/lit/ - Literature

>>6078680
>Why even live /lit/?

To serve the needs of the elites, obviously. What do you think capitalism is about?

just watch the lectures on youtube brah

>>6078680
who cares dawg

>mfw I have a place to study Philosophy at Cambridge

>>6078695
>philosophy
Kek. Enjoy your shit major. I'm not even one a STEMfag that looks down on the arts; I respect studying literature but not philosophy, not as a major.

>>6078702
i bet you have a really compelling reason for that.

>>6078702
>i don't respect studying philosophy on uni where fucking Witti and Russell studied it

come on

>>6078702

England doesn't have a major/minor system, there is no other way I could study it.

Anyway, literature superior to philosophy? What a joke. I can read poetry in my spare time.

>>6078709
what do you work on? cambridge has some baller people on faculty

who gives a fuck about those overpriced, overrated shit schools.
>not majoring in STEM in the first place
top fucking pleb

>>6078680
Tfw sitting in my room at Oxford reading this

>>6078680
I have a chance at Cambridge, although I doubt it will matter which university I go for to study a music degree.

>>6078709
>implying you will ever become like those two
>implying I don't respect Cambridge and don't respect Oxbridge/Ivy League philosophy majors more than other philosophy major
I just don't respect philosophy as a major so much. I don't disrespect it nor do I have disdain for it I just don't think it's as good or as useful as other arts majors.

>>6078722

Why? I mean come on, it's not like it requires less intelligence than literature. Literature is basically continental-style bullshit.

>>6078716
What do you study?

>>6078730
Mathematics

>>6078728
I suppose I am ignorant on the subject. Maybe I'll attend a lecture or two, it will probably make me feel like an idiot for not respecting it in the first place

>>6078702
Why is literature more worthy of study than philosophy?

>>6078712
How did you manage to have a place in Cambridge? Are you a genius? Do you have excellent marks?

>>6078702
Yea, learning photography and poetry is a more valuable skill than critical thinking.

>>6078733
Nice. I was thinking the whole time that you better post something like mathematics or physics, etc.

>>6078741
honestly it is not hard to get into a top school. if you didn't get in, you didn't belong there.

>>6078741

I'm not a genius. I did get very high grades, but the English education system is not really strenuous. I do really love Philosophy though.

>>6078680
>implying I'd go to any of these shit-tier "schools"
I'd rather kill myself

>>6078742
>photography
Watchu talkin bout?

>>6078736

You should. I do really think it is under-rated. People on /lit/ tend to swarm around Neitzsche and Derrida and all that, but that really isn't representative of a lot of philosophy (which is analytic).

In British universities they tend mostly to teach analytic Philosophy, which is (analytic philosophers will suggest, anyway) less literary and wishy-washy than continental stuff.

>>6078745
Why?

>>6078753
>but the English education system is not really strenuous
How so? Do you know if it's very different from German or French one's?

>>6078773

It is just a system for which one can revise very thoroughly. Each person knows (if they want to know) exactly the format of the exam, you can often (though not always) guess which questions will be in each exam. Nobody is forced to take subjects they do not like. I, for instance, only study Philosophy, Literature and History.

I suspect it is probably far easier, I don't know though. The international baccalaureate is harder, I hear.

>>6078680
>not autodidactism

MIT model is better.

Harvard is awful for undergraduate. Yale and Princeton, imo, are much better.

I visited all three and attended Yale.

>tfw you will NEVER study at uni at all

international baccalaureate master race here can confirm

>he takes pride in where he did his undergrad

Enjoy mediocrity

>>6078903
>muh community colleges are just as good

>>6078879
>tfw you are at uni and doing awful

why even live?

hypokhagne

>>6078938
>tfw you are so mediocre that you will not attend one classe prépa of Paris or Lyon
>tfw you will never be agrégé en philo
Why fucking live?

I just dropped out of Uni. Was my final semester. Had a mental breakdown. Might kill myself before my parents find out.

>>6078972
Become a knight for the lulz before you kill yourself. Go around your neighborhood doing valiant deeds and shit.

>>6078972

Nobody cares anon

>>6078972
Really? Why mate? Don't do it

>>6078980
Fuck you mate

>>6078989

Mate, why?

>>6078972
Why kill yourself when you can do awesome shit?

I always thought Harvard was some amazing place only super geniuses go; but someone i've known for awhile ended up doing a masters there, and he is a fucking retard to the point that its made me severely question the entire academic institution if someone like him can get to Harvard.

Also that dumb English bitch is supposedly going there for journalism. I think unless you are going to MIT for a hard science it really mean almost nothing.

>>6078956
What are you doing instead? If you are french just keep talking english, it's simpler. BYW I am in Lyon and failing my first year.

>>6079003
Is it very difficult? What do you plan to do after?

>>6078972
Please get help, bro. I've watched too many people go through shit they didn't deserve and that only made things worse for them because of circumstances just like yours. I know it's a platitude but still, get help. Go to every counselor your uni provides. Sometimes they can make magic happen. And every university bureaucracy at this point is so large that there are thousands of weird loopholes and special conditions that can help you out.

>>6078989
>Really? Why mate?
Diagnosed with depression sophomore year of high school. Forced to go to Uni by parents, since they thought it would mitigate my depression. Never wanted to go to Uni in the first place. They would not let me drop out because they're paying my tuition. Extremely unhappy all 3.5 years. In final semester. Taking 21 hours. Too many assignments. My depression was kicking my ass. Parents will most likely disown me (Asian).

>>6078972
Wait a year and realize literally nobody gives a fuck but you. Then feel the pressure melt away.

>>6078994
Mate, please mate, don't do it mate
You will have all the eternity to remain dead, what is 20 or 25 years of sensual pleasures if not the icing on the cake?

>>6079014
I don't mean to sound like a little bitch but it is quite difficult. Yesterday we had a meeting with old "hypokhagneux" and most of them said it was the most difficult schooling year of their lives.
To tell the truth I don't know much about other things I could be doing, other schools I could go to instead.
I plan to do the khagne if I can, failing that go to the fac.
My goal is to join the police.

>>6078680

>tfw from Cambridgeshire but ended up going to Swansea uni
>tfw going in to a bar, the bouncer on the door asked me where I was from. He laughed hysterically when I told him and said I should have studied harder.

>caring about universities post-feminism

>>6079039
>failing that go to the fac
Of what?
>My goal is to join the police.
Are you kidding me?

>>6079032
>Parents will most likely disown me (Asian).
Is this a joke or? I thought it was some retarded cliché
Well, if you are serious, I'm very sorry for you but I highly advise you to get some help, go see a psy or something (I already saw 2 psy, it was quite useful)

>>6079057

nah i'm asian and a lot of my friends didn't get a choice in what they studied (business or engineer end of list)

lucky for me my parents have given up all hope for me so I got to study lit

>>6079057
> retarded cliché
In the sense that I won't get my trustfund, so yes they will disown me.

>>6079057
>Are you kidding me?
The exam to be a lieutnant and above is said to be hard with a small margin only making it each year. (But also because many people try it and fail).
I don't want to be a uniform cop, I want to do fun and sexy stuff like chasing pedos on the internet and solving crimes. I really do.
I met a detective who went to my prépa.

What do you do?

Ask a 26 year old who lives in Oxford and illicitly attends lectures anything

>>6079508
can anybody just sneak into classes? Is it legal or allowed or anything?

>>6079578
there is literally nothing stopping you from attending any lecture at any university. (i guess some lectures might be held in buildings that require keycards, sometimes). so there is literally nothing stopping you from getting a free college education.

>>6079593
>Go to a seminar on writer X
>only 5 people
>take this dudes advice
>sit in
>implying I won't get kicked out

>>6078680
>tfw decided to attend community college because after reading books on semiotics, philosophy, and history decide I want to go into something with an academic bent
>can't afford university, so decide maybe I could start in community college first
>it's fucking awful, lazy thinkers everywhere, find it harder to engage by the day because it doesn't matter, I'll never get an interesting discussion out of it

I don't even know what to do. How did any of you guys decide you wanted to get an education? I want to write papers about media psychology. I can't believe I have to wade through at least four years of writing boiler-plate essays to even start studying anything worth-while. Does it get better?

>>6079598
i said lectures you retarded piece of shit. i considered adding a proviso about seminars too but then i thought "no people have reading comprehension." forgot i was on /lit/

>>6078886
> tfw got to oxford interview
> tfw brits were autists with poor general knowledge and americans were cocky bastards
> tfw shot meself in the leg by applying for delayed entry even though around 40 of the 5000 entrants have gotten an offer for delayed entry

>Disappointed
All twenty nine of you had better have reported this thread by now.

>>6079598
that said, you could probably get away with it. if it's an undergrad seminar just talk to the professor and say "i'm X major but i'm interested and want to audit, i plan to participate but won't enroll. is that cool? can you add me to the course email list?" i bet 3/4 of the time they'll say yes.

>>6079598
You can always ask the lecturer/professor, in my experience most of them are happy to have you sit there without participating

Some universities even encourage that (for example, mine had a program for retired people who could enroll in ungraded courses - they'd show up for lectures and seminars and participated if they wanted to, they didn't have to take tests or anything)

>>6079617
I was going to but wanted to show off about going to Oxford.

Could've gotten into camberidge or Oxford, but I'm an amerifat.

>tfw I don't know where I'm going next year

>>6079710
there are americans here too anon

You can always try to study at École Normale Supérieure.

>>6079032
>(asian)
Heres something that will blow your eastern mind: there is no reason to give a fuck what your stupid family thinks. Live for yourself you fucking coward.

>>6079779
That's why I dropped out...

>>6078979
This so much

>>6078680

My total GPA is'nt the best, but ever since I switched Universities for the second half of my undergrad I've been maintaining a 3.8 GPA, I have a few dropped courses, but my professors have time and time again taken me aside to compliment my work and I think I might just be able to get into a good school for my Grad. Here's hoping!

>>6078695
is the guy on the left related to mcride?

This is the best Pepe I've seen

Top kek

>>6078787
this. universities aren't for knowledge, they're for jobs.

>>6080599
Why are you such a faggot?

>>6080600
have you forgotten where you are?

>>6080600
doing grad school for knowledge is like taking a professional boxing match to get in shape

>>6078972

No need to an hero. You didn't want to go in the first place. Anyway you can finish later if you decide to. I've dropped in and out of Pleb State University and am only now finishing my final semester 7 years after I started. Shit happens, mentally counts too. Pick up a retail or service industry job while you put your brain back together.

>>6080605
>implying getting beat by Joe Frazier wouldn't put you into the best shape youve ever been

>>6078861
word

I'm at Princeton now

>tfw doing my undergrad at Imperial and I rejected an offer from Oxford.

They're both equally as good for my degree (Theoretical Physics) but living outside of London would have lead me to kill myself. I spent 5 days at Oxford during the interview process and I was bored to death.

I went to a good private school so a lot of my friends ended up at Oxbridge and all of them say that while the universities are amazing there's not really much to do outside of university organised events

>>6078972

No need to finish uni right away but at some point you should because it opens up more job opportunities and people in life respect you much more if you have a degree. Plus there's already enough money sunk into getting this far.

>>6078979
>Local man becomes depressed Don Quixote

>>6079846
Life can go on.
Are you worried about money? Technical degrees are good if you get the right certs. I know a lot of people who are dumbasses in college and many who are wise in the trades. Same vise versa.
Pain is temporary and the world is so large. Don't end your life before seeing as much of the world as you can.
Best of luck.

>>6080657
>Theoretical Physics
BAZINGA
BEZPONGLE
COITUS
ZOMBABWE

>>6078979
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDeL2X6-OzU

I went to Oxford....it isn't all it is cracked up to be. Unless you love being pompous and traditional It is full of rich wankers who are terrible people but will run the country anyway through their connections, or else complete autists who don't know how to have any fun.

I applied and was a single mark off the second grade boundary in the ELAT.

>Philosophy only gets you a professor job

Have fun living off your family

>>6078680

If you're a faggot who cares that much about prestige, you probably should just end it.

>>6081250
This, seriously get a fucking life.

>>6078771
Cause I love that shit. I've always dreamt of studying mathematics or physics or chemistry at Oxbridge but because I'm a money hungry bastard I'm studying economics at LSE instead. How is the mathematics program at Oxford?

>>6078733
>studying mathematics at oxford not cambridge

>school

>mfw went to an Ivy but only studied English lit

>>6078907
Why anon? And what are you studying?

>complaining about not studying somewhere
>not being a based NEET capable of studying and pondering endlessly for free

>>6081317
>

>>6081277
Not him, but the "Oxford-humanities, Cambridge-sciences" thing is a complete myth and has been debunked I don't know how many times.

>>6080599
The other way around, buddy

>>6078695
Has to be one of my all time favourite cults.

>>6081233
>tfw on the 2nd grade boundary
>yfw I got an offer

>>6080657
>the London is good meme
lol


>tfw luton

Anyone doing or did History at Cambridge here?

>>6081508
I'm very good friends with someone who does history at oxford if that is at all helpful

>>6081511
What's he like?

>>6081515
an arrogant prick
but he doesn't even realise it so I don't dislike him for it

>>6081523
I feel like I have always been an arrogant prick without really achieving anything and I either have to get into a a top notch uni or stop being an arse, I don't want to change tho.

>>6081532
it's time to write that book, anon

>>6078716
Me too.

Oxford, Mississippi, though.

>>6081544
disgusting

>>6078716
that fucking filename

>>6080657
Your friends are just a bit boring in all likelihood. If you're conditioned to think you need to pay a lot of money to have a bit of fun you're bound to gravitate towards the balls and dinners and similar, but there's always more going on than just that. And if they desperately wanted some Landan life it's easy enough to get in from Oxford.

I don't blame them tho, there are a lot of not fun people out there, it can take some effort to find fun people.

>>6081547
America's best writer seemed to fare fine after attending.

>>6078680
>caring about where you go for an undergrad
So long as it isn't a tremendously shitty university, it doesn't really matter. Bag a 1st and then go on to do a post-grad at somewhere genuinely prestigious

>>6081300
>mfw went to a russell group to study lit and realised that most of my seminars are populated by attractive, relatively intelligent grills

>>6081560
>Oxford, Mississippi
Faulkner sucks

>>6081583
Did Oxford teach you to be so compelling?

Undergraduate really does not matter. I can't speak for Harvard but the people at Oxbridge aren't that brilliant. The entry requirement for the best 20 universities in the UK is essentially the same at this point. The line between an A and an A* isn't much. Sure, Oxbridge has some literal geniuses attending but most people are just hard workers and they're not even necessarily smarter than the people rejected.

With that in mind the content you can learn at undergraduate isn't that demanding anywhere you go and in many cases will be identical. They don't give you "Cambridge abridged version of Kant for smart people". Many of the papers you study from contemporary sources aren't just from Oxbridge they are from everywhere. One of the most influential works of philosophy in recent years came from a professor at Wayne State University. One of the shittiest universities in the world.

Anyway, my point is. If you attend all your lectures, do the recommended reading and get a 1st - even at a shit Uni - you will be better educated than most Oxbridge students.

>>6081592
does Mississippi teach you to hold up the dregs and detritus of literature as art?

>>6081610
>If you attend all your lectures, do the recommended reading and get a 1st - even at a shit Uni - you will be better educated than most Oxbridge students.
wrong

oxford English students write two 3,000 word essays a week, each on a different author (and it is expected that you refer to at least 2 or 3 of the author's works)

>>6081621
>oxford English students write two 3,000 word essays a week
kill an oxford student, save dozens of trees...

>>6081621
that's not very demanding at all

>>6081621

So? The assessment for the courses is still similar. That is you are marked on a small number of essays and exams. If you got a good mark at another university you wrote a better essay than someone who did a bunch of unmarked essays. Referencing 2 or 3 authors isn't a big deal in English literature. Any less and you'd only be referencing 1.

How is that anymore impressive than doing the recommended reading and getting a strong grade at another university? Because you wrote on average a few more essays?

>>6081675
> Writing 1200 words of good academic text a day, every single weekday isn't demanding at all
With that pace, the average Oxfordian will writes 14400 words of literary analysis in a year (3*8 week terms), or alternatively 432 000 words in the three years of undergraduate study. In comparison, Infinite Jest is 543 000 words. So every single student produces 800 pages of literary analysis in their years.

>>6081693
Broader knowledge. I happen to have read a number of literature practice essays from a few different Russel group unis including ERASMUS students, and it can really stand out just how specific most students knowledge is and what the focus of their tutors is.

Who Monash here?

>>6078680
I wasn't good enough.

>>6081708

So reading essays on a specific subject was evidence of a narrow focus? Despite a narrow focus suggesting more advanced study? What would writing something like 3 more essays a semester have to do with that?

Getting a high 70 and doing all the recommended reading at manchester still makes you a better student than someone who read less and got 62 at Cambridge. Don't believe me? Look at who qualifies for the postgraduate courses.

>>6081707
>In comparison, Infinite Jest is 543 000 words.

So what you're saying is that if instead of a bunch of essays on others' work that one or perhaps two people will ever read, they could instead be writing a novel? And I should for some reason be impressed that they're choosing the infinitely lesser of these two options?

do any of you guys study some sort of /lit/ related degree? what do you study? do you enjoy it? are there any jobs for someone with a literature degree?

>>6081734
> So what you're saying is that if instead of a bunch of essays on others' work that one or perhaps two people will ever read, they could instead be writing a novel?
I just tried to give a scope on how much literature students write in Oxford.
> And I should for some reason be impressed that they're choosing the infinitely lesser of these two options?
> Literary theory
> Inferior to Infinite Jest
confirmed for not reading S/Z

>>6081732
To put it simply, even within a single institution because of the ERASMUS essays, you could see differences. In one lot an Austrian student referenced the Prague school in a mound of essays that were mostly wrestling with Plebe readings of Derrida. I can't remember what the essay was about but never saw anything that ever explicitly limited the student to such and such theory or thinker. The idea of these things is to demonstrate that you attended class, did the reading and came up with thoughts of you own, maybe did extra reading.

Oxbridge will have had them look at more thinkers and ideas generally and so they will write essays on more people and groups. They are a really simple form of assessment when you get down to it.

>>6081796

How much literature they write? You're really comparing what is essentially an 18 year olds reading diary with dfw's prose?

>>6081853
>>6081796
>>6081734
>>6081707
ohh the amount of misunderstandings between you guys

>>6081796
Art stands by itself.
Art criticism leans on art.

Thus any art, no matter how feeble, is inherently superior to mere examination of it.

>>6081863
>implying the flaneur is not superior to the plebe flanees

>>6081853

>implying DFW ever rose above the level of an 18 year old

>>6081879
>implying anyone on /lit/ ever rose above the level of an 18 year old

>>6081891
>implying the level of an 18 year old is not the ideal level

>>6081852

I have no idea what you are trying to argue. It's basically incomprehensible.

It's not relevant though. You need a 1st or good 2:1 to do a postgraduate course at any university. A student with 78 at Leeds can get on that course but a student with 62 from Cambridge can't. The reading lists for a course on Kant's critique of pure reason at both institutions will be similar in size and breadth just not the required part.

The fact you do a few more unmarked essays doesn't mean shit and you don't actually do much more than many other university students.

>>6081910
>I have no idea what you are trying to argue.
I'm not arguing, I'm pretty much describing my experience of essays from different institutions, and how the breadth of knowledge at Oxon or Cantab reflects the greater number of essays. They do cover a hell of a lot more than other institutions.

Also don't kid yourself that thirds and seconds are equivalent across institutions. Oxbridge students can get a 2:1 and hop on a PhD, elsewhere other Russel group 2:1 relegates you to Masters, and many people with firsts from non Russel unis have to do something like a Masters first. It's similar in the job market too, you'll get further on a first or an Oxbridge degree, both together will get you very very far.

>>6081893
>implying level is not a social construct

>>6081970
>implying social construct is not a material dialectic

>tfw you will NEVER study in Oxford, Cambridge or Harvard

In isolation from all peers and institutions one's individuality and intelligence grows incomparably fast and authentically. Wisdom is not taught in schools.

>>6082044
>In solis sis tibi turba locis
That's what people say to reassure themselves, solitude just supports your illusions of wisdom I think

>>6081893

Rimbaud motherfucker

>>6081965

I really don't see how a greater number of essays equals more material covered or how you would ascertain that from a 3000 word essay.

>don't kid yourself
>Oxbridge students can get a 2:1 and hop on a PhD

This is embarrassing.

>>6081621
Not that true
Source: I'm an Oxford English student

>>6081910
Cambridge has tutors, Leeds doesn't.

>>6081576
I'm going to Exeter for lit later this year, I didn't realise I was doing a girl's subject until I went to the talks.

>9-1 ratio
>every girl has read Friedan
Fuck my life.

>>6078680
>tfw I might be able to transfer to Berkeley

what should I expect, /lit/?

inb4 'not to get in'

>>6083163
failing miserably once you get in

>>6082103
>implying anyone cares about a postgrad

>>6081495

Shittt son, snap

Stats? College? I'm on a gap yah, so already have my A*AA in English Lit, Philosophy and History, just need to send in my certificates. Also managed to get 55/60 in the ELAT

>>6082115

Any advice for a fresher? Are the English Lit girls dtf? The gender balance in my sixth form was hilarious for English, I was the only straight guy in my class of 25

>>6083181
christ church fam
got AAAA at AS (Eng lit, phil, hist and bio (latter dropped)) and lel 100% on all four general studies exams piss easy

>>6081495
>>6083181
You may be studying it in a great environment but why would you want to study a subject taken over by smug liberal postmodernists and identity politics?

>>6083201
>on /lit/
>asking why we want to do literature at uni

also it's easy to get into politics or the bbc or write for a newspaper in the uk if u have an oxford English degree

>>6083188

Christ Church? Public schoolboy detected (jk, CC is actually one of the really decent colleges. I have a friend who got pooled to St Annes from Merton for English - she was happy to get a place, but still). Worcester reporting in, so fucking beautiful

>>6083223
I probably only got in because of my shit school and my grades compared to everyone else here
at the Christ church interviews I was the only one not from either a public school or a grammar school ;_;

>>6078684
this was a joke, maybe, but absurdly scary regardless

Honestly these people are the most fun to work with, because they're so easy to win arguments against. Also, all those kinds of people are interested in Austen and the Brontes or colonial shit so I can typically avoid them if possible (I'm really into renaissance/17th c shit, so Donne, Marvell, Milton, Shakespeare, Jonson, Marlowe etc)

>>6083222
>>on /lit/
>>asking why we want to do literature at uni

but /lit/ also pushes the 'why get a degree in something you can read in your spare time' meme

>>6083248
thank goodness it's impossible to find colonialist themes in Shakespeare, Milton, or Spenser :^)

>>6083261

Don't remind me. I did the Tempest at A level, the amount of emotionally empathetic responses to Caliban were pathetic. A well argued and evidenced colonial interpretation of the play is one thing, but this was just "boohoo Caliban has such nice language and the big meanie Prospero is just horrible to him" tier stuff. It's Shakespeare, it's obviously nuanced and complex, but any detail that didn't fit the colonial agenda was just brushed aside (in the plot, Caliban apologetically tries to rape a teenage girl, which was interpreted as "the native reclaiming his sexuality against the oppressor")/

>>6083201
>smug postmodernists
>bad
pick one lad

>>6083223
>tfw you will never ihnale fumes of joing while sitting on this grass

>>6078680
Because I'm already a graduate student at Princeton, and it's the top institute for my field.

>>6078861
Williams and Swarthmore are better too.

>>6083485
never even heard of them

>>6083460

PS Worcester is in the middle of Oxford, yet sits on 26 acres of ground (there's also a lake, orchard, on site sports fields and early 18th c neoclassical architecture)

>>6078680
because I dont think it matters WHERE you study but rather what you learn

>>6083501
actually it's far off out of the city centre to the west

>>6083523

I meant relatively to the city as a whole, although even on that map the grounds are still quite extensive. Excited as fuck to go there tbh

>>6083188
I honestly didn't get the general studies bs, shit seemed practically random. I guess if I get desperate bored I might look up examiners comments, but it really felt at the time you had to pick the right conservative rag to agree with and get marked on how much some schlub agreed with your opinion piece

>>6083496
They're elite liberal arts colleges.

>>6083222
You can actually do a lot more than that with any Russel group degree. A fair number of people go into management consultancy and banking and shit.

>>6081300
You can get any job with any major at Ivy league

>>6083523
>>6083547
god damn i wish i could live in uk or usa to go to cool unis

>>6082103
>This is embarrassing.
You realising you're stuck with a first class degree that you might as well wipe your arse with?

>>6082103
>I really don't see how a greater number of essays equals more material covered or how you would ascertain that from a 3000 word essay.
They do more essays because they cover more material, it's that simple as are you. I know this because again I happen to be in that rare position to have read undergrad essays from different institutions over a period of time.

>be humanitiesfag
>constantly encounter the outer fringes of math in a hundred different branches of philosophy, from analytics to metaphysics
>be amazed by the mystical potential of math being the language of reality itself
>be slightly in awe of STEMfags and assume they tap into this majesty through hard work, and humanitiesfags like me are missing out
>start learning math
>it's tough as fuck
>get to the point where i can just barely understand higher order college level stuff
>eagerly start talking to esteemed, visionary, world-famous mathematicians at my university
>mfw i realize they are all complete, intuitive materialists in their outlook
>mfw they don't grasp an iota of the mystical or metaphysical aspects of higher math
>mfw they don't even really understand what the concreteness of mathematical laws implies, and spend most of their time playing at meaningless quantitative number puzzles
>mfw even professional scientists are childlike retards who are genuinely content with puerile, reductionist accounts of the nature of reality
>mfw the vast majority of high level STEM people are ignorant of other branches of their own field, let alone other fields or disciplines altogether
>mfw even the luminaries of STEM are the biggest reservoir of literally autistic toy collectors in the world
>mfw trying to experience an ounce of majesty is impossible around these eternally plebeian tolstoyan foxes
>mfw the vast majority are just average dumb normalfags aside from their single hyper-focused academic specialty
>mfw they don't read books (like, at all)
>mfw phds in theoretical physics have the exact same political opinions as your dumbass uncle who works at the olive garden
>mfw it is actually staggering how dumb they are in every single respect other than knowing one specific kind of math really well
>mfw totally disillusioned
>mfw realizing after all that work that math isn't even the language of reality but a closed and self-referential puzzlebox for autistic fucking faggots

>>6079623
I bet, depending on the professor, that you could straight up say "I'm not paying for this class, I just really want to learn, and some professors will be fine with it". It will probably help them feel like they're not participants in the shakedown of a whole generations' future like they actually are.

>>6084026
Yeah nice blog faggot. But guess what: those dumbasses you referred to are actually helping humanity. What are you doing? Oh you read a lot? Well fuck me anon! Keep it up my kids are reliant on you ... said no one ever.

>>6084046
there are moocs for that
also they advertise their unis

>>6084026
yea, this is why being godly at math is almost entirely autistic savant-ism that someone is born with

these people didn't get where they are out of any real kind of passion.
they just
>YAY NUMBA PUZZLE = GOOD ME DO NUMBERS XDDDDD

this is like some cruel joke

>>6084167
>these people didn't get where they are out of any real kind of passion
Says the prole faggot on 4chan

>>6078999
It's hard to get in (for us normies, anyways...) but easy to get out.

>>6084297
your point being?

>>6084167
>>6084026
My god, you guys are just faggots who feel superior for being more ~deep~. Fucking hell.

>>6084026
>mfw trying to experience an ounce of majesty is impossible around these eternally plebeian tolstoyan foxes

What do you mean?

>>6084735
He's a fag and you're a fag for even thinking that his poetic faggotry means something

>>6084801
>poetic

I wouldn't call it poetic. Faggot.

>>6084801

>poetic

What kind of a faggot are you?

Well i get free uni at any Scottish University so it works well for me.

Edinburgh is also a pretty fun city to live in.

>>6078680
The reason you aren't in one of those is because you keep posting the frog meme.
>>>/leddit/

>>6084026
Someone isn't very good at mathematics.

>>6078879
It's OK, little Ed, you'll be can be the smarter burger flipper in town.

>>6079032
It's your fault for not get therapy you dumb faggot

>>6084801

I just wanted to know why he calls the tolstoyan belief plebeian, I also wouldn't call his post poetic.

>>6078999
University of California graduate here who studied for a term at Cambridge. I met all kinds of American Ivy kids studying at Cambridge.

Ivy League students and alums are mostly overrated. They're generally fairly smart, but they're not superhuman, and for the most part those attending public schools such as UCLA and Berkeley are on a similar playing field with the Ivy kids. You could come up with a number of reasons as to why these kids get into certain schools, but I think it mostly comes down to having grown up in a decent family with at least a fair amount of money and discipline.

>>6079032
Fuck your parents, they did this to you, you owe them nothing.

>>6085459
Tell me you cuddled that qt in the middle.

>>6085516
She's sleeping next to me right now actually. We met there in 2013.

>>6085605
FUCK HER RIGHT IN THE PUSSY

Why is Brown the only Ivy League school that hasn't graduated a bunch of people I've actually heard of?

Other than Emma Watson, only notable Brown graduate.

>>6085459
I go to UCLA now and studied English lit for a while at Oxford. My teacher there absolutely hated the ivy kids and the posh oxbridge grad students, saying they really couldn't think.

But the funniest thing was listening to people talk shit on the Rhodes Scholars. Everyone hates those guys.

>tfw my school has a program to study at Oxford so I will eventually get to take classes there despite being a STEMbot autist

>>6085459
What did you study?
>>6085605
Punching above your weight.

>>6085624
Brown and Dartmouth aren't real Ivies.

> tfw got really good A Level results
> tfw due to physical disability and family I'm stuck in 3rd world country with 3rd world university.
>tfw third world university doesn't reply to anything I send them and first semester starts in two weeks.

>>6079610
You have to emgage your professors. Ask around about what youre interested in and see if you cant find someone at your college thats informed on what your subject is. Generally soeaking though, community college is not advanced material course emphasis

Above anon here, also:

tfw you need 40 APS points to get in and I have 68 and they still don't care.

>>6085696
Political Science and Philosophy.

And I'm the guy in the middle with the tie, not the one wearing the shorts.

>>6078722
>useful as other arts majors.
Art is and is supposed to be useless, fuck off.

>>6081453
Nope, in the age of the internet unis have gone from being the centers of knowledge (due to their vast libraries) to research and alumni centers.
You don't pay for the lectures, you pay for the tests, records, and degree.

>>6078956
>succeed at prépa and get into business school (top3)
>boring shit, try out few times a week History courses at la Sorbonne when I don't have class (it's far but it was worth it)
>like it
>break year at business school, have to work as an intern and also use the opportunity to write a "mémoire" in History
>pretty good
>professor doesn't want you to pursue a PhD in History because "muh French History" (I'm into US History)
>go back to business school
>tfw I will never become an academic

>>6087283
>Implying research isn't a part of knowledge.

University is for dumb people who haven't ended up at scepticist quietism by the time they're 18.

There is literally nothing to learn.

I went to a top 10 liberal arts school in the country. Only had about 1400 hundred people, 13% acceptance rate, and loved it.

Didn't have to deal with all the liberal pushing in the english department, and really know a lot more about a lot of things compared to state school students.

Although I wish I had had the opportunity to spend more than 4 years there getting two degrees and a minor, but such is life.

>>6087399
The freakish liberal progressive degeneracy is by far the most pronounced in middle-tier state schools. Mediocre ideology for mediocre people I suppose.

>mfw i study in ENS Ulm

>>6087687
I'm at grad school right now for a masters degree, and it really is shocking. Preaching about diversity and progressive. The student paper here is having a special on MLK. Maybe I'll post up some pictures of the elementary school level writing they're publishing.

It really makes me upset at the quality of education here. If I wasn't getting paid to teach and go here, I'd feel even worse.

>>6087687
>tfw your school is conservative

>>6087816
I sort of agree with Hitchens when he pointed out that the entire doctrine of diversity is really just another iteration of conformist ideology, and that it has ironically become uniformity, which is what it supposedly is against.

>mfw I have a place to read English Literature at Cambridge
>mfw I read an average of around 3 works of literature a year

>tfw offer to study Classics at Trinity, Cambridge

>>6086362
You probably didn't even get accepted in a 3th world university.

>>6080592
le black man with beard maymay xDDD

>>6088297

Being a straight white male in Africa, anon. It sucks.

Don't know if right thread but I might at least try, I will begin to study soon but I'm in a bit of an dilemma I'm not really sure on what to study. Psychology, grafical design, or sociology are the things I'm thinking about and I know that I should be the one to choose but does anyone here have any experiences whit the programs and/or what you can get out of them?

>>6088426
Is it at least South or North Africa ?

>>6088454

South Africa - RSA.

Amerifat considering applying to a postgrad program (not a lit degree) at King's College London. How is King's viewed in the UK? I know it's in the Russell Group, but its rankings seem to be pretty mediocre.

>>6088726
Depends on the subject but KCL is generally viewed as inferior to UCL. Still a very good university though

>>6088151
fucking triggered

>>6081610
I think ive actually seen a study where the top students from mediocre schools are smarter than mediocre students from top schools.

>>6081863
You're pretty fucking dumb, criticisim is its own art.

>>6086362
i'm sure wales isn''t that bad m8

>>6088750
>>6088726
no, the London colleges are LSE > imperial > UCL = Kings

also americanon the UK is basically Oxbridge > bath = durham = edinburgh > london colleges

>tfw spent A-Levels doing drugs
>BBB in philosophy, English and film (lel)
>tfw will never study PPE at Oxford or any good uni and I have no idea what to do with my life

>>6088812
bullshit
for humanities/social sciences:
LSE=Ox>Cam>st Andy's>lndn>the rest

for maths/science
Cam>Imperial=Ox>lndn=manchester=st andy's>the rest

>>6088812

Kek, UCL is superior to King's in literally every way. UCL is to Columbia what KCL is to NYU, put it like that. Either way, globally, KCL is actually fairly decent (it's just that the standard of unis here in the UK is just so damn high)

What's the best college at Oxbridge for modern languages?

Can't speak for Harvard, but it's actually pretty easy to get into Oxbridge as a postgrad if you're passionate about your subject and manage to go to a decent uni as an undergrad. Two people I know got fairly average 2.1s, and both went on to Cambridge to study. I got a 1st so I assume I could get in if I applied too, which is a possibility for the future.

>>6088960
The gap between NYU and Columbia is actually way less at a graduate studies level though.

>>6088827
you can retake them, or apply for a foundation course

or fake being a disabled muslim

there's a million ways to get to uni in the uk

>>6078680
Who gives a shit. It's a piece of paper. The library and an Internet connection provide everything you need.

>>6089312
C O N N E C T I O N S

>>6089312
The number of people who actually have the ability and discipline to self-study mathematics or physics at the university level is vanishingly small.

>>6078680

Why would you want to study at Oxford, Tariq Ramadan is a professor there, I think that sums up how shitty it is. Books are free at the library, you just want the piece of paper. Why do you need someone else approval?

>>6078684

Communism - the opiate of intellectuals.

>>6078716

Me too, in Oxnard California.

>>6089307
>or fake being a disabled muslim
without any context, I can tell there is some twisted genius to this.

>>6078766


Both are useless/

>>6078879

at least you'll be original

>>6078903

Seriously though, if these people are supposed to be the most intelligent couldn't they just learn all of this stuff themselves?

Shouldn't the dumbest people be going to the best universities?

>>6078972

Bob Dylan didn't go to uni and he is better than pretty much everyone that did.

>>6089679
>he is better than pretty much everyone that did.
1. Wrong
2. He's Jewish

>>6078886
Eh, the IB fucked me over big time, A levels would have been much better.

>>6079593

Lectures are interesting and all, but let's be real these people are buying a degree for status, regardless of all the beating around the bush of a noble higher education. It's great don't get me wrong, but they want the piece of paper.


Secondly jobs don't ask o see your degree, and the university confidentiality agreement prevents them from telling an employer if you attended, how does and employer really know you have a degree?

>>6089679
He studied English at the University of Minnesota actually

>>6089692
Bob Dylan is Jewish? Holy fuck I always instinctively disliked him.

>>6089350

You are not everyone mate.

>>6078979
pls this

>>6089709

mate, he never went to class. never graduated. dropped out at the end of first semester. ummmmm if that's studying to you, you might have a problem at uni.

All these plebs here trying to rationalise their academic failures with 'u dont need an edcattion', 'muh geniuses with no college', 'why cant I just read books in between my two jobs at mcDs and burger king that's basically the same thing as harvard' or 'I'm a strong independent thinker who don't need no unviersity'

Pathetic, really

>>6078861
What was your experience like at Yale?

>>6091976
And why we can't study by ourselves with the sources we have on the internet? We could live comfortably on welfare and oats. It is still almost the same conditions as you have to live as long as you want to add anything to what you study. The time and diligence needed would bare you out of any deformities, and maybe oxford would only hinder your progress as you would need stress about keeping up with the standards.

>>6092003
>deformities
comforts**

>>6092003

I think that the grammar of your post proves my point

>>6091976
All these plebs here trying to rationalise their expensive educations with 'u cant read books by yourself', 'only ivy league lessons can make u smart', 'why cant I just listen to some overpaid academic talk about books that's basically the same thing as reading urself' or 'I'm a strong dependent student who don't need no initiative'

>>6092397
I knew some pleb would respond to him, most intellectuals had schooling, what makes you any different?

>>6092455
>trying to be an intellectual

I guess not being a try-hard makes me different.

>>6088151
>/lit/ taught me how to appear knowledgeable
works evertiem

>>6092485
Pleb

>>6078686
This, if you actually cared about the studying and learning part you wouldn't care about going to some university just for "prestigious" reasons.

>>6087283
Unless you have a degree in something you can't claim to be an expert in that area.

fuck man, I've already read double that amount this year and I got off to a late start

>>6078686
>>6092578
Yeah because being able to ask the professor questions isn't an important part of learning right/
ffs just deal with it and admit that the fox and the grapes applies to you
You're just as bad as /pol/ idiots saying that you don't need a degree (unless if it's muh STEM!!!) even though the majority of jobs in the near future will require one, even if the job itself has nothing to do with your degree.

>>6078716
How is oxford brookes I heard the nightlife is good :^)

>>6089672
You didn't think any of that through, did you?

>>6092588
this is probably true in the academic fields but in religious fields the line blurs significantly. for example, i could study a certain religion while perfecting my own religious discipline, which speaks for itself in my character, which convinces others of my expertise. the scholar of religion, removed from his subject, has no marks of greatness to show for himself, merely book knowledge. it is the man who combines both who attains greatness in the sphere of religion.

but most people on /lit/ are probably not heading towards such a religious future, so for them it might indeed be necessary to get degrees and all that stuff

>>6089679
Good idea, just wait until you have a huge mass of dumb teenagers with a thirst for bad folk music.

>feel like i'm loosing cognitive function
>chest and other areas of my body are feeling sharp pains
>can't apply to uni because I did terrible on the SATs regardless of studying for my whole summer.
>birthday was Feb 1.
>18
Is there any point in even applying. I kinda gave up and my parents keep bugging me about it. I'm in terrible condition anyway.
Is college really that important /lit/? What's wrong with being NEET, at least I can admit I'm a failure.

a student will learn in spite of his university, not because of it

>>6093973
>What's wrong with being NEET, at least I can admit I'm a failure.

Depends what you want from life. Want a wife, kids, car, house? Won't get it being a NEET. Don't mind giving up those things to pursue your intellectual interests? NEET might be for you.

18 is young, man. By 25, will you still want to sit in your room day after day? Some people have an innate need to get out and live life in a different way. The NEET life is really only for the chosen few who don't mind or actually enjoy a reclusive, almost monastic existence. It has benefits and drawbacks. If you use it wisely, it can be a great aid to personal development by being free of the usual social constraints. If used unwisely, you will stagnate and worse, devolve into a really pathetic person within a decade.

Life is long, for some people. Do you want to ruin your chances of having a normal life for the rest of your life? Then pick NEET life. Do you think you might regret it by age 30? Then try to stay within the normal world and play by its rules.

>>6094033
Well I don't know if I'm even able to go to college now since deadlines passed and I'm really, really awkward so a job isn't for me.

If I was to be NEET what would I teach myself?

>wife/kids
Also, i'm gay so I can't do that.

>>6094033
>If used unwisely, you will stagnate and worse, devolve into a really pathetic person within a decade.

Welp, there's no going back by this point.

>>6078680
>tfw Yale lets you take classes whenever you want

LOL this board is like the AutoAdmit of 4chan.

>>6093973

/connect Rizon
/join #NEETadv

>>6078972
Do not an hero. Breathe and move on.

>>6084026
>studying biomedical sciences
>don't even ever want to work in a lab
>just find it deeply fascinating and rewarding but can't share it with other students who are already thinking about working immediately after graduation

I'm just so confused

>>6094033
Wise post. Most people aren't cut out for the TruNEET life.

>>6078680
>>tfw you will NEVER study in Oxford, Cambridge or Harvard
so?

I'm a second year Economics student at a US "Public Ivy", probably going to Minor in Philosophy. How worthwhile in general are the philosophy programs at top tier public schools?

>>6095805

Michigan and Berkeley have great programs. I'd say UVA and other top publics are below Cal and Mich.

>>6078680
Studying at Cambride/Oxford for a semester is as easy as getting a 3.7 GPA at an American school and studying abroad, hold your fucking shit.

>>6094074
>gay

Renounce your degenerate lifestyle and things will probably improve. Bare-back sex in public bathrooms does not count as "studying" btw.

>>6094033
The only thing I'm concerned about is the sense of guilt other people would provoke in you by remaining NEET. That's the only reason I try to get work. Otherwise I spend all my time the way I want to, like an imitation of philosophers and connoisseurs.

I would like to have been an academic prodigy who came to my lifestyle after graduating. But I would have liked to be good at philosophy and culture too.

>>6078680
Cambridge is full of complete retards at an undergraduate level. The supervision system is nice and the libraries are amazing but dinner conversation isn't at the level you would expect unless the fellows are about.

>>6078695
I have little respect for philosophy students at Cambridge. The only direct point of comparison I can make is in the study of political philosophy, and history finalists are set a much more difficult and comprehensive paper on the subject than the philosophy students. It seems pretty doss, and the weekly reading for any given subject - from what I can tell looking at the reading list - is roughly equivalent to what a history student would need to read in one afternoon.

>>6081447
The Oxford humanities bias is the part that is a myth. Cambridge is better for practically every subject except politics, which isn't a real subject anyway. In mathematics there isn't even a comparison. Trinity College, Cambridge is the best place to study mathematics on the entire planet.

>>6081508
I graduated with a first in History from Cambridge. Ask me anything.

>>6084026
>mfw realizing after all that work that math isn't even the language of reality but a closed and self-referential puzzlebox for autistic fucking faggots
fucking laughed in real life

>>6097285
>I have little respect for philosophy students at Cambridge. The only direct point of comparison I can make is in the study of political philosophy, and history finalists are set a much more difficult and comprehensive paper on the subject than the philosophy students. It seems pretty doss, and the weekly reading for any given subject - from what I can tell looking at the reading list - is roughly equivalent to what a history student would need to read in one afternoon.
A book like this, a problem like this, is in no hurry; we both, I just as much as my book, are friends of lento. It is not for nothing that I have been a philologist, perhaps I am a philologist still, that is to say, A TEACHER OF SLOW READING:- in the end I also write slowly. Nowadays it is not only my habit, it is also to my taste - a malicious taste, perhaps? - no longer to write anything which does not reduce to despair every sort of man who is 'in a hurry'. For philology is that venerable art which demands of its votaries one thing above all: to go aside, to take time, to become still, to become slow - it is a goldsmith's art and connoisseurship of the WORD which has nothing but delicate, cautious work to do and achieves nothing if it does not achieve it lento. But precisely for this reason it is more necessary than ever today, by precisely this means does it entice and enchant us the most, in the midst of an age of 'work', that is to say, of hurry, of indecent and perspiring haste, which wants to 'get everything done' at once, including every old or new book:- this art does not so easily get anything done, it teaches to read WELL, that is to say, to read slowly, deeply, looking cautiously before and aft, with reservations, with doors left open, with delicate eyes and fingers...My patient friends, this book desires for itself only perfect readers and philologists: LEARN to read me well!

>>6084026
kek someone make it into one of these

>>6098280
Actually that's a shit one