SRXII: It lives!

I'm a triple major. It makes sense to do as many as you can because you can often cross-credit papers. So the workload isn't that much.

MovingPictures07 wrote: A Person wrote: MovingPictures07 wrote: A Person wrote: gottagetintogetout wrote: I actually do agree with you on the Music major, and I probably won't be a Philosophy major either.  The thing that I'm most interested in that's also practical is probably technology. I am in computer science and I'm taking a philosophy class, it is interesting. I am learning the thinking type stuff and things like that. Yeah, that can be pretty interesting. Even though I think some general education requirements are stupid, they can be kinda nice and help your knowledge like that. It fulfilled a required credit, and it was a topic of interest to me, so I took it. I took two Psychology classes to fulfill my required credits. While I enjoy Philosophy, half of Philosophy professors are simply full of themselves and you end up getting nothing out of the class. I didn't want to take that risk, and I find Psychology more interesting anyway.

Yeah, I can see how easily that could happen, I think the author of my textbook is a bit full of himself.

rushfan4 wrote: MovingPictures07 wrote: rushfan4 wrote: Actually, many people go that route.  You get a basket weaving undergraduate degree in order to go to law or medical school.  You can't go to medical school or law school without an undergraduate degree, so many people take the simpler route to get there. If you're interested in becoming a doctor or a lawyer though, why would you have an undergraduate major in Music? It seems like wasted time to me. If you love music, that's fine. But if you're not even pursuing that as a possible option for your career, why not just have a Law or Business Law degree? And don't get me started on the fact that I believe that our public higher-level education systems draw out the number of years and classes we take just so that they can get more funding and erroneously spend it. Unfortunately, I've run into advisors and other people who simply don't give a damn about the career option that a student takes. I'm a bit cynical when it comes to being in college for an extremely long period of time. Unless you're going to be a brain surgeon, you don't need more than 8 years of higher education. Because you need a 4 year degree in order to get an 8-year degree.  Music might work for a law degree as there is copyright laws and such that could overlap the music.  Music probably won't work as a medical doctor but possibly there are connections with psychiatric medicine.  Musical therapy.    When I was getting me degree in accounting I spoke with one of my teachers who was a tax attorney and he said that by getting an accounting degree I would be way ahead of many law students because the accounting degree was way more difficult than the "poly-sci" or philosophy degrees that many law students got.  It also would help in either becoming a corporate attorney or a tax attorney.  Students who get engineering degrees become qualified for becoming patent attorneys.  Poly-sci/Philosophy attorneys probably are more likely to become "ambulance chasers" or politicians or environmental attorneys, etc...

Understandable. Again, like I said, it depends on what the person really wants to do. If they're willing to make that time commitment in order to follow a specific track, then that's great for them.

I just never understood the appeal of an 8+ year degree/college career. Why do that when you can find many other economical ways to go into what you want with less wasted time? College is already a waste of time as it is; I couldn't imagine going for longer than my 5 years (4 for a Bachelor's, the extra 1 to sit for my CPA, then I'm done). And that's coming from someone who loves learning and always had. I was a really weird kid; I enjoyed all those educational toys more than the normal toys that most kids got into. But even I realize that our schooling system has quite a bit lacking. You can often learn quite a bit more on your own (especially with resources like the internet and seeking out hands-on experience) than you can in most classrooms anymore, and that's a shame.

Why should you strive for an 8-year degree when you can have a 4-year degree track route with nearly the same success for MOST areas? (I realize there are exceptions). Even as you said, an Accounting degree puts you way ahead of alot of other people with degrees in Pol Sci, Music, etc. where you don't have many viable options for careers after graduating from a university.

I'm guaranteed jobs when I graduate college, and I'll be 19. I know some people who are still going to college in their late 20s straight from high school. They often quit college to get dead-end jobs and then came back to school (and I'm not referring to people who can't afford it anymore, that's a totally different story, and I do feel for those people put in tough positions where they have to support themselves in order to go to school). Alot of my fellow colleagues in my Accounting classes are 23 and 24. I simply believe people do not maximize their time in order to get the jobs they really desire.

It's largely political. Colleges just want more money out of people. The longer you stay, the more money they get. Unless you want to go into an extremely specialized field and your employer requires extra education, the appeal of spending alot of years in higher education simply isn't that strong. At least that's how I perceive it. The main exceptions are if you want to be a brain surgeon or a lawyer.

Ricochet wrote: MovingPictures07 wrote: Ricochet wrote: Well, many of us artists tend to want to make art specifically, not sell burgers in an artistic manner.  I suppose this is why I'm a business major. I love art (particularly music), but I've seen what can happen to people who major in Art and Music, even if they're really talented. They get out of college and they're left stranded because there's no demand in specific jobs for people who have "Art" degrees, so they're forced to get jobs that they would have gotten even with no higher education. I know an extremely talented guitarist who graduated with an Art major 3 years ago. He works for an amazon.com warehouse. It's a shame. That is true, you mention lack of demand, but I'm more tempted to also think of disregard of majors (a significant phenomenon happening on all levels, at least here). But I also feel neither (nor lack of demand, nor disregard) render obtaining such majors as futile a priori.

That's understandable.

I'm not sure how the music scene is in Romania, so it may very well be a different circumstance as well. There just is a serious problem where people go to college, get a degree, and then get "stuck" in transition. The problem occurs when they never actually transition to the job they got their degree for. This has been happening more lately with the face of the economy being more strict than before.


Edited by MovingPictures07 - March 15 2010 at 18:26

A Person wrote: MovingPictures07 wrote: A Person wrote: MovingPictures07 wrote: A Person wrote: gottagetintogetout wrote: I actually do agree with you on the Music major, and I probably won't be a Philosophy major either.  The thing that I'm most interested in that's also practical is probably technology. I am in computer science and I'm taking a philosophy class, it is interesting. I am learning the thinking type stuff and things like that. Yeah, that can be pretty interesting. Even though I think some general education requirements are stupid, they can be kinda nice and help your knowledge like that. It fulfilled a required credit, and it was a topic of interest to me, so I took it. I took two Psychology classes to fulfill my required credits. While I enjoy Philosophy, half of Philosophy professors are simply full of themselves and you end up getting nothing out of the class. I didn't want to take that risk, and I find Psychology more interesting anyway. Yeah, I can see how easily that could happen, I think the author of my textbook is a bit full of himself.

Wouldn't surprise me.

College professors are certainly a breed of their own, let me tell you. Though you do run into some realistic hard-working people who really know their area and can teach it well. Not too often, but it occasionally happens that someone actually performs their educational position to their full potential.

After my accounting degree I worked for a couple of years for a CPA firm and since I was specializing in taxes I went back to school and got a Masters Degree in Taxation, so not only am I a CPA, I am also an MST, which distinguishes me from a normal CPA.  If I wished I could continue on become a tax attorney, but I would have to get the 8 year degree.  Most likely I could make more money as a tax attorney than I make as a CPA, but to date, I have chosen not to take that route.

Also, Shredders have apparently skipped so easily over the fact that an almost complete anagram of my name is Vander Raptor, so I'm immortalizing it in my sig.

rushfan4 wrote: After my accounting degree I worked for a couple of years for a CPA firm and since I was specializing in taxes I went back to school and got a Masters Degree in Taxation, so not only am I a CPA, I am also an MST, which distinguishes me from a normal CPA.  If I wished I could continue on become a tax attorney, but I would have to get the 8 year degree.  Most likely I could make more money as a tax attorney than I make as a CPA, but to date, I have chosen not to take that route.

That's cool.

I tried to get a co-op with a CPA firm for this current semester but it turned out to not be successful. I could for the fall semester, but that's a bit stupid as it's better to co-op in the spring semester when you get more experience. So I'm going to have to hunt for all that again next semester so that I can co-op my last semester. Should be neat.

Have you worked primarily for either smaller or larger firms; or do you have experience from both? If so, what do you think are the pros and cons of each?

I noticed your sig Rico, it looks awesome especially with those zeuhlish diacritics. 

harmonium.ro wrote: I noticed your sig Rico, it looks awesome especially with those zeuhlish diacritics.

Cheery on top, I took special care of that.