[swishhboy25]

Hey all - Posted a question about South America a couple months ago and here I am. I'm 22 years old, after one year of college enlisted in the military for 2 years and after being discharged in April, went down to Medellin and lived for three months taking spanish classes at EAFIT. Wonderful time there, had a couple mini-relationships especially one enjoyable one with a sweet Colombian girl and now I speak intermediate Spanish! The advice I received from this forum as well as some of the members I met up with made my time fun and informative.

Now I am back home in Korea, spending what's left of my summer before I go back to school and I have to stay I am a little bit scared. I AM excited in a way to go back to school after all these years - I feel wiser, stronger and much more self-aware as a person and expect myself to do well but at the same time having been a soldier for two years it is gonna be a transition.

Some questions that pop up into my head are: What am I gonna major in? My school is a small, top 10 liberal arts college in the Midwest, so it allows students to take whatever they want.I took Economics and math courses my freshman year and didn't do particularly well. I love studying languages(I speak intermediate-fluent Chinese and Spanish, as well as Korean my native tongue) and learning about other cultures so one option is International Relations + a Minor in Spanish. I enjoyed a Greek Philosophy class so Political Science is an option.

It's just that I've seen time fly by so fast the last two years, with my friends already being seniors and graduating, and I feel somewhat behind about not having figured out what I want to do and what path I want to lead with my life. One option I thought about was majoring in PoliSci, going into law school and becoming a sports agent in Korea. But it's just a thought really.

Right now I'm just focused on reading books, lifting, playing basketball(I am going to try out for our school's D3 basketball team)and obviously doing a lot of thinking. My number one priority is doing well academically at school GPA-wise, and making the basketball team. I guess my question is, what advice would you have for me if you guys were to go back to being a sophomore in college? As always, the variety of perspective and advice is much appreciated.

[AntiTrace]

College game has been covered extensively, a quick search will yield you most of the answer you need.

As for your major, do yourself a HUGE favor and go pick up the book "Worthless." you can read it all in a day or two, if you have questions after that than post em here.

[JohnKreese]

If you make the team, depending of the size of your school (smaller the better), most game issues will be solved. Just gotta play that angle up.

[OSL]

Now I am back home in Korea, spending what's left of my summer before I go back to school and I have to stay I am a little bit scared. I AM excited in a way to go back to school after all these years - I feel wiser, stronger and much more self-aware as a person and expect myself to do well but at the same time having been a soldier for two years it is gonna be a transition.


You should not be scared for the precise reason you have indicated - you have had two years going through an experience that very few of your peers will have had. You definitely went through some strenuous experiences in the military and also had the chance to see South America. You are in a great position right now. While it will be a transition, I think that you'll do great.

I wish I had taken a gap year before or during undergrad. It would have helped me put a lot of things into perspective.


Some questions that pop up into my head are: What am I gonna major in? My school is a small, top 10 liberal arts college in the Midwest, so it allows students to take whatever they want.I took Economics and math courses my freshman year and didn't do particularly well. I love studying languages(I speak intermediate-fluent Chinese and Spanish, as well as Korean my native tongue) and learning about other cultures so one option is International Relations + a Minor in Spanish. I enjoyed a Greek Philosophy class so Political Science is an option.



My two cents: what you learn in university and the skills you need to succeed in your career and business are probably going to be totally unrelate (most of the time - some STEM related careers will def have your utilizing your degree).

If I could do university over again I would focus hardcore on subjects that I enjoyed studying. In particular, I would be interested in focusing on either Mandarin or Spanish or both. This way I could also have study abroad experiences that would directly contribute to course credits and I could also study abroad at least twice in Colombia and China. I would also figure out a way to take summer internships and transfer those towards course credits.

Your curriculum sounds very flexible. I am wondering if you could figure out how to maximize study abroad and internship experiences into course credits. This way, you are squeezing as much practical value as possible out of your university experience.

Perhaps you can do an entrepreneurial project and have that count towards course credit. Two birds, one stone.

If you already have a background in Mandarin and Spanish then you are on track to take advantage of your international background to become an entrepreneur. I'd consider Mandarin, Spanish, and English to be the most useful international business languages that will give you incredible opportunities in East Asia, Pacific Latin America (Chile/Colombia/Peru/Mexico), and basically all of the developed world.

Simultaneously, I would make time in my week to independently and directly acquire the types of skill sets I would need to thrive in either a job/office environment and a business environment.

http://www.teamtreehouse.com

http://www.udemy.com (VP has a thread with some kind of limited-time-discount somewhere)

http://www.duolingo.com (Spanish)

http://www.italki.com (Spanish and Mandarin)

I would not consider Polisci or Philosophy to be BAD majors, per se, as long as you acknowledge that these will not directly lead to practical skill sets and you independently acquire said skill sets with cheap/free online resources - while also actively applying them in a freelance or business environment to hone your skills in real time.



It's just that I've seen time fly by so fast the last two years, with my friends already being seniors and graduating, and I feel somewhat behind about not having figured out what I want to do and what path I want to lead with my life. One option I thought about was majoring in PoliSci, going into law school and becoming a sports agent in Korea. But it's just a thought really.


The world has enough lawyers. Law school is also incredibly expensive and I can count on one hand the amount of JDs I know who do NOT regret their decision. I don't know you so I have no right to say if a JD is right or not.

But I can tell you that 80+% of the JDs I know regret their decision immensely.

That's like 3 years and $100K USD of debt - something like that?

You could build and sell several ventures with 3 years and $100K of debt.


Right now I'm just focused on reading books, lifting, playing basketball(I am going to try out for our school's D3 basketball team)and obviously doing a lot of thinking. My number one priority is doing well academically at school GPA-wise, and making the basketball team. I guess my question is, what advice would you have for me if you guys were to go back to being a sophomore in college? As always, the variety of perspective and advice is much appreciated.


If I was a sophomore in college I would double major in Mandarin and Spanish and figure out how to transfer maximum credits from Tsinghua and EAFIT (or whatever study abroad programs) as course credits for my major.

I would also figure out how to do independent study and internship programs and translate that into course credits for my major.

GPA is important. The less coursework you have, the easier it will be for you to get a high GPA. I would ease my course burden, get as high as GPA as possible, and try to translate as much real world experience and study abroad experience as possible into course credit.

With the free time from not taking on too many courses, I would focus aggressively on acquiring digital skill sets such as shooting video and finalcut pro, web design, UX design, SEO, coding in PHP/Ruby, and building mobile apps.

My goal would be to graduate in two years with the following:


-At least one study abroad experience in Colombia/China

-At least one internship with a brand name company in SG/HK/Seoul/Shanghai/Beijing/Bogota/Santiago

-Maybe an internship with a prominent startup in San Francisco like Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, etc

(EDIT - oh wait - you're Korean from Korea right? Then I'd suggest that you definitely try to do an internship in NY or SF with one of these prominent startups over an internship in a place like Seoul or Beijing)

-Acquire several of those digital skill sets I listed above - particularly coding

-Started up and failed in at least two ventures by that point - the sooner you begin failing, the sooner you will start making money

-Master Wordpress

-Master SEO

-Fluency in Korean/English/Mandarin/Spanish - you'd be unstoppable

That's a very ambitious goal for the timeline but also totally doable given your background, IMO.

[Atlantic]

^^^ Info is not even for me but Im giving this cat a +1

[swishhboy25]

Alright, took a couple days to digest your feedback, thanks so much Im really at a loss to what to say.

AntiTrace, I grabbed a copy of Worthless and finished it just under a couple hours this morning. My questions are thus: So the book opened my eyes in terms of the importance of acquiring a trade, majoring in STEM where i will be in demand instead of majoring in something stupid just because i enjoyed it or found easy.

Now i felt my stomach quirm a little when he was shitting on the liberal arts and denouncing its uselessness - I chose to go to a top liberal arts college for its small student population and for the fact that i could take whatever course i wanted. On one hand i want to major in mathematics or computer science, but the fact is im just not as proficient at it. Wouldnt getting a solid all-A GPA trump the need for a STEM related major in my case? At my school, a small 2400 student college we dont offer specific STEM majors like engineering, accounting. I COULD see myself doing well as a computer science major(Math just wouldnt be an option...havent taken calculus since high school)but thats it really.

So wouldnt it make sense to major in something i find interesting and easy while at the same time, taking as much STEM related courses like statistics?

And youngmobileglobal, i stayed up after reading your post because of all the thinking afterwards. Thank you so much for taking the time to read it, much less respond to it with such useful advice. I sent u a PM also but here are my thoughts after your feedback. It makes perfect sense for me to try to maximize real world + global experience while in college. While im lucky not to be graduating with student debt my folks are paying 60K a year to take three courses in rural midwest...Rigorous academics aside itd make more sense for me to utilize as much off campus opportunities as i can in order to : 1.Perfect my Mandarin and Spanish. 2. Gain a global perspective of world and economy.

Much of the advice you gave me was business related and on an entrepreneur path. In terms of taking classes in college, do you mean taking ones that simply interest me the most to get a higher GPA? For example, according to the advice given in that book Worthless, it suggests soldiering through a STEM major even if it might be tough in order to ensure an easier path outside of college. Basically just tough out your college years even if it means majoring in something you dont enjoy as long as youll benefit from it after graduation.

Thanks once again.

[OSL]

Much of the advice you gave me was business related and on an entrepreneur path. In terms of taking classes in college, do you mean taking ones that simply interest me the most to get a higher GPA? For example, according to the advice given in that book Worthless, it suggests soldiering through a STEM major even if it might be tough in order to ensure an easier path outside of college. Basically just tough out your college years even if it means majoring in something you dont enjoy as long as youll benefit from it after graduation.


All of the digital skill sets I listed are useful in the context of entrepreneurship or in the context of a job at a company.

If you think about it, having a job is basically some other entrepreneur who is delegating a piece of his business to you because you have some practical skill set that you do sufficiently well enough that he can make more money or save time by having you do it instead.

A lot of very famous and prominent entrepreneurs studied the humanities as undergraduates. If you plan to solely use your degree and academic experience as your path to a white collar job then YES, you should study a STEM related major.

In contrast, if you have the discipline to independently teach yourself those digital skills then you could use those skills as a means of gaining a job or to create yourself a job as a freelancer or entrepreneur.

If you have the balls to line up as many internships as possible and to hustle to build, fail at, and keep building startups/businesses, then a STEM major is not mandatory.

Your education begins after graduation:

I do think there is a lot of merit to studying STEM related majors. I did humanities as an undergrad and environmental engineering as a graduate student. To this day I still receive interview inquiries from the urban planning and environmental consulting field, despite having not touched the industry in over two years.

Having said that, I really do not think it is necessary to do a STEM major solely for the sake of getting a job after graduation. I do not use ANYTHING from my undergrad or graduate degrees in the lines of business I am currently in. That is both humanities and also STEM. I either delegate it or I've acquired the necessary skill sets.

It takes discipline to teach yourself how to do this stuff outside of the context and rules of an institution. If you do not feel you can independently acquire practical digital skill sets then yes, you probably should look into STEM degrees.

http://www.originalgrain.com

This guy was just like you - graduated with a useless humanities degree and was feeling useless in the job market. Then he packed up and moved to Guangzhou and launched his own watch brand out of thin air and raised $400K on Kickstarter in the process.

http://www.theelevatorlife.com

These guys were just the same way and they went to Guangzhou to line up their own wine importing business.

Jim Rogers majored in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics as an undergrad. He attributes his exploration of the world and deep knowledge of history and world events to his ability to predict macro global trends and be a good investor.

There are countless stories of international entrepreneurs doing the same exact thing. The people who tell you that you MUST study STEM majors are making the assumption that you are unable or unwilling to rigorously and independently acquire practical digital skill sets outside of your academic institution. If you are unable or unwilling to do so then they are correct. If you are able and willing to do so, then they are incorrect.

I know too many success stories of entrepreneurs who majored in the fine arts and other "useless" topics to believe that everyone who goes to college needs to be an engineer.

Simultaneously, if you are a humanities student you better be slaving your ass off to teach yourself wordpress, SEO, web design, PHP, ruby on rails, video shooting and finalcut pro, keynote, HTML/CSS/Javascript, Mandarin, Spanish, etc etc. You can teach yourself all of the skills I just listed there for less than the cost of either one STEM course or one humanities course at your university.

http://www.codecademy.com

http://www.udemy.com

http://www.teamtreehouse.com

http://www.duolingo.com

http://www.italki.com

http://www.lynda.com

Sacrifice and discipline during your free time is the price of studying something you love that is totally impractical. You have to accept that it will be dogshit in the job market and that you have to independently turn yourself into someone who is useful in the economy in the context of a digital specialist or in the context of a STEM degree.

Here are some jobs that I would have taken after graduation that do not require a STEM degree but demand skill sets that you could independently acquire in your free time (or figure out a way to get your foot in the door via networking, relationships, and hacking human resources)

http://graduates.alphasights.com/ (NY or HK office)

http://about.gigaom.com/careers/open-positions/ (San Francisco)

http://www.swire.com/mt/en/ (Hong Kong)

https://teamtreehouse.com/jobs/at-http-i...f5e5852061 (mobile/freelance)

http://hire.jobvite.com/CompanyJobs/Care...j=oXyZWfwa

(Singapore)

-----

Do not let me fool you.

Independently mastering these skills on your own will be just as difficult as taking the STEM route in university. In some ways it will be harder because you will not have the pressure of tests and deadlines nor the community feeling of cramming for tests.

This is your narrow road.

If you lack the discipline and sheer endurance to get through the independent acquisition of these digital skill sets on your own time table then - YES - you will be about as useful as a janitor.

Actually you'll be less useful than a janitor. That guy keeps the place clean. What are you doing to forge yourself into someone who is independently useful as an entrepreneur or useful in someone else's business as a specialist?

-

[OSL]

(08-15-2013 02:32 AM)swishhboy25 Wrote:  

And youngmobileglobal, i stayed up after reading your post because of all the thinking afterwards. Thank you so much for taking the time to read it, much less respond to it with such useful advice. I sent u a PM also but here are my thoughts after your feedback. It makes perfect sense for me to try to maximize real world + global experience while in college. While im lucky not to be graduating with student debt my folks are paying 60K a year to take three courses in rural midwest...Rigorous academics aside itd make more sense for me to utilize as much off campus opportunities as i can in order to : 1.Perfect my Mandarin and Spanish. 2. Gain a global perspective of world and economy.

I did not receive a PM from you.

If you are going to go the humanities route, choose either Spanish or Mandarin and make your courseload as light as possible. This way you do not have to pay as much to take on a ton of courses and you have more time to raise your GPA as high as possible.

Then find study abroad programs in Colombia, Peru, Chile, Mexico, China that will enable you to transfer maximum credits back. Study abroad for at least one semester, preferably two. Also you should do at least one international internship and at least one domestic internship in a major US city such as NYC or San Francisco.

All the while you are doing this you need to slave away at the independent acquisition of languages, practical work experience, small business hustles, and the digital skill sets I laid out above that will make all of the following options possible:

1. Work in an international careers in Singapore, Hong Kong, Bogota, Santiago, Shanghai, Beijing - such as the Swire group and Rocket Internet positions I laid out earlier

2. Work in a domestic entry level graduate trainee programme such as the Alphasights and Gigaom programmes I listed earlier (NYC and SF)

3. Become a nomadic digital entrepreneur who lives in cheap emerging market destinations such as Medellin, Saigon, or Bangkok, and builds his own web businesses and mobile apps to support himself.

4. Become a bona fide international import/export entrepreneur like Ryan from http://www.originalgrain.com or Tim/Nick from http://www.theelevatorlife.com - these guys had LESS advantages than you do currently because they only spoke English and did not have the foresight to plan a China move until AFTER graduation. In contrast, you already speak Mandarin, Spanish, English, and Korean, and can thus communicate with over 70% of the world in a range of markets. You need to source demand and suppliers and see if you can put deals together. If you study abroad in Shenzhen or Guangzhou then you'd be able to explore opportunities to do so.

FYI Peru/Colombia/Chile have FTAs with the US.

I think Peru and Chile have FTAs with China.

---

You are in a much better position than you think you are. But you need to pick a path and execute on it. If you do not feel particularly technically inclined then you can focus hardcore on the acquisition of Mandarin and Spanish and set up a white label import/export business shuttling $50 Android PC tablets from Shenzhen to Latin America. Or something similar to that.

In this event it would be a better idea to study abroad in places like Peru/Colombia and then also in Guangdong. Master both languages. Also, do internships in the import/export and trade industries and shadow successful import/export entrepreneurs so that you can learn the ropes and explore opportunities of your own for when the time comes.

Watch all of the videos on http://www.theelevatorlife.com

--

Above all, remember this - whether you follow my advice and indepedently acquire these digital skill sets or follow their advice and do a STEM major - it is your diligently applied experience and all the lessons you learn from trying and failing that will make your formidable.

The degree will not do that. Going through udemy courses will not do that either. The diligent and consistent applied use of these skill sets and knowledge is what is going to make you useful.

[eradicator]

(08-15-2013 02:32 AM)swishhboy25 Wrote:  

Alright, took a couple days to digest your feedback, thanks so much Im really at a loss to what to say.

AntiTrace, I grabbed a copy of Worthless and finished it just under a couple hours this morning. My questions are thus: So the book opened my eyes in terms of the importance of acquiring a trade, majoring in STEM where i will be in demand instead of majoring in something stupid just because i enjoyed it or found easy.

Now i felt my stomach quirm a little when he was shitting on the liberal arts and denouncing its uselessness - I chose to go to a top liberal arts college for its small student population and for the fact that i could take whatever course i wanted. On one hand i want to major in mathematics or computer science, but the fact is im just not as proficient at it. Wouldnt getting a solid all-A GPA trump the need for a STEM related major in my case? At my school, a small 2400 student college we dont offer specific STEM majors like engineering, accounting. I COULD see myself doing well as a computer science major(Math just wouldnt be an option...havent taken calculus since high school)but thats it really.

So wouldnt it make sense to major in something i find interesting and easy while at the same time, taking as much STEM related courses like statistics?

And youngmobileglobal, i stayed up after reading your post because of all the thinking afterwards. Thank you so much for taking the time to read it, much less respond to it with such useful advice. I sent u a PM also but here are my thoughts after your feedback. It makes perfect sense for me to try to maximize real world + global experience while in college. While im lucky not to be graduating with student debt my folks are paying 60K a year to take three courses in rural midwest...Rigorous academics aside itd make more sense for me to utilize as much off campus opportunities as i can in order to : 1.Perfect my Mandarin and Spanish. 2. Gain a global perspective of world and economy.

Much of the advice you gave me was business related and on an entrepreneur path. In terms of taking classes in college, do you mean taking ones that simply interest me the most to get a higher GPA? For example, according to the advice given in that book Worthless, it suggests soldiering through a STEM major even if it might be tough in order to ensure an easier path outside of college. Basically just tough out your college years even if it means majoring in something you dont enjoy as long as youll benefit from it after graduation.

Thanks once again.

take it from someone with degrees in English and Dramatic art, getting a C average in math or computer science would help you a lot more than getting an A average in English and drama(or ANY liberal arts degree)

[phil81]

(08-15-2013 03:57 AM)youngmobileglobal Wrote:  

Simultaneously, if you are a humanities student you better be slaving your ass off to teach yourself wordpress, SEO, web design, PHP, ruby on rails, video shooting and finalcut pro, keynote, HTML/CSS/Javascript, Mandarin, Spanish, etc etc. You can teach yourself all of the skills I just listed there for less than the cost of either one STEM course or one humanities course at your university.

You would be much better off by picking one or two of those skills and learning them well. Trying to learn too much at once will lead to failure. There is no job in the world that requires you to be a quad-lingual internet marketer who can code in 5 languages. If you can speak both English and Mandarin well you can get paid tomorrow without the degree or all that other crap. If you can code Ruby on Rails well you can get paid tomorrow without the degree or all that other crap.

(08-15-2013 02:32 AM)swishhboy25 Wrote:  

Alright, took a couple days to digest your feedback, thanks so much Im really at a loss to what to say.

Exactly. You were given way too much information so you weren't able to take any action. There was a lot of good advice but too much of it and trying to do all those different things at the same time is bad advice.

Here is a simplified approach.

1. You have to pick what you want to do, not what somebody else wants you to do. Make your own decisions or you will regret it later.

2. Start trying to answer the higher level questions. Do you want to be an entrepreneur, work for a corporation, teach, coach sports, etc.? What country or countries do you want to live in? Do you want to do a STEM type of job like engineering or coding 5 days a week? What do you enjoy and what makes you happy?

3. Think about how your skills, interests, and aptitude relate to your answers to those high level questions. Don't stress out and over-think this. There are no perfect decisions. Make a good decision and adjust later if necessary. For example, I know guys that majored in CS but got burnt out on coding and ended up being successful in other positions in software companies like consulting or project management.

4. Don't worry so much about the low level questions until you figure out the high level questions.
Examples:
-GPA doesn't matter if you want to be an entrepreneur but it matters a lot if you want to get into law school.
-Speaking both English and Mandarin is huge if you live in the US or China but much less valuable if you live in Colombia.
-Knowing how to code is very valuable skill but what if you hate writing code?
-Knowing how to speak a lot of languages is a valuable skill but what if you are reclusive and want to spend all your time writing code alone?

...

My two cents based on what you said about yourself and your interests would be to consider majoring in something like international business and becoming fluent in Mandarin or Spanish. Studying abroad and international internships are fun and will look good on a resume but I don't think you should spend extra time in school just to do several of those because you already speak multiple languages, have international experience, and have more work experience than most college students. You could take some CIS classes as part of the business degree and you could learn things like SEO on your own so you will be competent with technology and have some skills to help you in an entrepreneurial venture.

A business degree is probably going to go further than a humanities or social science degree but it isn't that big of a deal if you major in basketweaving and learn other skills on the side. A STEM degree is better than business but it doesn't fit your interests and definitely isn't needed if you speak Mandarin. "Solidering" through a STEM degree can make sense in some cases but most people who demand that you get a STEM degree don't have a fucking clue about STEM majors or getting through a rigorous STEM program if that isn't what you are interested in or good at.

[polymath]

Major in something where you will be outstanding enough to get a good job. Don't pick a spacey limp-wrist major like philosophy, where there is no upside to having the degree. However, don't shy away from things like languages if they make you happy and you feel that you can make a good living with them. Look at your major as job training. I know it sounds weird but the school you are attending is a place where most people will not do that, and it will bite them in the ass when they graduate and try to work.

[OSL]

(08-16-2013 04:45 PM)phil81 Wrote:  

(08-15-2013 03:57 AM)youngmobileglobal Wrote:  

Simultaneously, if you are a humanities student you better be slaving your ass off to teach yourself wordpress, SEO, web design, PHP, ruby on rails, video shooting and finalcut pro, keynote, HTML/CSS/Javascript, Mandarin, Spanish, etc etc. You can teach yourself all of the skills I just listed there for less than the cost of either one STEM course or one humanities course at your university.

You would be much better off by picking one or two of those skills and learning them well. Trying to learn too much at once will lead to failure. There is no job in the world that requires you to be a quad-lingual internet marketer who can code in 5 languages. If you can speak both English and Mandarin well you can get paid tomorrow without the degree or all that other crap. If you can code Ruby on Rails well you can get paid tomorrow without the degree or all that other crap.

(08-15-2013 02:32 AM)swishhboy25 Wrote:  

Alright, took a couple days to digest your feedback, thanks so much Im really at a loss to what to say.

Exactly. You were given way too much information so you weren't able to take any action. There was a lot of good advice but too much of it and trying to do all those different things at the same time is bad advice.

Here is a simplified approach.

1. You have to pick what you want to do, not what somebody else wants you to do. Make your own decisions or you will regret it later.

2. Start trying to answer the higher level questions. Do you want to be an entrepreneur, work for a corporation, teach, coach sports, etc.? What country or countries do you want to live in? Do you want to do a STEM type of job like engineering or coding 5 days a week? What do you enjoy and what makes you happy?

3. Think about how your skills, interests, and aptitude relate to your answers to those high level questions. Don't stress out and over-think this. There are no perfect decisions. Make a good decision and adjust later if necessary. For example, I know guys that majored in CS but got burnt out on coding and ended up being successful in other positions in software companies like consulting or project management.

4. Don't worry so much about the low level questions until you figure out the high level questions.
Examples:
-GPA doesn't matter if you want to be an entrepreneur but it matters a lot if you want to get into law school.
-Speaking both English and Mandarin is huge if you live in the US or China but much less valuable if you live in Colombia.
-Knowing how to code is very valuable skill but what if you hate writing code?
-Knowing how to speak a lot of languages is a valuable skill but what if you are reclusive and want to spend all your time writing code alone?

...

My two cents based on what you said about yourself and your interests would be to consider majoring in something like international business and becoming fluent in Mandarin or Spanish. Studying abroad and international internships are fun and will look good on a resume but I don't think you should spend extra time in school just to do several of those because you already speak multiple languages, have international experience, and have more work experience than most college students. You could take some CIS classes as part of the business degree and you could learn things like SEO on your own so you will be competent with technology and have some skills to help you in an entrepreneurial venture.

A business degree is probably going to go further than a humanities or social science degree but it isn't that big of a deal if you major in basketweaving and learn other skills on the side. A STEM degree is better than business but it doesn't fit your interests and definitely isn't needed if you speak Mandarin. "Solidering" through a STEM degree can make sense in some cases but most people who demand that you get a STEM degree don't have a fucking clue about STEM majors or getting through a rigorous STEM program if that isn't what you are interested in or good at.

This is good advice - regarding the "figure out what you want to do at a high level and focus on becoming great a few things instead of dabbling in dozens of things"

I don't know if it came off this way, but my point wasn't necessarily that you have you learn ALL of those skills.

I was mainly trying to cram as many different digital skill sets on there as possible to get the OP thinking about and exploring stuff that seemed interesting that he could commit to.

I don't think anyone expected him to actually execute on every single one of those skill sets.

-