What should I go to college for?

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Thank you for your advice, but I can only have one interest at a time, so I'm not sure if I'll be falling in love with anything soon ! Then again, maybe that could replace one of my other interests, but I'm not sure I want a replacement for my current interest.

You can be a concert violinist.

Or you can be a doctor who specializes in research into genetic diseases.

Thank you !

This is cool OP, definitely a good idea to set a career goal from there and transgress as you age. When I was your age I wanted to become a proffession Boxer and Champion. I still have those aspirations but different goals

Thanks for understanding . I like to plan ahead, but my goals/aspirations can definitely change. I just like to have an idea in mind!

You are 13, you cannot plan ahead.

Things change fast when you are teenager, it's better to be adaptable than to have a rigid plan.

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some 13 year olds correctly plan their future careers and stick on the path.

but when i was in college, an academic counselor said that college students change majors an average of 2x.

some college students do not change majors, but they are in the minority.

your interests change between age 13 and 22.

however, even after college, interests change.

when i was in first grade, a lot of girls wanted to be teachers. and a lot of boys wanted to be president of the united states or baseball players.

being a schoolteacher just requires a Bachelors and a teaching credential. among other things. the world contains plenty of teachers.

plenty of boys want to be baseball players. there are not many professional baseball players.

there is only one president of the united states every four to eight years, unless the president gets impeached.

and even the president has to be 35 years old minimum before taking office. and before being president, the candidate has to have some sort of work experience.

you can plan ahead.

but your interests could change. the job or college major you aspire to get might be harder to get than you anticipated. situations arise. financial problems, academic problems, medical problems.

if and when the situation changes you can adjust your goal accordingly.

having a vague idea of what work you want to do is not such a bad idea though.

OK

Many people here are telling you to keep your options open, etc. But in my own personal experience, it is perfectly possible to predict your own interests. When I was 8, I wanted to be a chemist. Had a textbook, periodic table, all of it. At 14 I still wanted to be a chemist. At almost 18, I'm in a chemistry program at a good science school who recieved chemistry transfer credits from AP. if you have a long term career interest, I'd follow it.

Maybe that should have been a sign of autism, but my mom thought that aspies were quirky computer scientists, so...

Talking with scientists at various meetings over the years, I discovered that quite a few fellow chemists knew that they were going to go into that area when they were very young (grade school or before). I too am among that group.


To the OP:

Your future is not written in stone, so enjoy planning your future, whatever you may chose it to be.

There are plenty of 13 year olds who figured out what they wanted to do in life and successfully did it, and others who took well into their 40's before they figured out what they wanted. Everybody is different. I don't think we can tell you or even give you a general idea of what you might want to do. However, that doesn't mean we can't give you some general advice. Here's mine.

Whatever you choose to do in life, I'd strongly advice it be a profession of some sort that has strong demand. There's plenty to choose from that could make that qualification. Keep in mind that robots are going to become a part of the work force over the next 10 to 20 years, so don't pick something that could become automated i.e. and accountant, librarian, etc. Many of these professions will not be phased out entirely, but will have significantly less demand than they do today.

Also keep in mind that whatever you pick doesn't necessarily have to be something you spend years and years in school for. You could choose a trade like a plumber or electrician if you enjoyed that type of work. Whatever it is you choose, you need to enjoy it. It needs to seem less like a job and more like something you truly enjoy and are good at. So I'd advice you look at all sorts of possibilities.

You could become a:

Physical Therapist/Physical Therapist Assistance (of course I'd put that first)
Occupational Therapist
Neurologist (Basal Ganglia)
Welder
Plumber
Violinist
Game Developer
Project Manager

Whatever you choose, make sure it requires extra education that makes it either a trade craft or a profession, and make sure it's one that's in demand. So, unfortunately, no majoring in french literature, or certainly don't depend on a high school diploma.

Well, there ya go, I hope that you have a prosperous and *happy* future, you certainly seem smart and nice enough.

Here is an idea that I failed to do:

Look up high school internships

Go to your school's career center

Or just email companies and ask if you can volunteer there

The most they could do is ignore you

Now that I am 34 it is a day late, a dollar short for me

But you still have plenty of time



Some jobs offer training programs for high school students

Emergency medical technician

Police cadets

Firefighter cadets

Suggest you take normal college-bound classes in high school and see what you like or don't like.

Biology, chemistry, math, physics, English, etc.

You might find you really like one topic, or another just annoys the heck out of you.

Going to say, its awfully hard to make a living as someone that plays a musical instrument. My nephew has decided to add finance to his curriculum in college. I mean, unless you are first chair, or try to get first chair and succeed, might want to look else where.

See if your school allows high school students to take community college classes

Take a wide range of classes

See what you are good at

See what you like

See what jobs offer the most $$

Well, if you like music AND teaching/helping people with Autism or other developmental disorders, you could be a musical therapist. It's Occupational Therapy (OT) only with an emphasis on music and helping with relaxing/stress relief

Hello,

STEM! Definitely STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics. For women, there are a TON of scholarships and grants if you're a woman that chooses to go into a STEM field degree. For example, I was looking at scholarships and found a ton of easy ones for cybersecurity, with a guaranteed job waiting after, for women. There was this one that required a 2.5 GPA average and gave $20,000 per year for women majoring in cybersecurity! In addition, there were a lot of grants, regardless of GPA, for $5,000 per semester for computer science or information technology.
So, there's that. In addition, while you're at it, invest with some of that money, for example cryptocurrency or into a growing e-commerce business -- you can find yourself with a comfortable job making $70,000 to $100,000 and, if you invest wisely and take advantage of all of those grants and scholarships, then you would start yourself off very financially successful, debt-free, and comfortable.

Of course, only go into a STEM field if it interests you. Do NOT do something that you would dislike doing. Just know that STEM is full of opportunity and employers are actively seeking female workers and giving a ton of opportunities.

To give you an idea of what kind of jobs you could land with STEM, you could work as a contractor for the government or as civil service. Work as civil service, and you get a lot of good benefits, including very high job security, just less pay. Work as a contractor and your benefits might not be as good and market changes might cause people to lose their jobs, but you get paid a lot more -- and of course, a STEM field like cybersecurity will only continue to grow from this point on, so it's probably pretty safe to go in as a contractor.
Oh, and I forgot to mention: many of these civil service and contractor programs will pay for you to get your master's degree, and will give you paid internships while getting your bachelor's, and again, you will have a job waiting for you with them after getting your degrees. Pretty sweet!

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Jared

Edit:
I forgot to mention, a lot of Aspies go into STEM, so you'll certainly find people that can relate and understand you better like people on this forum.