14 replies to this topic

[taikara]

I've noticed a bunch of you talking about school here and there, which made me sort of curious...

What exactly are you guys studying? Or have you studied?

If you're in college, what major are you going for?

If you're in high school, what do you hope to major in, or what are your favorite classes?

Or, if you haven't been to college, and aren't in high school, what sort of work skills do you have?

It may surprise some to know that I never actually finished college

Truth be told, I was interested in too many things, was a little torn, and didn't know what I wanted to do with my life at the time.

I started out as a computer science/mathematics double major, and threw in East Asian studies as a triple major...

Then I decided that if I really planned to spend my life chained to a computer in a basement cubicle, never to see the light of day again (typical programmer life), I would probably go insane.

So, I dropped CS and Math, and floundered around until I found out that I really enjoyed Sociology/Anthropology... so I continued on with the S/A + East Asian studies (with a focus in East Asian art)...

Then, less than a year from completing my double major, including already having completed a huge thesis/ethnography, I had to leave university for various personal reasons.

So, when I returned home, I helped my mom start a business involving real estate transactions, and I learned the ins and outs of the real estate business.

And now, I work in a law firm doing administrative work and research for real estate and other property law.

Whee.

However, I am planning on completing a degree, and thanks to my involvement with AB, I have discovered that what really makes me happiest is working on the site. Developing it, and working with Kosta to develop a side project site, and working on the graphics especially, has really been enjoyable. Actually, the most enjoyable and consuming work I've ever done

So, I'm looking into re-enrolling to study graphic design and web development (which is less tedious than straight programming, with the added benefit of having an artistic component).

Yay! AB and AR really do change lives for the better!  

[Kon-Tiki]

I've mainly done Economics-Modern Languages in highschool, with some electives like typing back when I was 15, which was stressy as hell, as you had to spend an hour in a room, filled with bleeps, and you had to type on the tempo of bleeps that came out of your comp, while it'd make a loud "BEE-BOOO!" noise when you'd make a mistake, so everybody in the whole room'd know who made a mistake and when.

After that, I took media and philosophy as electives. Media's learning 'bout the press agencies, the Dutch newspapers, how they're made up, what to expect from their articles, etc. Philosophy was completely different in both years I did. First year was mainly reading discarded coursenotes from another teacher, mostly reading 'bout Plato's allegory of the cave, but if you'd ask a question you couldn't find the answer on in the text, the answer you'd get from the teacher was: "Look it up in the text." That teacher knew as much 'bout philosophy as my socks know 'bout quantum physics.

The year after that, we had philosophy by Mr. Dewachter. That guy rocked. He was my religion teacher for various other years, and always taught sociology, psychology and philosophy more than religion. He actually knows what he's talking 'bout, and's one of the few people worthy of being called erudite. His lessons were fun to go to, you learned alot in them, and not just 'bout philosophy, yet you never really felt like it was actually class. One down-thing to it, though, was that, at one point, we had to make a paper in small groups, 'bout various subjects. Our group sat together and divided the work, and while we were working on it the next few days, both during class and at home, this one member of our group made the entire paper at home and handed it in, both without us knowing. 't Was full of contradictions and mistakes, which were plain obvious to us after seeing the paper, but there was nothing to be done 'bout it anymore.

After that, I went to study philosophy at university and busted my *** off on it, but still only got 6/20 as grades, even when I knew all my answers were complete and correct. I just didn't kiss enough butt. I was disappointed in it and stopped, looking for work, but eventually went back to study Computer Science at university. There, I dazzled my programming-classes profs with various assignments and exercises, getting highest grades on those, but transportation to and from the campus, plus the financial burden it brought with it, made it so that I missed quite some classes, which dragged my grades down to average, as they wrote down attendancies.

What was even worse, was that there was a 2 to 1 ratio of math classes to computer science classes. I didn't mind doing maths, even if I suck at it, but this was just plain ridiculous. One of my exam questions was an exercise, which came down to having to solve the integral of a double differential of a vector in a free field. And that was just one of the easier questions. On all those exams, I ended up with zeros, as I simply wasn't up to doing that level of maths, and didn't see the point of it, as you don't need to know those in order to work with comps.

I quit those studies after getting my results in in the beginning of Februari, and hearing that the next semester'd be even more maths, building on the stuff we saw in the previous semester. Time to look for a job again. Still am looking. People either ignore the resumes I send in, or ignore them, then, after a month, tell me the job's already filled in, or turn job interviews into a mocking, and the job agency, which's supposed to be there to help you get a job, has been doing its best to keep me from getting one, refusing me getting trained, even though my skillset was perfect for it, but I just wasn't socially adequate enough, and sending me 'round the region for things they just have to fill a form out for, delaying urgent matters (like having a day to get a card I need in a job interview) with two weeks.

Right now, I'm still unemployed. I'd really like to open a steakhouse or become a game designer, but I can't cook, and getting a job as a game designer's hard enough as it is, let alone you can design games you'd want instead of having to make "that game the competition's reeling in the cash with", like it seems to be the trend nowadays. A job in which I can be happy and do my own thing... that's something I'm really looking for. To be honest, I'm ready to accept everything at the moment, except orderpicking and other stuff that'll make sure your life leads to nowhere, but are great as holiday jobs to get some pocket money in.

[DakaSha]

im trying to get my "Abitur"... i dont really know what the american version of that would be.

we have a classed school system here...which sucks

there is

Hauptschule = For stupid people who arnt stupid enough to visit a special school
Realschule   = For normal people
Gymnasium = For normal people who think they are smarter than others (really )

so i finished Hauptschule and now im trying to get that gymnasium degree so i can (ive said this so often) can study game design at a university or private school. you can only visit a university if you have that Abitur thing going

if i dont manage to do that ill prob just end up shooting myself

[Flop]

Well, I'm studying Japanese at the University of Copenhagen. I still have a long way to go, which suits me fine really, since I like it. I'm hoping to take a semester or two in Japan, in maybe about a year or so.

I used to study to become a civil engineer, with a specialisation in electronics, but I realised after about a year and a half that I hated it, and would never be able to bring myself to do it for a living, so I switched to Japanese.

Besides that I have an education as a sailor (ubefaren skibsassistent), which I took between high school and university. It's nice to always be able to take a semester off, and sail for six months instead, if you need some money.

[Tulac]

I'm going to economics high school, in future I'd like to be a stock broker...

[Puffin]

I go to college, i'm on Language Department. I'm mainly focusing on English, and I've finished all Danish available in my school.

I'm planning on studying further English after I graduate, which will be in about 3 years from now.  And maybe learn more Italian, which is my favourite subject at the moment, along with "An Academic Approach to Disney"

[BeefontheBone]

I'm about to start the fourth (and final) year of my Maths degree in order to get an MMath. After that I've no idea what I'm going to do with myself - probably take a year out and travel or something since I didn't before I started uni. I'm crap at making decisions like that though, so who knows?

[PrejudiceSucks]

An Abitur is what the Americans would call a high-school finishing thingy, (in the UK, it's an A-level) I believe. Does high school finish at 18? I don't know...

Anyway, I'm finishing my GCSEs this year, I'm doing Graphics, English and English Lit, Science and Science Dual, French, German, History, Geography, RE, IT and finally Maths.

DakaSha - Do you still have Gesamtschules (I don't know the plural), like we do in the UK? Bleh they are rubbish. I'd go to a Gymnasium in Germany, but sadly I'm stuck with people who don't want to learn anything at all and just stop us doing any work.

[MdaG]

I'm doing my final year at the University of Uppsala. Civil engineer in Information Technology. It's a masters degree. Most of my classes revolve around applied math, signal processing, physics and finally computer science. This period (a year is divided into four periods) I'm taking automatic control, statistical pattern recognizion and secure computer systems. Bizi, bizi... when I'm not studying I'm generally either playing a nice adventure game, at the gym or hanging out with friends, family or girlfriend.

[DakaSha]

PrejudiceSucks, on Sep 5 2005, 09:24 AM, said:

An Abitur is what the Americans would call a high-school finishing thingy, (in the UK, it's an A-level) I believe. Does high school finish at 18? I don't know...

Anyway, I'm finishing my GCSEs this year, I'm doing Graphics, English and English Lit, Science and Science Dual, French, German, History, Geography, RE, IT and finally Maths.

DakaSha - Do you still have Gesamtschules (I don't know the plural), like we do in the UK? Bleh they are rubbish. I'd go to a Gymnasium in Germany, but sadly I'm stuck with people who don't want to learn anything at all and just stop us doing any work.

its better than a high school diploma... a high school diploma counts as a realschul-abschluss here.

yeah we have gesamtschulen and i prefer them over a gymnasium any day. you cant get stuck because of some idiots either... you get put into the classes that are fitting for you

[TheVoid]

We've something similar to Abitur in Italy, called "Maturità". Aka "exam-stuff-before-uni-or-work".

I'm actually applying to get into the Faculty of Architecture and Design in Venice, I did my admittance test the 3rd of September and I really hope I've passed, else I'll just try to find work somewhere.
We don't have "majors" in our school system, there are "scientific"(maths and sciences),
"classic"(letters, languages and ancient latin/greek) lyceums and other more professionally-oriented schools. Mine was some "classical/scientific" one, cause I studied Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Astronomy,Geology and Latin, German, Philosophy and humanistic stuff.

[Doubler]

I'm currently in the last year of Atheneum. I guess it's about the same as the german Gymnasium (Gymnasium here is Atheneum with extra courses in Latin and/or Greek). I'm currently doing a set of courses based around physics, mathematics and chemistry. Choosing this set was propably the most stupid mistake I've made in my life, and the one I'll regret most (along with not doing Gymnasium ) for some time to come.

So I'll do exams this year, and hopefully be able to start studying philosophy next year. If possible I might think about doing a bachelor (or maybe a master ) in psychology along with it, but that very heavily depends on the results of my exams, as well as the way things go on university.

On a side note, I'm currently following unofficial classes in ancient Greek, and I intent to follow up on that next year.

[OvErLoRd]

Well, I finished Grammar school (at least I think it's called that way in English) in my hometown of Split, Croatia. It's high school with accent on learning languages (my choices were English and Italian).

After that, I moved to Croatian capital city - Zagreb, and I'm currently on 2nd year at Graduate School of Economics and Business (GSEB) (mind you, english version of website isn't properly updated). On the first year we study Accounting, Business Foreign Languages, Business Law, Principles of Economics, Informatics, Mathematics and Statistics.
Second year consists of following subjects: Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Business Foreign Languages, Public Finances, Marketing.

On the third year you choose one of the following programs: Analysis and Business planning, Finances, Accounting, Marketing, Organizing and Management, Business IT,  International Trade, Tourism. Based on your choice, you get different subjects which you study in third and fourth year (my personal choice will be Business IT). That bachelors programs lasts 8 semesters and after that you can take professional postgraduate program (master), and finally, doctoral program (that would be the highest title you could get in your education).

[Juni Ori]

I quit school when I was 17. I wasn't very interested in studying and rather went to work and armed service.

[DeathDude]

Well let's see currently in my 3rd year of studies at Grant Macewan College, and studying in the faculty of education to become a teacher, history teacher actually as that's my major that I'm studying for with my minor being Spanish. This will be my last year here as I'm in a transfer program to the university since the college doesn't grant degrees yet, (They will next year for Arts though) then I got about 2 years left to finish the degree and I'll be done.

This year taking 3 classes this semester and 3 next, a political science for international relations, history of the world from 600-1100 I believe and Education Field Experience, although that course is mostly just reading and such in class, not really really experiencing the process and such or something.