Admit Something vs. Let's Close This Deal

[Cohesion]

This is a nice thread idea going on in the Lounge and now SLR... Let's keep it going...

Admitting: I have studied 4 undergraduate programs, amassed over 120 credit hours, and will finish my B.A. in 10 months in General Studies.

I work hard at staying apathetic to this. I'm looking forward to a brighter future and better choices.

 

[Jerry Atrick]

Don't worry, I amassed 135 hours in undergrad, which resulted in a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies. I recently finished a Master's program, am taking the year off to work, and have already set the wheels in motion to continue my education in the fall.

Brighter future and better choices often = grad school. When I was in your shoes, I was thinking ahead about specializing in a discipline for a graduate degree.

I'm not trying to say you have to stay in school if you don't want to. I just wanted to thow it out there.

 

[Lysis]

lol I got you all beat. I think I had 180 credits (maybe 160...can't remember) when I finished. I really liked school and took as many classes I could. I even took some graduate classes with the professor's permission (you could do that at my school even as an undergrad). I graduated in 2011 and I have noticed a huge difference in job opportunities and pay, so I am damn proud of myself.

I am a biology major working in a computer science industry, but it hasn't hurt me. As a matter of fact, it gets people interested and I always get the "so, why bio instead of comp sci" in my interview. Sometimes they tell me it's one reason they wanted to interview me. It's cool.

Oh, and I guess if we're gonna admit stuff regarding education, I actually dropped out of high school when I was 17. I'm probably a horrible influence for little kids. lol

 

[Thorns Have Roses]

I've dropped out of 3 colleges so far (1 uni, 2 cc's), haven't even finished a course since 2008. Coincidentally, I haven't had a job since then either.

 

[llama112]

I hate school, although I did graduate from college. Hate hate HATE it. It's just soooo boring lol. Got a pretty good job for now though, heading into full time soon hopefully. I do enjoy working while all my high school friends are only like halfway through college and university.

 

[Psychlone Jack]

I got accepted into a nice private school for an honors program and B.S. in Network Engineering, but I didn't go because I was afraid to take on the massive debt it would incur, about $140k.

Now I work construction/renovation and I am regretting the shit out of it.

 

[double ewe]

I got accepted into a nice private school for an honors program and B.S. in Network Engineering, but I didn't go because I was afraid to take on the massive debt it would incur, about $140k.

Now I work construction/renovation and I am regretting the shit out of it.

dude, you're in NC. the state is full of awesome, very inexpensive public universities. google up some scholarships and you could probably get an undergrad and a masters for the price of one semester at that private school.

 

[Psychlone Jack]

Oh, I'm in the process of going back to school, I was just, you know... admitting something.

 

[kaywholed]

i hate a free ride to go to an ok school and fucked it up, now life sucks and I regret never making school work.

both my parents have degrees and my grandfather was a academic at one of the top schools in the country, and I graduate highschool. fucking loser.

Oh, I'm in the process of going back to school, I was just, you know... admitting something.

meh, for a network admin/eng. Find a few different companies you want to work for, find out who their networking vendor is, and go grab some basic certs. Start at the bottom, learn everything you can (code, security, networks, etc) and push to get as much training as possible.

reality is that most computer jobs are more trades type jobs for desk jockeys, and you are better off with self paced training and on the job training than years of expensive schooling. if you want, get a biz/management degree and boss around the other nerds.

 

[rangrz]

Me and my physical sciences + life sciences + engineering + medicine + formal sciences/comp-sci/mathematics cabal of friends don't have any respect for, or even consider the people in the arts or humanities to be actually have gone to school/been in school. As far as we're concerned, M.F.A. does not mean "Master of Fine Arts" but means "Master of Frappuccino Assembly" and a B.A. is a "Barrista Apprentice"

 

[double ewe]

Me and my physical sciences + life sciences + engineering + medicine + formal sciences/comp-sci/mathematics cabal of friends don't have any respect for, or even consider the people in the arts or humanities to be actually have gone to school/been in school. As far as we're concerned, M.F.A. does not mean "Master of Fine Arts" but means "Master of Frappuccino Assembly" and a B.A. is a "Barrista Apprentice"

interestingly enough, my undergrad in social psych and political science gives me a sense of superiority over my colleagues in quantitative finance. we all know math, but i have a huge advantage when it comes to communication and persuasion. math is useless if you can't explain it, and being right is no fun if you can't win an argument without looking like an asshole (although sometimes it's a lot of fun to be an asshole).

 

[herbavore]

Me and my physical sciences + life sciences + engineering + medicine + formal sciences/comp-sci/mathematics cabal of friends don't have any respect for, or even consider the people in the arts or humanities to be actually have gone to school/been in school. As far as we're concerned, M.F.A. does not mean "Master of Fine Arts" but means "Master of Frappuccino Assembly" and a B.A. is a "Barrista Apprentice"

For most of us in the arts we make peace with a "day job" to keep us clothed, fed and supplied with materials and time to create. If we are lucky, we get a job that is related to our own passion. I was a waitress for many years, building my visibility as a painter. I don't regret it nor do I pass any judgement on it. Only a few will ever get (enough) monetary reward from their art to live comfortably on. As Dylan said, everybody is gonna have to serve someone. I've gotten through days of cleaning hotel toilets thinking of a certain type of printmaking paper I was going to order when I was done. Dedicating your life to creating is less a career choice than it is a life choice. Art gives you everything that drugs give you: euphoria, access to other worlds, comfort and solace, exhilaration, adrenaline, and sometimes even bad come-downs and a pathetic bank account.

BTW, I'm thankful my engineer husband does not share your judgements. He started out in engineering as a young man, got drafted into a sick war, came out messed up and freaked out and lost. He was a poor boy from Detroit and he decided for some reason to use his GI bill to go to art classes at Wayne State in inner city Detroit. Improbably, and to the great consternation, disgust and amusement of all his friends and family (all of whom thought college was stupid enough but college for art??), he got a BFA. Years later he returned to engineering and a masters and now has his own small geotechnical firm. Still, he would be the first to tell you that he has always been thankful for his art education because, in his words, it taught him a way of seeing and a way of being that he otherwise would never have been exposed to. That, and the fact that it showed him the way back to sanity after Viet Nam.

edit: I forgot that this thread was about admitting something. I dropped out of school and ran away from home as a teenager. I finally took a GED at 18 and earned a high enough score to get a full scholarship to the University of Michigan which I blew off because it was too much fun being a hippie drop out. It took me 8 years to finally get a degree and as rangrz said it was pretty much a Starbucks degree. But like Lysis, I loved school at the university level after hating it all my life previously. I took everything and anything I was interested in. If I could wave a magic wand and be rich I would never stop going to school!

 

[rangrz]

interestingly enough, my undergrad in social psych and political science gives me a sense of superiority over my colleagues in quantitative finance. we all know math, but i have a huge advantage when it comes to communication and persuasion. math is useless if you can't explain it, and being right is no fun if you can't win an argument without looking like an asshole (although sometimes it's a lot of fun to be an asshole).

Psych is a science... and being an asshole *is* fun.

@herbavore: We in the sciences create too! We create theories and knowledge out of observations. We create machines out of billets of steel. We create health out of sickness using those machines and knowledge. It brings us euphoria, access to other worlds (indeed, quite literally: It's been scientists and engineers who have gone to the Moon, put robots on Mars, sent probes to Venus and Jupiter and Saturn and looked at the 13.7 billion year old surface of last scattering from the Big Bang)

It brings me adrenaline and exhilaration to use a synchrontron. I can't even imagine the exhilaration of the ATLAS team members who discovered the Higgs or Dr.Lister when he discovered aseptic technique or Dr.Jenner when he discovered vaccination for smallpox.

 

[tackyspiral]

i admit i am one ten page paper away from my degree.... and i still havent done it!!!
and then i admit once i get said degree i will have no idea what to do with it....

 

[herbavore]

Psych is a science... and being an asshole *is* fun.

@herbavore: We in the sciences create too! We create theories and knowledge out of observations. We create machines out of billets of steel. We create health out of sickness using those machines and knowledge. It brings us euphoria, access to other worlds (indeed, quite literally: It's been scientists and engineers who have gone to the Moon, put robots on Mars, sent probes to Venus and Jupiter and Saturn and looked at the 13.7 billion year old surface of last scattering from the Big Bang)

It brings me adrenaline and exhilaration to use a synchrontron. I can't even imagine the exhilaration of the ATLAS team members who discovered the Higgs or Dr.Lister when he discovered aseptic technique or Dr.Jenner when he discovered vaccination for smallpox.

My friend, I recognize that. Science and art intersect in so many ways. Most of the divisions we put up in our minds are false and the ones that do exist rarely matter. Ones of the things that unites science and art is the ability to start with a question, to go forth into discovery without preconception (to the best of our ability anyway) and to become completely comfortable with the journey without a fixed destination.

@Tacky--Do that paper before the baby comes! You will never regret getting the degree whether you see a direct link to employment from it or not. You will regret not getting it due to one little paper no matter how daunting those ten pages may seem today.

 

[China Rider]

i wish i never went to college

i finished it off cause i figured even though my 4 year degree in sports management is kind of weak ass, a degree should help me out finding a good job,even not relating to my degree

btw, sport management isn't what you think it is, it's pretty much a degree in business

the job i have now i actually don't mind, i'm a machine operator that runs a machine that cuts giant rolls adhesive tapes into regular sized rolls

the only reason i have that job is because i'm friends with the family that owns it...and i show up everyday and do a good job

i hate people who tell kids they'll never make it without a degree, such brainwash bullshit

 

[aussie101]

Years later he returned to engineering and a masters and now has his own small geotechnical firm.

This is my major. I did work experience with a mining company working with the detonation/explosive team. Love geotechnical engineering. Esp blowing up large amounts of explosives - the show is free! And its a drug free profession generally you will get tested so it makes no sense to be addicted to anything when you are working. Mining companies have lots of perks too, free alcohol and amazing Xmas dinners with just about any food you can think of.

 

[SarahU]

My "free ride" ended badly, but I'm out of school now. Really big mistake.

 

[double ewe]

the only reason i have that job is because i'm friends with the family that owns it...and i show up everyday and do a good job

it never ceases to amaze me how important this is. the description for my current job asked for 6-10 years experience (i had zero), but i had a friend who worked in the department, and he convinced his boss to give me a shot. part of the interview was making a presentation about a central topic in the field, and i used it to tell them about my thesis research - they told me i was hired before i had even left that day. obviously my connection wouldn't have done any good without my education, but it's crazy that some friend of a friend that i ran into the bar a couple times was just as important to my career as the years of graduate study and research.

 

[Lysis]

it never ceases to amaze me how important this is. the description for my current job asked for 6-10 years experience (i had zero), but i had a friend who worked in the department, and he convinced his boss to give me a shot. part of the interview was making a presentation about a central topic in the field, and i used it to tell them about my thesis research - they told me i was hired before i had even left that day. obviously my connection wouldn't have done any good without my education, but it's crazy that some friend of a friend that i ran into the bar a couple times was just as important to my career as the years of graduate study and research.

Oh hell yeah. I always make friends at work, and some I've actually hung out with after hours. It's been a huge advantage for me.

Actually, my current job, I didn't know it at the time, but when I went on my interview the Director of Tech walks in and holy shit I knew him. LOL He didn't even interview me much. Just asked me if I was to design an app would I design the db or the front end first. That's it. He still passed me down to my manager and the CIO to interview with, but between my Warcraft conversations with the manager and knowing the guy, I had the job without really having a tech interview.

Also, the CIO said the one thing he liked about me was that I told him I was just a secretary making no money when I taught myself programming (C++). He said it showed ambition.

Some people are so antisocial and snobby at work, but in IT, it helps so much to know people.