University thread

[Anonymous No.15378252]

General uni/college thread. What are you studying, anon? How's it going? Close to graduation? Have you been able to read?

My friends and I are graduating this year from our master's course and I can't help but feel like they're delusional about they're future. All of them think they're going on to have amazing jobs, despite majoring in humanities, and change the world. Personally, I don't like STEM, so I didn't want to spend the rest of my life in a STEM job, but I also had no delusions about getting a good job graduating in humanities. I wasted 6 years trying to find something I enjoy doing, but I think I realized that even if I get a good job, I don't really want to spend the rest of my life among upper middle-class/wealthy people I probably have nothing in common with. I'm not dropping out so late, especially considering I'm a top student, but I think I'm just going to find a working-class job like my parents and write something on the side while I save up money for a house in some village or town away from the big cities.

[Anonymous No.15378257]

>>15378252
Are you me? Well minus the top student part

[Anonymous No.15378275]

>tfw graduate from master's program and immediately land six-figure job without any effort whatsoever
>tfw graduate program was total bullshit yet couldn't find job with useful bachelor degrees for years

[Anonymous No.15378276]

>>15378252
their* Can't believe I made this mistake on /lit/

[Anonymous No.15378333]

>>15378252
I study History and IR. Graduate in a few months. I'm not going to get exceptional grades I don't think, but won't get bad ones either. I don't regret that much, but I also don't have huge expectations of earning a huge amount soon.

[Anonymous No.15378614]

>>15378252
I'll be heading to Colgate next year, any fellow raiders here?

[Anonymous No.15378635]

>>15378333
In the same position with the same course, funnily enough. Biggest regret is probably not talking to the professor's whose area of interest overlapped with mine earlier.

[Anonymoos No.15378920]

>>15378252
I got kicked out of Northwestern University in the Spring of 2014; I was undeclared at the time.
I ended up going to a state college and graduating with a BS in CS and Math; I've now been employed for 2 years as a IT Systems Technician for a local municipality by a guy who did the same thing as me 20 years ago.
I'm also reading more than ever.

[Anonymous No.15379410]

>>15378252
Working on doctorate in English and this whole virus just makes me realize how much I hate the self-obsessed mature of academia. Thinking I'll work on coding skills in classes in other departments before.going into a tech boot camp.

[Anonymous No.15379443]

>>15379410
this is me >>15378275

Do some digital humanities shit, brah. That's what I did.

[Anonymous No.15379447]

IU Bloomington. Finished up my first year as business major. Business major is not intellectually fulfilling though. I often call it "four year trade school to learn Excel and group project dynamics."
Thinking about going into Math & Economics because an Econ phD would be intellectually fulfilling while also allowing me to do research that helps better the world, eg labor economics. But looking at Calc III I'm not sure I have the stamina for all that math and research.
I'm just kind of lost. Sometimes I just want to be an author but I know that's an "easy escape" my mind makes because I imagine myself happily typing away while some NYT best-seller I wrote makes me millions. It's a fantasy.

[Anonymous No.15379457]

>>15378252
Philosophy, in between Masters and Doctorate, will be starting doctoral work in the fall. Reading is more or less my life these days, whether I'm in formal structured education or not at the moment. I don't love academia as a culture or as a "career" but at the same time I can't imagine doing anything else with my life, so here we are.

[Anonymous No.15379474]

>>15379457
Same, Philosophy doctoral student. Don't let the institution get you down. If it hazes you or disappoints, don't necessarily drop out. Consider strategically tolerating the hazing until they let you off the leash, then using the system for your own purposes.

[Anonymous No.15379495]

Starting medicine in the fall semester. Not sure how much reading I'll get done in the next few year, so I'm reading as much as I can now this summer.

[Anonymous No.15379504]

>>15379474
Thanks man, and yeah thats the plan. I've kept my head above water so far, and like I said, I can't imagine dropping out changing anything in my life, so I'm sticking with it no matter what. One of my best friends got really jaded with the whole thing and is hesitant about applying to programs but I'm trying to get him to do so, if only so that more decent people are around to receive the torch.

[Anonymous No.15379515]

>>15379457
That sounds like a good life. What do they do to get you down anon?

[Anonymous No.15379519]

>>>/int/

[Anonymous No.15379527]

>>15379443
Lol I do. Actually writing an article for U. Minnesota Press dh series But so much of the field is lit degrees being blown away by shit tech companies knew in the 80s. It's frankly embarrassing.

[Anonymous No.15379551]

>>15379515
Perhaps I came off too cynical. It is, to be sure, a good way to spend a life. What I mean is that I'm doing philosophy because I genuinely love it, and therefore, have little appetite for the current state of academia with hyper-focused and specialized tracks people get on, and the pressure to publish almost regardless of quality. This is to say nothing of the politics at some institutions. I'm doing just fine, I just never want to wake up one morning and find that something so dear to me has become a job. Teaching is a job, one I do take seriously, but I want my writing and publishing to be up to my standards of purity.

[Anonymous No.15379568]

>>15379551
In a similar boat, the pressure to publish isn't really producing research that seems valuable. Problem is I also love the shit out of teaching and it seems that the last thing the university gives a shit about is actually producing quality instruction. Teaching and research are just ledger markers to keep the institution running.

[Anonymous No.15379599]

>>15379527
Exactly. 90% of it is absolute bullshit and its practitioners are largely idiots. But it can give you the right skills professionally depending on the university/program and you can produce a pretty cool data project based on humanistic data by the end of it.

[Anonymous No.15379619]

>>15379599
Eh fair enough. I got enough Twitter data from a class for a data viz/social network analysis I guess. Probably can throw that together into something cute.

[Anonymous No.15379654]

>>15379619
100%

Professionally you could say you created a data pipeline pulling json/txts via an API built in Python. Perform some data science/analysis with numpy/pandas or R if you want to say you know multiple languages. Throw it into a nice dashboard for data viz points.

Then the most bare minimum paper is required detailing research purposes, supporting literature, methodological breakdown, and present results as conclusive pointing to the data.

[Anonymous No.15379663]

I’m an old 26 Year old man who graduated three years ago. I got my Bachelor’s of Science in Management Information Systems.
Headed back to school in the fall though for my Masters. Still deciding between Data Science or Business IT. Both are Masters of Science.
Do a technical degree fellas. You can follow your passion for literature on the side.

[Anonymous No.15379665]

>>15379654
Oh god, you're making me want to vomit at the bullshit in that first statement. That's 90% of the papers I read haha.

[Anonymous No.15379723]

>>15378252
brehs i need your advice
>second semester of mechanical engineering
>have no problem keeping up but dont care enough about anyting that isnt math so i usualy study just enough to pass and forget about it
>dont want to become a wagie
>dont realy need a lot of money
>nobody is hiring engineers part time and 40h+/week is the norm and 50 is common
theres a translator/interpreter school somewhat close but its private however they have a thing going on where i can get a bachelor degree with weekend classes at a local uni
should i do it?
german is my first language, im also fluent in english (c2 proficiency) and have been studying a french here and there on the site for the last two years
is anyone here doing something familiar or working as a translator?

[Anonymous No.15379742]

>>15379723
Considered switching into computer science/linguistics dual for machine translation? Let's you focus on languages while also working in a field that uses the stuff you've been working for and provides income?

[Anonymous No.15379807]

>>15379742
have looked into that before but theres nothing anywhere near me and i enjoy talking a lot more than writing
also with that bachelor degree ill have to specify into either economics or engineering anyway so ill still be working in my field regardless because economics is pretty fucking gay
also i dont care about money a lot i can live of 2k/month very comfortably and from what ive seen thats also quite shitty pay for an interpreter and even if i needed more i could become a teacher in a second due to germany desperately looking for any to begin with

[Anonymous No.15379841]

>>15379723
Honestly, Unless you really hate it, I would stick it out in ME (or maybe switch to an even more strictly math related degree) and maybe get a minor in English.
You can do a lot with a mechanical engineering degree that doesn’t even have anything to do with mechanical engineering. It’s kind of a good way to show employers that you aren’t a stupid person. If you are fluent in English and native German with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, you could easily find a job as a translator.

[Anonymous No.15379879]

Want to go to uni again at 27 years old (already have pharmacy degree) to become a dentist. Am I based or just plain retarded?

[Anonymous No.15379915]

>>15379879
Meh, all that really matters is that you're living life on your own terms

[Anonymous No.15380020]

>>15378920
how did you get kicked from Northwerstern University anon?

[Anonymoos No.15380028]

>>15380020
shit grades, shit priorities, and shit talking

[Anonymous No.15380071]

>>15379841
im not sure if i hate it that much, that isolation stuff has fucked me over pretty bad
there are certain classes and projects that i procrastinate to the point where i dont do anything all week since i should be doing something else regardless of me binge watching some shit on the internet or studying, just to cram it all on the weekend
lately ive also realized how fucking miserable and retarded most of the other students are, i would consider myself reasonably autistic, but the bulk of people in my classes are overwhelmed by having a conversation that isnt about videogames or how much they struggle with basic shit from the last lecture and having to work with that calibre of retards for the rest of my life is somewhat offputting