liberal arts majors

sketerpot · Post by **sketerpot** » 2004-11-16 01:53pm

NeoGoomba wrote:PS Its my senior year, and I've only had ONE paper so far in three English classes and two Philosophy classes. The SUNY system is a JOKE, not that I'm complaining though

Why aren't you complaining? I assume you're paying for something. Shouldn't you try to avoid paying for bullshit?

NeoGoomba · Post by **NeoGoomba** » 2004-11-16 02:39pm

sketerpot wrote:
NeoGoomba wrote: Why aren't you complaining? I assume you're paying for something. Shouldn't you try to avoid paying for bullshit?

Its the cheapest school around, I'll get my Honors English degree (with a Psyc), and I've got two summer internships to choose from (one publishing, the other with a newspaper), and I've got my 3.6 GPA. Honestly, 90% of everything I've learned has come from a personal desire to do it, in my free time, at my own level. College just makes me bored, and I'm sure my future job will too.

Thats the joy of Liberal Arts-based careers: they're almost all on-the-job training. Unlike a (real) job involving technology, which requres a strong base in your respective field/science. I go to college for a degree then a career, not to become refined or learn the classics, which I've ended up doing on my own (also something youre not going to do in a SUNY school)

Thanas · Post by **Thanas** » 2004-11-16 04:52pm

Please enlighten a poor German

Is a mayor something akin to a Master of arts?

wood · Post by **wood** » 2004-11-16 04:58pm

Thanas wrote:Please enlighten a poor German

Is a mayor something akin to a Master of arts?

Your "major" is simply your main field of study.

wood · Post by **wood** » 2004-11-16 05:03pm

For example, I "majored" in mechanical engineering. If I had taken enough courses to satisfy two bachelor's degrees, I could have been a "double major". Furthermore, if I had taken more courses in another subject (the actual number varies), but not enough to attain a full degree in that subject, I could have earned a degree in Engineering with a "minor" in the other subject.

Hope I'm not being too confusing...

Thanas · Post by **Thanas** » 2004-11-16 05:24pm

Ah I see. Seems that german majors in liberal arts are a lot harder then in the USA.

Grendel · Post by **Grendel** » 2004-11-16 07:48pm

Liberal Arts was my "I'm fed up with this shit" major. I switched to it just so I could get the hell out of college with a degree.

I wish I had stayed with Areonautics now that I look back on it.

Shark Bait · Post by **Shark Bait** » 2004-11-16 07:57pm

My crim class is technically part of a liberal arts degree but it is not in anyway easy the teacher demands high quality work and you really really need to know the materials. I'm currently writing a 12 page critical anaylasis of a book on marxist criminology and it is HARD to say the least, I need much more than just class notes to do this essay propperly.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2004-11-16 08:04pm

Cairber wrote:I was an English and Poli Sci major.

There were, of course, different kinds of papers we had to write. The easy ones were the frosh level "prove some statement using the text" but when you got deeper into the major, especially english, critical arguments were a lot harder. Literary criticism is not a shoot from the hip topic (if you dont believe me, try to read some real feminist lit papers and then tell me "this is easy") And by real, I mean accepted as "the go-to" papers in the topic. Probably the hardest, and most rewarding, paper I ever had to write was a discussion of "The Wasteland" wherein I had to take the pre-edited version and the final product and discuss the influence of the two poems taken together, the effect Ezra Pund had on what was kept, and the change of period seen by camparing the two different apexes along with a few other points. Its those kind of papers that you cant pull something outta your ass and talk on about it. However, in classes that discussed texts like Hamlet or Crime and Punishment or even Turn of the Screw type books, you really could say anything you wanted, provided you backed it up with the text itself.

However, I found that i really could BS almost EVERY paper I had to write in Poli Sci...the major was a joke...

Feminist writing? [blech] I'll take Dr. Sagan and Dr. Dawkins opinion on that heap of trash, personally.

Prozac the Robert · Post by **Prozac the Robert** » 2004-11-16 08:07pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote: If it hadn't been for the fact that the sciences have a register for every lecture and practical (another thing I notice lib-arts major classes seem to lack) then I would've just had a lie in.

Oddly enough, the only things I have which have a register are practicals. (Of which I only do the computing ones because I'm doing theoretical physics. This is at Birmingham, just in case anyone wants to start comparing universities).[/quote]

Trogdor · Post by **Trogdor** » 2004-11-16 08:51pm

I'm a journalism major and I'll admit my schedule is a hell of a lot easier than, say, an engineering major's. Still, it's not as easy as it looks at first glance, at least not if I want my time here to mean anything. My Intro to Journalism professor has drilled it into our heads that employers, and especially newspapers, care more about experience, the "clips" in the case of a journalist, than the degree. So interning at least twice the school paper is mandatory, as is covering a massively boring meeting or event once a week. Often we have to make a story out of a meeting or event where NOTHING happened.

Post by **Dalton** » 2004-11-17 03:20am

Stofsk wrote:
Admiral Valdemar wrote:
Dalton wrote:Don't knock Lib Arts grads. We need people to sell us things.
BWAHAH!

*Wipes tear from eye*

Sorry

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-11-17 04:49am

Grendel wrote:Liberal Arts was my "I'm fed up with this shit" major. I switched to it just so I could get the hell out of college with a degree.

I wish I had stayed with Areonautics now that I look back on it.

Having seen this person's other posts, it is not surprising at all that he couldn't hack aeronautics and switched to something easier

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2004-11-17 04:52am

Ouch!! Have you no shame? Kicking a man after you have beaten him down.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-11-17 04:57am

Imperial Overlord wrote:Ouch!! Have you no shame? Kicking a man after you have beaten him down.

Heh heh ... I know it's mean, but I didn't notice he'd posted this until now, and I just think it's hilarious. To put it mildly, we engineers have a rather low opinion of people who leave tough majors to switch to easier ones. They're either quitters or they lack the intellectual firepower to get the job done, and either way, we feel completely justified in looking down on them.

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2004-11-17 05:06am

Trogdor wrote:I'm a journalism major and I'll admit my schedule is a hell of a lot easier than, say, an engineering major's. Still, it's not as easy as it looks at first glance, at least not if I want my time here to mean anything. My Intro to Journalism professor has drilled it into our heads that employers, and especially newspapers, care more about experience, the "clips" in the case of a journalist, than the degree. So interning at least twice the school paper is mandatory, as is covering a massively boring meeting or event once a week. Often we have to make a story out of a meeting or event where NOTHING happened.

My course handles that a bit differently, they'll collect press releases and cutting and AP/Reuters details on a given story, hand it out and give us about 20 minutes to read it all, get it sorted out and write a tight 6 to 15 par story depending on the material.

That and the student paper here is a joke, I wouldnt write for it with the current editorial staff if I was paid nevermind for free....they cant sub edit properly and dont know the difference between formatting insturctions and copy.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-11-17 07:01am

Darth Wong wrote: Heh heh ... I know it's mean, but I didn't notice he'd posted this until now, and I just think it's hilarious. To put it mildly, we engineers have a rather low opinion of people who leave tough majors to switch to easier ones. They're either quitters or they lack the intellectual firepower to get the job done, and either way, we feel completely justified in looking down on them.

*Yoink!*

Mind if I steal that view? I've known quite a few that did that or flat out dropped from uni. One memorable one was this bitch, sorry, girl on my corridor who was a fairly arrogant cow doing a business studies degree. Every now and then, when she wasn't killing her liver off in the clubs, she'd have her laptop and notes out along with her other budding managers in the kitchen with their laptops out and sheets and folders etc.

I heard last year that she quit halfway through the second year course due to it being difficult. Good riddance. If she was actually going to go into business, she'd be one hell of a fuck-up. This is the same girl who went to Australia for a weekend with her hubby over Xmas. Yes, a weekend after a 24+ hour flight.

Trogdor · Post by **Trogdor** » 2004-11-17 12:30pm

Keevan_Colton wrote:
Trogdor wrote:snip
My course handles that a bit differently, they'll collect press releases and cutting and AP/Reuters details on a given story, hand it out and give us about 20 minutes to read it all, get it sorted out and write a tight 6 to 15 par story depending on the material.

That and the student paper here is a joke, I wouldnt write for it with the current editorial staff if I was paid nevermind for free....they cant sub edit properly and dont know the difference between formatting insturctions and copy.

Well, the paper is pretty good here IMHO, it's the SGA that's a total joke. I'm putting off working down in the office, though, because it's right next to a boiler room or something. It's a damn sauna down there.

Imperial Overlord · Post by **Imperial Overlord** » 2004-11-17 04:20pm

Darth Wong wrote:

Heh heh ... I know it's mean, but I didn't notice he'd posted this until now, and I just think it's hilarious. To put it mildly, we engineers have a rather low opinion of people who leave tough majors to switch to easier ones. They're either quitters or they lack the intellectual firepower to get the job done, and either way, we feel completely justified in looking down on them.
_________________

I know. I may have a degree in History, but I know a fair number of Engineers (including The Dude on this board and my grandfather). My workload wasn't a breeze by any meand, but I feel no shame in admitting they had a harder workload than mine and I always respected that.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2004-11-19 12:47am

I'm one of the few who added a major to a liberal arts degree. In addition to my Theology major (roughly 30 papers written for 9 classes), I have an Economics major, for which I meet the requirements for either a BA or a BS. The economics (except theory) is actually easier than the theology. I've got a 3.6 in both majors, partially due to catching the flu during Finals Week last fall.

Post by **weemadando** » 2004-11-19 01:12am

Darth Wong wrote:I used to ghost-write essays for people taking liberal-arts classes in university. I didn't always get an A, but I could always get a B or better. All I needed was a bit of notes from the class and a brief description of what the essay was about. Mind you, I never tried doing this for fourth-year classes, but I did first, second, and third-year liberals arts classes with no problem. And this was generally without actually attending any of these courses.

I've said this before and I'll say again: just try handing in a third-year engineering project based on such superficial preparation. The calculus alone would kill you. Liberal-arts essays are easy.

Its not that hard at all, many of my essays were written the night before or even the day that they were due. The major difference is many of the "liberal arts" topics are general knowledge based, while science and other topics will require intense researching and often lab time. It doesn't really mean that one subject is easier than another (all Arts exams at my uni were closed book, try recalling the entire timeline of the Roman empire off the top of your head...gah) but rather that the focus is different. I have a great respect for engineers and I know for certain I wouldn't want to try and design a bridge or circuitry or anything like that. But at the same time I wouldn't trust the vast majority of engineers I know to write any form of political statement, or historical research paper.

The key with writing Arts essays however, is gearing them towards the marker. For example, I had one Political Science lecturer who was a hardcore feminist, so every essay I did in one of her classes featured a lengthy portion about feminism and how it relates to the topic - and hey presto, higher marks.

Then again considering the courses I was doing this style of writing was encouraged as being the end product. Write/Say what people want to hear, but put in all the facts, just spin it a little and presto - the perfect essay/story/speech/press release.

Post by **weemadando** » 2004-11-19 01:18am

I switched out of a Science/Arts double degree to just a plain arts degree after getting brutally fucked over by the Computer Science faculty.

At the end of my first year, when it came time to re-enrol I was told that I wasn't eligible for any second year courses because I hadn't done the pre-requisites. Yet almost a year before hand I had sat down with CompSci faculty officers and talked through the degree structure and they'd told me exactly what I needed to do, which is what I did... Then when I was told I'd need to do a 50% overload just in CompSci the next year just to keep up, I decided that it was time to let it go. Admittedly I hadn't been going to well - strangely enough I could read code, I could plan code down to what each line needed to do, I could look at a code and immediately spot errors in it, I just couldn't write the fucking stuff myself - but I was more than willing to perservere had I not been told I had just effectively had another year added on to my degree.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2004-11-19 03:16am

trust me, business law/Broadcast journalism

I took a lot of comp sci courses too.

ok, day one of class hacked myself maximum user acess, and unlocked the games that were on the mainframe that the teacher didn't know about.

rest of year: playing games in class
final project coded on the uni's mainframe so that as it terminated and ran the process the first time, it printed the whole program, my name, class etc, on the printer/fax in the professor's university office.

needless to say I got a B- (A++ grade programming points subtracted for being an asshole, playing games in his Comp Sci class, and for hacking, funny part is that 7 years later the same professor hired me to do networking work when I was un employed for a while.)