• Life Advice & Visual Arts Welcome Guest
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    🌌 Share Your Dreams! 🌌
    📸 15 Years of Photo Contests 📸
  • LAVA Moderator: Shinji Ikari

Students: what are you studying?

I'm doing kinda a "bitsa" degree, but it's essentially journalism/media production with a focus on web 2.0 and 21st century communication innovations.
 
Should be finishing my 2nd assignment for terotechnology and lifecycle. But, instead, I'm watching Star Trek and posting on BL.
 
Captain.Heroin said:
studying whatever fancies my interests.
Click to expand...

Same.

I really should look at some kind of formal study... but i'm too erratic and undisciplined for academia. My main interests are psychology, sociology and philosophy but i have zero interest in pursuing work related to them, i just enjoy learning about them and teaching myself.. and occasionally working them into my writing.
 
Computer Science, can't say I love it but it's not all bad. Just having a degree these days often leads to completely different careers you initially intended anyways.
 
malakaix said:
Same.

I really should look at some kind of formal study... but i'm too erratic and undisciplined for academia. My main interests are psychology, sociology and philosophy but i have zero interest in pursuing work related to them, i just enjoy learning about them and teaching myself.. and occasionally working them into my writing.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't bother with studying those in a formal setting, you'd just be wasting your money (assuming you want a return on that investment). My friend did Philosophy at undergrad level at a top UK university.. what a waste of time! The majority of it is just mental masturbation and silly word games/analysis that just leads to fucking nowhere. I enjoyed talking about it with him because he understood it all very well and it was fun to just destroy the ridiculousness of it whilst stoned.
 
I started a Bachelor of Arts this year, not sure what I will major in yet but thinking of a double major in philosophy and psychology. I plan to complete a Masters of Social Work, or possibly a Graduate Diploma of Secondary Education, when I finish my BA.

SS, I don't see how you can write off studying any of those subjects as a waste of time, particularly psychology. Admittedly, becoming a psychologist is very competitive and requires postgraduate study, but psychologists are quite well paid and they are employed by a number of sectors to perform a variety of tasks. Not to mention, psychology is a science that involves a fairly rigorous understanding of how to interpret statistics, this is a valuable skill in many fields, and a lot of arts/humanities subjects don't really teach it at all.

I happen to really enjoy philosophy and don't agree with your characterisation of it as "mental masturbation". However, I agree that just majoring in philosophy probably isn't going to lead directly to many jobs. I would think it is best studied as part of a double major alongside something more employable. The main reason I am considering majoring in philosophy myself is because I plan to go on to postgraduate studies and my WAM matters a lot more than my major does. With that said, I don't think there is anything wrong with someone getting an education for non vocational reasons, and for a lot of people philosophy is a very interesting subject.

For anyone considering studying philosophy, it is worth noting that according to multiple sources I have read, including this one, philosophy majors tend to perform better on a range of tests than those who complete just about any other major. It seems a bit odd that a bunch of "silly word games" would prepare students to do so well on standardised tests.
 
Last edited:
It depends on the angle you're coming from and where you want to go with it. The poster I was responding to said "i have zero interest in pursuing work related to them, i just enjoy learning about them and teaching myself". In which case why bother paying for a formal education on the subject when you can learn a lot of it yourself for free using the library and the internet. I stick with my mental masturbation comment, having talked with my friend for hours on his degree and what it entailed. This is academic philosophy we're talking about, not philosophy in general (which is highly important). Too many word games and sophistry around existing texts that leads to nothing.
 
Fair enough, somehow I missed the part where they said they had zero interest in pursuing work in those fields, your comment makes a lot more sense with that in mind. :)

Everyone is entitled to their view, but it seems a bit odd to me to write off an entire academic discipline because you know one guy, who completed one particular major sequence, at one particular University. That is not exactly a broad exposure to academic philosophy.

How would you explain philosophy majors doing better than most other majors on all those tests if it is such a useless subject to learn at University?
 
I never said it was useless in terms of developing ones own ability to think critically and hold complex concepts in their head.. in that regard it is very good, it exercises the mind in a way a lot of other subjects fail to do. Though again this is something one can develop outside of University, but obviously having lots of other philosophy students and faculty to bounce ideas off helps so that's a positive.. don't think many people in your local pub would be open to discussing this stuff :D

I'm just highly cynical of the academic world to be honest with you. Especially with psychology and philosophy.. perhaps the two most important subjects out of all subjects! But philosophy in particular because it is such an important topic area for the individual and society at large.. I just feel academically it fails to meet the importance that the subject commands, and this extends to a lot of philosophers covered in the subject material. It's all fascinating and intelligent stuff don't get me wrong.. but where does it lead for the individual? There is no road map or guidance in finding the big answers.. just examining existing material. One may argue its not academia's job to bridge over into practical philosophy and spirituality, but given we don't have many other mediums of taking this stuff on a serious level (cooky religious cults, freemasons etc aside) the academic spot holds a privileged position that I personally don't think it lives up to.
 
Studying history. Would be a piece of cake if not for the fact that I haven't slept in two days :p Must be the stress, I think, but I somehow can't reach a deep sleep state.
 
I study accounting. It kind of sucks, but I'm pretty much guaranteed a job, and there are some good networking opportunities. I also learn better in a hands on situation once I'm in a position, so that could be part of the reason that I feel it sucks.

I've found that I enjoy philosophy and psychology and learning about them on my own or taking a few courses in those areas which is pretty much required for a business degree anyways... That said, I think I've learned more about philosophy from sites such as this and speaking with friends then I ever did in the classroom. Psychology is an interesting topic that I learned a lot about both in class and from friends.
 
-=SS=- said:
I wouldn't bother with studying those in a formal setting, you'd just be wasting your money (assuming you want a return on that investment). My friend did Philosophy at undergrad level at a top UK university.. what a waste of time! The majority of it is just mental masturbation and silly word games/analysis that just leads to fucking nowhere. I enjoyed talking about it with him because he understood it all very well and it was fun to just destroy the ridiculousness of it whilst stoned.
Click to expand...

There's a lot of demand in employment services/recruitment for people with psych qualifications. I mean, it's only an appropriate job if you have no conscience, but at least you'd be using your degree.

Xadem said:
Studying history. Would be a piece of cake if not for the fact that I haven't slept in two days :p Must be the stress, I think, but I somehow can't reach a deep sleep state.
Click to expand...

I just did a mid-level history subject as part of my degree and it was SO HARD. Seriously one of the hardest subjects of my whole qualification. I'm not sure if I'm just not used to how the study of history "works", but I essentially felt like I was trying to summarise centuries worth of learning and experience into each essay.
 
Going into my second year studying pharmaceuticals and what not to enter the work field as a pharmacy technician. I'm not going to stop there, though - I am considering Princeton for a PhD. Cardiac surgery is my final goal.
 
Just finished a PhD in political history. Not happy unless I'm learning something, so I'm about to take up bookmaking. :)
 
Philosphy is a good degree, I recommend it to everyone since it's a double major that is easy to fulfill.
Also, it's great for law school.
 
I honestly have no idea I'm in my second year at community college overlapping classes for a bunch of associates cause I can't think of shit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top