The "Education" Thread

[viewerfromnihil]

Many of us who post on here are college students and/or educators, so I was surprised to find that there is not a thread directly pertaining to the subject matter. Post here what you're doing for school, what you're going to do, and what you're doing for your transcript.

I attend a CC at the moment, but that will change come next fall. My history professor nominated me for Student Advocacy Day, a Maryland event in which CC students get together to talk with government officials about why CC is important. CC seriously changed my life and I'll have the opportunity to promote funding with my delectable single-mother-move-households-multiple-times-per-year background, so I'm looking forward to it. That, and I can put it on my CV, which always looks nice.

For background, I'm a history major who graduated HS with a 1.8 GPA (with the state of our education system, I practically did it our of effort.). I'm now an honors student blah blah PTK blah blah and am keeping my eyes forward towards graduate studies.

Post what you're up to!

 

[Matt]

I'm an economics major in my last semester of undergrad. I'm trying to decide what I want to do, whether or not to go to grad school right away, try to get a jerb, join the military, etc. I have not been the best student and don't see myself living the corporate lifestyle. No idea what I'm going to do honestly.

 

[Kara-Shehr]

I go to community myself, but I plan on taking a break after the next semester so I can just focus on working and making money. College is a one step at a time thing for me because there's honestly no way in hell I could financially support myself and go to a university full time. The job I want down the road doesn't require a degree just certifications and shit so I just go to community so I have something to fall back on maybe.

 

[Master_Yoda77]

What am I up to? Drinking heavily, reading Byron, and preparing for whatever the next semester has me reading/writing. I assume it's going to suck and be awesome all at the same time.

 

[Carpe Mortem]

In community college for accounting, after I decided that it's not about landing a dream job, it's about landing a dream work environment. Serious revelation by the way, give it some thought.

For me, that means headphones all day and people leaving me the fuck alone. I got multiple accountants in the family who sorta gave me a heads up on different work environments and could teach me the 'street smarts' of the job. Gonna be helping an aunt out pretty soon here. :Smokedev:

My current employers (I'm a janitor) are wealthy bikers, I get along with them really well. I've mentioned in jest that once I graduate in like five years, hopefully sooner, I should just become their accountant because they trust me and I like them. They seemed pretty contemplative, we'll see in the long run though.

Gonna be awhile. I can't get a loan, so I'm paying for one class at a time right now. Straight out of high school I attended college, but I was young, dumb, and confused, so I took mainly random classes. Did get a few accounting under my belt though, including an AP class senior year. Got about 6 or 7 classes left before I get my first degree.

 

[Summerian]

 

[damnromulans]

I have a BA in history from a private liberal arts college. My grandparents paid for my tuition and board so I don't have loans. I would consider returning to school for a master's in social work at a state university but I am wary of loans, since many people in my life will be paying interest on loans until they're 50 or 60. It's fucking disgusting thinking about how much of your money goes to Sallie Mae.

 

[unknown]

Finished revising two syllabi for next semester. Three more to go!

 

[Addo_Of_Nex]

I'm a philosophy and mathematics student at a small private university. I should be graduating this spring, but I had financial setbacks two semesters ago that forced me to opt out, crippling depression and alcoholism that led to me withdrawing from this previous semester, and fucked up paperwork (my fault) that screwed me over for this upcoming semester. Hopefully I'll be back in the fall and get the hell out of this town sooner than later. Not being in school is driving me fucking insane.

I plan on pursuing graduate work in philosophy.

 

[Eligos]

I managed to nab a class schedule that will work with both my training schedule and full time schedule at work. I'm switching from one to the other in March, which will mean that instead of working from 9 AM to 5 PM, I'll be swinging dat axe from 10 PM to 6 AM. It was difficult to find a schedule that was harmonious with this, but as you can see, there was a sweet spot:

M 6:00-8:45 PM - ACC 3300 Accounting Information Systems
T 6:00-8:45 PM - ACC 3510 Intermediate Accounting I
W 6:00-8:45 PM - MKT 3000 Marketing Principles
Online (Whenever the fuck) - CIS 2110 Structured Problem Solving in Information Systems

And I can do it all without a car, because both the campus I'm attending and the office where I work are in the part of Denver with the most robust public transportation options.

 

[Einherjar86]

I'm a doctoral student in Boston University's English program. Halfway through my second year. I'm considered a teaching fellow, which means they forgive my tuition and I get a fellowship from the university for teaching literature/writing classes to undergraduates. On top of that, I take seminars that assign way too much reading.

Before that, I taught Humanities classes at St. Pete College in Florida. Before that I received my Master's in Humanities from UChicago, and before that I did my BA at USF in English. I've been all over the fucking place, but it's nice to finally be getting paid to go to school.

That makes it sound lazier than it is. It's honestly a fuck-ton of work, and dealing with undergrads who (mostly) have majors in different areas is not always fun. I do not have much free time.

On a further educational note, I'm leaving for Chicago to attend the annual MLA convention. Gonna be a fucking crazy and busy next few days, but it should be fun too. Then classes start back up next week Wednesday.

I'm currently working on two papers that I want to submit for publication. One is on Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man and its relationship to science fiction literature (the revisions on this are now complete, just need to compile the necessary materials to send it somewhere), and the other is on Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and its relationship to modernism and posthumanism.

 

[Dak]

Earned an AA from a CC, now working towards hopefully a double major in Psychology and Philosophy. Planning on pursuing grad work in Psychology. No student debt thanks to grants, scholarships, and the GI Bill.

 

[Addo_Of_Nex]

Pat, next time you're in Chicago, we definitely need to get drunk and discuss posthumanism and continental philosophy.

 

[Eligos]

Oh yeah, I should mention that I'm working toward a Double BS in Accounting and Computer Information Systems (CIS) at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

 

[Zephyrus]

Double BA in Latin Language/Literature & European History from the University of Maine, Honors, summa cum laude. Currently in my second year of a Master's program for Classical Languages & Literature at the University of Iowa, and am on track to continue through their PhD. program. Cruising at a constant 4.0 GPA, despite last year's bout of depression that cost me my TAship and from which I'm still recovering confidence in my intellectual faculties.

In a couple weeks I begin my second semester teaching Rhetoric, a required course for all UI undergrads that holistically combines College Composition and Public Speaking. While the course goals are fixed, the content and structure of the course are highly malleable, so in addition to the standard textbook on rhetorical theory and research methods, I'll be teaching the graphic novel 300 by Frank Miller along with the nonfiction book The Shallows by Nicholas Carr. I've got this teaching gig for another 3 semesters until I'll likely be reassigned to teaching a course within the Classics department, such as Latin 101.

Unlike many of my peers, I have a more concrete idea of where my interests lie in terms of dissertation research. I have an additional advantage by having my area of focus in Late Antiquity, whose literature is, traditionally, far less studied and appreciated than the "Classical" periods of Greece and Rome. But with the subfield steadily growing in popularity, I'll have both plenty of ground to break with original research, and an established audience to receive it.

 

[uhhhhmmmm4]

Starting my second semester as a freshman in college, just a community college. Trying to decide between going into music or horticulture.

 

[Vimana]

I'm not in school right now, but after getting some financial stuff in order, I plan to study psychology and computer science. I don't know to what level, but the nature of intelligence is probably the thing I'm most curious about.

 

[Funerary_Doom]

Wow! Cool to know where everyone's coming from.

I got a scholarship (& that awesome single mother mojo) and went to college for free. I have a BA in Theatre Arts and Sociology with a concentration in deviant behavior. I got my B.A.s from CUNY and held a 3.9 gpa. However, I wanted to travel so I took out a loan to go study in Europe for a semester. That wasn't free because I stayed an extra semester to do that, and I had to pay for a million things so I have loans but not that much. I'm thinking about going for my Masters in Applied Theatre. I currently work for a company, and i basically coach individuals with mental disabilities. I assess their skills and attempt to build on it. It's a ton of work, a lot of traveling, and sometimes really sad but overall i like working with this population so far. These guys are really inspiring, a lot of them have built robots that can pick up garbage! I eventually want to combine my love for social deviants/outcasts and theatre. We'll see i suppose.

I don't want an office job. I want to be out in the field or on stage or something. Though, i have an office i'm not there all the time unless I have paper work to do or i'm teaching a class that day to my guys.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

BAs in philosophy and Anthro from UCSC. MA in philosophy from LMU. Now I'm getting my teaching credential in English and my M.ed at UCLA. Very interesting mix of schools and perspectives, socially, politically and intellectually. Not so happy about my financial debt, especially for the "useless" MA in philosophy from a private school (bad move on my part from a purely financial perspective) but it was still worth it from a personal and intellectual level, because I really grew from that program.

And my current program is phenomenal. I finally feel like I've found a way to put everything theoretical I've learned to use in teaching high school and middle school.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

I eventually want to combine my love for social deviants/outcasts and theatre. We'll see i suppose

That sounds awesome! So many people just need a channel through which to express themselves and often "social deviants/outcasts" have a lot of cool and original ideas, which is perfect for theater.