Narrowed down to three choices

[Crazy Asian]

over the past few months, i've been thinking about what i want to do for the rest of my life.

what i'm really concerned about is that a high paying job will take hard work and many years after college, so i won't have time to go to clubs and do fun stuff in my 20's.

for example, if i choose the path of a surgeon, i'll be 31 AT LEAST before i actually finish all the learning which will basically make my social life non-existent. I mean what good is all that money, if the prime age to have fun is already gone?

so these are the three:

1. jet pilot for air force, then a commercial airplane pilot which will learn me about 140k a year. but i heard it's hard to land a job sometimes. so....

2. surgeon. this will be very hard and highest paying, but i want to at least give it a shot. if i fail, then i'll become an------>

3. orthodontist. they make 150k a year, and i don't believe dental school is very hard.

these are the three that i found.
but what i'm looking for is something that won't require me to be constantly studying day and night. i don't care how long the learning process will take as long as i have free time on the weekends since my parents are paying for all my education. i just want something that pays over 100k.

got any jobs in mind?

 

[speakeasy]

Plus when you factor in $100,000+ debt for medical school loans, making $140,000 a year doesn't sound like so much.

 

[toddlips]

Professor. They make over 100K a year and you'd only have to get your PH.D. or MFA. Depending on what program you're taking, it could only take a few years.

 

[intheRed]

Having a job that makes a ton of money is all great and dandy, but no high paying job is easy to learn. There's no such thing as easy unless you're incredibly talented at what you're studying. Also, are you sure you like what you're going to study? I know people say "you gotta like what you do" all the time, but we all know that if we studied what we liked, we would all be doing liberal studies while trying to land a job as a porn star.

If you LIKE all three of those things, don't let me stop you. However if you don't like being an orthodontist, a pilot, or a surgeon then save your time and money and find something that makes a decent amount of money and you like. The worst thing you want to do is having to do something you hate for the rest of your life just for the money.

And let me reemphasize, NO CAREER is "easy." As an UNDERGRAD, I still have to give up a free weekend or two every once in a while to study for some of my harder classes like Calculus, etc. It only gets harder as a junior/senior, and I'm a business major. I can't imagine how much harder it is for people who are majoring in the sciences who have to take classes like psychics w/ calculus, and those aren't even classes IN the major.

It might be that I might just be a retard, but who knows. Take my advice with a grain of salt. I know some people that are mechanical engineering majors and still find the time to have a social life while passing their courses. Just know your limits and don't do it ENTIRELY for the money. Don't waste your time in college and major in something that will make you poor for the rest of your life either though.

Here's a great website you might want to check out.

http://whatpeopleareasking.com/

Go to Job Seekers --> Pay --> What do all jobs pay?

You can click a job to get an idea of what it's about. Keep in mind that its very general though.

 

[Columbia]

Professor. They make over 100K a year and you'd only have to get your PH.D. or MFA. Depending on what program you're taking, it could only take a few years.

It could vary by field, but from what I know it's a lot, lot more complex than that. I want to become a lecturer in English, and here (Ireland) you would have to be very successful in your PhD including AT LEAST several publications in peer-reviewed academic journals. Afterwards, you'd do a few years as a post-doctoral researcher and then be in competition with 50-100 other applicants as soon as a lecturing position opens up in your area of research - and this can be anywhere in the country so you better be prepared to move.

All that, and the starting wage for a lecturer (outside things like law and medicine) is about 25-30,000.

And don't even get me started on tenure.

Still, I wouldn't want to do anything else

 

[SmoothTalker]

Let me get this straight. You want a really high paying job, that's also fun, and so easy to learn that you can party as much as you want while learning it.

Do you honestly think such a thing exists? And if it does, why the hell aren't we all doing it already?

Learn about supply and demand. High paying jobs pay a lot because they require a lot of skill and knowledge that is very difficult to obtain, hence few people have it and those that do are in great demand.

Unless you're thinking something like crime/drug dealing. That may satisfy the high paying low effort part, but then there's the risk of jail to deal with.

My advice would be to pick something you like that also pays well, and then work your ass off. Assuming you are at least somewhat intelligent, if you manage your time REALLY well you should be able to have a half decent social life in any major. Worst case, keep in mind university semesters are really short and you get breaks in between.

 

[Alle_Gory]

Business.

Bonds, insurance, sales, banking.

 

[lordson]

if you're in it for the money, i can tell you doing medicine is the WRONG choice

i'm a med student. i dont know what its like in the US, but you have to have TOP marks, and i mean top 1% of the state.

and you have to do a stupid pre-med course, then do the medicine cource, work as an intern in a hospital, then 2-3 years as a resident doctor in a hospital, and if you're good, you can apply and be accpeted to train as a surgeon. but its just general surgery, if you want to be a a specilist surgeon, eg. cardio, neuro, orthopedics, then you'll have to apply for that training program, and its another few years of study (training program while you're working in the hospital)

are you up for that?

i do medicine because i love it, not in it for the money



alright, orthodontists (again not sure about US but this is Australia), you have to dentistry, and MAN its hard to get into that, you have to be top of the class as well, and then after that you have to do Medicine, so you can become a surgeon (going through all that i explained above), and then you can be an orthodontist

not to mention the ridiculous student fees the US have, are you top of your class? if you're in it for the money you won't make it, because you'll hate it.

 

[Rho]

Also, as a surgeon people's lives are in your hands so you cant fvck it up, can you deal with that pressure? It will also take a long time to get to the big money, if your primary driving force is money then becoming a surgeon is not an ideal choice.

To be a pilot you have to have super good reflexes but also have a very visual mind as you are operating within a three dimensional space (unlike car). Most people are not visual.

You have to choose something that caters to your strengths, that doesnt neccessarily mean what you get the highest marks in high school for, maths/science at high school level is a piece of pvssy compared to uni. You need atleast some natural ability/inclination in the area you are studying at uni.

 

[Alle_Gory]

Also, as a surgeon people's lives are in your hands so you cant fvck it up, can you deal with that pressure? It will also take a long time to get to the big money, if your primary driving force is money then becoming a surgeon is not an ideal choice.

To be a pilot you have to have super good reflexes but also have a very visual mind as you are operating within a three dimensional space (unlike car). Most people are not visual.

You have to choose something that caters to your strengths, that doesnt neccessarily mean what you get the highest marks in high school for, maths/science at high school level is a piece of pvssy compared to uni. You need atleast some natural ability/inclination in the area you are studying at uni.

You also forget 20/20 vision. And you have to be in mad shape for your body to withstand the G-Forces. Also, a clean family history. No strokes, heart attacks... etc.

 

[Wired for Sound]

You're only 16 so you won't really have to worry about it for at least two years anyway. Just focus on getting good grades right now so you won't burn any bridges. Afterward, you can do both if you want. Go to the Air Force Academy/Annapolis whatnot and while you're there you can decide if you want to continue on to try and get a pilot slot, or you can do med school.

Either way, the military pays for all your schooling so you won't have to worry about med school debt that speakeasy was talking about. Also, residency hours in the military are much more slack than in the civilian world. You won't get paid d.ick as a resident anyway, so you won't be missing much. Then when you get out, you'll still be in your early thirties and making at least $300k a year depending on what surgery specialty you pick.