the College/University thread

[NeonVomit]

Who here studies/studied what and where?

Maybe some of us have crossed paths and not even known it! I really have enjoyed my studies. College/uni isn't for everyone though, and some of the smartest people I've met didn't even graduate high school, while I've met some unbelievably stupid people in the course of my studies. It's all good though. What are your thoughts/experiences?



Undergraduate:

University of Surrey, UK.
Bachelor's degree in Music, graduated 2007.
First year was playing serious catch-up as I'd had no formal musical training prior, second year was party time, third year was OH SHIT I actually need to study. I learned an incredible amount of stuff and firmly believe I grew as a musician and as a person. Graduated with honours.

Postgraduate:

Kingston University, London.
Master's Degree, major: Music, minor: Business, will graduate (assuming my thesis isn't a load of crap) late 2009.
Pretty intense stuff, but I learned a great deal that year and expanded both my music skills and was a real eye-opener in the business area. Good stuff. Worked hard, hopefully I'll get a distinction.

Grad school:

Kingston Uni Law School, London.
Will graduate 2010, and then (hopefully) get a place at the College of Law, London, to do my Legal Practice Course.
Super intense, but that's Law school for you. So far pretty enjoyable.


I took a year out between my undergrad and postgrad, to work and save up for it. Law school kind of happened by accident, but I don't regret it and managed to get government sponsorship from back home. It's good stuff, and I'm aiming to get into music & entertainment law (no, not some ambulance chaser! I have dignity.)


What do/did you people do at college/uni?

[warrencurrymetal]

my masters of Architecture at UNL and I've been here for a week straight working on this damn model! I maybe have slept 12 hours since wednesday. (it is now tuesday) This is the time when all of us in the college want to eat a bullet!!!

Anyways, this is my fourth year and I'm not dead yet.

:crazy1:

[icecab21]

The whole major /minor thing in music school always has me picturing something about the chords. Since I have not checked, do they have majors in minor theory and minor in major theory?

Edmonds Community College WA, USA
Business associates degree 08
lots of amazing instructers.
UW Bothell WA, USA
Business degree with Marketing focus 10.
lots of amazing instructers.

[Shurik]

I have a B.Sc. in Materials Engineering and B.A. in Physics (it was a double degree, two sets of courses over 9 semesters) and now I'm finishing a master's degree in Mechanical Engineering. I switched fields when I realized that working with electronic microscopes is not fun. I'm dong mostly a numerical work on my master's degree (investigation of a bubble growth in the media with non-linear diffusion coefficient, for those of you who care) and I want to continue to Ph.D., also something numerical but with more analytical or experimental work, probably in the field of fluid dynamics.

I'm studying in Technion, Haifa in Israel.

[Carcass]

I'm pursuing a master's degree in general history with sociology as my second subject. I also studied some art history and information management (databases and stuff, gives you the competence to work in libraries, for example).

Got 5/5 for my bachelor's thesis . My master's thesis is going to be about nationalism. Exactly what I will concentrate on is unclear, maybe some of the contemporary regionalist movements in Western Europe. Relevant writers would be Michael Billig, Benedict Anderson, Eric J. Hobsbawm...

I study at Åbo Akademi.

[Carcass]

College/uni isn't for everyone though, and some of the smartest people I've met didn't even graduate high school, while I've met some unbelievably stupid people in the course of my studies.

So true.

[Stealth]

I did my bachelor's at the University of Toronto with a Specialist (same number of credits as a major and a minor combined) in social and cultural anthropology. I'm now doing a master's in social anthropology at Dalhousie University. I focus on the relationships between barrabravas (organized violent fans; NOT to be confused with hooligans), club officials, politicians, and the police in the context of Argentine football. About two months ago my first article was published, and I'm now waiting to see if a second one will be published in Spanish.

My master's thesis is going to be about nationalism. Exactly what I will concentrate on is unclear, maybe some of the contemporary regionalist movements in Western Europe. Relevant writers would be Michael Billig, Benedict Anderson, Eric J. Hobsbawm...

Holy shit, I'm interested in the same topic! I don't know exactly when I'll be able to finish my master's, but for a Ph.D. I want to do something on nationalism in Finland. I'm in your exact same position, I don't know in detail what I would focus on. Maybe something like identity construction and people's reactions against the growth of immigration. Nationalism is a divisive force as much as it is a unifying force. It can be compared to religions in some aspects, and I would like to better understand the idea of national pride, which seems to be an almost universal feeling.
Ben Anderson rules. It's all about imagined communities.

EDIT: In the words of Einstein, "Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind."

[NeverendingAbyss]

I'll comment on this thread next year

[Mehida]

I did my bachelor's at the University of Toronto with a Specialist (same number of credits as a major and a minor combined) in social and cultural anthropology. I'm now doing a master's in social anthropology at Dalhousie University. I focus on the relationships between barrabravas (organized violent fans; NOT to be confused with hooligans), club officials, politicians, and the police in the context of Argentine football. About two months ago my first article was published, and I'm now waiting to see if a second one will be published in Spanish.

Have you noticed during the football matches here the cops are watching the players instead of looking to the people, to prevent any kind of troubles?
Even some of them celebrate the goals and everything.

[Intiaani]

I'm in my first year in University studying Finnish language. I'm after the title of Bachelor of Humanism after which likely Master of Philosophy. The latter takes about five years (practically a bit more though).

[Carcass]

EDIT: In the words of Einstein, "Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind."

I've never been a flag-waving patriot, but I'm not sure if it is as bad as mr Einstein thinks. The world as we know it is permeated by nationalism to an extent that it would be difficult to imagine how it would be had nationalism never existed.

According to Ernest Gellner nationalism and homogeneity are actually prerequisites for modern industrialised societies. His 'Nations and Nationalism' is a classic.

[Arkash]

I'm studying cinema in a French university, planning to end up being a writer and a comedian, by first working at the lowest cinema jobs: like grip man, coffee boy and everything else, and slowly climb up the stairs...as far as I can...

[Stealth]

According to Ernest Gellner nationalism and homogeneity are actually prerequisites for modern industrialised societies.

That's a dangerous statement... It can create animosity towards outsiders. About those things being prerequisites: Canada is anything BUT homogeneous (with Toronto considered the most multicultural city in the world) and, as a modern industrialized society, is doing pretty well. All in all, I think nationalism has a far greater potential for conflict than for good. And I see that everyday from the perspective of an immigrant here in Canada.

[Arkash]

All in all, I think nationalism has a far greater potential for conflict than for good.

Fucking true, nationalism is truly one of the worst things ever: it creates stupid patriotism, misplaced proudness, retarted sense of self honour, fear or worst: scorn of outsiders and war...

I know I may sound a little bit dreamer and idealistic, but imagine the dream: a world with no countries or fronteers! Well, it would create a lot of war to manage in creating a world like that, but well...*sighs*...

[Babylon]

I graduated from university back in 1998. Bachelor's degree in Accounting, attended the Tecnologico de Monterrey college here in Guadalajara. Before I moved to the US, I used to work for a mining company, which was quite interesting. Few months after I came back to Mexico, I started working for Hewlett Packard, and I actually enjoy my job very much

[Carcass]

According to Ernest Gellner nationalism and homogeneity are actually prerequisites for modern industrialised societies.

That's a dangerous statement... It can create animosity towards outsiders. About those things being prerequisites: Canada is anything BUT homogeneous (with Toronto considered the most multicultural city in the world) and, as a modern industrialized society, is doing pretty well. All in all, I think nationalism has a far greater potential for conflict than for good. And I see that everyday from the perspective of an immigrant here in Canada.

I'm talking about industrialisation in the nineteenth century. Homogenisation of idioms and culture happened everywhere, withouth homogeneity people would not be able to function in modern societies as they would not understand each other. Modern and industrialized societes are fluid and depend on this, people have to be replacable. This homogenisation has largely been achieved with mass education. You know, during the First World War there were still Frenchmen who spoke dialects so different from the standard French that they could not make themselves understood. The same goes for allegiance to the state. It didn't pop up organically. This is Gellners argumentation in a nutshell, filtered through my bad memory.

That being said, I agree that total assimilation of immigrants is impossible and dangerous - France is a notorious example. France don't even recognize any of their native minority languages. But immigrants have to learn the language of the society they choose to live in, without that they will not be able to function and do anything apart from sweeping floors. Working in a team or consulting manuals for machinery would be very difficult.

[Carcass]

All in all, I think nationalism has a far greater potential for conflict than for good. And I see that everyday from the perspective of an immigrant here in Canada.

Well, nationalism can be a vehicle for oppressed minorities to exert themselves. Montserrat Guibernau's comparison of nationalism to what she deems as 'progressive' movements like feminism is funny. I think she's Catalan, so it's hardly surprising that she would say something like that. Another example could be the Basques.

[Intiaani]

First things first. There are peoples on this planet that don't even know the meaning of peace. They have always gone to war, and that's just the way it is. If someone wants to take action, stop them from teaching their bullshit for their children, from brainwashing them, and just then take a look at the problems in nationalism. There's also good sides in it - we Finns tend to be pretty nationalistic, in a proud way. We're not going to war with it.

Oh, but you are allowed to discuss about nationalism or whatever else here from my part, yes...

[Stealth]

Well, nationalism can be a vehicle for oppressed minorities to exert themselves.

Yes, but only in contrast to other nationalisms. Nationalism relies on the Other as a marker of difference.

There's also good sides in it - we Finns tend to be pretty nationalistic, in a proud way. We're not going to war with it.

That's precisely the problem I have with nationalisms! You mentioned exactly one of the things that most interest me about the topic: the issue of national pride. Pride is divisive and creates conflict. I don't really think pride is a good side of nationalism. Why be proud of your nationality? What is there to be proud of? How is your nationality an achievement? The things accomplished by famous peple in your country have not been accomplished in your name, and they have not been accomplished by you. I would argue that nationalism has, to some extent, a level of irrationality comparable to that of religions. Just think about it: if there would be a logical reason to be proud of your nationality, most people wouldn't be proud of theirs just because they were born in their respective countries by chance. If you would be Sri Lankan, you would be proud of it (and would NOT be proud of what it means to be a Finn); if you would be Venezuelan, you would be poud of it, and so on. It's simply irrational.

[Carcass]

But please, Stealth, tell me how would the world look like withouth nationalism? Erasing nationalism would hardly make the world a paradise.

Nationalism is as much part of our era (that's right, nationalism belongs to a specific time in history, it hasn't always been here) as chocolate is part of a chocolate bar. And at the end of the day, who can tell what good and what bad it brought to our world?

Ok, the bad sides are all to obvious, but what about the good? Would a welfare state be possible without nationalism? Would, like Gellner argues, industrialisation be possible without nationalism?

[Carcass]

Why be proud of your nationality? What is there to be proud of? How is your nationality an achievement? The things accomplished by famous peple in your country have not been accomplished in your name, and they have not been accomplished by you.

With that I agree completely and I have asked myself the same questions many times!

I don't want to be seen as a champion of nationalism. It's just that I see nationalism as an inseparable part of the modern world. Something we just have to deal with.

[eagledreamr]

I'm pursuing a master's degree in translation, localization and technical writing, in the CFTTR (University Rennes2, France).

I like it a lot, and this master is the best in France and the 2nd (or even 1st) best in Europe. I have one year left (if everything goes well) and then I'll have to look for a job. It's a profesional master (in France, we have an opposition between the research master's degrees and the profesional master's degrees), and 99% of the ex-student of this master find a job during the 3 first month of their graduation. I'm confident.

[Intiaani]

Stuff.

Yeah, there's nothing really "there" to be proud of. Well, while posting I guessed that the word 'proud' could be wrong, as proudness truly often leads to conflicts. What I wanted to say is that I'm a proud of being a Finn because I love my country, how good it is to live here. No natural catastrophies, still four seasons, a chance to live in peace, a chance to learn, everyone's got the right for livelihood, stuff. I think this is nearly a paradise compared to almost any country where people are either rich or very poor or are touched by war or something. I don't have that kind of nationalistic pride, I'm just proud of my luck I was born in a country like this. Like, if someone would critisize Finland for me I wouldn't be angry and start a war with that someone. Instead, I would just listen to what the other has to say and maybe show my views, or just say "okay, whatever, that's your opinion".

Also of course those that feel some enormous nationalistic pride even beyond my understaning might take theirs to some unfortunate extremes, but at least my "nationalism" is more about harmless appreciation and feeling good living where I'm living.

[Lurdi]

Currently studying an English degree. I hope to finish this year, please GOD!