<p>I have a detailed plan for the entire semester and I have a vague plan for my sophmore year. I am trying to study abroad so its difficult to plan how that will happen.</p>
<p>yeah, I definitely took a lot of advice from Cal Newport, his blog is amazing, gotta give lots of credit to him. I’m still trying to discover what type of careers I want to go into though. Lots of options available…</p>
<p>As for the social stigma, I just don’t tell many people how organized I am. I don’t really want to be known as the guy who has his whole life planned. People see me exercise everyday and hang out during the weekends so until they actually get to spend a lot of time with me, they have no idea how much I study/plan/leave for leisure etc. But I actually follow a pretty similar routine everyday that I am able to live with quite easily.</p>
<p>haha yup I read Cal Newport too (and bought his books >_>). </p>
<p>And yeah, I don’t tell people how organized I am either. That’s kinda the Stanford duck syndrome though.</p>
<p>I have given up planning; not completely, but I’ve come to realize that it’s a very imperfect * art * more or less, and not a set way of going about something.
I plan my daily life probably a week or two in advance. That’s it. I carry around a planner.
As for the long term…well…I always used to say that I never wanted kids or wanted to get married, but things change. A lot.</p>
<p>Since I was about 15, I’ve known exactly what I want to be doing until I’m 28. If all goes according to plan, after that really can’t be figured out until I’m 25ish or so. </p>
<p>As far as classes go - I messed up the requirements for one of my majors during first semester freshman year and have to add an extra class to make up for it (I attend a school where if you’re double majoring you have to know it from day one), so I sat down and figured out everything for the rest of my college career.</p>
<p>My roommate first semester of college had his whole life planned on note-cards. I remember there were some 20 cards going up to 10 years at least.</p>
<p>I have the next three years planned pretty good. After that, circumstances will till, I believe. There are so many things that I don’t know today. I’m counting on all those things to change so much in my life.</p>
<p>When I date someone, I wonder if she is good marriage material. ;)</p>
<p>I’ve got the next 20-30 years of my life vaguely planned. You never know what can happen with the world or with your views on the world, so I just take it easy a bit. I do have a notion of when I want things to happen (When to graduate, how many years to work for something, when to go back for graduate studies, certifications, etc.), but I don’t kill myself over it.</p>
<p>“I thought that I was the only one who did this! All my friends look down on me because of it, but I have numerous spreadsheets detailing my entire undergraduate career. I hand-choose every course that I take extremely carefully, after many months of contemplation. I have a list of all my future classes, and the requirements they fill.” - Keleso</p>
<p>I’m the same way. I have my 4-year course plan that details all the classes i need for 2 majors and 3 specializations, and I have planned out generally what I want to do until the end of college and where I want to go after that (with many alternative tracks, contigency plans and opportunities for change).</p>
<p>Generally, now -
summer before junior year - study abroad in ecuador
junior year - cultural aide position, find a job (any job, but hopefully one that is social science study-related)
summer before senior year - internship in DC (ideally) or find a job in MI or Chicago
Senior year - work my butt off. Get an internship during the school year in addition to a regular job (to pay bills). Apply for peace corps, take the GRE (apply to grad schools only if I do awesome on the GRE), apply for tons of fed. gov. jobs.<br>
Summer after senior year - finalize job apps, hopefully backpack in Europe (if I can afford to!)
Fall after senior year - start job/fellowship or do peace corps.
After job for 2-3 years, apply for grad schools (ideally before I’m 25).
OR after peace corps, apply for jobs and/or grad school (whichever one is best, or both?).</p>
<p>This is the abridged, shortened version :)</p>
<p>I’m also one of those people that plans obsessively… mostly because I think it’s fun, and it’s pretty exciting to think about the future.</p>
<p>I’ve got a master spreadsheet for my classes with a sheet for each year, and a calculation of all the credits I need, how many I’ll earn in any given year, and how many are remaining. With a list of required, confirmed, and possible classes for each year, of course.</p>
<p>Finances are pretty variable from year to year for me since I never have any idea how much I’ll earn over the summer or how many hours I’ll be able to work during the year. I’ve got a basic template with my renewable scholarship and government grant for each year, but I don’t fill in the details with other scholarships, summer/yearly job earnings, student loans, etc until about six months before the new term when I’ve got all the information.</p>
<p>I’ve also got a separate budget/expense spreadsheet where I prepare a budget in advance for more specific expenses (like milk, bread, coffee beans) organized by month and week. Then, as the year goes by, I keep all my receipts and record my actual expenses to calculate how far off on my budget I ended up and adjust the next couple of months accordingly.</p>
<p>I don’t plan nearly as obsessively for my life after college. I have a general idea of what I want to do and a list of possible grad schools, but not much more than that.</p>
<p>Wow some of these posts sound ridiculous. I always feel out of place when I browse this forum. </p>
<p>What I have planned out so far:</p>
<p>I’m taking two classes right now
I have classes scheduled this fall
I’m following the recommended academic plan for my major</p>