my mind a LOT during high school I always ended up back in the same place).

As for my dream job, obviously its being a doctor and I decided that I wanted to work at the Hopkins Hospital (almost at the same time I decided I want to go to Hopkins for undergrad). Over the years I've narrowed down my interests to include neurology/neuroscience and oncology (the study of cancer). Right now I'm trying to decide between oncological neurosurgery and neurological oncology. In case I haven't made it obvious enough already I want to go to Hopkins for medical school as well.

So yea thats what I've decided that I want to do with my life and my interests haven't changed much along the way, they've just gotten more specific. I've always been weird and OCD about stuff like that, it makes me feel so much better when I know what I want to do.

I'm nowhere near as decisive as Joe. Right now I'm thinking that med school is a possibility, but I'm not completely set on that yet. As Tyler mentioned, a lot of people here seem to know (or think they know) exactly what they want to do, but our professors are constantly telling us to keep an open mind, which I agree is definitely important. I would be really surprised if I went through my four years here without changing my major (from biology and Spanish) a few times.

I'm weird, I admit it .

I'm actually really impressed that you're so decisive I wish I was!

I wanted to be a freelance poet when I was younger. Yet, here I am at college on a very different path.
I really have no idea what I want to do. Each day spent here at Hopkins I feel less and less intelligent! I really know nothing on the scale of all knowledge possible. I might have to spend 20 years here before I feel competent to move on with my life, but I feel like Whiting is going to try to get me to graduate a little earlier than that. I really like my department, and I feel pretty confident in my decision. Really you can do anything with a degree in Chemical and Biomolecular engineering. At the moment , I am thinking PhD program. But I've got a lot of time to figure that out!!

I want to find a way to combine art and science.
My main goal is to be an influential researcher. However pure science is too objective and cold for me. It needs human touch and emotion that every individual can connect to and value. I really want to find a way so that I can make art out of science.

I'm interested in law and education (maybe education policy?), which is reflected in my non-SAAB extra curriculars - Tutorial Project (tutoring) and Mock Trial (law!). I definitely want to do something where I work with people and am doing something I feel is productive and contributes to society, and I think between law and teaching I'll be able to find something.

Y'know I'm not entirely sure of what I want to do, but I wouldn't mind something in the civil service, whether in the US or abroad. If that doesn't pan out, I'd like to practice Constitutional Law, being an advocate for those without a voice.

Daniel - Do you want to take constitutional law next year? I saw it listed this year, and I'm looking forward to taking it next year!

Miranda -- we'll see. I did make note of it when I saw it on the schedule. I'm probably not going to take it, but I also took pause at the History of International Law class that's being offered next semester. Intl law's a thing of mine, so idk ahha

Overall, my goal is to apply science for the good of humanity. It's a wide-arching goal, but one that made my decision to major in environmental engineering pretty easy.

As far as education, I'm probably going to stay on for a Master's degree here at Hopkins. There is a great 5 year combined program, which includes an automatic 50% tuition discount for the last year (aka, "Buy 9 semesters, get one free!"). Somewhere down the line I'd love to get a PhD but I think that may wait until I'm out of school for a couple years after the Master's.

This summer I'm applying for internships in the environmental engineering consulting field. I'm thinking the aspect of working with many different clients on diverse projects will be keep things interesting. I definitely want to get the chance to "try out" different kinds of jobs through internships before I end up choosing a more definitive path in 3.5 years.

I also took a history class last semester called Americans and their Environment (it will next be offered in Spring 2011 - I'd definitely recommend it). It was taught by a really accomplished environmental lawyer from DC. The last third or so of the course ended up being a discussion of public policy and how it related to the environment. It made me realized that the policy is really important, because otherwise the technologies that engineers develop would never really get put into practice. It also made me realize that there are very few scientists/engineers than understand public policy and probably even fewer policy makers that understand science/engineering. So I also have been considering combining my environmental background with public policy at some point.

So I know pretty well what I want to accomplish overall, but I'm still figuring the path of how I want to get there and specifically how I want to carry out what I want to do.

I saw the International Law class too, and that looks really interesting as well. However, the prerequisites are one of the two Occ Civ classes that I'm NOT taking. Hopefully I can take it next year, though.

I think that I'm going to take the French Algerian War instead of the Intl Law class; they're at the same time. I have the necessary prereqs.