mixed_biscuits
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I just got second highest in my class of 140 on a bio exam
Nice one!
Academese
- Thread starter baboon2004
- Start date
Nice one!
Room with a view
Banned
what are all these young people going to uni going to do for jobs when they get out ?..teach? i mean hasn't the arse just dropped out from the whole law, economics, politics, accounting, paper pushing type jobs and what sort of McJob does humanities/social sciences qualify you for...blogging ?
Virtually anyone can get a paper-pushing office clerk type job. I did it for two years with virtually no qualifications whatsoever. Personally, I feel if people are going to university, particularly to take humanities, in order to get a lucrative job, they are going for all the wrong reasons firstly because they are horribly mistaken that it will produce this effect, and secondly because when University is treated mostly as a socialization machine (a "parental holding tank" according to a former professor of mine), the standards for admission drop and so with it the value of the education.
If you want a job it's best to get some specialized grad school qualifications in there, particularly with humanities. So many people at my university though are 18 years old, have just come out of High School, and are at University on recommendation (or command) of their parents, taking philosophy, sociology, or something similar and struggling, all under the delusion that it will result in loadsacash down the road. It is a shame because all these people would probably be much better suited spending their time doing something else, almost certainly to their benefit.
Room with a view
Banned
it just seems like the job market is bloated in the middle with paper pushers who dont actually produce anything but get paid fairly well to consume as much time/energy/money as possible covering their arses to keep their jobs. i suppose i'm talking civil service really but when you de-evolve their jobs they got nowhere else to go so drain the welfare system to breaking point.
where are the jobs of the future and what sort of training should i be pushing my kids into? i really dont think getting massively into debt with a student loan to study something totally irrelevent is the one but whats the other choices when we're conditioned that its the 'right' thing to do and anything les is tantamount to failure.
where are the jobs of the future and what sort of training should i be pushing my kids into? i really dont think getting massively into debt with a student loan to study something totally irrelevent is the one but whats the other choices when we're conditioned that its the 'right' thing to do and anything les is tantamount to failure.
nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
I got a grant writing job (originally in non-profit academic grants) with a philosophy degree.
Turned out to be a happy accident. A headhunter asked me "do you have a problem with animal research?" I said: "NOPE!" and the rest is history...
Edit: Thanks, MB. Now that there's someone to compete with in my mind that'll keep me motivated.
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I feel like anyone should just do what it is they are interested in really. If your kids are interested in studying something "totally irrelevant", and feel that the benefits of the education outweigh the debt, then that is what they should do. If they are interested in making a lot of money, they probably shouldn't do that.
Slothrop
Tight but Polite
A numerate degree from somewhere vaguely prestigious still seems to be a good bet for something well paid and / or reasonably interesting - as long as there's lots of stuff, people will need to count it and keep track of it, as long as there's uncertainty people will need to figure the odds and as long as there's lots of information people are going to need to analyze it. Computational stats is looking particularly healthy as people start accumulating vast amounts of undifferentiated information (via web 2.0, loyalty cards, that sort of stuff) and want to sift it for opportunities to make money.
The complete collapse of the finance / IT / management consultancy jobs market seems to have been mostly wishful thinking tbh.
But yeah, it does seem a bit sad to think of a well paid job as the most important thing to get out of the university system...
The complete collapse of the finance / IT / management consultancy jobs market seems to have been mostly wishful thinking tbh.
But yeah, it does seem a bit sad to think of a well paid job as the most important thing to get out of the university system...
Room with a view
Banned
the eldest daughter has bought into the hiphop fame thing and wants to be a star. shes doing art history and drama in her final year at high school. she wanted help with her homework the other night, something about perspective in the rennaisance works of the old masters and all i could see was golden arches. maybe i shoulda kept up them tennis lessons when she was younger.
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
I have a trio of cousins who are currently pursuing the Holy Trinity of collegiate uselessness - anthropology, sociology & philosophy. I asked my aunt about it & she was like "well, at least it's nice to know they'll be around for a couple more years after they graduate with worthless degrees, can't find jobs & move back in." got a sense of humor, she does, given that she's paying for those degrees.
that's another thing about comm college - no art history majors, that's for sure. everyone is either nursing (huge that one, like 1/4 of the student body), engineering, one of the natural sciences, etc. or something else practical. when you're paying for it yourself you're much less apt to waste a year or two figuring out what to study.
Room with a view
Banned
yeah but unless you're some uber geek driven to a career path since the nappy stage what does an 18 - 23 yr old really know about what they want to do/be for the rest of their lives?
one of my mates has given up a career in entertainment technology to become a paramedic. reckons theres money in pain and carnage.
one of my mates has given up a career in entertainment technology to become a paramedic. reckons theres money in pain and carnage.
four_five_one
Infinition
All this talk of careers and practicality is rather depressing. I don't think kids aged 18 should be thinking about careers, really...
nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
Narcissists, however, do not understand that words should be for communicating, not just for expressing.
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
as an counterexample of what i meant when thinking of this thread, am currently reading a really good piece by Stuart Hall on representations of race/representations of The Other, where he's demonstrating his points with practical examples from popular media. Whereas he could have chosen to couch it in highly theoretical language, while making no more profound points. I like and respect the approach he's taken - both from a personal perspective, and from the perspective that it doesn't alienate other casual readers needlessly, including those who might take a lot from it and wouldn't read it if it was framed as an 'academic text'..
i'd probably think differently if I lived in a society which didn't seem to simultaneously privilege and stigmatise thought/analysis as 'something intellectuals do', thereby patronising 99 per cent of the population. This board is a good example of something running blessedly counter to that trend.
i'd probably think differently if I lived in a society which didn't seem to simultaneously privilege and stigmatise thought/analysis as 'something intellectuals do', thereby patronising 99 per cent of the population. This board is a good example of something running blessedly counter to that trend.
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padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
eh not really I mean. come on, what % of Dissensus regulars are highly educated (as well as male, white, generally middle class, etc)? not all, but this isn't exactly a broad cross-section of society.
also, from a friend's dissertation proposal something that made me think of this topic. it'll probably be old hat to anyone with a background in this stuff - the proposal is full of Focault, Derrida, Deleuze, etc. references - but anyway, quoted from some dude named W.D. Mignolo, in reference to my friend's "locus of enunciation" (which I guess is a fancy way of saying POV)
which seems to sum up academese, at least of the social sciences variety, to me.
Bettysnake
twisted pony ******
This is a 'state the bleeding obvious' question but are you taking handwritten notes in the oldfashioned way? I'm doing an Open University MSc and i find rewriting tricky passages 'normal' english bullet pointy fashion really helps. oh and only ever reading the first and last chapters of books helps.
I do think its harder studying part time - if you're working, looking after babies etc as well as studying there's always other things troubling the edge of your consciousness (is the baby eating the carpet? did I send that email?). Having said that its also brilliant and I'm a total Open University fangirl.
owengriffiths
Owen
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
you're right of course* - i was more meaning that the debate on here is generally approachable but not facile.
* actually, overwhemingly male yes, but not sure about race or class or formal education - i'd presume there're a fair few autodidacts round these parts?