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Author Topic: University/College  (Read 435717 times)

Carl-E

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1200 on: 03 Jun 2012, 11:49 »

Oh, oh, all of you - stop! 

Jace, you're just starting in maths, you're still slogging through the well trodden highways of calculus.  Your naivete is both familiar and humerous.  Calculus has been around for nearly four hundred years, but even a scant 200 years ago, the whole foundations of mathematics were shaken to its roots, and much of what we find familiar in math (functions, sets, etc) became redefined to eliminate confusion, and as little as 100 years ago the notion of different levels of the infinite were hashed out.  Even the basics are in flux!  I was honored to have been at IU concurrently with Max Zorn, progenitor of "Zorn's Lemma", which made much of my branch of mathematics (topology) possible.  Of course, he was an octegenary professor emeritus, and I was a grad student, but these things are less concrete than you think! 

Even Snailin's example has a whole other way of going around to it, through field theory, as proposed by the 20 year old genius Galois, laid out in a letter the night before going and losing a duel over a young lady.  Anyone who's mastered high school algebra knows full well that there can be several paths to the correct answer! 

There's more similarity between the humanities and the sciences than you think.  But what sets math apart - far, far apart from even the other sciences  - is its purity.  Not its correctness; not even its applicability; but the fact that proof is definitive, and its only limits are the human mind - and maybe not even that. 

So please, stop arguing over who's better.  My point was that the perception of which is "easier" was a false impression.  What makes a subject easy or hard has more to do with the teacher and the relationship they can build with the student, how inspired the student can be, and what resources are available. 

The fact that people are proud  - actually proud about being math-illiterate is the biggest stumbling block to basic education in the US and other countries.  We've made several generations scared of the subject, and ignorant of basic enumeration.  I have a shirt that says 4/3 of people don't understand fractions, and dammit, most people who see it don't get the joke.  But they're just as happy to be ignorant of their history, as well.  Public reaction is to be shocked when people can't locate asia on a globe, but they shrug their shoulders when people can't balance their checkbook. 

OK, this turned into more of a rant than anything.  Sorry for hijacking the thread, but as a mathematician / historian / educator who started out as an English major, I hate this squabbling bullshit.  If we all use our heads for something more than separating our ears, the world will be better, in every way. 

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« Last Edit: 03 Jun 2012, 15:16 by Carl-E »
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Jace

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1201 on: 03 Jun 2012, 13:55 »

I really like making fun of english majors though, especially Kat. But seriously people can make fun of me all day because I actually enjoy doing math and will try to create problems that can be solved with complex math when really simple arithmetic will do.
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Papersatan

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1202 on: 03 Jun 2012, 14:21 »

I was vice president of the math club in community college you know.  Also I don't work as a Batista and you know it...



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Re: University/College
« Reply #1203 on: 03 Jun 2012, 14:22 »

Just like any proper English Major.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #1204 on: 03 Jun 2012, 14:23 »

pppbbbbttthhhh
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Barmymoo

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1205 on: 03 Jun 2012, 14:57 »

There's also the question of why you're doing the degree. I'm not doing a degree as a path to employment, or in order to score high percentages on a test. I'm just interested in jurisprudence, I like debating things on an intellectual level and I wanted to have a stepping stone to adulthood.
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There's this really handy "other thing" I'm going to write as a footnote to my abstract that I can probably explore these issues in. I think I'll call it my "dissertation."

Redball

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1206 on: 03 Jun 2012, 18:29 »

Speaking of math: Just reading an article in a 2011 Scientific American dealing with a fascinating question: Did humans invent mathematics, or did we discover it? A bit of both, the author seems to say. Article ($$$) is here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-math-works
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dr. nervioso

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1207 on: 03 Jun 2012, 20:21 »

I always imagined math as a way to quantify and measure occurrences.So math is how we interpret and evaluate events that happen in our world in a mostly objective fashion.
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LTK

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1208 on: 03 Jun 2012, 23:14 »

No, that's physics. In theory, every single aspect of mathematics can be derived with just your own brain. At first glance, there's no obvious reason why the universe has to follow the rules that humans had made up by organizing things based on how many fingers there are on their hands, but it actually works both ways. Mathematics has to make internal sense to us, because we are a product of this universe, and work according to its rules. If this was a universe where one plus one equals fish, no one would ever be able to derive an integral.
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Skewbrow

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1209 on: 04 Jun 2012, 01:37 »

I love math. Always have. Being a mathematician is my calling. It has not always been rewarding, but it is what I am. It is not easy to describe why that is so, though. Purity is a big part of it. The truths are also absolute in a sense. I couldn't hack topics like law, where truth is (so I've been told) a matter of opinion or debating skills. It is the Truth that matters.

Math is a cumulative science. The old truths are still valid. The changes that Carl-E described were mostly about adding an extra layer of rigor or two. The changes were very fundamental - no denying that, but it didn't result in math abandoning older results. Admittedly I haven't studied the foundations too deeply, because when I was a freshman some junior faculty members told us that the dudes who have studied the foundations have mostly ended up in the local asylum save that one alky who never finished his PhD.

So I absorbed the somewhat more pragmatic creed of "I believe in naïve set theory and Zorn's lemma." (Yes, Zorn's major result is an enabler of much of abstract algebra as well as topology). Together with the bit of wisdom from a more senior faculty member: "Math is not like Baron von Münchausen (that teutonic teller of tall tales) who could hoist himself out of a tar pit by pulling his hair. We do need to start from something."

But yeah, a math PhD knows so little math that s/he shouldn't attempt to pontificate.

Snalin, have fun with abstract algebra. If you run into problems, I (and several more competent people) am at math.stackexchange.com.
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Akima

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1210 on: 04 Jun 2012, 02:39 »

But yeah, a math PhD knows so little math that s/he shouldn't attempt to pontificate.
And I only have a Bachelor's so I'm keeping very quiet.
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pwhodges

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1211 on: 04 Jun 2012, 03:11 »

In Maths?  I'd pictured you as doing Comp Sci or something.
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Barmymoo

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1212 on: 04 Jun 2012, 03:46 »

My Director of Studies just forwarded some information about the dissertation seminar options, which successfully distracted me from revision for a while. I'm a bit alarmed about the prospect of having to reference and create a bibliography for the first time ever. Thankfully they're very relaxed about which reference system we use, so I will use the built-in bibliography tool in OpenOffice.

Also while I was checking to see if the university library has a book I want to read as background information, I discovered that I have a book due back today which can't be renewed. So I will have to make a trip over there to take it back. Harrumph, I hadn't come even close to finishing it. But it isn't relevant, I just liked the title.
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schimmy

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1213 on: 04 Jun 2012, 04:56 »

I wouldn't bother with OpenOffice's bibliography tool, it's far too complicated and harder than just doing it manually.
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Barmymoo

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1214 on: 04 Jun 2012, 05:03 »

I've just searched for an alternative and there seem to be a few on the internet. I'm just concerned that I'll spend so long checking the format of my references that I'll never get anything done.
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Jace

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1215 on: 04 Jun 2012, 05:05 »

There's also the question of why you're doing the degree. I'm not doing a degree as a path to employment,

See, this is different than in the current united states. Costs are so high that if you aren't going as a path to a higher level of employment you are looked down on for wasting money (because if you have the extra income in your early 20s to just get some degree that doesn't matter to your Life Plan why are you even there).
If I were going for a Medieval European History degree, like I would want to get, I would spend somewhere between $20,000 and $50,000 for something that would have very little opportunity for work and then I'd have to pay that money back with the job I don't have.

I actually get flak already for being a Math major that wants to go into physics or just math instead of Pharmaceutical Mathematics, Engineering, or Computer Science. Those are the Big Three that have jobs and make money, but I'm not interested in being a helmsman or science officer, I want to be on the engineering deck (which has more to do with physics than modern day engineering since we are talking about warp drives)
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Lines

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1216 on: 04 Jun 2012, 05:18 »

I majored in Fine Arts and then Art Education. Obviously I did not pick the first for a job, even though I have had jobs sort of related to it, I picked it because I love it. Art Ed is partially so I can have a job, partially because I love education. But I also love biological sciences and I was able to pull that kind of research in for my thesis. Math, back when I did it, was also fun, but because I haven't done advanced math since high school, I've lost my touch with it. Yes, I could relearn calculus, but it's not really necessary for my passions and line of work. Honestly if I do any sort of math, it's algebra or geometry, but it's not on paper.
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schimmy

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1217 on: 04 Jun 2012, 05:32 »

You're better off just using one of those websites, May. There's a few where you can just type in the ISBN of the book, and it does all the magic for you. I used them pretty often when writing my dissertation. Or just use a simple reference system that you can memorise easily, which is what I did for shorter essays where I'd just reference a handful of books.
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Redball

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1218 on: 04 Jun 2012, 05:51 »

For understandable reasons, no one in this thread seems to extol the virtue of the old-fashioned liberal arts education as a preparation for almost anything at all. I glanced at Wikipedia's take on the subject: It referred originally to the education considered necessary for a free (liber) citizen, and included  in ancient times grammar, rhetoric and logic, with the addition in medieval times of mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy. I didn't set out for that kind of education. I wanted to study physics until the 4th semester with my 4 E's and a D. When I returned to a small liberal arts college after an Army enlistment, I knew I'd be a newspaper reporter. I could have majored in almost anything that interested me. I majored in American history, although I aced a course in atomic physics. I took a couple of other science courses, economics, literature, philosophy, religion, and ended up with a good liberal arts education. And (stop me if I've said this before), close to a half-century in journalism has rewarded me for everything I ever learned and experienced, in and out of the classroom.
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lepetitfromage

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1219 on: 04 Jun 2012, 06:12 »

I majored in Fine Arts and then Art Education. Obviously I did not pick the first for a job, even though I have had jobs sort of related to it, I picked it because I love it. Art Ed is partially so I can have a job, partially because I love education. But I also love biological sciences and I was able to pull that kind of research in for my thesis. Math, back when I did it, was also fun, but because I haven't done advanced math since high school, I've lost my touch with it. Yes, I could relearn calculus, but it's not really necessary for my passions and line of work. Honestly if I do any sort of math, it's algebra or geometry, but it's not on paper.

You and I majored in the same things for the same reasons, except stick in one semester of Interior Design before Fine Arts. I chose to study interior design because I was a silly teenager who thought that ID was Trading Spaces off camera. Boy, was I wrong. haha

I'm not terrible at math, but it's definitely not one of my better subjects.

I think if there should ever be any question of the validity of a course of study, it should be this- is your particular course fulfilling to you? There are a number of things that I would never want to study, but I can respect those who gravitate towards things that are difficult for me (or just....not as interesting on a personal level). I know that what I studied was the perfect path for me- even if I didn't believe so at the time. And Jace- I totally get that and it sucks. It tough to find a balance between "I love doing this" and "This will pay my bills one day". I know I wanted to study the arts but it's so hard to get a job in them. The sad part is that education was the route people considered to be the one area in which a job in the arts was realistic but even that has become rare.
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Lines

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1220 on: 04 Jun 2012, 06:20 »

Out of the 8 people graduating this spring (I can't graduate until winter because I need 3 more classes), already 2 have found jobs in schools and one is moving across the country because she got a job at an outdoor art camp, which is her dream job. The others I'm not sure, but job placement for people who graduate from my program seems to be pretty good. The school has a great connection with the public schools in the area and we've got a good reputation. So yeah. I mean, I'm worried, but I think I will find something eventually. If not I'll find some of my fellow grads and we'll make our own darn art school. (Which we have talked about, actually.)
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lepetitfromage

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1221 on: 04 Jun 2012, 06:39 »

I wish it was that easy here.....I've been looking on a number of education job boards for almost a year now and there have only been 7 openings in total (in a 100 mile radius).

I've applied to 5 of those and 3 would include at least an hour and a half commute (the other 2 were impossible for me to get to). I seriously considered applying in NYC but then discovered that they STILL haven't let up on the hiring freeze (and when they do, they have to rehire all the teachers that were let go before they bring in the noobs). My next step is to spend countless hours on Google researching NYC private schools.
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Barmymoo

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1222 on: 04 Jun 2012, 08:42 »

I do understand what you're saying, Jace, because you guys pay a lot more than I'm paying. The gap is a little smaller under the new UK fees system, which my siblings will be studying under - they'll pay three times as much as me. Although we have a much, much better loans system which makes it far easier.

But I think you're overlooking the fact that just having a degree can be an asset, whatever it is in. I don't know how true this is in the States but certainly here, all you need to get a general gradate job (as opposed to something specialised like computer programming or medical work) is a 2.i in something. You could study art history and then go and join the civil service. In theory. In practice, at the moment there are so few jobs that even my friend who graduated last summer with a first in materials science only managed to get a job about a month ago.
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Jace

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1223 on: 04 Jun 2012, 09:03 »

Oh yeah totally, a lot of places just require that you have 'a degree.' Of course if I am applying for a higher level position in x that requires a degree, and mine is in y, I might get the job, but there could be someone applying for that position with a degree in x, and their chances are higher than mine for that position.

I'm just constantly upset that I have to take classes that aren't related (or are barely related) to math.
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Barmymoo

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1224 on: 04 Jun 2012, 12:33 »

Come to the UK. Our degrees are two years ahead of the US ones (so I've read - in terms of depth of study) and you only do the subject you're specialising in.
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There's this really handy "other thing" I'm going to write as a footnote to my abstract that I can probably explore these issues in. I think I'll call it my "dissertation."

Akima

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1225 on: 04 Jun 2012, 14:04 »

But I think you're overlooking the fact that just having a degree can be an asset, whatever it is in. I don't know how true this is in the States but certainly here, all you need to get a general gradate job (as opposed to something specialised like computer programming or medical work) is a 2.i in something.
Yes, for better or worse, a Bachelor's in something is more and more just the price of entry into "good jobs", even though Australia, where unemployment is around 5% and skilled labour shortages are generally the rule, is less credentialist than some places, I think.

Incidentally, you might be surprised what a mixed bag ends up in computer-programming...
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Re: University/College
« Reply #1226 on: 04 Jun 2012, 14:49 »

I think what is bumming me out right now is that I've been given the numbers of people who are also applying for entry-level editorial jobs. I'm fighting off maybe 200-400 people per position. Last rejection I got essentially outlined how I had a 1% chance of getting the job - and there are people out there who have got BAs in Publishing, rather than BAs in English Lit like me.

I'm now looking into PR as a suitable point if I'm unable to get anything in publishing soon. It doesn't help that I can't start a full-time job until October, either...

Interestingly an American friend said her experience of University here compared to the US is that we were a lot stricter, with everything. Exams, coursework, deadlines...I forget which University she went to, but she was pleasantly surprised to have become so much more motivated since she took classes here.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #1227 on: 04 Jun 2012, 14:53 »

When I was applying for jobs last year I actually found my degree to work against me.  I started leaving it off my resume.  I knew I was going to grad school in a year but I only mentioned that at the interview if it was a temp position.  I applied for all sorts of things: package delivery, office assistant, call center worker, paralegal... I found that having a degree from a respected institution made them question why I wanted the job.  All of these were jobs which did have the potential for growth, many with companies that promote from withing.  I told my interviewers that I wanted to get my foot int he door with a good company, that I was looking for a place to start a career and so on, but what it came down to was, yes but you are over-qualified for this position.  I think especially in the recession there is the idea that workers with degrees are settling and will jump ship as soon as the economy improves.  The problem is that "better" jobs were not hiring at all. 
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Re: University/College
« Reply #1228 on: 04 Jun 2012, 15:47 »

Incidentally, you might be surprised what a mixed bag ends up in computer-programming...

As an engineer who's been working in programming and such-like since 1970 (including employing others), I for one am not surprised at all.  The current head of Oxford University's computer services department is an English don who runs a web site publishing war poetry and Old English poetry; this is run as part of the computer services website.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #1229 on: 05 Jun 2012, 04:40 »

Kat that's a really good point, and one I'm concerned about because my career ambitions, if I don't become a midwife (which is incredibly competitive - for the uni I most want to go to, they had 1000 applicants for 13 spaces last year), are either childcare or secretarial work. Having a law degree from Cambridge might raise a few eyebrows, and I don't think my typical response that I hate lawyers and they have no soul would go down well in a job interview.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #1230 on: 05 Jun 2012, 05:42 »

Why are you studying law when you want to be a midwife? Just curious, I've heard you mention the desire to be a midwife and the two fields don't really connect.

Jace - that's just part of a liberal arts education. I had to take so many credits of math, science, social sciences, ethics, english (which I mostly tested out of), and free electives in order to graduate. Sometimes I could bend the rules and take a class that was relavent to my interests (like ethics - instead of taking an actual ethics class, I took one that discussed ethics through literature), but sometimes I just had to suck it up and take a class I didn't really want to. Like one of the psychology classes I took that was boring as crap, but I needed the credit. I think I finished most of those by the time I was a junior and my last two years were mostly classes for my major.
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Re: University/College
« Reply #1231 on: 05 Jun 2012, 05:53 »

Kat- I feel your pain. It depresses me so much when I apply to clerical positions and don't get any interviews. Ok, so I have a degree in education, but seriously??? I also have almost 10 years of experience in office environments and I've done practically everything It's like they see my degree and just throw away my resume. Maybe it would be better to put it after my work experience....Do you think it helped when you took it off?
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Re: University/College
« Reply #1232 on: 05 Jun 2012, 06:24 »

I chose law when I was seventeen, having studied it at A level and enjoyed it. I still enjoy it, I find it interesting and I'm pretty good at it when I make the effort. I did consider dropping out completely when I got ill, especially once I realised I would rather go into another career, but I decided that having a law degree, and having a Cambridge degree, were both things which could be useful in the future if I decided I wanted a city job or something.

Midwifery is definitely an interest, but because it would require another undergraduate degree I'm thinking about not going straight into it. I'll apply this year just for the experience, because it's a gruelling process (far more so than getting into an academic degree, even at a top university - the selection process is much more intensive) and it'll give me an idea of whether I've got any chance. But I might not accept a place if I get one, and go off to be an adult for a few years first.

Did I tell you guys I had an exam today? It was in international law, which I've found pretty complex during this year and I was concerned I hadn't covered enough during my revision. The paper was great though, it had two really good essay questions on it and two problem questions which related to areas I'd studied thoroughly, so I am hopeful I did well on that. Now to do some work for the criminology paper tomorrow, and the administrative paper on Thursday, and then I am finally FREEEEEE.
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There's this really handy "other thing" I'm going to write as a footnote to my abstract that I can probably explore these issues in. I think I'll call it my "dissertation."

Jace

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1233 on: 05 Jun 2012, 09:30 »

Why are you studying law when you want to be a midwife? Just curious, I've heard you mention the desire to be a midwife and the two fields don't really connect.

Jace - that's just part of a liberal arts education. I had to take so many credits of math, science, social sciences, ethics, english (which I mostly tested out of), and free electives in order to graduate. Sometimes I could bend the rules and take a class that was relavent to my interests (like ethics - instead of taking an actual ethics class, I took one that discussed ethics through literature), but sometimes I just had to suck it up and take a class I didn't really want to. Like one of the psychology classes I took that was boring as crap, but I needed the credit. I think I finished most of those by the time I was a junior and my last two years were mostly classes for my major.

The weird thing is that I've gotten most of my extra courses out of the way after this coming semester. I have to retake english (I think) and then all I need are 4 math courses and 2 consecutive science courses with labs. Calculus and analytical geometry I, II &III, Intro to differential equations, physics I & II.
Oh, I gotta do another humanities elective since I failed spanish. The issue is that I can't really take Calculus I, II, or III at the same time, but I have to take physics I at the same time as calc II.
I'm not sure how I'm gonna remain a full time student after this semester since I'll only have 2 classes and a lab to take at a time.
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Welu

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1234 on: 05 Jun 2012, 13:40 »

Kat's post is a big reason for why I'm not going to university. My brothers both did psychology and did well in it but one works in a print shop and the other in a bank as a so far, three year long temp. The one in the print shop got the same, "Why are you applying when you have a degree?" question and they feared he'd jump as soon as something better came along. They said they would only give him a job if he signed a year contract to promise he'd not jump at the next job and of course, as a dude with almost no work experience and a ton of student loans to pay, he signed right away. Five years later and he's still there because there's been no other jobs to jump to any way and the ones that do pull out, "You're over-qualified."

I figure I'd rather start getting practical experience as soon as possible so I'm doing a uni-level degree in a community college. The education is just as good, if not better because it's mostly practical and going to a "proper" university/college would be much more theory based. It's worked a lot better for most people I know than the ones who have gone on to university. One of the cases where people not taking community college as seriously works in the current job climate.

Barmymoo

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1235 on: 08 Jun 2012, 15:37 »

I've just made a long list of books I want to borrow when vacation borrowing opens on Monday. It includes textbooks for each of the papers I'm taking next year (I must be mad, I've decided to take six) and a bunch of general interest reading including Frida Kahlo's diary and a book called Islam in a World of Nation-States. Why do I not get this fired up about reading during term time?


Added so I don't double-post: just got my term report from my international supervisor. She's graded me at a 2.ii. So either she is going to be very surprised when I get a high 2.i/1st, or I have totally misjudged my performance in the exam and am going to be really disappointed. I have to admit that I hope it will be her who turns out to be wrong.
« Last Edit: 09 Jun 2012, 05:04 by Barmymoo »
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There's this really handy "other thing" I'm going to write as a footnote to my abstract that I can probably explore these issues in. I think I'll call it my "dissertation."

Barmymoo

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1236 on: 12 Jun 2012, 08:26 »

Oh shit, oh shit. There is a chance I won't be able to do the dissertation because I can't go to the sodding preliminary meeting. Damnit. I am doing everything I can to make sure that isn't true, but I'll be so upset if I can't do it.
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There's this really handy "other thing" I'm going to write as a footnote to my abstract that I can probably explore these issues in. I think I'll call it my "dissertation."

Redball

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1237 on: 12 Jun 2012, 09:52 »

Well that sucks! Is it because of the coming tour?
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Barmymoo

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1238 on: 12 Jun 2012, 12:04 »

No, it's because of a course I'm going on about applying for midwifery. The course itself is on Friday, but I have to travel most of Thursday to get there. I checked with the faculty to make sure I'd be finished with exams by that date and they assured me that I'd be done by tomorrow, but I forgot to make sure about the meetings (I forgot they existed).

After much panicking, I've spoken to several third years who had a similar issue and still got onto the course, and my director of studies has emailed me to say that I should just go meet the course convenor and be very enthusiastic and honest, and it should be fine, so I'm not as worried. But I will be so upset if I have managed to do myself out of this dissertation, when I've already started working on the thing!
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There's this really handy "other thing" I'm going to write as a footnote to my abstract that I can probably explore these issues in. I think I'll call it my "dissertation."

Redball

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1239 on: 12 Jun 2012, 12:12 »

Honestly, enthuse the hell out of him.
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Barmymoo

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1240 on: 12 Jun 2012, 12:40 »

It's a woman, but I will do so :) I think it would be difficult not to see that I'm really keen to do this course, and to write about this topic - and the fact that I've already started preparing for it surely will count in my favour.
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There's this really handy "other thing" I'm going to write as a footnote to my abstract that I can probably explore these issues in. I think I'll call it my "dissertation."

LTK

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1241 on: 12 Jun 2012, 12:58 »

I hope that works out for you, because it must be pretty serious to get you swearing. (I don't mind, I'm actually quite amused.)

Well, I received the notification for my master's application... and I got in! Okay, rest of the world, you might as well wrap up, because this universe belongs to me.

To be honest, I was only about 20% surprised. Even though I realistically estimated a 66% chance of success, the experience-mediated part of my brain vastly overestimated is because I wasn't stressed about this at all, in spite of not having a solid backup plan in case of being rejected. (The plan in question was "Do some internships I guess.")

Hey, did you know that humans tend to overestimate small chances and underestimate large chances when the rational, conscious part of their brain makes the decision (i.e. by saying 'choose between A% chance of B dollars and C% of D dollars'), but this effect goes in the opposite direction, that is underestimate small chances and overestimate large chances when the stimulus-response part of their brain makes the decision? (i.e. by saying 'choose between gamble A and gamble B', the odds of which you have estimated by experimentation) So obviously the stimulus-response part of my brain - which is probably also more closely linked to fear of failure and consequently the stress response - has determined, through experience, the odds of success in academic situations to be quite high, even though the rational part of my brain knows the context to be different, but is apparently unable to convince the stimulus-response part of my brain enough to generate a stress response.

All of which means I am going to break down so hard when the odds eventually turn against me and I get screwed. But not today! The data of my experiment even points to having the complete opposite effect that we hypothesised, which seems pretty bad but is actually a lot better than not finding any effect at all. In the other condition, we did correctly predict that there was going to be no effect, so at least we know that we're doing something right... something.
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I just got the image of a midwife and a woman giving birth swinging towards each other on a trapeze - when they meet, the midwife pulls the baby out. The knife juggler is standing on the floor and cuts the umbilical cord with a a knifethrow.

Barmymoo

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1242 on: 14 Jun 2012, 01:23 »

Ah, that oddly reassuring moment when you discover that the scary lecturer who you have to meet on Tuesday to convince them to let you into their course is, in her spare time, a novelist.
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There's this really handy "other thing" I'm going to write as a footnote to my abstract that I can probably explore these issues in. I think I'll call it my "dissertation."

Lupercal

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1243 on: 19 Jun 2012, 10:32 »

So turns out I got a 2:1 as my degree mark. I'm happy, although a little disappointed as I'm less than two marks from a first.

To be fair, it's less about the grade and more about what you get from your degree, and what I can go on and do now.
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Redball

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1244 on: 19 Jun 2012, 17:57 »

Ah, that oddly reassuring moment when you discover that the scary lecturer who you have to meet on Tuesday to convince them to let you into their course is, in her spare time, a novelist.
I mentioned this to my aspiring novelist daughter, who wondered if she'd ever heard of the lecturer/novelist.
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Barmymoo

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1245 on: 19 Jun 2012, 23:30 »

Rosy Thornton, she has written four books, of which I have read 1.2 - The Tapestry of Love, and Hearts & Minds.
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There's this really handy "other thing" I'm going to write as a footnote to my abstract that I can probably explore these issues in. I think I'll call it my "dissertation."

Welu

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1246 on: 20 Jun 2012, 03:37 »

I'm done! Got my marks too. DMM, equivalent of ABB at A-Level so yay!

I think I could have done better if I didn't have that whole thing in January but I'm happy.

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1247 on: 21 Jun 2012, 09:26 »

Got my (technically provisional) degree classification! I got a 2.1! Woooooooop!
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Carl-E

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1248 on: 21 Jun 2012, 14:24 »

So, I'm back from my annual trip to Kansas City to grade AP Calculus tests.  853 of us spent 7 days straight reading through 362,000 exams from all over the world.  Even if I didn't get paid to do it, it's a helluva lot of fun. 



You all failed.  (Just kidding)
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Redball

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Re: University/College
« Reply #1249 on: 21 Jun 2012, 14:29 »

Care to describe the setting? I count 60/day/grader fwiw.
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