Try to get me to stay in school....

[FieryJustice]

Alright, I told myself I would never ever post anything like this, as I have always been able to make good decisions in my life, but right now in college, I am not motivated at all and I dont want to end up with a bunch of Cs on my record. I guess I should give you a little bit of background on my schooling...
All through high school, I never needed to study to make As and Bs, so I didnt. Well, once I got to college, I quickly found out i would have to put in a little (note: more than I was willing) time to get an engineering degree. So, I decided to switch to something "easy" such as psychology. Well, I am to the point now where I cant even read a college book, as it is so unintresting to me...and this semester i can already tell I am going to have to put in some reading time and i honestly dont know if i can motivate myself to do that. Fwiw, I just became a junior this semester and my gpa is 3.7ish. I would hate to get 4 Cs this semester and mess that up.
So why not just quit? Well, I have a full scholarship and would lose that if i drop out, although money isnt really an issue to me. Thats another problem. I dont really see the point of going to college just to get a degree so I can make 50k/year working a 9-5 job while right now, I can work 20 hours a week whenever I want to and make at least 4 times that. My biggest worry is that somehow internet poker will become illegal and I will be screwed into putting in a lot of hours at a casino. If that happens, and I see I cant win at live play, I would go back to school. I am only 20 right now, so I cant practice my live play too much, which is perhaps a reason I am worried about it.
Well, I have no clue what to do. I guess I am going to talk to my parents about it. They will probably kill me. I just dont want to spend any more time doing something I hate than I have to and I also dont want to mess up my transcript with a bunch of bad grades just in case I need to return to college in the future.

[bennies]

Get organized! Take easy/interesting classes. Underload if you can. Find two hours a day to go to the library and study. Every day!!! (Everything gets interesting once you get into it...)

That's my two cents. (PM Yugo for pick-me-up-postings when this doesn't help...)

[Degen]

i haven't read the whole thread yet man but i'll give you my two cents fresh from your post


I put myself through college and I took my sweet ass time doing it. I took time off, changed majors 3 times and took a total of 6 years to graduate, and I had the time of my life and it was the most amazing experience I've ever had. I also banked a massive GPA that I can use to go to grad school at any point should i decide to do that. The reason for my GPA was because I took it slow and took classes I really liked and didn't overload w/ a ton of requirements for some major my dad wanted me to have that I really wasn't passionate about.

I have friends who finished in 4 years on mommy and daddy's dime and got mediocre grades and with majors that ammounted to little more than their parents idea of good job training. I don't want to go so far as to say that my experience was better or I am a more well rounded person or anything, but i definately did not admire their slave mentality.


So my advice to you would be to do what makes you happy. If you want to play poker right now, take a year off of school and play poker. If it gets old you can always go back, and with the way you've been going i doubt the scholarship is really going to be a big issue, just be saving or buying stocks (i'm sure you already have) so you have a safety net.

You may want to do like unarmed and go travel if thats your thing, do what makes you happy. I would seriously advise against getting a bunch of C's in school...you will want that fat GPA at some point.


Good luck man

Going to the library or a comp cluster or a green somewhere away from distractions can work really really well.

[ChoicestHops]

If you aren't focused on school right now then don't go. It's a waste if you are only going to half-ass it just to make your parents happy. I tried one semester and ended up withdrawing at the end so I wouldn't get a bad gpa. My mind wasn't in the right place to begin with but I was being told by friends and family to stay in school.. even though it wasn't my concern at the time. After I withdrew that semester, I took the next off and worked. Doing that for 6 months I had a revelation. I actually wanted to go to school. I was motivated, and I went back this semester because I actually wanted to.

Take a break, but make sure you have a plan. I know you grind a shitload, but I have no idea how much you make. Don't waste your profits on shiny cars and expensive [censored] that doesn't matter. If this doesn't work out, make sure you have a plan where you can go back to school with no problem, and get a good degree like in engineering instead of sacrificing for a psychology degree.

[skipperbob]

LIFE IS HARD....Suck it Up....Get a Degree.

The quality of my life depended, in large part, on the outcome of just 2, or maybe 3, major decisions. They were complicated decisions but they boiled down to fairly-clear "A" or "B" choices....All of what transpired after those decisions was the result of the outcome.

GET A DEGREE...I don't care how you do it...GET A DEGREE

You will never go back to school....If you quit now you will always accept the "easier" path. You will always accept "less"......Choosing psychology over engineering was the "easier" path....playing poker instead of working is the "easier" path....seeking advice on 2+2 is "easier" than talking to your parents....ignoring me will be "easier" than considering what I have to say....zoning-out in front of your computer is "easier" than meeting people and working on relationships.

LIFE IS HARD....GROW UP....GET A DEGREE

Regards, SkipperBob

[45suited]

Everything skipperbob said is right on. Everyone says that they'll go back to school... once the rigors of the real world set in, few people actually do this.

You've got a full ride scholarship. It would be criminal to not take advantage of this. Let me tell you a little story...

I'm 33 years old. I scored in the 99th percentile on my SAT. Could've gotten into almost any school in the country (except for Cal Tech). Anyway, I was living out in Washington at the time, went to school out there. Long story short, my Sophomore year (wayyy back in '91), my parents moved back to the midwest because my father was dying of cancer. I moved with them, to be close to my father. Decided that I'd spend the year working and establishing residency so that I wouldn't have to pay out of state tuition. My father (being an intelligent person who knew how these things worked) told me to stay in school and finish my degree while I was in the school mindset. But of course, I knew better. I'd save money for the year and then jump back into school.

Funny thing is, though, things come up. You find a job that pays pretty well, you kind of get used to not having to study...

Well, my little plan resulted in me f-ing off for a couple more years. By the time I realized that, [censored], I really would like that degree, I had to juggle school with working full time and paying all my own bills. So anyway, it was a total hassle (going to school at night part time), but I finally got my degree when I was 27 years old. My little plan had cost me 5 years, and I had ended up working way harder than I would have if I would have just not left school and sucked it up for the last two years when I had the chance.

You will never got a better opportunity than right now to get your degree (which you absolutely WILL want and need, by the way). Add to that that you have a full ride scholarship and it becomes even more imperative that you finish now. You will never regret it once you get a little older.

[pooh74]

[ QUOTE ]
LIFE IS HARD....Suck it Up....Get a Degree.

The quality of my life depended, in large part, on the outcome of just 2, or maybe 3, major decisions. They were complicated decisions but they boiled down to fairly-clear "A" or "B" choices....All of what transpired after those decisions was the result of the outcome.

GET A DEGREE...I don't care how you do it...GET A DEGREE

You will never go back to school....If you quit now you will always accept the "easier" path. You will always accept "less"......Choosing psychology over engineering was the "easier" path....playing poker instead of working is the "easier" path....seeking advice on 2+2 is "easier" than talking to your parents....ignoring me will be "easier" than considering what I have to say....zoning-out in front of your computer is "easier" than meeting people and working on relationships.

LIFE IS HARD....GROW UP....GET A DEGREE

Regards, SkipperBob

[/ QUOTE ]

great post skip!!!!

you're almost there...half-ass it if you have to. Being a student is probably the easiest thing in life.

[KidPokerX]

Great post.
Thank you

[lutefisk]

Nice avatar. I'm guessing we started on fairly similar paths, but I wasn't making piles of money while I was in school. Engineering was the worst mental beating I've ever taken, and if I had to do it over again, I don't think I would. That said, I'm glad I did it. I think the first thing you need to accept is that engineering is farking hard. There are a brilliant few that can storm through it, but, even despite appearances, almost everyone has a LOT of trouble with it. The second thing is connected to the first, when you're studying something hard, C's aren't really all that bad. Yeah, it's hard to swallow that pride. Yeah, it's hard to go from being a scholarship quality student to someone who will never get academic honors again. The education and degree are the ends, not the grades. If you can make good money online, I'm guessing you don't need to define your success by academics any more. Take your time. You know about grinding now. Grind it out at school. Take 3 or even 2 classes at a time. Take it slow. Take the miserable ones over. You've got the income to allow you to do that. I don't imagine a psych degree would ever be satisfying to you, but I guess it would be reasonable if it is. In general, as long as you don't overload yourself, you can probably get it done little by little. I would be inclined to recommend something more career oriented though, especially if you intend to use it as a safety net for the poker. There have been many great posts about not getting personally involved in hands here. Great posts about not involving self worth with your game, because you play poorly when you're worried about those things. Take that to heart with the school too. Let go of the pride. You've got nothing to prove. You've acheived some success already. You're looking to further secure your position. You're looking to make the correct decision with the information you have. The correct decisions make you a winner in the long run, even if you really burn on them from time to time in the here and now.

Maybe that just sounds like BS, but that's what I think. I'm still pretty new to poker, and after a year of consistant wins, my game has fallen apart and I've been trying to recover that for the last month or two. I'm studying, reading, and trying to hang in there and improve. Best of luck with your decision. You're welcome to PM me if you'd like.


"Only after the 10th punch will you see the fist, and only after the 20th will you block it." --Proverb from the game of Go