General education thread

[Tshern]

Here's a thread open for all kinds of discussion regarding education. Tell us about your current programme, future aspirations or degrees already earned. Share yours grievances and anecdotes from your school life.

Believe it or not, even someone like me can get into a university, a relatively good one at that. Nearing the end of my programme and it occasionally feels that I never run out of deadlines. As of now, I study Politics and International Relations. Another country, far away from home, but definitely a brilliant experience.

Anyone else studying abroad?

[Monotremeancer]

Not abroad, no (at least not for now). At the moment I'm a Bachelor of Biology (Geoscience minor); started my Masters programme in ecology this semester. At the moment I'm aiming for a full Ph. D.

Every course I take from now on will be in English and I finally got a professor with an excellent grasp of English. The one teaching most of the time on the previous course is an old-timer  who never learned it properly, and that thick Swedish accent is like dull razors to my poor ears.

[sirpercival]

I'm not studying abroad, but I am mired in the 4th year of a PhD in astrophysics (while my wife has begun med school).  Unless a 2.5-hour commute counts as abroad?

The flexibility of grad school is such a mixed blessing -- I can adjust my schedule easily to fit any requirements from my family... but it's hard without set deadlines to motivate myself to work instead of haunting these boards at all hours (thus my sig).

[Agita]

Currently doing a Physics Bachelor in my second year. Ideally, I want to get my grubby hands on a PhD in the same eventually, and maybe get some sort of degree in Chemistry as well on the side. Even more ideally, I'd like to become immortal so I can study everything, but alas, you can't have everything in life.

[veekie]

Just got my Bachelor of Computer Science recently and am starting my Masters in Computer Science by Research. Self scheduling is hard

[Tshern]

I'm not studying abroad, but I am mired in the 4th year of a PhD in astrophysics (while my wife has begun med school).  Unless a 2.5-hour commute counts as abroad?

This counts as a major pain in the ass, that's for sure.

Seems like the rest of you will have something to contribute to the society when you graduate. Let's see what my degree yields.

[Agita]

I'm not studying abroad, but I am mired in the 4th year of a PhD in astrophysics (while my wife has begun med school).  Unless a 2.5-hour commute counts as abroad?

This counts as a major pain in the ass, that's for sure.

Seems like the rest of you will have something to contribute to the society when you graduate. Let's see what my degree yields.

Nuclear fusion reactors are nothing?

[Tshern]

If you refer to what I said to sirpercival, I meant his commuting counts as a major pain in the ass. As the rest of my post shows, I am demeaning my degree, not the others. I doubt nuclear fusion reactors are exactly my domain, so I guess you misunderstood something. Or I did.

[Childe]

Just finished a program in English (with emphases in Fiction and Poetry, minors in Latin and Humanities & Law), working in a marketing position now with next to nothing to do with my degree. I'm trying to stop procrastinating as time quickly runs out on applications for Applied Linguistics PhD programs so I can do more research on emotion, language processing and encoding (interpretation and memory). Admittedly part of my procrastination, but not even a majority of it, is due to me questioning the need for a structured study rather than the 'trial-and-error' real-world approach.

I want to get into publishing as an editor (and write on the side as a personal thing), though I wouldn't mind mixed-media entertainment if I could push into that path. I have a couple of side projects towards that end: lots of writing (nano- and short fiction, poetry, and one burgeoning novel), short film scripts, web-comic scripts, a larger translation project, and some other scraps, nothing off the ground yet.

I'll join Tshern in the 'dubious value to society' camp.

[Agita]

If you refer to what I said to sirpercival, I meant his commuting counts as a major pain in the ass. As the rest of my post shows, I am demeaning my degree, not the others. I doubt nuclear fusion reactors are exactly my domain, so I guess you misunderstood something. Or I did.

Sorry, I was doing the misunderstanding. I read "something" as "nothing" for some reason.

[Bozwevial]

Working on a Bachelor's in Computer Science right now, with a possible minor in Mathematics. I may be studying abroad sometime next year in Cardiff, which ought to be fun.

Funnily enough, Agita, last night's round-table discussion on studying did come around to Vienna. The gist of it was that the university is much more partial to certain destinations than others, and certain departments have their own preferences, so that it'd actually be harder to visit Vienna as a German major than as part of a general study group.

Of course, our debate team gets a ludicrous amount of money to go all over the place, so we definitely have some skewed priorities at work here.

[Tshern]

I'll join Tshern in the 'dubious value to society' camp.

Good, not alone anymore.

If you refer to what I said to sirpercival, I meant his commuting counts as a major pain in the ass. As the rest of my post shows, I am demeaning my degree, not the others. I doubt nuclear fusion reactors are exactly my domain, so I guess you misunderstood something. Or I did.

Sorry, I was doing the misunderstanding. I read "something" as "nothing" for some reason.

I figured there was a misunderstanding. No harm done there.

Bozwevial: Where do you study now? Cardiff is a pretty neat city. Granted, I've only been there for a total of two weeks, but seemed nice enough.

[Agita]

Funnily enough, Agita, last night's round-table discussion on studying did come around to Vienna. The gist of it was that the university is much more partial to certain destinations than others, and certain departments have their own preferences, so that it'd actually be harder to visit Vienna as a German major than as part of a general study group.

Sounds about right. We get a good amount of foreign students, especially from Germany, because of free education and easier entry than in German universities. It makes some sense (although it's still unfair) that the faculty for Germanistics would discriminate in favor of, say, students with German as their native language.

[Bozwevial]

Bozwevial: Where do you study now? Cardiff is a pretty neat city. Granted, I've only been there for a total of two weeks, but seemed nice enough.

Right now I study at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. It's very rural and a decent distance from many larger cities, so it's not a hotbed of activity by any means. Most of the excitement here is student-generated.

Sounds about right. We get a good amount of foreign students, especially from Germany, because of free education and easier entry than in German universities. It makes some sense (although it's still unfair) that the faculty for Germanistics would discriminate in favor of, say, students with German as their native language.

Sorry, I meant to specify that our university's German department would rather send students to Freiburg than to another German-speaking city, and they will actively discourage students who have German concentrations from going anywhere else. The same thing happens with the Japanese and Chinese language departments, apparently--it's practically impossible to fulfill the requirements if you select a non-Colgate program or don't go abroad at all.

[tsuyoshikentsu]

So true story. I'm doing the Great Book curriculum at St. John's College Annapolis.

I actually know why EVERYTHING is useful to society now (Euclid is good for EVERYTHING!), but other people think I have the most useless degree ever.

[Agita]

I actually know why EVERYTHING is useful to society now (Euclid is good for EVERYTHING!), but other people think I have the most useless degree ever.

Not quite. Sometimes, you need unitary geometry instead of Euclidian.

[Mooncrow]

Well, my university days are a long ways behind me now, sadly =/  I ended up with a BA in Political Science and two years of law school, before my wife's threats of divorce made me drop out.  No, I work as a freelance writer and photographer; it's not law, but the money isn't bad, and it gives me a lot of free time^^

(Whether I actually contribute anything to society is another question, of course )

[Prime32]

Technically finished my computing degree, but have to repeat a subject before I graduate.

[Tshern]

Bozwevial: Where do you study now? Cardiff is a pretty neat city. Granted, I've only been there for a total of two weeks, but seemed nice enough.

Right now I study at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. It's very rural and a decent distance from many larger cities, so it's not a hotbed of activity by any means. Most of the excitement here is student-generated.

Fair enough. What prompted you to consider Cardiff? However, as I said, it's a nice place, so no worries there. If you actually drag yourself to this island, we have to meet somewhere sometime.

[liquid150]

Finishing my master of science in supply chain management in May.