Do narrow interests and university go together?

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I have really narrow interests, so far I have only been able to do calculus well. Any university course you take will require that you take a broad spectrum of lower year courses. I have failed a first year lab and failed 2 second year courses before. I also dropped 2 courses in my university career.

So do narrow interests and university not mix?

"So do narrow interests and university not mix?"

In a nutshell, no. Uni is going to be a bumpy ride. My interests at uni were very limited, and I was either bored or unable to concentrate. It doesn't mean you can't get through uni, it just means you're going to have to work extra hard at things, not get too discouraged by all the friction, and try to explain your situation to your profs if possible - some will help you. I was very lucky in that some of mine saw potential in me and helped me get over some of the hurdles, even though at the time I had no idea what AS was.

I don't regret going to uni, it developed me as a person, but academically speaking, it was a rather large waste of time, and I look back it it with regret - either I shouldn't have gone at all, or everyone involved should have been informed that I had a massive learning disability.

I don't know if you're in uni already, but I tried to choose a school with a curriculum I really liked. I just spent a year at junior college pretty bored. The school I'm going to in the fall doesn't have specific courses 'core' courses and you can build your own major if you want. Plus, it's a liberal arts college so it has really interesting courses.

Another thing to think about; some colleges do a trimester system and the classes are shorter. Maybe being in a class you're uninterested in for a shorter period would be better. There is one school (Colorado College) that does one class at a time, which might be better on you. Maybe there are some more schools out there that have a system like that. Maybe taking classes part-time could help, although that can void scholarship opportunities in some cases.

It seems as though I couldn't had been more clear as I mentioned how I failed courses. Building your own major seems interesting.

Oh yeah, duh I'm just not paying attention, lol.

They don't if you ask me, as university is notoriously a place where people have a WIDE range of interests socially and intellectually, which made it very difficult for me as someone with very narrow interests. Academically, too, I find my interests are too narrow even for courses I think I'll be really interested in, such as a distance learning degree I'm doing now and finding it hard to concentrate on. Narrow interests are one reason for that, though not the only one.

A description of my time at university is on the web at http://jooolian.net/safa/personalexp.html.

I've founding that having narrow interests has been detrimental at uni, and mine aren't nearly as narrow as yours. At least at the BA level we're expected to study broadly. Can't wait to be done with my undergrad work so that I can study what I want.

This is definitely not good. Considering that getting through high school with good grades and with taking a low course load is costing me tremendous effort (I study most of the time I am at home). And my uni program is loaded. I've taken 70 percent of my course load next year, and I still doubt that I would be able to handle it. And the teachers are saying that they're not worried about me doing well academically.

Until you actually experience your university program, I would say that its best not to worry about it. Are you able to focus on your school work for hours without the distractions of surfing the net for things not related to school work? I can't seem to focus and I get distracted easily. I also don't have good time management skills. If I have 5 minutes to spare, I would be like "oh well, I don't feel like starting this task" and so I can't get things done. I also HATE research assignments.

No, the Internet is by far not my biggest distraction. I tend to drift off into my mind after taking in some information. Writing is easier, but when I'm writing about something that I've forced into my mind, the same thing tends to happen. At the same time, I start doing something repetitive (eg. rocking back and forth, concentrating on something small and examining each detail of it, or eating something with a strong taste which usually tends to be junk food as other foods are hard to eat while you're studying). Like right now, I'm eating potato chips.

I can bring myself to intensely focus sometimes, but it usually requires a really long resting period when I can just relax and drift off into my mind, or engage in my special interests.

I need constant sensory stimulation. If I don't get it, I stop being able to process after a certain point. My mind just shuts down. But I have to find more healthy, time-saving alternatives. Someone mentioned pressure before. These pressure things can be expensive, and I'm still looking into where I can buy them in Toronto. I'm not willing to do it online, as my parents always have issues with giving away their credit card number on websites. Preferably, it would be a place where I could go with my parents and we can buy it together.

I think in uni, you can choose what part of a subject to do, like if you choose something like psychology, you could choose clinical or applied. I don't know though, because I'm not at uni yet.
But I do have the same problem, my interests are really narrow, I don't have a general interest in one main subject, but a very small bit of it. So with the subjects I chose at college I was really good at one small bit, and the rest I wasn't that good at because it wasn't relevant to my narrow interests. For example, I chose psychology, and the parts of psychology I am interested in are the study of ASDs and evolutionary psychology. And only 2 studies fitted that description (baren cohen and savage rumbaugh), I wasn't as enthusiastic with the others. And I completely lost interest in art because I couldn't draw just mermaids or people, I had to do other things.

College isn't exactly like high school. The actual time spent in a classroom is less. IIRC, in my high school it was 6-7 hours daily, looking at my full schedule for next semester in college the heaviest day has about 6 hours, but the lightest is an hour and forty minutes, and there are 2 other days with 2 and a half hours per day. Also, there seems to be much less homework overall.

If it turns out that you don't do well with a full course load, you might do well with a light course load during regular semesters, and either take classes in the summer or spend a bit more time to finish.

But I think the biggest thing will be just to improve your study habits. It's really easy to try very hard at something the wrong way, when it isn't very hard at all if you approach it right. It sounds like you're trying to sit down and study right after school until late at night, continually forcing yourself to keep at it even though you're not really getting anywhere.

If you are doing something like that, take a break and do something that you want to do for awhile. Then when you start studying you can actually concentrate on it for a bit. When it gets hard to concentrate again, take another break. Worrying about not being able to concentrate can freak you out, which makes it even harder to concentrate.

More than high school, but the bachelors degree emphasizes diverse interests more than it really needs to.

Yeah, the fact that less time is spent in a classroom is good. I've never heard about it being less homework, though. One issue that I have is that I learn nothing from lectures, even if I'm taking notes. I have to bring home the notes, read over them, then do my homework, and connect the things in my homework to the things in my notes. Otherwise, they stay as detached ideas in my mind forever, because I did not get the meaning and the large amount of information quickly overwhelms me. I can listen in class and hear words, but it doesn't mean that I'm getting the meaning of what's being said. Therefore, everything is automatically much more work for me than it should be.

I don't think there's anything wrong with my study habits. I take a break whenever I feel overwhelmed to help myself digest the information. But I tend to focus single-mindedly on one thing and spend hours on it, regardless of whether it's studying for school or working with my special interest. The only difference is that it's harder to focus to school and I get distracted much more easily. I try not to get involved with my special interest when I have schoolwork to do, though, just because if I start learning more about my special interest, I get absorbed in it for hours and then after I force myself to stop, I will still be thinking about it.

I only take breaks to self-stimulate, in different ways. That way, my mind is still on the subject, but nothing else that is external is interfering with the thought process. In this case, the only thing that can possibly interfere is my own thoughts.

Don't forget to read the textbook. They might be helpful. It depends on how good the class notes are (it depends on your prof).

Well, it has been in my experience, I don't know if that's something that's true in general, or if it's just the school I'm going to.


One thing you might try, if you haven't already -- looking over what you will be covering before you get to it. If you already know or have an idea about everything in the lecture, it might be less useless.