What you did today

[Hurlshort]

Well, I have a degree in History and I couldn't be happier. I never imagined I would be a teacher, either, I just fell into the profession and absolutely loved it.

 

Also, the most important thing is to have the degree, it opens a lot of doors no matter what the major is. You will not regret pursuing what you enjoy.

[Gorgon]

I don't know that there is any substitute for the ability to sit down and do the work.

 

My experience with classroom teaching on the receiving end has almost universally been that it was a distraction, that I could have gotten much further if all that time had been spent actually studying, maybe with the exception of early stages of primary school. Sometimes you luck into a small class of highly motivated students and a talented teacher that can push you to go further, doesn't happen often though.

[Monte Carlo]

I am debating changing my major away from Physics into history.

 

Starting to feel like I picked my major for the wrong reasons (was mildly interested in stars and knew that Physics was better for me in terms of getting a job), while History is sort of a passion (I'd jump for military history... probably focus would be on Japan and/or Chinese conflicts).

 

 

Graduated twenty years ago, looking back the subject was largely irrelevant in a purely vocational context but the disciplines involved in studying for an obtaining a decent degree were extremely valuable. Even more importantly, I met my wife at university so you never quite know what you are going to take away from the experience. I got a degree and a wife (yes, am still married to her, mit sprog).

[Calax]

Eh, I'd probably push beyond a Batchelors degree simply because I enjoy the actual LEARNING of the stuff, which would net me a job probably as a teacher (which is sort of eh...) or as an academian at a university.

[BicycleOfDeath]

I was taken out on a date yesterday. The entire thing was unexpected, especially the person. The entire thing was just one of those 'vent friend' type of deals. While I'm currently not in the right mindset to depart my lifeboat from my current burned/sunken ship to board a new boat, it was definitely a breath of fresh air. There has been a long chemistry brewing between the two of us but I've always been respectful enough to not invade another person's relationship like that. I'm currently in that vapid, focused state. But on two occasions yesterday I was cast with perma-grin. One being when the perspective on the chemistry was mutual. The second was actually heart warming, which was odd since I haven't felt anything for a couple of days now. It's surprising when someone takes the unexpected initiative to hold your hand.

 

I'm also very pleased with the above-freezing temperatures. I'll have to bring my fixed gear with me next week so I can put some miles on my bicycle, which is one of my three life-defining hobbies.

[Monte Carlo]

I will be deliberately provocative... Academics are scared of life, but even more scared of the commitment required to live a properly cloistered existence, say a monk or a soldier. The ones I met didn't particularly impress me as people.

 

I think academia is something you'll fall into only if you genuinely love and excel in your subject of choice.

[Hurlshort]

Eh, I'd probably push beyond a Batchelors degree simply because I enjoy the actual LEARNING of the stuff, which would net me a job probably as a teacher (which is sort of eh...) or as an academian at a university.

 

You can use your degree to get quite a few jobs outside of teaching and academia. The possibilities are fairly endless. It is a door opener.

[Monte Carlo]

Alternatively, have you ever met a really poor plumber?

[Hurlshort]

Alternatively, have you ever met a really poor plumber?

 

Oh man, plumbers, electricians, and mechanics make bank.

[Calax]

Yes... and I had to replace his work with my dad a year later

[Monte Carlo]

Alternatively, have you ever met a really poor plumber?

 

Oh man, plumbers, electricians, and mechanics make bank.

 

Also, and I'm only basing this on a brush contact knowledge of 1970's European adult cinema, but plumbers also have interesting and varied love lives

 

Edit: shockingly needless use of an apostrophe, am off to whip myself with bike chain or something.

Edited February 16, 2011 by Monte Carlo

[BicycleOfDeath]

Edit: shockingly needless use of an apostrophe, am off to whip myself with bike chain or something.

May I recommend a half-link chain?

 

Edited February 16, 2011 by AngryKidJoe

[Nepenthe]

The main reason for doing my doctorate is (and was) that both my parents have one. Can't be worse than them. I've had it up to eyeballs with academia, especially as I'm seeing the kind of ludicrous bureaucracy (that smarter countries, like the U.S. have been doing away with for a while) seep in and take control of the system, resulting in me and other academic staff have to spend 40 hours a week doing random stuff to appease pencil pushers, work evenings and weekend to get our actual work done and still get paid peanuts. GNGNGNG.

 

S'yeah, working a lot for that Dr. in front of my name, so I can create a lot of confusion with my to (non-Finnish speakers) apparently androgynous first name.

[Enoch]

I guess I'll be the downer. A history degree is doubtless better than no degree, as it opens up those career paths for which a BA is a necessary pre-condition. But it also doesn't offer much in the way of meaningful advantages over any other flavor of BA.

 

And don't count on grad school unless you're paying for it yourself or you're already really good at it and at a university with some name-recognition in academic circles. (Military history in particular is for dilettantes. It sells a lot of pop-history books, but it's not the most fruitful field out there for people looking to do original academic research.) The field for graduate applicants is extremely competitive, especially at the top schools. And the people who hire for academic jobs are prestige whores-- an advanced degree in a humanities field from Northern State A&M U don't get you much in the way of employment opportunities.

 

Obviously, you don't want to paint yourself into a field that is going to make you miserable. But if there are career paths stemming from a more practical major that don't make you contemplate methods of suicide, well, you can always read history books as a hobby.

 

 

As an aside, if you can handle the math, a master's degree in statistics is probably the most practical and flexible credential I can imagine. Just like every 15th century town needed to have a blacksmith, every entity and institution around in the 21st century-- companies, governments, nonprofits, you name it-- needs to have useful data.

[Calax]

I admit Being a Doc would be kinda funny

 

I R POWAH RANGER! DR. OLIVER GO!

 

 

Ok, so I wouldn't be a paleontologist so I couldn't do that but

[Tigranes]

Academics are scared of life, but even more scared of the commitment required to live a properly cloistered existence, say a monk or a soldier. The ones I met didn't particularly impress me as people.

 

While I'm still young, this is more and more my belief from the contact I'm starting to get with many academics - not all are like that, but most are, and that really makes the whole environment very stuffy.

 

...which is why I'm doing a PhD. Yes, shut up.

 

On a History degree I agree with Enoch. You should only do a humanities degree with no obvious link to a career field/option if you are sure you are absolutely passionate about it and you want to really get into it. There's no point otherwise. Monty is right that discipline is what you get out of a BA more than the content, because BAs have been dumbed down so every idiot can get one and the stuff you learn is utter bollocks, but you still want to pick the right one because the kind of discipline you learn, and the kind of general skills you pick up are very different - i.e. what you learn about research doidng history and what you learn about research doing physics.

 

Anyway, if you really want to go for history you should. What I see very often though, is that people who weren't quite sure when they picked a degree the first time, end up not being quite sure when they pick a second time either, moving just for the sake of moving or because they keep feeling the first pick was wrong. So it's worth thinking about carefully.

 

Edit: Oh, I just got into the Annenberg School of Communication, University of Pennsylvania. One of the premier institutions in the field, but not such a great fit with my research direction. We'll see what the other places say.

[Calax]

Like I said, I'd rock for a masters at the very least. And you guys are giving me basically the same advice my parents had about any upper level degree "The only people that do it/should do it are those with a tremendous passion and question to be answered."

[Tigranes]

That's because well, it's a basic truth. *shrug* if you have an answer to that question worked out in your head,no problemo.

[Shryke]

found out last night that a dude i've known for about 5 years was stabbed to death the other day

[Gorgon]

Damn

[I want teh kotor 3]

I definitely want me a PhD, but then again, I wanna go into academia.

 

Sorry Shryke. That sucks dude.

[Guest The Architect]

Sorry to hear that Shryke.

[Guest Slinky]

Okay, I don't usually post here other than game related stuff, but this is too good to not share with the world:

 

So there I was, happily in my flat. I had just finished my dinner, when someone ringed the door bell. I have this habit to not open the door, unless I know who is there. Everybody calls first before they come over, and most of the people who find their way to my door without calling first tend to sell something. And no one had called me now, so I just ignored it. Then he ringed again. And again. And again. Then he also started to knock on the door. "What a persistent bastard" -I thought. By now I was starting to give up and was about to go see who the hell is it. But then it got weird: He started to fiddle with the letterbox, opening and closing it. Clearly not trying to fit anything through it, just opening and closing it.

 

WTF?

 

Is it some lunatic? Drug addict high on LSD? Then it got quiet. "Finally gone, who ever it was". An hour passes. I'm just about to play a game or two in World of Tanks, when someone rings the doorbell again. "Not again goddamnit!". A moment of silence, then BOOM, I hear somebody putting a key in to the lock, opening it and then a man's voice says: "This is the police, can we come in?"

 

WTF!?

 

The door opens and I see two police officers and my brother in the door way. The cops have a quick look at me, nods to my brother and leave while I still stand there my jaw wide open, so baffled that I haven't got a word out.

 

Well it turns out that for a reason or another nobody have been able to reach me by phone for the last 5 days. The phone has been on and working perfectly, except not a single call or message has gotten through, and people had started to be worried about me. It was my brother at the door earlier, and he tried to call me through the letterbox, but I didn't hear a thing! The second door somehow managed to muffle his voice completely.

 

So yeah. At least I got a funny true story to tell people, never too much of those

Edited February 17, 2011 by Slinky

[Gfted1]

If your brother had the key, why didnt he just let himself in? Or are you saying the police in the UK have skeleton keys to every single residence?

[Gorgon]

Dude, just answer your door. I wouldn't but that's because right now the place looks pretty disgusting, I haven't bothered cleaning up from last weeks get-together. I am a pig, yes, but I get very self conscious about it.

 

I should probably clean up right about now.