- #1
MrsNemisis
- 14
- 0
My dad and I have been discussing my academic future lately, and he has said that he won't pay for me to major in physics because of the extra time it would take me. He also says that if I decide to major in physics or any field that will take me more than five semesters (from now, not from start to finish), I will have to move out.
My biggest problem is that I started full time at community college when I was 16, and I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I just took the classes that looked fun, easy, or that I could get into for a particular term, and ended up with an AA in Langauge Arts. My math background isn't great. I took up to Algebra II in high school, but no geometry, and since I left high school early to attend college, that was as far as I went. In college, I took Intermediate Algebra and College Algebra. Looking back, I wish I'd taken at least through Calculus, but I didn't.
Now, at 18, I'm transferring to Cal State Fullerton for the Fall semester, and I have a better idea of what I want to do. Due to the sequence of classes I have to take for my Liberal Studies major (with an emphasis in the depiction of science in mass media), I'll be able to take Pre-Calc and Calculus, as well as Fundamental Physics and the lab that goes with it, but that will be as far as I can go.
I'm not allowed to work more than a part-time job, and this job has to pay for all of my extracurricular school expenses as well as savings and anything I want to do socially, so it's very difficult to save enough money to put myself through enough classes to get a second bachelor's degree, and even harder to find a school that will accept candidates for a second bachelor's degree, but I really want to do physics.
Also, I don't qualify for any student aid because of the amount of money my dad makes, but since he is supporting my brother, my step-mom, and me without any supplemental incomes, money is really tight, and my brother is starting college either next year or the year after.
A few other facts that may or may not be relevant: I haven't had any formal physics education because of how early I left high school, but I've read lots of mainstream physics books (Michio Kaku, Stephen Hawking, etc.) and I like to watch physics lectures online. I'm decent at math, but not great (pretty much all B's except for one F I got when I was taking 19 units of difficult classes, which I repeated and got a B in). I currently have Junior standing, and my dad has agreed to pay for five more semesters, but only if I can finish in five semesters.
I would really appreciate any suggestions, even though I know that this is pretty much an impossible predicament. Thanks for reading!
My biggest problem is that I started full time at community college when I was 16, and I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I just took the classes that looked fun, easy, or that I could get into for a particular term, and ended up with an AA in Langauge Arts. My math background isn't great. I took up to Algebra II in high school, but no geometry, and since I left high school early to attend college, that was as far as I went. In college, I took Intermediate Algebra and College Algebra. Looking back, I wish I'd taken at least through Calculus, but I didn't.
Now, at 18, I'm transferring to Cal State Fullerton for the Fall semester, and I have a better idea of what I want to do. Due to the sequence of classes I have to take for my Liberal Studies major (with an emphasis in the depiction of science in mass media), I'll be able to take Pre-Calc and Calculus, as well as Fundamental Physics and the lab that goes with it, but that will be as far as I can go.
I'm not allowed to work more than a part-time job, and this job has to pay for all of my extracurricular school expenses as well as savings and anything I want to do socially, so it's very difficult to save enough money to put myself through enough classes to get a second bachelor's degree, and even harder to find a school that will accept candidates for a second bachelor's degree, but I really want to do physics.
Also, I don't qualify for any student aid because of the amount of money my dad makes, but since he is supporting my brother, my step-mom, and me without any supplemental incomes, money is really tight, and my brother is starting college either next year or the year after.
A few other facts that may or may not be relevant: I haven't had any formal physics education because of how early I left high school, but I've read lots of mainstream physics books (Michio Kaku, Stephen Hawking, etc.) and I like to watch physics lectures online. I'm decent at math, but not great (pretty much all B's except for one F I got when I was taking 19 units of difficult classes, which I repeated and got a B in). I currently have Junior standing, and my dad has agreed to pay for five more semesters, but only if I can finish in five semesters.
I would really appreciate any suggestions, even though I know that this is pretty much an impossible predicament. Thanks for reading!