/lit/ - Literature

We all knew this shit. I'm studying law.

>>14788073
The worst part about it is that I should've known this shit too. I've been browsing /lit/ and /sci/ for years. But it's always the CIA psyop post that says to "do what you love" that I always fell for. Maybe I am too fucking retarded for anything else. But I might as well try. If I don't, that would be a fate worse than death.

Pro-tip, you’re going to be just as miserable doing some fucking cs degree. Source my diary desu

>>14788068
just jelq bro

>>14788090
Yeah no matter what people like >>14788097 say, trust me, even the most boring STEM degree experience will be more useful than a lit degree.

>>14788137
That's what I figured. The question is now: what should I do? I was thinking either econ or cs. What's a good field to head into?

>>14788068
>wanting a "job"

Math sucks. Science sucks too. If you require independence and critical thinking to be able to enjoy your life then be prepared for 4 years of suffering. However, if you don't mind having the wonder sucked out of some of the most fascinating things in existence, then you'll probably find it manageable.

>>14788149
cs and engineering are both pretty safe, cs probably more versatile. Do some research.

>>14788068
>state school
There's your mistake, dumbass. High literature is a luxury good, produced and consumed by the wealthy. Gotta to private school to find a good program. Though, 45% of your classmates will still be retards, that's just how college works. It rewards hard work, not genius.

>>14788210
>However, if you don't mind having the wonder sucked out of some of the most fascinating things in existence
Retarded meme opinion. Knowing how something works does not make it any less wondrous.

>>14788068
>state school
>complains about English department's quality
>???
Literally everything your school has to offer will be of dogshit quality you ape. Maybe if you weren't a retard in highschool you would have got into a good school. Most private schools have really good programs even if it's some obscure school thats not really known, you either go to a top 200 school or settle for a private uni close to you. What the fuck are you doing studying English at a meme school?

>>14788073
Is law much better? I already graduated with a shit degree but I’m considering law school. I just don’t know because I always hear about how employment and salaries are bad outside of the top 7.

>>14788149
Econ is the standard field humanities people flee to when they get worried about humanities job prospects. That’s exactly what I did and I regret it. Put in the work for a real stem degree or don’t bother with stem.

>>14788225
Being forced to study an interesting topic turns an interesting topic into a mundane topic. When you are studying science for a degree, you are really studying to pass exams, its a job and it ruins your appreciation of the subject matter.

>>14788244
There are tons of top 200 state schools man. That's not even a high bar.

>>14788280
I won't bother with econ then.

>>14788281
Ah, fair enough

>>14788068
>This shit won't get me a job
it took you an entire year to realize that an English degree won't get you a job?
Maybe you are in the correct major after all

Guys, stop forcing yourselves to do stuff that you don’t have to and don’t want to do. It’s fine to leave Literature. If you have an interest in STEM, go for it. Don’t just spend a ton of money and slog through a STEM degree if you don’t need or want to.

>>14788068
Nah man, do what you love. Life is short and nothing matters in the end.

>>14788149
the job market for cs grads has never been more saturated than it is now
econ is fine if your school has a good program (read: requires stats courses and programming) and you get an internship
statistics (especially computational stats) is better than both imo

>>14788280
>Econ is the standard field humanities people flee to when they get worried about humanities job prospects.
you must've gone to a school with a shitty economics program
or you're talking about a BA in econ which is a joke, yes, but it's also not econ

>>14788068
I made the same mistake as you did, but I wasted 4 years of my life instead of your presumable 1 year
I bought into fucking journalism of all things, hated it the very first day but kept going in hopes I'd change my mind
Thing is I always liked writing and am decent at it, but could never turn it into a job
Switched to STEM, now finishing my masters on my way to start a phd and took writing as a hobby, currently in the way of publishing my first book

>go to college for econ degree
>but also take a bunch of classes on medieval history and classics
>enjoy my time in college
shrug.jpg

>>14788068
Reminder that English lit was literally started as a course for women. Tells you all you need to know.

>>14788068
My roommate got his degree in English literature and got into an out of state graduate school to study more literature for his Master's. He wants to teach someday and already has a few jobs lined up at a couple different schools. He's got a nice gf and he writes some short stories, but no books yet. We're both writers so we keep in touch over email.
I decided to get a degree in photonics and work on my books on the side. I've finished two and I'm on my third now. I graduate in 2 months. I think it really is different strokes for different folks. As long as you write, it doesn't matter what degree you get. The literature degree definitely helps you understand the fundamentals of literature and opens you up to a lot of reading material (read: sources of inspiration), so if that's what you want, I wouldn't quit it.

>>14788363
You americans seem to have a good system where you can branch out. Here you pick your degree and don't take classes from other subjects, it's completely specialized.

>>14788344
Is an Econ BS worth it? I’ve been interested in it for a while but everyone on here keeps shitting on it saying it’s a pseudoscience

>>14788068
>it's another 'American goes to one of his shit universities for retards and complains that it's literature, and not his country's abysmal education system, which is the problem' episode

>>14788404
Anglo universities are the only ones that matter

>>14788363
economics is a meme degree you literally don't learn anything that reading a highschool economics book doesen't teach you

>>14788402
Economics is trash. The worst academic discipline outside complete meme stuff. It's just ad-hoc justification for the political status quo. If you want to study something money related, then just go for finance, no bullshit delusions there.

>>14788428
>the results of 200 years of study are ad-hoc
Nice one commie

>>14788149
Economics is even more of bullshit degree than literature. Computer science, math, physics, chemistry, philosophy, history, biology, engineering, and law are all decent options.

>>14788402
generally, those who hold such an opinion know little-to-nothing about the field
case in point
>>14788428
as long as your school's program requires at least a few stats courses and some programming then it should be fine. again, i will highlight the importance of an internship as well

>>14788068
Studied business, love the money and not terrible work life balance. Just pick something that will feed you and your family, if you actually care about literature you'll read it no matter what. To be honest, I also deeply enjoy being able to only rarely discuss my readings, I find discussions were 95% useless and just good to spend time thinking my own thoughts.

However good or bad your financial system, I don't know why you would pay to study something that you can easily learn on your own. No one becomes a fantastic artist from a literature degree.

If you read on your own you can read exactly what you want whenver you want. It will never kill your passion. However, you run the risk of deadening your passions by turning them into grade pointers and meaningless essays. It's the same reason why so many people on here hated reading in high school yet now like to read. It is never fun to be forced to do anything. hell even profession esports players get tired of playing video games all day

>>14788437
t. economics major regretting his choice

>>14788149
This was me as well. Lit -> Accounting and picked up a corporate finance job paying 68k in LCOL area. I considered CS but decided to go into a field with normal people and 50/50 gender split. I took a couple CS classes and a lot of those nerds actually love it which is annoying and you don't have to deal with that in business most of the time . I dream about going back to school for Chinese (langauge/lit/history) every day. Thats what I listen to at work and read at home these days. But, as far as practical degrees go I recommend it.

>>14788520
No arguments I see

>>14788412
That's why I go to one

>>14788068
I just got a phil degree. Don't regret it at all

>>14788344
I went to a good Econ program at a good school and did the BS. It’s in the top 50 but not top 25. I don’t know how else to describe it with outing the school. I stand by what I said.

>>14788666
What are you planning to do now?

>>14788670
>school I’m looking at is literally the first out of the top 25
Should I kms?

>>14788670
>I stand by what I said.
well you shouldnt because it's verifiably false
a quantitative program is isn't a replacement for a "soft" humanities degree and most of them would fail out or change majors

>>14788673
Lighthouse keeper.

>>14788068
Question: is it useful to study English literature at Oxford university? Also, is it useful at top Ivy leagues, Cambridge, etc.?

>>14788068
You should have figured this out when you took some sort of advanced English class in high school. In engineering and can't really say I'm happy, but can't say I'm miserable either. Save things in the arts for hobbies and don't plunge thousands of dollars to get a paper certifying that you can read.

>>14788402
Listen, man. You can see my replies here
>>14788280
and here
>>14788670
The honest to god truth is that Econ can be a good choice for some people, but at of the people who earn a degree in it, regret it including myself.

Here’s the rundown. The BA is universally garbage. Don’t even consider it unless you’re at like Dartmouth College or something. The BS is the same as the BA just with some more math and statistics thrown in usually but usually they’re considered Econ courses, which is bad for a reason I’ll get to in a second. Econ can be an employable major but the statistics you see on it are deceiving because what they don’t tell you is that it’s a bimodal distribution. The people who study Econ at really top ranked schools go on to get really high end high paying jobs and that skews the distribution. Those people were always going to get those jobs regardless of what they study. You can’t bank on similar results. In fact, at a school below the top 50 or so (because rankings matter to people who hire Econ grads) the employment prospects and salaries are not particularly good. That’s a problem because it’s not a secret that most people study Econ to make money. So I’m all honesty, the major that has people study money (although this is actually a misconception I’ll get to that in a bit) isn’t even particularly great at earning it. The reason you see Econ earnings outpace engineers and programmers is because there’s bankers in New York making $2m per year after 7 years on the job, but it’s unlikely that will be you and I would argue you don’t want that to be you. The second biggest reason isn’t that great is because Econ is not even the best thing to study if you want to do graduate study in Econ. There’s too much math involved that you won’t take as an undergrad at most schools. Go look at the grad departments for good schools. They’re almost all going to be stats, math, physics, etc. If not, I can guarantee they had to take a lot of extra quant coursework and probably do a post bacc and masters. The third and probably biggest reason Econ isn’t that great is that as I alluded to before people think it’s about the study of money. It’s really not. It’s about the study of resource utilization, production, and consumption and decision making. The problem is departments don’t really care and they end up pushing classes all about finance and it turns into a finance program. You’ll be lucky if you take a single game theory course at most colleges. That sucks because if you wanted to study finance, you’d just study finance. As for the pseudoscience stuff, it’s not a pseudoscience. It’s a social science. It’s more like an applied social science. Econ gets a bad rap because of the policy ramifications it has. Unlike astrophysics where you can’t give planets policies to influence their orbits, Econ is inherently dynamic. Departments tend to forget this and preach the social science

>>14788708
It really depends on how much you're actually paying, and how good you are at it. IF you jsut like reading its not worth it. IF you are Creme de le crop and plan to write professionally ( within realistic expectation, go fro it, that is under the condition that you won't rack up massive amounts of debt that no amount of written words could get you out of.

>>14788752
As a hard science, but it’s just not. It’s no so much the study as the people teaching and working it who give misuse it and give it a bad rap. Lastly, I’d question that as a humanities inclined person if you’re really all that interested in studying banks and money and working as some low brow financial analyst auditing statements all day everyday because once you get an Econ degree, that’s pretty much your life. All you can do is test it out and if you like it, go for it. If not, don’t. Don’t be afraid to step away if you don’t know what you want to do. It’s not that big of a deal.

>>14788683
No. That’s good for you, but I still wouldn’t recommend Econ for most people.

>>14788691
I didn’t say it’s a replacement. Read my reply again. I said it’s a major that humanities majors flee to just like OP is considering.

>>14788782
>I said it’s a major that humanities majors flee to
i know but i suppose i might've read a different tone into the point you were making
if you're saying "don't arbitrarily switch to econ (implying little interest in the subject)" then i'd agree of course

my experience with people switching to econ was from finance majors who didn't make the business school GPA cutoff. most of which promptly failed out of the econ program. although that would only reinforce the point above. from my experience, the humanities types just add a business major onto whatever they're studying

>>14788330
t. Basement neet and/or underage

>>14788137
>useful
for being a good little wagie in the cagie

>>14788068
Intern and network properly. Your degree won't really matter at that point.

>people suggesting to major in CS when you can teach that yourself

Major in math if you want to do the CS meme. You'll lap most CS shitters.

>>14788830
>Major in math if you want to do the CS meme. You'll lap most CS shitters.
Not a high bar

>>14788286
Don't think you are just going to waltz into stem and blow everyone away with how special you are.
I say this because you are giving off big time dunning-kruger vibes talking about how everyone is retarded yet you willingly chose english as your major.
you're probably going to get BTFO in stem desu. I'd stick with english if i were you

The problem is this is a deeply personal question you can't farm out to others, especially on a literally anonymous Canadian amateur shrimp farming forum. I can reccomend you a degree in something that is harder to do in college, therefore if you're certified you'll make more money than a mediocre person, but had Stephen King went into economics he wouldn't be so wealthy as he is... but then again few people are. The truth is the arts is the only path to riches if you weren't born into it, but the path is narrow and few people can reach the top... but many people can be mediocre Cyber Security specialists and make $100k a year, a mediocre writer fucking starves.

>>14788211
>>14788244
>>14788404
These posts were written by retards who are paying $45,000 a year to write book reports lol

Anons, please proofread your posts before posting.

>>14788954
gay fagot

>>14788824
That is what I’m saying but I’m also saying more than that. In my honest opinion, Econ is a “gut major” for most people meaning it’s something people flee to because they sense some kind of alignment of that major with contemporary society. It basically signals that you don’t have any particular niche but you want to make a decent living so you’ll take some generic corporate job. Obviously that’s not everyone. Some people are genuinely interested and can get a lot out of it. I think most people aren’t though and many of the people who might think they are have been conditioned to think that or they think it to be something entirely different than what it is. I know I was the latter and I knew that deep down.

>>14788881
Should your major be reduced to which is the “path to riches”?

>>14789121
i think you significantly overestimate the popularity of economics as a major
business degrees are more popular and fit the description of "generic degree to get a generic job" far better i think

>>14788068
>he didn't drop out 6 units away from his AA in humanities at the local community college and go on to work overnights at a hardware store

>>14788699
Hark

>>14789158
A-Anon, that sounds pretty specific...

>>14789158
>work overnights at a hardware store
Sounds comfy. Especially if you have a cute coworker to enjoy your underachievement with.

I dont think I could ever "do what I love" once what I love becomes a job its like anything else

>>14789158
based

>>14789437
This, wtf is that line of reasoning
Doing what you love is a hobby not a job

I wish I'd studied History or Linguistics, but since my college didn't have that, I spent 2 semesters in a general Humanities degree, then switched onto Philosophy because I wanted to understand philosopher namedrops in Gochiusa threads on /a/, but after that went into CS when I noticed there would be no jobs for Philosophy PhDs and that the branch of Philosophy I enjoyed the most was Logic.

So far enjoying learning about programming and discrete mathematics, but what really feels like hard work is having to type up instructions for window outlines and font sizes/colors on CSS whenever I've tried messing around with that stuff.

Now, if only I could think of some way to contribute to Linguistics by writing some programs to aid with morphological/morpheme comparisons...

>>14790064
Autism?

LMAO op just do what everyones is doing now
lern 2 kod
just make sure you have autism to make sure you grind through stupid bugs without wanting to tkill yourself

>>14791082
>autism
I think there's probably a certain level of "autism" required to get through studying a STEM major which my two grandfathers had, and a point beyond which one is too obsessed with specific ideas or ideals to ever succeed at anything, which is where I am.

>>14789421
...at a hardware store?

>>14788068
>avoid: the "do what you love" meme
as apposed to the other meme?

>>14791804
It should be "do what you're good at", I have a friend that fell for the trades meme (everything is fucking meme tbqh) and became an electrician, sure he makes good money but has to work with boomers talking about sportsball and petty pop culture shit all day... he wants to kill himself. Working 5 days of torture to have money to enjoy yourself for 2 days isn't worth it. You literally have to do what you like, living to consume until you're on your deathbed wishing you followed your dream is not a life worth living.

>>14788271
I still haven't graduated, but it's fine at the moment. I'm studying on the second best university of my country though.

>justification of life choices: the thread

Oh yes, every board just NEEDS a thread about career choices. MONEY MONEY MONEY. PASSION PASSION PASSION. Fuck off all of you.

>>14791885
>not good at anything

What do?

>>14791911
Bullshit. Everyone is good at something, but for some people it takes a lot of soul searching to figure that out.

What does one do AFTER getting an English degree? I graduated last year, got a mortgage industry job, and recently quit because brokers are the most depraved subhumans imaginable. My freelance writing has been enough to pay my bills, but I'd like to get some kind of real job again.

>summer classes
Why wouldn't you take these voluntarily in the first place? Especially with how much true off time american universities seem to have, you really would be wasting sme 4 months of the year not actively studying.
In better germanuniversities and especially in the STEM fields, there isn't a break except for 1 month in summer. The "breaks" are simply free of lectures but all exams are spread out over the month and then there is a lab, course extension, next semester mandatory course prep, etc they squeeze into the rest of the "break".
You people are most likely jsut wasting your break instead of using it to study on your own or prepare for the next semester courses anyways, so might as well take a proper University semester break course.
Lazy fuckers.

>>14788068
Not so bad. I got a degree in history, found no job, went to Germany, worked as electrician for 1 year and half. Came back and got masters on archaeology. Still found no job. I was offered a paid PhD because of a brilliant final work though, but I won't fall for this shit again.

Now I got into a STEM degree (Computer Science) at 27, and will finish with 31. I will have to work as waiter or something to sustain myself while in it, but some others are already working in the field, well paid, and are only in their second year.

Just listen, It does not matter if you think you're shit at math or whatever. Get a STEM or just don't waste your time in uni. What you can learn in a humanities degree, you can learn better by yourself. Humanities degrees are useless.

There are two big upsides to liberal arts degrees that are not being discussed:

1) There is a big stampede to STEM in recent years, not just online but in all normie circles. As the babyboomers start dying off, medicine is going to have a crunch, and wages for engineering particularly the "hands on" stuff is stagnating (adjusting for inflation). While this doesn't magically create a job for you, it helps to not be part of a retraction.

2) Your job cannot be automated nor outsourced. Probably one the only careers in the world that can't be done so.

>>14792501
> Your job cannot be automated or outsourced.

I’m going to have to disagree with you there. What about Google translate, LegalZoom, or Grammarly?

>>14788400
it only sounds good. Imagine having to take highschool level classes for your first year and PAYING 50k for this.

>>14791885
> everything is a fucking meme

This right here is the problem. We live in an age where everyone is constantly in everyone’s ear about what they should do and institutions themselves can go out on the internet and change the things they want based on the supply and demand dictated to them by the internet. We live in an age of mass labor speculation and that’s why no one can get ahead.

>>14788400
It sounds good in theory. What ends up happening is you spend extra money and time in high school level courses on nobody really wants or needs. My undergrad forced me to spend one of my electives on a class on the civil rights movement, which was basically rehash of the same thing I got in high school. It’s more or less a tactic for them to jam certain things down your throat while you pay for it. If you get to take more than a handful of interesting electives, you’re lucky.

>>14792533
I'll give you partial credit there, that's the technical side of the liberal arts. But there will never be an AI that can write the next great American novel...

Well, at least not in the next 100 years.

>>14788443
Unless you are sure you can get into a top 20 law school, it is a bit dubious and the is a glut of law graduates.

Chemistry and biology is great if you are a premed, otherwise without advances degrees you can only get technician jobs. Even with advanced degrees it is not a sure thing.

Math and physics, if you have a decent internship or two in college, these can be super-powered options. If you go to a top school, you can get those six figure wall street jobs. However, without internships you can have a hard time since you aren't developing a specific skill. But generally these degrees are good for showing employer that "I am really smart," and that counts for something.

Philosophy is great when paired with something else like math or CS, not on its own.

History is not that marketable.

Engineering and CS are probably the most employable, make sure you get good at coding and do some independent coding projects. As well as getting and internship. Try to make progress on Project Euler.

>>14788068
Not gonna read through all the junk career discussion ITT.
Just wanted to say that my path was similar and I don’t regret it. I love literature, and art, and all this, but at least half of the classes offered in these fields make me want to puke.

A couple of months ago I randomly visited a lecture on European Expressionist literature, just to give it another shot, and it turned out that I’d hit the exact date the lecturer was talking about Kafka’s "The Judgement." Well, I quite love this piece. Lucky me, I thought. But the lecturer didn’t talk about the contents, she rather gave a very precise overview of the dates Kafka had worked on it etc.

Being able to spend all your time on the sort of thing you really love in life is probably nice, but with all the ways forced on you at University – which books to read, which methodology to employ, having to write some sort of theoretical thing about the books you read at all – there’s not much pure enjoyment time left as opposed to working some useful job and spending free time on reading, it seems to me.

I make what feels to me like mad money as a programmer – and I didn’t even get a degree in this – and often I am sad that I don’t have as much time as I’d like to read or learn a language or whatever. But probably this sadness is exactly part of what makes it sweet in the first place. I can read The Book of Disquiet, or Ratner’s Star, and really feel it.