I am 17 years old, at the end of grade 12, and it’s time for me to accept my university offers. But here’s the story:
My parents have always pushed me into the computer field (particularly, programming), ever since grade 6 or 7. Up until grade 10, I thought that that’s where I’ll end up, since I wasn’t thinking about a career at the time, so I figured I’d go along with my parents. I didn’t have a positive or a negative view of computers, so I didn’t mind. Around the middle of grade 10, I started reading T-Nation, and became more and more interested in sports/exercise science. In grade 11, I took a programming course, figuring that I’ll still go to university for computers. By the end of grade 11, I was very disinterested in computers, and very interested in sports science, and performance enhancement. Still thinking I’d go into computer by the end of grade 11 (although starting to dread it slightly), I didn’t say anything to my parents, so they kept thinking that I’d go into computers. Then, in grade 12, I took kinesiology, and developed a passion for it. That was the point when I finally decided against computers and for kinesiology.
When it came time to apply to universities, I still hadn’t told my parents that I’m interested in kinesiology, so I applied to the university of Toronto for computer science, York university for computer science, and York for kinesiology (told my parents this was a backup). Well, now, it’s a few months later, and I got accepted to all three programs. Now, I’ve had a few long talks with my parents, and they know that I have my heart set on kinesiology. Unfortunately (but not surprisingly), they seemed to be disappointed with my choice. They said that there is very little future in it. There isn’t a very high demand for them (kinesiologists), and the salaries seem to be low. But, they told me, if this is what I want, and I have some sort of future in it, I should research it, and get back to them.
So my questions to you are:
Has anybody here graduated from a kinesiology program at a Canadian university?
Did you find work? How easily? How does it pay (a bit personal, but important)?
To narrow this down a littler more, you know that from kinesiology you can go into either the medicine field, or the sports/fitness industry. Well, I’m interested in the latter.
So does anybody work in the fitness/sports industry? Was a university degree necessary to get that job?
Did you have to get any additional education/certification beyond the standard 4 years it takes for a BA or B.Sc.?
Do you enjoy your work?
Any other details you can think of will be very helpful.
Sorry if this seems like a long post, but I really don’t want to end up working in computers, so I need a really good case for kinesiology.
Thank you!