Poll: University Graduates

[KittensTiger]

Yes it was worth it to me. I majored in and now have a Bachelor of Science in Economics. I've been fascinated by Economics since I was a kid.

Advice: Be careful with your major. Think about what you want to do after you get your degree. Think about why you are pursuing a degree. If it's to get a better job think about what you want to do and plan your major accordingly. Majors can range from highly useful in the job market (engineering, economics, business, to mostly useless (english, literature, history). If you are doing it just for self-gratification go ahead and choose whatever interests you for a major. Of course the golden mean is to find a major that is not only useful but that you find gratifying. Unfortunately many of my peers fall into 2 categories. 1. Chose something very useful but they hate it. 2. Chose something very gratifying to them but now they have a degree that is not very useful and they have a tough time finding a job.

Enjoy the journey that is university!

 

[BENZOOKA]

I will be a mature age student as well, in a year or couple of them. Once I get the rest of the shit finally sorted out that have lead me to my current point, instead of being on the verge of graduating like most of my peers.

 

[Padwolf]

I am graduating in July with a BSc, I studied English Literature and Sociology. To be honest I'm not too sure what I want to do after.

 

[mental_looney]

Left university 4 years ago with a BSc in games software development, I think it helped get me into my two industry jobs, but I don't use it much, my brother went on the same course 3 years after me and it had been updated a lot by then and was much better but he ended up leaving after 3 years like I did as he got the same testing job I had.

 

[Sandernista]

Currently attending.

Probable majoring in Libarts, but we'll see. I've only finished my freshman year.

 

[MortisLegio]

Graduated: I have my BS in animation

 

[St.Augustine6]

I just graduated from college with a BA in Communications in May.

Do I think it was worth the money? No, because in any other country, (I'm in America) I could have gotten it done in two years. But since the USA's entire educational structure is, to put it lightly, BS, and colleges are only interested in wringing the most money out of students as possible, they have taken the perfectly fine idea of a liberal arts education and turned it into a sort of Ponzi scheme, holding students hostage for four+ years, at very high cost, and saddling the students with the burden of paying their debt, even though the economy is such that those students can't find jobs.

Now this is not always the case, different universities are different, but this is the case in a large number, particularly state schools.

Also, to anyone out there who is not yet at the age where you start thinking about these things, know that college is not for everyone. As much as the government goes on and on about how we need everyone, particularly minorities, to attend college, it really depends on the person. For example, I have a cousin who always wanted to be an electrician and carpenter, so he went to trade school for two years, and now he makes more money running his own business than I ever will with my degree.

 

[Thaius]

It sucked and I didn't want to. But I knew I needed the degree. I graduated just this past semester with a BA in English (writing emphasis), and the great thing is that I already have a job lined up for next school year; I'll be a teacher. Teaching classes like Game Design and Video Games as Literature. I wouldn't be able to do that if I hadn't gotten my degree. So yeah, as much as the process was a slow, horrible, torturous process for me (not because the experience was awful, but because I've known what I wanted to do for a long time and I felt like I was being held back from it), but it was most definitely worth it.

And despite all I hated about it... College was my opportunity to get away from my established life and identity. I left home for it, went a few hours away, and there were no expectations as to who I should be, no one identified me based on my parents, and I was away from the influence of my family and friends. I could re-establish myself. It was a brilliant opportunity, and for that reason, going away to college was the best decision I've ever made.

 

[trooper6]

PhD in Musicology. Currently a university professor. Totally worth it.

I, like you, was a "returning student"--I joined the military out of high school, worked for a bit, started undergrad at 25. I found that being older meant I took university seriously in a different way than my 18 year old peers. I got a lot out of it and I really had a great time. Mostly because I studied what I loved rather than what I should.

 

[Hap2]

Graduating in the Fall with a BA in Philosophy. I started out as a BFA in Visual Arts, moving on to Japanese and then Anthropology. I didn't agree with the Fine Arts faculty at our University on a number of things, as more than a few professors were primarily interested in postmodern Art and the art of making as much nonsense up as possible when describing a work. So in order to justify something as a work of Art and not merely a piece of scrap metal hanging about like some grotesque chandelier/construction hazard that required a hard hat to be around. There was no real notion of simply doing Art for its own sake, there had to be justification for every line, colour and image, and I could not continue in such a place.

I moved on to Japanese, and enjoyed for a few years getting to study a language, culture and history I was initially unfamiliar with but interested in, and even at one point I was able to go to Kyoto, Japan for some classes. When I realized that the professor at my University (and not the one in Kyoto) was doing little more than regurgitating the textbook however (rather than facilitating an environment where we were actually using the language primarily), I felt my time and money could be better spent elsewhere and went searching for another discipline.

I took a few Anthropology classes and initially enjoyed some of what it had to offer in questioning aspects of culture and social interaction amongst humanity (something I had enjoyed while studying Japanese history), but overall I was disappointed with the readings, in that most of it seemed like padding in the attempt to make essays and theses more intellectual in appearance rather than in content.

Tired and frustrated, I dropped several Anthropology courses and in their stead I took up a few Philosophy ones, alongside a course in Classics. The change in my attitude and mood was astounding: that was the first time in my entire academic career where when writing an essay, I had too much to say rather than not enough. I ended up dropping a 26 page paper on my Aesthetics professor on the beginnings of a theory of Art that had little to do with defining Art, but showing the interactions between language, thought and feeling (e.g. the aesthetic experience) that primarily led to concluding something to be Art. Since then I've gone on to study a number of different thinkers and applications of Philosophy, and even continue to study outside of the classroom.

I don't expect the degree itself to do much, but the experiences I've had and the knowledge I've sampled have and will likely continue to play a big role in shaping my writing, thoughts, Art, life, etc. For the most part I want to continue writing, whether it be through short stories, novels, journals and essays, or stories paired with drawings in comic form, or even in some technical application, writing is what I like to do (if it was not evident by this long post), and writing is what I will continue to do, so long as I am able.

 

[Tipsy Giant]

Your comment regarding "the rich" (a wonderfully vague and rather unpleasant catch all statment that floats about the UK these days) strikes me as a little facile to be honest. It's really a Guardian/Socialist Worker "tag line" trotted out by people who should know better to confuse people who don't know. The State has no duty to provide tertiary education to all, Blair was disingenous in saying the country could afford it and in his reasoning for saying it could. We would be bankrupt if we did and anyone who suggests otherwise is either ill informed or politically motivated. The latter category tend to back away when presented with the bill, as the Lib Dems did. "The rich" have absolutely nothing to do with it, the normal working tax payer everything.

OK, well let me clarify what I meant.

As tuition fees increase and qualifying grades go down, the people who can afford to go is smaller, therefor ensuring places for those who can afford uni, rather than places for our best and brightest regardless of financial position, this is the only way to capture our nations genius' and by not doing so, hundreds of talented and motivated people are not getting the opportunity to advance themselves and the country.

We all miss out when our best are sidelined due to Greed

 

[DustyDrB]

I graduated. And then I decided I didn't want careers related to either of my majors right at the end (Double major). So I've been taking classes again. But I'm nearly done...and then I'll be going to Physician's Assistant school.

 

[NightHawk21]

I just had the immense pleasure of trying to pick courses yesterday (today?) night until 3:30am, because my school decided that its a good idea to have a registration program designed in the 1990s as its main academic registration tool, and lump the two biggest faculties on campus into the same time slot.

Archaic administration issues behind though, I really like my uni. Some of the way they (and pretty much every uni) do things is in my opinion barbaric, but you get to meet a lot of cool people and do some really cool stuff.

 

[Sexy Devil]

Presently in my first semester of an engineering/computer science double major at the University of Western Australia. In hindsight the combination doesn't make a whole lot of sense and I should probably change one, but I'm not really sure which one I want to keep at this point. Figure I'll just let it keep going for now and fill my broadening units with a different potential second major.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

As my profile shall indicate I recently dropped out. Mostly because I'm a hapless, lethargic **** who couldn't summon the modicum of diligence necessary to attend lectures and hand in assignments on time and partly because I never properly acclimatised to this environment. I guess after becoming too ensconced in the routine and rigidity of secondary school/sixth form life for 7 years, I couldn't really escape that mentality and ended up making no new friends, losing touch with my old ones and spending the best part of 2 years locked in my room in jaded solitude and declining into a state of depression and fervent self-loathing. So yeah, I don't think Uni was for me. XD Still, isn't really for the best to cry over spilled milk, so I'm thinking of just moving forward, getting a job; hopefully just something office based, go to a gym, finish learning to drive and just take a few more steps to recapture a sense of assiduity in my life. Just want to keep myself occupied and focused for this next year at least, not really thinking any further ahead than that. But anyway, enough of my rambling, all I'd say to the OP is...just don't do what I did, make an effort to get to know the people on your course, maybe join a club or something, make full use of the resources available to you, do not procrastinate and good luck, I hope you fare a lot better than I did.

 

[Trivun]

I'm going to uni this year...on a games course

Reasons: because I can't make games otherwise.

Actually, the games industry doesn't want people with game design degrees. I've heard from designers themselves that the industry is screaming out for Maths graduates and IT graduates (there are several game developers based in the north of England, near my university, for the record, including one of the key bases of Rockstar). You'd be better off on one of those courses, especially since they also give you a good backing if you don't manage to make it in the industry. All a game design course will tach you is how to use things like 3DS Max and such, and give you a few contacts in the industry, all of which can be self taught and self attained anyway with a bit of work.

Just saying.

Anyway, as for me, I'm still a student, technically. Did three years at the University of Leeds, failed exams in my final year, retook them a few weeks ago after studying from home (couldn't go back and attend lectures because I'd then have to pay a whole years tuition again which I can't afford) - used my old notes and stuff from my old lecturers to study. Now I'm waiting to see if I have graduated, and if I have (news should come start of July) then I will have my ceremony on 18/06/2012 .

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

I have a BS in Computer Engineering and currently seeking employment.

I have a question to those who dropped out: Why did you choose to drop out and what were the circumstances that caused you to reach such a decision?

I don't mean this in any malicious manner, I simply am curious. When I attended college, I saw some people drop out within half a year of instruction and it was apparent why: they were just not cut out for higher education. Other individuals decided to change majors instead of drop out because they felt that the line of work they were studying for would be too difficult or unappealing to them (this included a girl who was a genius in Physics, who enrolled as a Aerospace Engineer undergrad, later changed to an Art major).

Some people who dropped out and I reconnected with them outside the academic system told me about financial or family issues that they didn't go into too much detail. So really, I'm interested in the reasons for which someone was unable to finish their undergraduate degree.

 

[Wolfram23]

Not sure how to answer poll. Went to university for 2 years, left, went to a technical institue/college, graduated, got job, make money.