Advice for teenager

My son is about to graduate from high school, and I am looking at options for his future. He wants to study computer science. He also wants to travel. I am thinking of suggesting doing an online degree and combining it with travel.

An online degree is:

1. Cheaper
2. Easier to get accepted. We live in Asia so getting into a western university is problematic.
   
3. No vaccines
4. Gives experience of working remotely which might be an advantage in IT
   
5. He can travel round the world while doing the degree

The downside is that he wouldn't get the social interaction that comes with a bricks and mortar university and for some people this is the main benefit of higher education. And maybe there is less prestige from having an online degree, although he could do a masters from a bricks and mortar university at a later date if that was a problem.....

 

There are simpler concerns you need to concern yourself with.

Does he know how to cook food, and use measuring devices, such as teaspoons and tablespoons? Cups?

Does he know how to write a physical check and present it to someone? Or a bank? Does he know how to measure his own shoe size in a shoe store? Does he know how to light a fire out in the wilderness with a survival kit?

Because if he does not get a vaccine, he will need those skills when he is shunned to the woods and he has no more digital access.

 

He should travel for the summer then go to brick and mortar school for the year. After he’s done with school he should take a year and travel (like the Europeans do)

 

A lot of American universities have Asian partner schools. Is that an option for him?

 

I agree with the above. A brick and mortar college experience is once in a lifetime. Working remote and being secluded from social interaction is what we do when we get older lol.

 

Does he know how to fold his clothes and pack a suitcase? I'm not even joking. I was at my friends house and his son was packing for first year university. He took his shirts and made a ball and stuffed it into the suitcase, WTF. and this guy has a 4.0 plus GPA.

 

Really? An 18 year old young man focusing on online studying while traveling the world? He will get distracted with so many other things that not much will come of this. For a starter, he will get distracted by about 50% of the population he'll come across.
Let him go to university for the experience and to train his brain. And let him travel after he has completed it.

 

I did not know GPA could go over 4.0 What is it up to now, on the max?

And do they understand the severity of this?

 

yes I didn’t know either, but if you take ap courses it can get you above 4.0.

 

List of American Universities Abroad