Pick My Major and 2nd Semester Classes for Me!!! (OT)

[Unparagoned]

For what it's worth, I'm a senior philosophy major right now, and I already have several job offers that have nothing to do with philosophy. From my job-search experiences, I think that by not majoring in business/accounting/engineering/etc., you will close off certain doors, but even many of the business/accounting type jobs are willing to interview you. I figure that once you manage to get yourself to the interview, it's all about how you present yourself and whether or not you can impress the interviewer. At the same time, if you are at all interested in engineering jobs or something like that, no chance (i.e. technical jobs require technical degrees). So, my advice is do what you want and enjoy. If you're looking for a major that is interesting and might be more appealing to companies, you could choose economics (as I think someone else suggested further down). God only knows why, but for some reason it seems like alot of companies think an economics major has better preparation for business than some other liberal arts major.

Just my two cents.

[eastbay]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I'm on the path to become a philosophy major, which is interesting and all, but not so useful in real life.


[/ QUOTE ]

Philosophy has this reputation, but it is largely unfounded.


[/ QUOTE ]

As a philosophy minor and engineering major, I have to disagree.

The fundamental job of an engineering education is learning how to make stuff, both physical and intellectual.

It seemed to me the fundamental job of a philosophy major is to learn how to tear things down and reduce them to a murky pool of confusion.

I ended up cutting my double major short because I found my philosophy courses not only useless, but actively destructive to a coherent worldview which would lead to a productive life. Maybe my profs sucked, I don't know.

eastbay

[iMsoLucky0]

I am a third year student (Senior by hours) at the University of Oklahoma and I was in your exact same position at this time last year. My first year I majored in Physics, which I really enjoyed but found the work to be tedious, and the upper division classes to not be enjoyable at all.

So then I started looking for something else. At first I was going to try the business school, MIS to be exact. My brother was a business major, and it was supposed to be real easy, and I liked computers so this seemed like a natural fit. Well let me tell you, the business school at OU is exactly what you described as not liking: just having to memorize and regurgitate crap to pass a class. I also hate this kind of learning, but at the same time I was in two intro econ classes.

This brings me to my recommendation which I think will be a very good fit for you (which is also what I am majoring in now). As was mentioned above: Economics. In all of my econ classes, the learning has been just like you described liking. There is little ot no homework/rote memorization and once you learn the concepts you can ace the classes. The material is somewhat math oriented, but not too much so. The degree suprisingly does have more real world applications.

Another plus is that you shouldn't be very far behind in this degree. At least at OU, I have had no trouble at all catching up to where I need to be to graduate on time. That is after not having taken any econ classes at all for my first year.

You can PM me if you want to talk to me about it more or IM me at iMsoLucky0 on AIM. I hope I have helped in some way.

(edit) P.S. I also play poker around 30 hours a week, and have a fiance that I live with and spend alot of time with. I am very intelligent though, but obviously the workload is not strenuous at all.

[Jman28]

[ QUOTE ]
It was a bit of slap, but re-read your post. It's a series of contradictions that scream "unrealistic dreamer."

Paraphase: "I want something for nothing."

Congrats on your 800, but SAT math is pretty trivial. Your score does indicate aptitude for high school level math, but high school level math isn't college level math.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't see how I contradicted myself. As far as your paraphrase, that's pretty close to how I feel, but it's not at all a contradiction if that's what you were going for. I would paraphrase it as "I want something for being naturally gifted."

Not the best attitude I guess.

As far as the college level math, I think you're being condescending again.

Also, while I have no doubt that you are much more profficient at college level math than I am, I also have no doubt that I, or anyone who can ace the SAT math, can do well with college level math if they take the time to learn it. Do you disagree with that?

But I really don't want to get into an argument. I respect you a lot as a poster here and I think people look rediculous when they argue back and forth over little things, each trying to one up the other and then finally calling each other idiots and talking about how they can't even explain anything to them because they're too dumb.



As far as the law career, I hear that often. I just know that my neighbor seems to like it and had a very easy time in school. Maybe he's the exception.

-Jman28

[Jman28]

See, now I'm confused. Your view and Aleo's are so far apart, and I trust you both.


As far as being destructive to your view of the world, I don't think it shoudl do that. Maybe understanding things on deeper levels and thinking about things that most people don't think about can be desturbing. But you should be able to think your way out of it.

-Jman28

[Jman28]

I really liked your post. Thanks. It gave me a lot of hope for a major that is both helpful and fairly easy.

I'm a little busy right now, but I'll probably PM or IM you sometime soon. Thanks again.

-Jman28

[Irieguy]

One suggestion I would make would be to see if the philosophy curriculum at your school allows for a segue into biomedical ethics.

With the relatively recent completion of the Human Genome Project, and the huge financial committment California has recently made to stem cell research, the area of biomedical genetic engineering is on the verge of explosion.

In my opinion, the science is the easy part. Figuring out what we, as a society, are supposed to do with all this technology is the hard part.

There will come a time, very soon, when we will need people who are trained in thinking about the social and humanistic implications of applying genetic engineering advances. It's a fascinating field that involves a lot of high level thinking and very little work. It's also very important work.

Irieguy

[Jman28]

[ QUOTE ]
One suggestion I would make would be to see if the philosophy curriculum at your school allows for a segue into biomedical ethics.

With the relatively recent completion of the Human Genome Project, and the huge financial committment California has recently made to stem cell research, the area of biomedical genetic engineering is on the verge of explosion.

In my opinion, the science is the easy part. Figuring out what we, as a society, are supposed to do with all this technology is the hard part.

There will come a time, very soon, when we will need people who are trained in thinking about the social and humanistic implications of applying genetic engineering advances. It's a fascinating field that involves a lot of high level thinking and very little work. It's also very important work.

Irieguy

[/ QUOTE ]

Course: (558) Ethical Problems Raised by Biomedical Technology

Thanks. Sounds like an interesting course.

-Jman28

[The Yugoslavian]

Jman,

I majored in Philosophy at Carleton College (not too far from Madison so you probably are familiar with it). The reason I did it is because the professors in that discipline connected with me the most and I was always excited to go to my Philosophy classes while I was not always excited to go to classes I had in other disciplines. I have no regrets and a few months after college found a job in advertising (which I really enjoy and has nothing to do with Philosophy). I graduated in '03.

I honestly thought I'd be an econ major going into college but I hated Macro Econ and while I ended up enjoying Micro and an Economics of Sports class, I definitely do not think I would have enjoyed it as a major b/c I would have gotten burnt out. That being said I really wish I hadn't gotten so turned off by Macro and would have taken econometrics and game theory.

Philosophy will give you analytical thinking skills that should help in most lines of work. Everyone I work with in advertising is apparently impressed at the analysis I do even though I have no marketing background (most people in advertising do).

As far as careers with Philosophy, you are correct to assume that Lawer and Professor are the two main career paths. However, it is misleading to think that it won't prepare you for just about any career. Frankly, a couple other majors you threw out there aren't any more useful in the real world (math, history, english or film).

As far as what Aleo and Eastbay have been saying I think they both bring up excellent points. If you know you want to be an engineer or have a specific job track (which you obviously don't) then a humanities or social science major may not work well for you. However, if you want to consider a wide range of possible careers after college then *any* major is fine -- literally. Go with the one you will excel at and be engaged b/c this will keep you challenged.

I had a similar thought process when I was choosing my major only a few years ago so feel more than welcome to PM me with any other questions. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Yugoslav

[The Yugoslavian]

[ QUOTE ]

Don't listen to anybody who thinks philosophy is useless in the real world, because they do not know, and would probably be surprised by all the high level executives, lawyers, doctors, politicians, gov't officials, and real estate agents who are philosophy grads. The list goes on, trust me. Lets not forget about pro poker players.

One final thought. Philosophy education devoid of mathematics is an impoverished dicipline.

Regards
Brad S

[/ QUOTE ]

I couldn't agree more with Aleo's statement right here.