A little advice on the leave college idea.

[Divin'Papaw]

Do yourself a favor. Stay in school. Tough out the last couple years then, after you have the degree, take a year or two and roam. Make the adventure then. In ten years, you'll be glad you did.

I agree and am speaking as the father of a current college student. Life is expensive and dreams don't pay for themselves. Many days I really don't like my job, but it supports my wife and two daughters, pays the bills, provides life and health insurance and provides both a bit of disposable income to support my diving, travel and a few other hobbies we have as well as the paid time off to enjoy them. I couldn't imagine trying to support a family in today's world without a college degree. You sure as heck wouldn't have the time nor money to enjoy diving if you'd even be able to do it at all. Time to take off the rose colored glasses.

 

[Izze]

You could always work on the degree to have something to fall back on and continue training with your LDS. It might not be the fast track but it should offer you a bit of safety as well as a more thorough experience than going through all of it in a few months.

I'd also like to chime in with the crowd who favors a regular job and diving as a hobby. With five weeks paid vacation and six weeks of comp-time I can get plenty of diving in. I was pondering the professional route at one point but looking back I'm glad about the choices I made.

 

[all4scuba05]

No Kids? No wife? Take your crazy risks while you're still young. Pay the price or reap the rewards for your decisions while still young and free. Only you can live your life the way you want. You might regret it and you might not. You might get lucky and you might not. You might be smart and you might be dumb.

At 80 you can look back and say," I made some bad moves here and some good ones there. But I did it my way and no one else can take credit for what I've achieved, just like no one can take the blame for my mistakes."
What can go wrong? You end up homeless, jobless, broke owing student loans, and have to start again(which happens to many and they got back up). Best thing that can happen is you reach your goals and can smile while every one else is in their everyday rat race.

 

[Tom Winters]

If you're a dive instructor, boat captain, stick and TIG welder, can sew people up, pick up foreign languages reasonably well, and keep your mouth shut as necessary, you can work anywhere in the world and do quite well.
You'll reach a point where it isn't fun anymore and hopefully be able to move on. I got the college thing done early and got into the computer industry when CP/M was the dominating desktop operating system and Bill Gates was posing for mug shots in Arizona.

 

[ronbeau]

@BTravlin :: I am 19.9 and have completed less than 20 hours some of which are in engineering classes that can't be moved to any other major.

@BeachJunkie :: I like your advice. This is one reason I am going one more semester to make sure things will work out and get a heading and course plotted. I think about someone who says "I have went to college. I work at a job. I make money. I have a wife and kids." Then I think well, that's nice. What did you do that is special? Where did you have fun and do something different than the norm? How is your story any different than anyone elses? In your case, "I tried college and found I didn't like it, so I joined the Army. And now I live close to the beach and dive." (or whatever you end up doing). Which story would you rather have? And it isn't even about doing something different, it is about doing what you want. If you don't want to go to college and the things you want don't require it, then don't go. But make sure you have a plan... So, BeachJunkie, I like your thinking especially the tidbit about pros/cons and then deciding if you want to take the risk.

@Busdiver :: I would stick with PADI b/c of owning a boat and doing recreational dive charters and extended adventures for couples (live aboard type things once I upgrade from the beginner boat). And recreational diving jobs are easier to come by as you said. The important thing is money here. I have to make money while getting certified and finding another job. I have 6 months from leaving school (or dropping to less than full time) to get stable income. The Thailand stuff is just a more guaranteed timeframe of getting certified and leaving time to get employed and stabilize myself after being gone for 4 months.

@in_cavediver :: College degree will pay for itself. But where am I going to end up? At a desk and a weekend diver? How am I going to have a boat and take week long voyages and take people on week long cruises in the Caribbean or anywhere else for that matter? So I have paid all this money for school, get a nice job, pay off everything, buy a boat, and then leave work and do what I really want which is to sail the seas and dive all the time? That seems like a big intermediary step (though a very stable one with low risk).

Any one have any info on the Thailand Internships and if you really save money, etc.? I am interested in opinions on this.

As several others have said stay in school and finish your engineering degree.
Going back later is much harder.

I went for my associates degree (in Data Processing - computer programming) full time while working full time in data center operations (running a mainframe computer in a data center).

I then changed to working full time in IT doing application development (computer programming) while completing my bachelor's degree in Business Administration.

I then got married in the middle of finishing my MBA while still working a full time job.

I can now afford to raise our family of three (both my wife and I work in a professional capacity) and still afford for all three of us to go to the Caribbean each year for two weeks while still putting away funds for retirement.

Do yourself a BIG favor finish out the remaining 100 credits of your bachelor's degree.

Contact a local dive shop in Indiana with regard to becoming a Dive Master while you are finishing your degree. They might not charge you for the dive master course (other than for course books) if you commit to be a dive master for them for a period of time. You can then see first hand whether working as a Dive Master is what you really want to do before relocating yourself to Thailand and shelving your plans to finish your degree.

You will also see what is involved in being a Scuba instructor on an every day basis.

 

[PlayaCountryBoy]

Hola NMP...I have lived and am living what you dream about. And if I knew then what I know now, I would have went into the Coast Guard. But I chose the hard way which is go out there, make mistakes and learn. One mistake you will make is by thinking after you finish the Instructor course in Thailand that "they" will give you a job. All those places over there in Koh Tao, Thailand do just that. They lead you to believe that after you pay all that money and get all those licenses, then they will give you a job, or have job placement for you to another resort area. Thats a load of crap! The first half is true...you do pay, and you do get the licenses. But they will keep you lingering around in hopes of some gainful employment so all the while you spend the rest of your savings trying to survive there waiting. They will employ you if you can teach in German, Dutch or French or Swedish and Israeli....thats about it. In the coast Guard you can get your captains, license, all the diving certs you want and learn another language if you want to and put your mind to it. But its the languages thats really going to make a difference if you want gainful employment in the Red Sea, Maldives, Figi, Thailand, Indonesia, Mozambique, Seychelles, the Med or most of the Carribean. Out here, we teach ALOT of Europeans. Only in the Caribbean is the English courses big. With all this in mind...good luck!

 

[nmp0906]

Two paths:

--1--

Finish college
Get a well paying job
Dive as a hobby
Live on a boat / own a boat
Make money and then "retire" to a life of boating / diving / doing charters for income

--2--
Leave college
Go for professional diving
Buy a boat
Transition into doing charters and voyages from the boat while still pulling some divemaster work
Go for doing one week long cruise w/ a couple /mo to bring in the income. (dive charters and photography on the side of that).

And then there is 1.5 which is moving to Florida, becoming a divemaster, and reentering school part time paying for it as I go instead of taking out loans and doing the fulltime thing (in Indiana of all places). I originally turned down going to a university in Daytona Beach in favor of Purdue b/c of out of state tuition. However, moving in state for a year or two and then reentering at the instate rate might be the best of both scenarios since credits can* transfer.


Thailand was just something I came across, realizing you don't get paid, but pay for the certification. I was just curious. Point taken on getting certified where you want to work for networking purposes and such.

 

[RowingMunkeyCU]

Ya, I agree on staying in school and finding a 'career' sort of job... even though it's not exactly the most fun option.

I just graduated a little over a year ago, and had the same problem as you. My attention span for classes just didn't work. I'd get bored after 2 months of classes and just start letting everything slide (my gpa suffered greatly for it). Looking back, I really wish there was an alternative class schedule, like, classes only lasting a total of 2 months, with 2 classes per period with 5 periods, plus 1 for an optional summer period. Now THAT might have kept my attention.

Anyway, now I'm working a $40k/yr software-related job with my own apartment, and a couple of housemates to allow me to spend more on my hobbies. It's not the most glamorous life, but I get to leave my work at work and have my afternoons (after 4pm) and my weekends to myself along with a fair amount of paid vacation/sick time (4 weeks/yr and I can roll up to 2 weeks over to the next year if I don't use it all). So stay in school, get a mindless job, and you'll be able to enjoy yourself and have a bit more life than by dropping out.


Also, state schools get my vote over private schools. Same education, lower cost.

 

[diversteve]

Ok, at 19.9 yrs. old how are you going to qualify for a boat loan? And if you take people on your boat for money, you'll need to obtain a something-ton rated Captain's license I believe. As well as pay hundreds(thousands?) in liability insurance. Probably also need more liability insurance if you also plan on teaching divers onboard. I'm not one of them but there are people who will ask to if you have those things before they set foot onboard.

Also given your lack of logged dives won't you have to do a bunch of dives first just to be able to become a DM or Instructor? If they're PADI programs in Thailand aren't the requirements something like 60 and 100 logged dives. So what does 50 or 90 dives cost? Or is that included in the program?

Really read what PCB just posted about those courses also, Thailand is pretty far away if you're burning all your money to stay there while hoping to get work.

Plus realistically who's going to hire you after you're done? I wouldn't hire you in a charter situation if I have more dives as an OW diver than you do as my instructor. DM jobs only pay in certain areas also. Here all the DM's I know do it for the free diving that they can squeeze in after working on a trip all day/weekend. The only instructors I know that aren't owners also have other full-time jobs and fit teaching in around them.

There was a recent thread - here or on another board - about someone who wanted to go DM in the Caymans. Some people who live there mentioned that preference is given to Cayman residents for any job first - it's printed in the newpaper ads. And to become a resident you have to live there 10 years first. And your potential employer has to sponsor your work permit also.

You might also look into the possibility of working on a liveaboard. I don't think the pay is very good - if there is any - but you build dives fast and you'd get to experience the operational side of running a dive operation.

Not trying to step on your dream, just injecting a little reality...

You might consider finishing your degree and then do short term contract computer work - probably the quickest way to be employed during and after school is over in your field. That would allow you to take time off when you could afford it to go diving or pursue your instructor certification without the obligations of a 9to5 job. Contract workers in technical fields typically earn substantially more than salaried employees - but there's no benefits or insurance.
Another option might be teaching, they get three months a year off. So you'd have summers free to go somewhere warm and pursue your training. The only problem would be saving enough as a teacher to afford to do that.

I recently met a guy who's an ESL teacher. Both him and his wife take contract jobs that last between 3-9 months in the Far East teaching mostly in upper middle class private schools. They make enough money to rent a house here between jobs, own a house in Maui that's rented while they're gone, and live "very well" in Thailand and Indonesia while working. Something like that might be an option for you since you have nothing keeping you here.

my .02

 

[djanni]

FINISH School! See it through and you'll never have to look back.

A long time ago the Harvard Business Review published and interview with Ross Perot, at the time he was Chairman of the Board for EDS and several other large companies. Even a Presidental candidate once upon a time.

Perot was quoted as saying;

"It's our corporate policy not to hire anyone without a collage degree." The field the degree is in is not important because what a degree tells us about the individual is that they have "Stick-to-it-tiveness."

Good luck and I hope you make the right decision.