Because I haven't been on this topic yet, I'll tell you that it is ultimately your choice. No matter what someone tells you, or how they try to persuade you, you have to make your own life's decision.

People of old age are nearing their life's end. They have lived and experienced all of what you will go through. So if you're going to ask anyone for advice, ask your elders.

It seems like I am getting dragged into this thread again, based on the reports.

Tikels, I know you are proud of your accomplishments, and your performance on whatever exams (it sounds like the Hopkins CTY PLUS test or whatever they replaced it with since I was that young) shows that you have talent. But you need to learn humility and care in throwing around words like "exceptional". It will not help us make decisions for you, and when you are talking about your life on a grand scale, you inherently invoke comparisons to the world at large. And against that grand scale, I must assure you, you are not particularly special. I could spend three pages debasing your talents and confidence, but I don't want to. But please understand, that anything you could show on a CV or demonstrate in an interview - what matters - is, as far as I can see unexceptional. Where I live and work, exceptional is being a three-time gold medalist in the International Math Olympiad, or being the lead author in publishing original research as an undergraduate.

Everyone else, lay off him. I don't want to have to get involved with the "delete and severity" button.

I don't know what you are asking of us. Everything has been said already and I think you understand it - it is comparatively easy to succeed as an engineer and you would be wise to choose that path if your goal is a stable income. I don't know anything about any of the colleges you mentioned (the top names in engineering are the likes of MIT, Caltech, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Princeton, etc.). But I'm sure you will do fine. If you want to pursue a degree in music performance, it is a risky road with few financial opportunities. It takes great musical and political skill to make a good living as a professional musician, and there isn't much money in bumming around New York playing jazz club and the occasional off-Broadway gig. But even there, the competition is extreme.

So I repeat, what really are you asking? The options are laid before you, and only you can make the choice.

TiKeLs, time for a reality check. I'm a 16 year old junior at a fairly average school in a fairly average city in a fairly average state. On the ACT, I scored a 35 overall with a 36 in both Math and English. I had two points off my PSAT. I scored a 146 on an IQ test that my school administered to me. And you know what?

I'm not even the smartest person I know. There are several billion people in the world. You are not even the top 99 percentile, and neither am I, of course. Over 1/100 people in this world are smarter than you. In the United States alone, there are over three million people that I guarantee are smarter than you.
You're not fucking special.

Yeah, Tikels isn't that special. My scores on standardized tests were even higher!

Tikels never said he was impressive, just really smart, which he is. The top 10% being numerous does not change the fact that they're all really smart, and any one of them could be engineers, scientists, or anything else they really put their mind to.

Different people have different abilities that make them truly gifted. It's not all about test scores and memory. Tikels has both a strong general intelligence and musical intelligence. That's pretty exceptional. I'm sure you can find plenty of 2600/4.0/36 people out there, but not nearly as many that have a high musical intelligence, existential intelligence, or even (surprisingly) mathematical-logical intelligence.

I don't know why you guys keep beating on him for him saying he's smart, maybe he is. Tikels being dumber doesn't make you any smarter, though I'm sure deluding yourselves about someone else's intelligence probably comforts you in some way.

Point is, Tikels, if you're so smart, you tell us what the right decision is.

Then the point is clear that from the very start, this topic was pointless? Why do we have to know what the right decision is for him? Then does that make this topic a huge for-the-brag topic? Then he did deserve some bashing.

I wasn't interested in proving I was smart. I don't understand why you all have to become defensive if someone says something good about his/herself. I went into detail when dem0n got all offended, which is what I said what I would do.

@BiOAtK, It's TiKels, not TiKeLs.

I guess I just want some security, because this is a fairly big decision, in which tens of thousands (if not hundreds?) of dollars will be invested, and ontop of all that I'm not certain if I'm going the right way?! It's all just kinda daunting.

That's the thing though. There isn't a "right" way or a "wrong" way. It depends entirely on how you wish to live your life, and how much you want to be an engineer or a musician. No matter which you choose, you sacrifice opportunity. Only you can make the choice which is best for you.

Everyone else: I warned you to lay off him. Yes, I know touting your intelligence (as fact or otherwise) is asking to for ridicule, but I warned you. Stop.