THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => CHATTER => Topic started by: Allybee on 06 Nov 2010, 15:41
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here are my options, minus all the languages I haven't taken and the programs that you have to decide on as a freshman:
ARTS AND HUMANITIES
Art History (taken 2)
Art Studio (taken 3... probably will end up doing this if I can't figure anything else out)
Classical Civilization (taken one but I don't speak greek or latin?)
Dance (not happening...)
English (might be locked out)
Film Studies (almost definitely locked out)
French
French Studies
French, Italian, Spanish in Translation
German Literature in English
Hebrew Studies
Iberian Studies
Italian Studies
Less Commonly Taught Languages
Music
Russian Literature in English
Theater
SOCIAL SCIENCES
Anthropology
Economics
Government
History (why have I taken three history courses)
Philosophy
Religion
Sociology (feasible as I've taken the intro course)
NATURAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (most of these are not feasible as I'd be really behind)
Astronomy
Biology
Chemistry
Computer Science
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Mathematics
Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
Neuroscience and Behavior
Physics
Psychology
INTERDISCIPLINARY PROGRAMS
African American Studies Program
American Studies Program
Archaeology Program
Center for the Humanities
East Asian Studies Program
Environmental Studies Program (I might do this but you have to pick another major too)
Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program
Latin American Studies Program
Mathematics-Economics Program
Medieval Studies Program
Quantitative Analysis Center
Russian and East European Studies Program
Science in Society Program
Writing
HELP
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Surely this is something that you are supposed to decide yourself, seeing as it is you who is going to be studying said major? We are going to be no help and this thread is going to end up with people making jokes about the courses and be no help to you at all.
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Well if I had to do undergrad over I'd do some flavor of history but that is me and honestly I'm not that torn up about my decision anyway.
Do what you're interested in geez.
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You're doing arts right, what do you want from your degree?
Have you actually enjoyed any of the course you've taken?
It'd be a little pointless for us to suggest courses that you don't care for and aren't going to use. For example, I'm going to doing postgrad Med so for my undergrad degree I'm majoring in Pathology/Physiology. Like Hannah said, you really have to make the decision yourself.
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Consider which ones you will regret having done, and cross them off; when you have one left, do that; but if you have none left, skip education.
I mean, ask a silly question: get a silly answer!
What are you interested in? What might you do well in? What would you like to do after studying, and which would be most help for that? Note, these are not necessarily the same, so you may have to add more criteria; or just choose between them.
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how on earth would you be locked out of english?
environmental studies sounds interesting based on name alone and is probably a good start. which of the social sciences and/or humanities could you see yourself doing in conjunction with that?
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here are my options, minus all the languages I haven't taken and the programs that you have to decide on as a freshman:
Medieval Studies Program
THIS ONE SOUN-
We are going to be no help and this thread is going to end up with people making jokes about the courses and be no help to you at all.
man fuck you
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computer science
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Archaeology sounds like it would start out pretty dry but would be fascinating if you like history, Most of the Fine Art courses would probably be rad, Psychology is really interesting (I think). Languages are pretty cool but learn something useful like Chinese or something.
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I find that music majoring is pretty cool. Would not recommend for non-musicians, though, I'm not sure if you play anything.
Do stuff you like!
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Environmental Studies is a pretty good field
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I dunno what it's like in America but at least in Australia Environmental Sciences is an incredibly popular degree so the marketplace is kind of flooded right now. I wouldn't recommend it.
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Is Environmental Studies the same as Environmental Sciences?
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I can still never work out how the American system of Higher Education is supposed to give you a decent understanding of any one subject. I study nothing but art, which is what I'd recommend you do as well because otherwise there's no fucking point, unless you want to go into teaching maybe.
Are there any units, modules, whatever offering Art professional studies or the ethics of art?
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so wait you could actually do any of these subjects, even though you didn't apply for them and might be crap at them?
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Khar: There was in my program. There are all sorts of electives like that. I think I have a pretty good understanding of art, but I know I would have gone nuts only learning about art. I really enjoyed my history, literature, and biology courses and all of them are useful to my work.
Ally, you really need to decide this for yourself. Some people just absolutely know what they want to do in college, but a lot don't. I think about half of my friends switched majors at least once. Some are getting masters degrees in something completely unrelated to their bachelors degree, including some of the people who are in my program right now. (Yes, people who didn't major in art in undergrad can still go into grad art related programs.) Whatever your biggest interest is in, that's what you should go for. If you like art, do things in studio or design. If you like history, that involves things like anthropology, archeology, art history, etc. If you like speaking in another language, major in that! There's always a demand for translators or teaching english in other countries. (One of my art school friends is in Japan teaching english right now and she loves it.) Honestly, if I did my undergrad over, I'd probably have taken more bio courses or done a double major in bio/zoology.
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But if you're an artist you dpn't got time to do nothing more but draw, paint, drink, write and have panic attacks.
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Well if I had to do undergrad over I'd do some flavor of sociology but that is me
Maybe pick the 10 that appeal most to you and do a decision matrix (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_matrix)?
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Break it down into things that will actually interest you and that you can be passionate about. There is no point going to uni to do something you hate or don't even care about. You'll end up miserable and frustrated.
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But if you're an artist you dpn't got time to do nothing more but draw, paint, drink, write and have panic attacks.
My list was more like draw, print, read, write, and have panic attacks. (Don't drink all that often.) Now my list is like read, write lesson plans, read, write papers, ceramics, read, and have panic attacks.
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I write papers and such too. Art is harddd.
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i've found that the general field you do your undergrad in is usually more important than the specific major. i'm doing an MA in criminology right now but i actually did my undergrad in sociology and social psychology. i fussed and cried over the decision to pick up a psychology minor for about a year thinking it was a life or death decision. by the time i graduated and started looking for jobs, all anybody wanted was a social sciences degree. by the time i figured out that what i wanted to do with my life was specialize in criminology (with a research project totally and completely unrelated to psychology), all my school wanted was a social sciences degree. it turned out my choice in major/minor actually meant nothing to no one at all and i still haven't used my psychology minor for anything. oh well! at least the courses were interesting.
not to trivialize this decision (this is coming from a person with massive anxiety)... but i don't think your specific major is going to make too much of a difference in the long run. just pick a general field you don't think you'll change your mind too many times about in the next few years and it'll work out fine.
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alternately, i once had a real smart professor tell me when i was freaking out about my life that if the reason i couldn't decide what i wanted to do with my life was because i liked too many things, then the best course of action is to just pick something and don't look back because no matter what you pick, you'll probably like it anyway and continuously examining your options and second guessing is just going to confuse and distract you from something you already like anyway. if that's the case for you then that's probably the best thing you can do. it worked out well for me. if, on the other hand, you can't decide what you want to major in because you hate basically everything then that's a different problem and you should consider whether you actually want to be in school, maybe, probably.
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Tania speaks the truth.
It's also worth noting that if you want to go on in school beyond a Bachelor's degree, a lot of places are actually really accepting of people from other fields, provided you're willing to do some additional coursework and have good letters of rec. I knew a woman who was planning to go to med school for dermatology, but got her degree in English (while doing the necessary pre-med coursework) because (1) she loved English and (2) evidently med schools think it's cool when you can ace the pre-med stuff and are also a dang good writer.
Conversely, I'm in an English MA program with people who got undergrad degrees in science, math, women's studies...
So it's not like you're committing to a permanent, lifetime course of action necessarily!
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Pure maths is clearly the only option.
I missed my chance to get into a pure maths stream and I was really disappointed for a while, but then I realised that if I do physics or computer science (which I was doing anyway) I can sort of force them into the direction that I want. I'm pretty sure it is true for every broad field that there is enough overlap that even if you don't pick the thing it turns out you want you can probably get into it anyway.
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Is Environmental Studies the same as Environmental Sciences?
no, environmental studies is very much more interdisciplinary.
too drunk to give this thread a real response, but I'm sorry that it elicited such negative reactions. I was expecting it to be more hypothetical and silly or something. I'm not really going to choose a major based upon what the internet (or anyone else, for that matter) suggests to me. but thank you for the advice to people who gave me advice! I'm probably going to do art anyways. I want to make a graphic novel for my thesis.
also, khar, I'm doing a "liberal arts education" which means you're supposed to gain knowledge about LOTS of things. they make you major so that you have to focus, but really, I'm required to take lots of different courses because I'm supposed to be well-rounded. it's actually part of my problem, because I love taking different courses. it's nice to have to think in a lot of different ways.
again, kind of drunk, so. yeah.
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I was expecting it to be more hypothetical and silly or something.
Blame hannah, she killed that off before it even started.
HANNAH
:x
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anthropology and sociology go hand in hand, especially when you live with groups on the verge of becoming part of the global market.
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ponyology
enviro science & russian literature
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i wish i could major in pizza if we're being honest here
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Man I hope we get to make pizzas in the bake-shop, we have all these deck ovens and peels it'd be great.
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more and more schools in north america offer individualized majors now, being the best at pizza could actually be a feasible thing if you are even slightly serious about it
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In retrospect I would have majored in chemistry.
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Penn State offers a major in ice cream!
i didn't fucking know this until i was already in school...
fml
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Major in Awesomeness. It's a highly competitive field, but you have great potential. Really, once you pass How to be Awesome 101, you're golden.
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anna just close your eyes and imagine the following on your resume -
anna, leading expert on ice cream with a phd in ice cream studies
anna, editor of the scientific journal of the american ice cream association
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Be a Queer Film Studies major!
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As opposed to a queer Film Studies major.
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I wish I could major in sleeping.
Wait. That is what I seem to be doing.
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I think you should take a year off and travel around Europe and Australia. By the time you come back you will be better prepared to make a decision.
Or at least you'll have had more time to think about it.
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Edith is right!
Work for a while, travel for a while. Make the decision in a year or two.
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that would involve leaving in the middle of the year, since I have to declare in march 2011. I considered that (and tommy, I believe you told me it was a stupid idea...) but I very much want to finish this year since I really like my living/friend situation. planning on taking a semester off next year, since I'll have enough credits to still graduate in spring 2013. really honestly my current plan involves doing an art thesis - I want to draw narrative vignettes inspired by my time off. which means doing an art studio major. which I can totally handle.
also, if we had media studies and criminology I would double in those and write a thesis on facebook stalking probably
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I would read that thesis.
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Thanks to the pointless thread:
http://survivingtheworld.net/Lesson3.html
I think it's sound advice, strangely enough.
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Get a degree in underwater basket weaving.