Advice for a 13-Year-Old Working Toward a Finance Degree

[TrailRunr]

We have HR checkbox degrees here. Are they like college degrees from traditional schools that take 16 week semesters and four years? Sort of. I have both types of BAs. I learned way more from my traditional degree at a public Ivy League because I was forced to do all those readings, attend discussion section, and attend in-person labs. Quite frankly, the material was a lot harder and more in-depth too. Grading was manual and a lot more thorough. With my checkbox degree, the most learning came from TESU's 12-week classes and the APU 8-week class that I took. I learned almost nothing from CLEP, DSST, SL, and ALEKS. CLEP A&I Lit is a perfect example. I am an IT person, not a poet. I went to IC and looked up what I needed to review in the testing center's parking lot 20 minutes before my appointment. Two hours later, I walked out with six credits even though I learned nearly nothing and am still no closer to learning how to become a poet. Most likely I passed due to the generous curve. CLEP A&I Lit is way easier to barely pass than AP English, which I had to spend a whole year on. Nobody comes to this forum talking about AP because those tests are a lot harder even though those credits are way more portable at the top colleges.

We choose the easiest and quickest options, and that's fine since the goal is the checkbox. I'm going to take a guess and say that most folks who earn 45+ credits in 3 months are not really motivated learners. We are just motivated at earning college credits, which isn't the same thing. I am not suggesting going to a traditional college and going deep into debt or go to public high school. But spend more time actually learning in depth. Some community college classes and 4-year college classes are quite good. You may want to consider mixing some of that in. If you go to ratemyprofessor and read through all of the instructors with 4.2+ ratings, you will find some real gems worth taking. For everything else, you can CLEP it away.

Maybe I'm a youngster at age 44. Nevertheless, I think I'm qualified enough to know what I regret not doing in my late teens and early 20. Here is the list:
1) Should NOT have spent all summers in summer school between freshman year high school and senior year of college except for one summer where I had a FT job with no school. I was trying to accelerate my high school and college years, and I ended up accelerating college by only six months.
2) Should have spent a summer backpacking in overseas between high school and college.
3) Should have spent summers backcountry backpacking, learning how to pitch a tent, learning how to ford a creek, etc.
4) Should have learned how to golf and ski.
5) Should have spent a semester or a year doing college abroad.
6) Should have learned a second foreign language beyond the minimum required. Tuition is the same whether you take 13 credits or 20 credits.
7) Should have avoided video games completely. I spent too much time playing Civilization on my PC. Video games are addictive. IMHO, 2 hours daily is way too much even though I know many disagree with that.
8) Should have went to a few more parties during college. Socialize more. Be less shy. Become the extrovert that I am today.
9) Choose a practical career major like business administration and take all of the fun classes as free electives rather than declaring a fun major.
10) Choose any another IT area other than infrastructure when starting my IT career.

I guess the point I'm getting at is that life is not about getting credits fast for a checkbox degree.