Question of the Day, 4/07/10 - What is your major/concentration?

[Tangerine]

So since this is the first one, I guess I need to give a short description.

Essentially, this is a small project that I'm going to be doing, trying to get some interesting question posted every day that you can answer, hopefully an answer that can be interesting to everyone else. The threads will be closed in 24 hours, obviously.

The questions will be about YOU. I don't want you to talk about any other party, nor even respond to other people, unless it's further inquiries (and assuming that it isn't done in a condescending way). This doesn't mean you can just spew hateful things either -- if your post might offend someone else, the don't post (although this shouldn't matter for these questions).

So, here's the first question. (note that, you don't have to answer all of follow up questions, just the bolded parts. The follow up questions are just leads to what you can talk about if you want to talk about more. Furthermore, you are not limited to these questions, as long as it is related to the bolded question)

What subject are/did you majoring/concentrating (or thinking about majoring) on, and why? What do you like about this subject? What makes you passionate about this subject? What are some things about this subject that most people don't know about, but should know about? Has this field made any interesting progress recently that you're excited about? What do you hope that you can do through your field of study in the future?

 

[Tangerine]

As you may know, I currently study Economics.

What's fascinating about Economics is that one interpretation is that it's attempting to be Psychohistory, for those of you familiar with Asimov's Foundation series. It is a study on the aggregate populace, seeing how they make decisions and the consequences there of. It studies human incentives, and how people respond to these incentives, and what kind of problems occur due to these incentives. It studies the effect of limited resources, and how people make choices by seeing all of the "costs" that they must pay for a choice.

To this end, I believe Economics is the one of the most powerful frameworks we have to understand human behavior. Recently, Economics has finally begun incorporating results from Psychology, Neurology, and Sociology, and is finding ways of updating in response to many of these new ideas.

I especially enjoy Price Theory and Mechanism Design (although I lack the mathematical rigor to understand Mechanism Design) -- Price Theory is a mathematical framework that we can use to analyze behavior in an organized and systematic way, while Mechanism Design studies mechanisms we can use to reach equilibria in systems (it is a product of game theory). I'd like to teach Economics one day, as an end goal, and do random research.

 

[Jimbo]

I'm a senior in HS now, graduating in June. When I get to college I want to study Biochemistry.

First and foremost I really want to do something with my life/career that's worthwhile. Some other careers I considered (which I won't name because I don't want to risk offending anyone) seem nice but wouldn't make any impact on anyone so my life would ultimately turn out fun but meaningless. Biochemistry would allow me to potentially make medicines that help millions of people. It's also a major that would actually help me get a job, which is nice!

...and also they make some money which is nice! I wanted to be a Marine Biologist when I was younger but I got talked out of it because apparantly it's tough to make money in that field!

I got into chemistry a while back because I always liked doing reactions and seeing how things work. Examples include making ice cream in a bag, demonstrating freezing point elevation, and the old "turning a penny into gold" experiment.

I do need to do a bit more research on exactly where I could get a job, what level of education I need to reach, and exactly what I'd be doing (research? experiments? testing? I'd be ok with any of these but I need to see which I'd be doing!) in the job.

 

[Alan]

I'm currently Undeclared, but I think I want to major in Economics or Journalism, Economics is my fallback if Journalism doesn't work out (selective program and whatnot) Journalism just seems fun since I kinda like writing, and I really enjoyed Economics classes when I was in High School. I was thinking about Medicine but my grades are too bad for me to have a reasonable chance.

 

[TaiCrunch]

Majoring in communication arts with a concentration in public relations, and a minor in marketing.

I was a geosciences major for a couple years, but after taking several upper-level classes and realizing nobody in the department knows what the hell they're doing, I started looking around at other programs with some knowledgeable staff, I came across the communications department which is the largest one my school offers besides music and art. Big department means no 3-4 semester class cycles so I can graduate sooner, it's a good work field, and I came to find it's something I'm actually pretty good at.

 

[Zystral]

if by Major you mean a Bachelor's Degree, then I most likely will be going into Physics or Pure Mathematics when I reach university.
Still, I have 2 more years to go, so it really isn't that important now, but at least I have a vague direction of where I want to go.
My current top is physics, where I'll most likely specialize in electronics and perhaps magnetism. What I'll do with that has 4 options;
1. Civil engineer / 2. Computer Hardware / 3. MoD / 4. one of those guys who runs around a lab all day wearing white coats and publishes discoveries.
I like option 3 the best since it's the most fun and varied, but hey.

I also have an eye that once I finish university and I go work for a year or so, I might want to go back and take a Computer Software course, just so I can fix and modify my own computer completely when I'm older.
If I have the money, perhaps after that I'll go back and pursue Physics even further, up to a Masters level. but this is getting really ahead of myself so I'll stop now.

 

[Surgo]

I already graduated, with a major in computer science!

I'm in graduate school though, doing a PhD in computer engineering. I went to the engineering school because I became interested in more of a system design aspect -- but, of course, ever since I got here I've just been doing computer security and not very much engineering. Probably the most "engineering" I've done yet has been taking a signal processing class, which everyone is asking me why I'm doing it. That's why.

 

[Broth3r]

Well I guess you know that European universities work differently, we don't have majors or minors, according to the Bologna process, we have a 3 year licentiate (which stands between a bachelor and a master's degree) and an optional 2 year cycle, after which one gets a master's degree.

I am currently studying Cellular and Mollecular Biology. It's unique in the country (though there are some similar ones), mixing elements of Biochemistry and traditional biology (though the former has bigger weight).
It has a very big focus on practical classes, which are around 50% of our classes.

It was either this or Pharmacy, but the latter is extremely difficult to access (on a 0 to 20 scale, I was a value away, at 15,76), and I heard it doesnt have the same focus on practical classes, and a lot less organical biology in it.
It does have a problem with the class' organization, and some of the choices are dubious (for example, I have to learn GNU Octave programmation, which i totally hate), but other than that, it's everything I ever dreamed of.

I followed it because it was a perfect gateway for lab investigation, which what I want to do after I leave. This might sound a bit childish, but what inspired me to this was ReGenesis, a TV series which followed a lab trying to prevent consecutive epidemics, which was my lifelong dream, to put my brain to the service of mankind.


And the cherry on the top is, the beach is 5 minutes away :D

 

[Fishy]

I'm currently majoring in psychology, which is a really broad categorization of different fields (cognitive psych, social, biopsychosocial, it's ridiculous). I never took a psych class in high school, but I don't regret it really since I love the subject, and diving into it wasn't really a challenge for me. I am aware (and agree) that psychology is called a pseudo-science, which is true since any "proven" information is so far proven by either studied behavior or the testimonials of patients. That's fine, and reproduce-able/credible to a point, but I am more interested in empirical evidence and results I can base off credible experiments an tests, not so much "this has happened #% of the time, so this idea probably holds water."

So where should I go? Neurology! which would mostly fall under cognitive psychology, and even neuropsychology. I am really interested in memory, and what exactly happens in the brain to compensate learning and memory storage and just everythinggggg neuron related. I want so many questions answered, questions that I hope I can answer myself through learning and practice. I'm also interested in how humans function solely by their nervous system and the brain alone. Like, what causes blood to rush to your cheeks when you're embarrassed? Why do we only cry when we're sad? Why does anything happen in the body based in specific emotions? I really just want to learn the translation between neurology within the body and how it appears outside of the body. When I was younger I used to stare at myself in the mirror, look at my hands and wonder just how exactly I could twitch them however I wanted. Neurons are constantly traveling at light speed all throughout the body, and I just want to tail all of them and ask them WHY??

While I'm not sure if I'll ever be any kind of doctor, with a degree in psychology/neurology, I'm not really worried about a job. If you can learn how people work and how to possibly improve the quality of environments (work related) just by understanding how people act and react, there are plenty of places for that. I dunno.

I wouldn't even mind being a therapist or something. I really do care about people, and and helping them with whatever personal problems they may have. People have always been sort of drawn to me in talking about whatever troubles they might have, and I don't know why or what it is about me that attracts them, but I guess I want to take advantage of that!

SORRY IF I RAMBLED?

 

[FDS]

I'm undeclared and interested in getting into computer systems engineering.

 

[BigPDaMonsta]

I study in a theatre program, specifically concentrated in performance/applied theatre.
I do both at once because first of all, they overlap for the most part and performance training is essential for any kind of acting; but applied theatre has really piqued my interest because its intention is to take theatre out of the theatre, and use it for things such as community awareness, charity, working in prisons, working in underdeveloped countries, etc.

Art in general has such potential in regards to changing perspectives, and I feel theatre epitomizes that because it is being created in front of the audience's eyes every time, and allows for audience involvement. This is what allows it to be such a powerful educational tool, but also it's a lot of fucking fun!

That doesn't mean I regard art solely as a force of "helping others"; I am a worshiper of Oscar Wilde and "art for art's sake". I really fucking love to be on or behind the stage, and maybe even one day work with television/film? Who knows....

 

[jumpluff]

I'm majoring in English. English isn't my interest; I was given, not literally but in essence, the choice of dropping out of school and majoring in English or staying at high school, which was undesirable due to bullying and my health. I'm not really sure what I'll do right now as I'm living in limbo, but I've wanted to study virology for a very long time.

I have a major fascination with viruses and pandemics, particularly viral haemorrhagic fevers (fevers that make you bleed, such as the Ebola virus <3) and pandemic influenza. I want to work on emerging BSL4 viruses, but that isn't something you do as soon as you get out of university, and if I'm honest with myself, my hand tremors, bad vision, and assorted medical oddities will always hold me back from doing things in such an environment. Working with emerging viruses that can kill is extremely high-pressure as well. I've always been extremely driven and ambitious about my interests and sitting in limbo pondering what I should do with myself isn't fun.

Another aspect of my studies that I'm interested in developing into a career is public health, particularly in developing countries. Though I'm mainly interested in research, I've always wanted to go overseas and help out in disease-stricken communities in third-world nations, but it's a fledgling interest still that I'm in the process of evaluating.

My fascination stemmed from a year or so where my OCD was so bad I couldn't touch even doorknobs and carried hand sanitiser absolutely everywhere if I had to leave the house, because I was scared of AIDS. I'd always entertained interest in sickness (probably because I spent a lot of time around doctors as a child), but I came across one of my mother's biology textbooks and read about AIDS and had a massive freak out of fear. You know, like it was a few decades ago. Things progressed and I became sort of possessed by the idea of diseases. I read about them voraciously, as information was inflammatory but soothing in a way, and I eventually began reading about Ebola. Something just sort of clicked and I became just plain obsessed, and my fears began to evaporate to a more healthy and rational appreciation of the associated danger, while the fixation remained.

What I find most fascinating about viruses is that they sort of lurk in a grey area between dead and alive. There are various opinions on what constitutes a living being or not, though you're probably most familiar with the definition of the processes life includes: metabolism, growth, adaptation, responding to stimuli, homeostasis, etc. Viruses are in a unique position; they exhibit a bunch of these processes, possess genes, undergo evolution, and replicate themselves (reproduction), but lack organised cellular structure and can't metabolise. They need a host. Outside of hosts, they go 'dormant', I guess. They are also microscopic and exist in great numbers. I find the way they look beautiful as well; I assume you've all seen them in class or outside in images captured by electron microscopes.

It's sort of hard to explain the whole of my attraction, but there you have it. My back-up career field is Comp Sci.

 

[gene]

i'm doing aerospace engineering and my interest in it has waned since i entered college. pretty much every course so far has been boring, tedious, and difficult. the more "practical" design-based courses that i'll be taking starting this fall don't seem so exciting anymore either thanks to the awful professors here.

starting may i'll be an intern at an engineering firm called cameron. i've gotten this position only because i have connections and will probably end up working there after i graduate because of those connections. the more i think about it, the more apparent it becomes that all of this effort i've put into getting As has been an exceptional waste of time. however, i'm a little miffed that if i decide to work here, i'll be working with compressors and the side of aerospace engineering dealing with thermodynamics (my academic achilles heel).

 

[Tleilax]

I'm a communications major, with an emphasis on public relations. I've always been a good speaker. I did a lot of theater, and was that one kid in the class who actually enjoyed giving presentations. When I started college I was an English major, but quickly realized that it wasn't for me. There was nothing in that field I wanted to do for a living. Then I looked in Psychology. I took several classes in that major, and enjoyed it a lot, but didn't want to make it my career. I didn't know what I wanted to do afterward, then thought back as to WHY I had the majors I did. I was an English major because I enjoyed writing and communicating ideas. I was into Psychology because of my interest in learning about people, how they think, and how to help them. In addition, every semester I was taking communication courses, and they were my favorites. It's what I'm both good at and enjoy. Hence, here I am today.

 

[Bologo]

Though I'm not currently in school, in September I'm going to be going to university with a major in Mathematics.

Math has always been one of my favourite subjects, and I've always found it quite easy to understand a lot of it, though unfortunately it is a subject that's very teacher-dependent in that if the teacher sucks, no one's going to understand anything. I particularly like math because of its real-life applications, as well as its applications to games; probability and graphing are probably my favourite parts of it.

Now you may be wondering why the hell I would want to take a major in mathematics since it doesn't usually lead anywhere unless you go for a master's. The simple answer is that I want to be a math teacher and show the younger generation that math doesn't totally suck balls. What really inspired me to go for this goal was my grade 11 math teacher, who was just plain awesome and somehow made what could have been a boring class into something I actually wanted to go to. He showed me that someone can actually teach math and not be a boring-ass. Another thing that really made me want to become a teacher was the movie Mr. Holland's Opus. The way that Mr. Holland got the pleasure from teaching even kids who had no talent whatsoever made me wonder if I could ever do that.

As a rule for those who want to go into teacher's college, however, the requirement is that you have to get both a major and a minor to even be looked at. Currently I'm stuck between choosing a minor in Biology, a minor in Chemistry, or a double minor (I might go for biochem though I'm not sure). Here's the thing, I like Chemistry, but I really like Biology because animals are my love and I really want to learn more about them. The dilemma is that I'm a lot better at chemistry than I am at biology since chemistry is a lot more mathematically-based than biology. A double minor is an option, but whether I can even handle the workload is debatable since my brain might explode, causing me to faint. I'm leaning towards biology (though it could go either way with chem), as if I want to enter teacher's college, I'm going to have to do a lot of volunteer so I probably won't have time for a double minor.

 

[asim]

Currently I'm majoring in Chemistry with a focus in Organic and minoring in Mathematics. Chem has always been such a huge interest of mine, although entering college, I wasn't sure I wanted to do it for the rest of my life. Anyway, I've definitely decided to focus on Chemistry since I started college. I really love making chemicals and finding new ways to synthesize useful products. My hope is to become a chemist with an understanding of medicinal or commercial synthesis (basically finding new ways to make important medicines or chemicals to be used in certain goods sold).

Right now, I'm working on an independent research project to synthesize a new photochrome molecule that no one has ever made before (photochromes are molecules which change color when exposed to light; think transition sunglasses), and I really like trying out new ways to work with it and analyze it, since there is no "precedent" for the reactions. Basically, since no one has made it before, I can just try whatever I want (based on educated guesses) until it goes right. I love that I can basically mess around with this product and hopefully my research can help with photochrome studies in the future.

I'm minoring in Math mostly because I can :/ All the math courses I'm taking for the Chemistry major already fill out the Math minor... Really it's just something extra in case everything doesn't work out.

 

[JimBob]

Majoring in Mechanical Engineering, and minoring in Nuclear Engineering.

I honestly did not have a good process when I chose my major, because when I was in high school everyone at my church would always ask me what I was going to major in and I had to make something up I guess, so I just said Engineering. I had a great technical foundation so it seemed like a good enough standby, and when I came to applying to university I never felt inclined to change what I had said. Nuclear Engineering really interests me the most but my school doesn't offer it as a major. However, the NucE minor is actually run out of the MechE department, so I kind of gravitated to them.

 

[Bam]

I'm a highschool senior at the moment, and will be graduating shortly. After a brief two-week hiatus to Hawaii with my girlfriend after graduation, I will be flying out to Annapolis, Maryland to attend the United States Naval Academy.

All I know right now is that I want to major in an engineering field. I think that biomedical engineering (my best friend will be going into this at Steven's) would be awesome, but unfortunately USNA doesn't offer it. However, mechanical, aeronautical, and systems engineering all look really interesting and it will be a tough decision to decide which one I will go with. Fortunately, USNA is one of the best engineering colleges in the country so I can't really go wrong.

I've always been interested in engineering ever since I learned what it was. Both my father and grandpa were engineers, and all the maths/sciences I've taken in highschool come naturally to me. I enjoy building things, knowing how things work, and inventing or envisioning new things in my head.

I don't really plan on using my engineering education right out of college, though, as I will have at the minimum a 5-year service commitment as an officer in the United States Navy or Marines. I am eyeing the idea of being a pilot or attempting at going into the seals (from those of you that know me, I am pretty physically fit), but I don't like the idea of being away on long tours so I may go into the Marines instead. Either way, I'd prefer a service selection that would keep me fit throughout its length.

After that, I may just make a career out of the military, or I may end up leaving right after my commitment is over and going into some other field of work - most likely associated with engineering this time, though.

 

[Jackal]

I am doing a fairly complicated dual degree with Computer Science and Business Administration. It's basically a 5 year program that has me doing a standard Computer Science module for the first two years, while making all my electives business related courses (Economics, Business Admin). Then in third year I get enrolled in my school's undergraduate business school (Richard Ivey School of Business, for your Canadians who would know it). I complete that intensive third year (7.5 courseload, normal is 5.0). Fourth and fifth year are then a 50/50 split of finishing off my Compsci degree and finishing Ivey.

This lets me graduate after 5 years with an Honours BSc in Computer Science and an HBA degree from arguably the most prestigious business school in Canada. yeah!!

I basically set this up for myself because I feel that my interests are too broad and I did not want to just commit to one thing. I obviously don't have to mention the benefits of having two degrees. I feel that both subject areas are very intertwined and feed off of each other well, and it puts me in a good position to hopefully become some sort of CEO of a software development company, as I will not only have the business experience but the compsci knowledge too.

I will likely go on to grad school, whether I do my Masters in CompSci or Business Admin will come down to how life pans out for me I guess, what options I have post undergrad and which one I end up liking better down the road.

In terms of motivation and things of that nature, since Jimbo mentioned it and I feel it is important to bring up, I really am not motivated in the slightest by helping people. I don't feel like my life will be a waste if I do nothing but help myself become more successful, and I feel like that is a big part in people deciding what they want to do in life. It's not that I hate people, but I just don't get as much fulfillment I guess? I would much rather ensure my family and kids are taken care of and that I have the money, time and health to pursue all of my own personal interests and endeavours later in life.

 

[ivar]

Philosophy major, and I'm taking it because it's easy, don't really need to do the readings to get good grades, can be interesting here and there, and there's some cool people in my courses (and some cool girls). I'm really just binding time for law school, where I might even go for a joint jd/mba because I have no intentions of becoming a lawyer, rather I want practical knowledge/experience for when I start a business with my two friends.

I can't work a normal job it'll drive my crazy. I'm a free spirit. Plus, jobs are the stupid money.

 

[cim]

What subject are/did you majoring/concentrating (or thinking about majoring) on, and why? What do you like about this subject? What makes you passionate about this subject? What are some things about this subject that most people don't know about, but should know about? Has this field made any interesting progress recently that you're excited about? What do you hope that you can do through your field of study in the future?

I am a Mechanical Engineering major at RPI.

I've always liked a lot of aspects of engineering. Problem solving, analysis, and design in general are things I have always enjoyed doing, which of course are the core of engineering in any discipline. As for selecting mechanical, it was the obvious choice. I always wanted a discipline where I could design something I could put in front of me and use every day, rather than something more abstract. This eliminates a lot of fringe fields like biomedical and nuclear engineering, which I never cared for. I have always enjoyed studying mechanical motion, such as reduction, linkages, etc. While I enjoy computing and find the field interesting, I'm interested in something more concrete than that, and am more interested in moving systems than electronic ones. Materials engineering is just boring, so mechanical engineering is the best fit.

With my future, I hope to make really cool shit. I say this to everyone but I really mean it. I want to be able to make something cool I can put in front of me, be it a gearbox, RC car, motor, or whatever. Even if I don't stick strictly to my discipline, having an engineering degree at all prepares me for a lot of fields.

 

[evan]

Currently, I don't have a major as I am in still in my Community College limbo. In High School I took some pre-pre-engineering classes which, due to a combination of excellent teachers and engaging coursework, made me believe that engineering (civil) was the thing for me. Building bridges and houses sounded like an incredible amount of fun and the courses I took in high school really emphasised the fun bit. When I entered university for the first time, I was on a Civil Engineering course immediately and found myself in sophomore classes like Statics that were incredibly focused on the mathematics involved, which was fine. I also had to take CAD courses which I had already done in high school and just ended up incredibly bored by what I was doing, leading me to stop showing up for classes and stop doing homework (or doing it really poorly since i didn't spend any time on it and didn't go to class) and dropped out after two semesters.

Afterwards I spent some time in the workforce and slowly eased back into school at a Community College in Nashville and then currently in Bloomington. Over time I came to realise that Engineering and Sciences weren't for me because, while I am fascinated to hear about new scientific breakthroughs and love looking at architecture and seeing how they stand, actually doing that work bored me to tears.

So I've ended up where I am now, looking to get back into university this summer and majoring in International Relations. Throughout my stay at my first university I took two fantastic courses: Intro to International Politics and International Institutions. Those two courses were, it turned out, the only ones I cared about when I was in school so it seems only logical for me to continue along those lines when I am back in school.

As for what draws me to them, it is hard to explain. I don't care much for domestic politics as they are constantly filled with infighting and partisan bickering and real knowledge and analysis is thrown out for political posturing and I feel like they just don't matter. The grand political stage of the world is much more enthralling and enticing for me. Just to study how nations interact and what can make them change their policies is absolutely fascinating and I want to know as much as I can on the subject (which is why I hold subscriptions to magazines like Foreign Policy). It truly baffles me when someone tells me they don't care about politics because really, what else is there to care about?

 

[Blln]

I'm most likely going to major in English. I could give you a bunch of compelling arguments about how literature gives us a unique means to understand the human condition, how English is really a huge array of fields (pychology, philosophy, history, etc) except fused with art, how cultures have been and still today are defined and shaped by their literary history, but those aren't the real reasons I'm going to major in English. I'm going to major in English because I just really love reading. Every once in a while, I read a book that completely blows my mind and changes the way I look at the world. I want to major in English because experiences like that really make me feel more... enlightened, which is a feeling that I can't even describe but still feels monumentally important.

 

[Duckster]

I'm looking to do a specialization in Linguistics, with a focus on the social aspects of language. The difference between a specialization and major being that a specialization requires about twice as many credits.

I always pictured myself doing something really general in university like Communications or Philosophy, just to get by, but in the past couple of years I've really developed an interest in human language. Not necessarily learning languages, but just pondering things like "what language do bilingual people think in; their native one or the one relevant to the social context?", or "how were the first explorers of North America able to communicate with the aboriginals here?". I guess this might seem really boring to some people, but I've always been interested in how the brain works and how subconscious mannerisms really define our interaction with others.

Another thing I've always wondered is how certain words got their meaning. What is a "dog" really? Was there something particularly "dogish" about it or did they just pick a word at random? The later might seem like the more obvious answer but when you analyze cross language trends like the prominence of "mama" as a word that infants use to refer to their mother, the former doesn't seems so far-fetched.

The nice thing about Linguistics is that even though it really is just one of those general artsy degrees, people tend to get the impression that as a linguist you either speak 10 languages or that you're really good with words. The truth is an English major is probably going to be the better writer of the two and learning languages is something entirely different, haha. I guess in a sense though the prestige of having the degree in the first place can get you places; apparently linguistics is one of the more sought after degrees in graduate programs, hah. Really though I just plan to go teach overseas when I graduate to help alleviate my student loan, and then depending on my luck I want to just land a gig somewhere doing advertising/translation work, two of the more common fields you find linguists. Ironic when you take into consideration what I said above.

Part of the reason I don't want to ever get my PhD is because I think the field is in need of a major overhaul. Preferably a split from Chomskian linguistics, which is the number 1 adhered to school of thought. While there's been a lot of useful information uncovered in the past 50 or so years about general patterns that can be found in language, linguists have a tendency to make gross generalizations about what's scientifically possible. I can't think of any examples that don't require some knowledge of the field, but as an analogy it would be like a social scientist saying "if a child comes from a bad home it will become a criminal." This type of attitude really lowers the odds of there being any breakthroughs in the field over the next few decades, in my opinion, especially when you have reputable researchers ignoring contrary evidence just because their theory sounds nice. This is why I want to just stick to social linguistics, which has more to do with analyzing language and its social consequences (think Ebonics), with a tad bit of history thrown in.

I'm studying Chinese and Japanese too, but basically I want to keep this as separate from my degree as possible. I feel that learning a language is something that needs to be done on your own, and while I'm going to have to take a few language courses for my degree, I feel that most of what you're going to learn in a language course or a linguistics course on language acquisition is going to impede your growth in the language more than help it.

So basically, while I'd love to one day be able to lecture in front of a class about all of these trippy concepts, I think there's way too much bullshit involved in the journey if I ever want to go that far, so I'll just do my undergrad and pray like Hell I end up with a decent job.

 

[MrIndigo]

I've finished a BSc. majoring in physics, with Honours. My Honours project was in the field called Mesoscopic Physics, which is operating at the lengthscale and energy scale where quantum and classical physics overlap. In particular, I was working on electronic noise-reduction devices to extend decoherence times of quantum states in a double-quantum-dot quantum computer.

I've loved physics since I was a kid. You know that phase you go through where you get fascinated by how things work, and so you sometimes open things up to see the pieces inside? I never grew out of that, and with physics the object you're breaking down and looking at how it works is the entire universe, especially with quantum. I'm also a lover of technology, and experimental quantum physics is entirely about advancing technology.

I'm also finishing an LLB, but my law studies don't really have a major other than the electives I take next year. I'm planning on taking some combination of Advanced Contract Law, Competition Law, IP and Trademarks, Advanced Commercial Law, Australian Taxation Law, Advanced Corporation Law, or Advanced Finance and Securities Law.

I've been interested in law since I was studying commerce in year 9; I tend to think of everything in terms of a game with rules and exploits, and law is just that on a bigger scale where the victory is dollar signs.