Is my future entirely screwed?! (Please Help)

[limeli]

I'm in Grade 11, and have currently started my first year of the IB diploma. 

When I chose the classes that I'd study, I was not (and still am not) sure about what I want to study when I'm older. 

I chose the subjects that seemed most interesting to me, and the ones that I knew I would enjoy learning the most. 

 

My classes: (I have 4 higher levels because I'm going to switch the one I find most difficult to  standard)

Computer Science HL

English A HL

Film HL

Psychology HL

Math Studies 

Norwegian Self Taught

 

I'm worried that I'm not going to get into a good college because of the classes I chose. As you can see I don't have any science subjects except for Computer Science, so it would be almost impossible for me to get into a medical school if i suddenly decided to become a doctor in two years. 

The reason I chose to do Math Studies is because I'm not exactly good at math, and I think I'd be able to get the best grades with that level. I also don't want people to think I'm an idiot because I didn't choose the Standard Level mathematics course. 

I'm really worried I won't get into a good school because of my chosen subjects, but at the same time I know I'll be able to get good grades with the classes that I have chosen. 

 

 

I'd appreciate it a ton if you gave me some advice, or told me how you think this could work out..

- Eli

 

 

[Sandwich]

Well do you have any idea what you want to do at Uni? It depends slightly on where you apply but most European countries will ask for pre-requisite subjects for most courses - for instance if you suddenly want to study Medicine, like you said. In the US you could do Hedgehog Studies or something and they wouldn't really be bothered. 

 

It's great to aim for a high grade but you do also need to think about what you want to do afterwards. We can't really help you with that because we don't know what you want to do! If you're not sure, it's conventional to try and keep your options open. For instance, I thought for a while I might apply for Law so I kept English Lit as one of my HLs. I thought I might want to do Medicine so I did HL Biology and Chemistry. They weren't my best subjects, and if I'd known I wanted to do Law I would have ditched HL sciences and gone for History and Philosophy or something - but they kept options open. Basically if you think you may want to study Medicine and are serious about it, then you might want to tweak your subjects. If it's very unlikely, then think again.

 

If you've got any thoughts on possible University courses and the country you'd want to study them in, look up those courses at Universities there. They'll display their requirements on their websites Then it'll give you an idea of whether you're accidentally closing doors to things you might well want to pursue later on! It's up to you.

 

Also I think Computer Science is quite mathematical?

[aliceinWondLa]

Well, I'm all for doing what you enjoy, but, and not to be rude or anything, I think you're worrying too much about grades and not enough about keeping options open. Most universities and colleges in Canada set pre-requisites for almost all subjects (I'm not sure about Europe, but I think it'd be about the same). I know that for medicine, you need a Bachelor's in science, and you can't get into that course (in the ~20 unis I know of) without an actual science course. But, doing computer science in uni isn't that bad. I mean, if you get good, you could earn 100k/year. I know that my dad's company pays 250k/year to the senior level programmers. That's more than a lot of another senior positions in the company pay, even if they're comparatively "more senior" positions. As for Math Studies, it's totally university dependant, as far as I know. Some here don't recognize it as a maths course while some do. All in all, without doing "real" (or "core" ) classes, you don't have the pre-requisites to do certain university or college courses. Of course, I have no idea what you took in grade 10 or what you'll take in grade 12, so I can't be sure. 

 

Talk to a school counsellor about it, and try to find out just a broad sense of what field you're interested in: If you like science/math/history/etc. better. Finally, as my friends and I say, if all else fails, be a teacher (since you can always take one subject that you're doing well in and then get a Masters in teaching--it's what a lot of my teachers did). Admittedly, the schools I've been to are pretty tame as to what nonsense the students pull, so maybe I'm jaded. 

 

Good luck! I'm sure you'll do great.