Let's talk about your college/general schooling thoughts and experiences.

[More Than A Feeling]

(people who didn't go to college are most welcome to share their schooling experiences as well!:-))

I'm a political science/economics major, but I really wish I had been sociology instead of poli-sci. It now seems to me like political science is just a subsection of sociology, an application of sociological theory specifically to political systems. I have this awesome sociology professor right now, and his classes are really mind-expanding (I just got out of it in fact). He does a great job of teaching the unspoken assumptions and assumptions of society, and helping you to analyze them as a bigger picture.

For example, the class I am in right now is social policy and social problems, and we just finished learning about the social pathology approach, which treats things like poverty and mental illness as diseases that are paradoxically caused by faulty transmission of morality, or else that society itself is sick, and its values are ruining individuals. It definitely appears to be characteristic of a conservative mindset to use this approach to analyzing society and the world (which is appropriate, because we are told it is the oldest). You just have to listen to the squawking of the fundies for examples galore, particularly regarding gays.

What was your major in college, and what has it done for you? This is a thread for college/other school musing and/or reminiscing.

[Squatch]

1. Got more ass than a toilet seat.

I had a lot of girlfriends in college.

[More Than A Feeling]

2. ah, a chemistry/biology double major!

;-)

[driver8]

38. Amen to that!! Those were definitely the days!! I majored in

film and television and I am now a sound editor for Warner Bros. Studios. I didn't need to go to college to do this job, but then I would have missed out on the parties, the beer, the girls, the beer, the girls, and the parties. Oh yeah, and the bong hits!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. I majored in German and French, and I've never used either one to any

great extent, except as a graduate student in linguistics, but along the way, I took as many electives as I could. That was key. I also took writing courses from the meanest (not really--she was actually a sweet old lady), most old-fashioned English professor in the entire college. Her courses and advice have proved useful throughout my life.

You cannot predict where your life will take you, and the more you know about many things, the more adaptable you will be.

I currently work as a Japanese-English translator, and I cannot predict what kind of assignment will show up in my inbox every evening. My liberal arts training has proven very useful, and there is hardly a course that I have not used in some way in this line of work.

[Ally McLesbian]

4. Chemistry major

Though I really hated chemistry, and I only stayed just so that I could graduate on time.

I went to the most Republican institution in NYC - Columbia University.

I wish I could've done political science, so that I could debate the Korean Campus Crusade for Christ's right-wing a-holes more effectively.

[Fox Mulder]

5. I am a loser and dropped out after last semester.

Of couse, I'm trying to get my personal life under control before I can finish. I was in for 4 1/2 years...this semester was supposed to be my final semester...but yeah. I fucked that up.

Now, I'm some loser who works in a grocery store from 10 pm until 6 am, stocking groceries. I could've been doing a lot better with my life, but I'm not. :(

I was majoring in something stupid...geology. What was I thinking? When/If I do go back, I'm majoring in history/archaeology. That's something I really want to do...

Someday, maybe. Someday...

[raccoon]

15. It is a fact that you dropped out last semester.

It is an opinion that you are a loser.

[driver8]

39. Great post, raccoon -- and absolutely correct. You are not a

loser. You are doing what you need to do until you get your shit together. There is definitely nothing wrong with that. Many before you have done the same thing!!

Things will come around for you...when you are ready.

[MissB]

32. Geology can be fun

but you should do what you really want to do.

Stocking groceries isn't a bad thing - I've done that. It took me far longer to finish my engineering degree than many people because I started a different career in the middle of college. If you want it, you'll get there.

Good luck. It goes without saying that you aren't a loser, but what the hell. I just said it.

[DanCa]

6. My funniest & worst day

I was working in the college green house when I inverted the pesticide formula on the plants. The formula called for three parts water and one part solution. It turns out that I wound up giving the plants an acid bath. I turned around and two beds of pants were dead and decaying. So the instructer comes up to me and put's his arm around me and says "Dan we all make mistakes but most of us do a little better job at spreadding them out." What's really scary is that my gpa is higher than Dubya's. Oh my major was in Earth Science with a minor in biology but I never finished my degree due to illness.

[petronius]

14. That's a great quote - I think I'll borrow it for some of my students...

[miss_american_pie]

7. I wanted to go to culinary school

I ended up in college. Majored in literature -- minored in writing.

I'm a stay at home mom. Culinary school would have been way more practical, but I ended up really enjoying college.

[Missy Vixen]

8. Pastoral studies major

;-)

I went to Bible college. It wasn't a good choice. At the same time, I learned more about myself than I ever did in class. I must be the only person in history to go from being a pastoral studies major to leaving the church. I've since gone back to school; I had a little more of a handle on what I wanted this time around.

If I had it all to do over, I would have gotten a master's degree in journalism and I would be tormenting Scotty McClellan daily (or giving Randi Rhodes a run for her job.)

Julie

[Wapsie B]

9. I had two go-rounds at college

for my BA degree. The first time was right out of high school trying to do the traditional thing. I thought I would like being in Music and teaching. I got through the classes but my motivation began to wane and soon I was majoring in beer and pizza. Think Animal House without the women.

I then did what I should've done in the first place which was wait a while and decide what I wanted to do with my life. Note: What I wanted to do with my life, not my degree. Unless you're in a more vocational type of study like nursing, accounting, or engineering for example it really doesn't matter what you're degree is in.

After my time off I decided to take courses that interested me which was Business and Computer courses.
I found the learning fun and enjoyable. And because I didn't feel like I was competing with 30 other people for an A in the classes along with the fragile egos involved I was motivated to learn.

More to the point my degree in Liberal Arts has done nothing for me vocationally. Amazing how EEG techs with an AAS at best can strut around like they own the world, but I digress. Personally though my BA has meant the world to me. It's my Mt. Everest. It showed me that I'm able to look past these self-defeating behaviors I've had for a long time and do something good for myself. I know there are people here who've gone through tremendous personal tragedys and upheaval with MBA's or Phd's. But I'm not comparing the level of academic acheivement with others. It's never been my intent to go to grad school in order to jump through the fiery hoops of some profession like Law or Medicine. If I ever do go back it would be for my personal enrichment.

[fight4my3sons]

10. My undergrad degree is in Sociology

I loved Soc., but doesn't pay well at all when you get out. I worked at Head Start for five years after I graduated. I loved my job working with the families of the kids who attended Head Start and making home visits, but even after five years I was only making $21,000 a year. I went back to school and got my master's in special education. Now I am a stay at home mom. We have moved to a state that did recognize my certification, so I now have to re-certify to teach here.

The best part of college was meeting my husband. He was this crazy looking kid with bleached out dreads wearing tie-dyed thermals under shorts in the middle of winter who fell asleep in Social Thought and Theory class. I bummed a cigarette from him outside of Humanities one day and we ended up going out. Neither of us lived on campus. In fact we both lived about a 1/2 hour away across the river in another town, it turns out in the same development. I had rented an apartment in the basement of some house and he had just moved back in with his parents. It was really weird. The first time we went out was on my birthday and we haven't been apart since - that was in 1996.

[Reverend_Smitty]

11. I'm an athletic training major

I'm in my final semester and I'm happy with it for the most part. But there are days, and I must admit they are happening more frequently where I wished I majored in something else. I guess it's just a fear of graduation but I can't help but think if only I majored in history (a subject that I truly love) or something to do with politics I would be happier. I guess what I'm saying is I've boxed myself into a profession and now I feel that another passion of mine, politics will never be fulfilled. I really wanted to take a semester off and campaign for Kerry last year but I was too chicken-shit to actually fall behind a year in school.

[DS1]

12. I hated school all the way up until graduation.

College was okay, until last week, when I decided that this college should be bulldozed.

[lpbk2713]

13. Took night school college courses for about six years

Never did get a degree. Did it mostly for personal enrichment.

Most other education and training has been in the technical field. Digital and solid state electronics, web design, etc.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

16. I fucking hate high school.

It's SO boring (fuck you, Dubya and your goddamned "NCLB"--which leaves GIFTED children like me behind.... :grr::grr:), and I always get that eerie sense that they're trying to take control of my mind....

:scared:

;)

[Oeditpus Rex]

17. Journalism major

I often wish I'd stuck with my original major, mechanical engineering. Woulda made a boatload more money and wouldn't have been reviled by so many people.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

18. Eeeew.....Engineering...

Math and science... COMBINED.....:puke:

We artsy-fartsy bohemians are fucking screwed in this world. :evilgrin:

[Oeditpus Rex]

20. Yeah, the math didn't thrill me

Although I rather liked descriptive geometry.

Truth told, it was computers that scared me out of it. It was 1975, and CAD was just coming onto the scene.

Computers?? To draw?? :scared:

[WritingIsMyReligion]

34. LOL

:D

[XemaSab]

19. Majored in soils

but my last semester I was having a tough time and I didn't finish my second semester of calculus. Had I done so, I could be a hydrologist, but such as it were, I am doomed to wander the earth as a soil scientist. :(

[Oeditpus Rex]

35. You're an agronomist?

Well, at least you're in a good place for it.

[XemaSab]

41. wildland soils

n/t

[eyesroll]

21. Loved it. I miss it. I'm going back.

OK, I'm going to law school which by all accounts is supposed to be suck-tastic.

My major was English (lit/creative writing) and I got my teacher certification (which I used for one whole year). I suppose this combination prepared me for my current job, and will be a good foundation for law school.

[More Than A Feeling]

23. Where are you thinking of going to law school?

I am going myself, next school year.

[politicat]

22. I should have been an english lit major...

Instead, I majored in psychology (because there was a chance to make a living at it) and history (because I love history.)

But I really wanted to spend a few years reading and writing about what I read about, then writing. Lit would have served me far better than head shrinking.

[HEyHEY]

24. My studies in Journalism have yielded poverty...

And has forced me to live hand to mouth. On the other hand, I enjoy what I do. :shrug:

[JVS]

25. I've seen you post about your job offers, it sounds like they pay well

unless the CDN$ is smaller than I thought

[HEyHEY]

26. Now they are begining to

But, before all that, it was pretty lean

[JVS]

27. Maybe if you didn't spend so much snorting things of hookers' backsides...

you'd not have to live hand to mouth :-)

[philosophie_en_rose]

37. I hear Journalists do well in law school.

Just saying....

[Fredda Weinberg]

28. Economics 25 years ago told me to get into computers

Poli Sci as a dual major had given my perspective predictive powers as well.

I'm expecting my Master's in Information Science in June and am already back to work full-time.

[Nikia]

29. I majored in Biology

I should have definitly majored in something else. Some of my classes were somewhat interesting like microbiology, evolution, and comparative physiology. For the most part, I found my biology and other science classes less exciting than my liberal arts classes. To make things worse, a good portion of the other biology majors were pre med and/or set on going to a good grad school. Even though it was a relatively small college, I didn't get a lot of praise and encouragement from my adviser or other professors in my major because of the super acievers.
I did much better in many of my elective classes. Not only did I get better grades in those classes, I also got good comments from my professors. Several of them said that I exhibited oustanding understanding of the material. My American literature professor commented that I was wasting my talents. My European history professor said that it was a shame that I wasn't majoring in something, like history, that I appeared to be highly interested in and good at. My international government professor, not realizing that I wasn't a major, said that I should expand my paper that I had written for class into a senior honors thesis. My Russian literature professor said that he finds it interesting that his best students are science majors doing something that they think will be practical.
The sad thing is that career wise, I may have been better off majoring in a liberal arts major. I would have had a higher GPA, which may have enabled me to be hired into one of the corporate training program that was recruiting on campus. I would have also have been in a better position to go to graduate school and succeed at it.
Right now, I work in quality assurance in the food industry which is boring and not really something I want to do but it seems to pay better than anything else that I could get with an undergrad degree in biology. Despite the general tone of this post, I do like science and working in science. I would enjoy working in research and development, where I actually got to design products and experiments not just do the tests. I guess that I should have went to another school and majored in chemical engineering if I wanted to that.

[deadparrot]

30. I'm a history/political science major.

When I'm done with undergrad, I plan on going to graduate school for a master's in international relations/affairs (I'd like to to grad school in Europe, if possible). Ideally, I'd like to live abroad (or at least see the world, maybe working for an IGO/NGO.

[JPZenger]

31. Sociology???

I have to disagree. Sociology is the most useless of the social sciences. It is mainly putting academic names onto common everyday things.

Then again, you could always open up a little sociology store on the corner.

[Blue_In_AK]

33. My major was psychology...

minor in English and sociology. I ended up being a legal secretary/paralegal for most of my life. I'm not sure if my education helped at all, really, in that department, but it didn't cost much to get a degree back in my day, so it probably didn't hurt either. I hate to be a cynic, but I sometimes have my doubts if the cost of getting an education these days translates to a comparable increase in earning power. My daughter, who is a lawyer in a big law firm in LA, is making lots of money, but is always broke. Her student loans are astronomical and she will be paying them off into her middle age. It's pretty sad.

[sshaw1980]

36. accounting

it has done me well... i've always liked math and being organized...

i went to college in the late 70's and as the workplace moved towards computerization this too worked well with my degree... as a result i'm also a network administrator... i work for an office with 55 employees... so i wear two hats...

i went to notre dame... i didn't fit in well though, i was the furthest thing from a preppy... didn't wear dockers, izod shirts or those stupid boat shoes (i forgot what they were called)... my dress was torn jeans, dead shirts and when i could i liked walking and going to classes barefoot, otherwise i wore what were referred to as moon boots...

i'm an avid partier (still am) and was berated quite often by the students at school... i let my freak flag fly and was proud of it... still i love the school but had issues with the student body...

my best friend at school was a townie, so i became extremely knowledgeable about south bend and the surrounding area's... it's a great place to live... there was a bar we would frequent in south bend and i saw muddy waters, john lee hooker, son seals among others play right in my face... muddy waters just blew me away, the blotter might have had something to do with it too...
i'll never forget that night...

[driver8]

40. I took this class called "Opinions in Journalism." It was, by far,

one of the best classes that I ever had. The professor was known to be tough, but was very fair and respected by all of his students.

We were assigned to write a lengthy news story and we all had to meet with the professor to discuss our ideas. The professor had a medical condition (not sure what it was) but he took medicine that made him very sleepy. So, I am meeting with him in his office, he is looking over my paper, and he falls asleep. At first I couldn't tell; I thought he was reading. Then, he started to snore. I sat there for about ten minutes trying to figure out what I should do. I cleared my throat three or four times and he finally woke up.

He looked up at me and said, "I'm so sorry...my falling asleep is certainly not a reflection on your writing style."