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/lit/ - Literature

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11823852 No.11823852 [Reply] [Original]

I unironically plan to get a Bacherlors degree in History to enter academia eventually and do history for a living.
I'm not too worried about employment, if my plan fails, I still have my other lucrative profession. The problem is that I'm 25 and I want to enter uni next year. After I'm done with Bachelors, I'm going to get Masters somewhere in the EU (will be 30-31 when I start) and then PhD. How fucked I am? They aren't going to tell me go fuck myself just because I'm that 30 yo boomer, are they.

>> No.11824309

I don't know, anon.

>> No.11824435

Hey anon. I finished my BA History last year from a Russell Group and loved 90% of the course because I followed my passion for choosing my degree subject rather than the 'sensible choice' of CompSci etc. If you truly love it, go straight for it - you only have one life man.

If you get a first or (high 2:1 with extra curricular) you have the green light to great masters programmes around EU. Only thing I would suggest is make sure you are okay with spending the next 3 years in study with people younger than you. Starting a BA to be in class with 18 year olds at 25 is going to be rough from sheer maturity differences, especially for group working modules. Other than that, you've already got a backup! So what is there to lose?

>> No.11824661

>>11824435
ik it's pretty far off but what kind of work do you expect to do

>> No.11824679

everyone's fucked anyway so you might as well try to do something that you enjoy

>> No.11824684

>>11824435
Is getting a degree in History worth it? History is really the only subject I'm into, but I've heard its pretty awful for jobs.

>> No.11824938

>>11824435
Good to hear that this worked for you anon.

>If you get a first or (high 2:1 with extra curricular)
Do you mind elaborating on this a bit? What's "a first"?

>> No.11824947

It's fiction, it's all fiction, hitsory isn't real, it becomes real when we immanentize it through reading about it, before that it is in flux

>> No.11824957

>>11824947
it's all feels over facts bullshit. it's all happening retroactively

>> No.11824958

>>11824938
Highest standard of degree you can get in the UK system

>> No.11825156

>>11824947
>>11824957
>it's all happening retroactively
like our own lives??? ayyyyyy

>> No.11825309

I think you’ll be fine OP. Lots of people start college late, and if you pursue study with passion and enthusiasm, that will carry you far. In grad school you’ll likely be at most four or five years older than many of your peers but like, who fucking cares? That sort of thing is becoming far more common lately and wasn’t exactly unheard of long ago.

>> No.11825586

>>11824957
>facts exist
nice meme kid

>> No.11825609

>>11824679
That’s the spirit!

>> No.11825623
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11825623

I just wanna do east asian languages and literature but I can't because it's too far away and me mum can't afford it so now I'm stuck in a translation degree that I hate fuck

>> No.11825643

That's not TOO old. Your main problem, though, will be finding a job. Though since you have a back-up plan that you are confident in, I say go for it. Just keep in mind that you will be 35 when you finish your PhD, and re-evaluate whether that lucrative profession of yours will be still relevant to your situation at the age of 35

>> No.11825782

>>11824684
I graduated with a BA in History. Im fucked

>> No.11825818

>>11825782
Why?

>> No.11825823

You're not fucked because of your age, you're fucked because getting an academic position is almost impossible. You can't go into this even half-hearted, and you better be going to one of the most prestigious universities in your country or don't even bother (or at least get top marks at undergraduate, suck up to your professors and get a masters at a prestigious institution). Humanities academic is cutthroat and academia isn't as glamorous as you think.

http://100rsns.blogspot.com/p/complete-list-to-date.html

>> No.11825912

>>11825818
Can't get a job. The UK used to have a greater reverance for humanities than the USA or Far East. It wasnt uncommon for many people to transition from humanities into law, banking, government etc. Now many of these professions are closing rank and reserving their graduate entry schemes for those in 'relevant disciplines'. The pool of entry-level positions for humanities is continually shrinking.

As others have already mentioned academia is a fucking shitshow, and there is no hope there. But many humanities students stay on for further study precisely because the job market doesnt give them a chance. We're caught in a positive feedback loop where the surplus of phds (one of the main reasons why academia is in a terrible state) is a result of the harsh job market, and the sight of all these humanities grads/phds struggling to make something out of their lives reinforces the ever-growing perception that students from these disciplines have nothing to offer and are not cut out for the real world. Job openings for us close as a result. Humanities is doomed.

>> No.11825955

>>11824679
>everyone
nope. I was smart enough to see which way the wind was blowing and chose stem. Now I work 35 hours a week at my comfortable "job" and alternate between laughing at humanities proles on 4chan and reading John Cheever's short stories when I'm at "work"

>> No.11825965

>>11825912
Fuck. What should I go for then if the humanities is fucked?

>> No.11825972

>>11825912
>Institutionally based humanities is doomed
ftfy

>> No.11826120

>>11825965
STEM if you want to be practical. Social sciences are another (albeit lesser) option. The knowledge you acquire might actually be sought after at research institutes and think tanks. The fact that social sciences tend to be more data driven and have quantitative elements make your degree more 'marketable'.

Humanities are still an option, provided you go to a top university and have sacrificed all your summers doing shitty internships to compensate for the 'unworldliness' of your degree. That catch, of course, is that internship positions are themselves being increasingly restricted to 'relevant disciplines', meaning most humanities students are twice as fucked when they graduate.

>> No.11826254

>>11825912

In the UK it's easy to get a job with any degree. You can walk into big companies at the bottom and move up if your competent. The issue is that most work in these companies is soul-crushing dull and that you'll essentially be surrounded by people you wouldn't choose to be around for most of your week.

>> No.11826350

>>11825955
What do you do anon?

>> No.11826378

>>11825955
what was your major

>> No.11826502

>>11824661
>>11824684

I'm only twenty-two, so you're right that worries of a professional career are a way off but I've got some idea.

Securing an eight-week academic scholarship at age twenty (second year of uni) made me realise that I wasn't willing to enter immediately into postgraduate study without doing some first-hand living. The scholarship was a taste of the lecturing lifestyle, and it gave me the courage to know that postgrad ambitions can always be delayed and that we can do something different with our early twenties rather than chasing the academic (or business) career ladder.

I've spent the past year volunteering and living on different farms, construction sites and hippie communities in Europe with my girlfriend. I have set aside two more years doing this until summer 2020 whilst also reading, working out and spending a few hours per day on a slowly expanding short story collection (just practice and play at this stage but published writing would be a dream!). The volunteer lifestyle is almost money-free and has provided a real sense of life-satisfaction which I never found from doing well in academia - I recommend it to any anons feeling stuck or wanting time out to breathe.

Having said all this, I know that I'm in an unusual humanities grad position because I worked my ass off and finished with a double-first (80%+) from a global 1% university, and volunteering on 20+ projects over three years won't exactly harm my chances of getting into a grad scheme later on.

It seems cliche to say, but I know that studying humanities has made me into a better human than I would have been without. Taking final year modules in slavery studies and modern humanitarian intervention awoke a sense of empathy I wouldn't have gotten from business or tech degrees, and what I studied continues to inspire me to remain within the humanitarian/non-profit sector whilst daytrading cryptos for shits and giggles on the side.

Ultimately, a humanities degree is what you make it. Choose modules you think you'll love and work hard at them. Then again, this could all blow back in my face!

>> No.11826699

>>11826378
fellatio
>>11826350
suck dick

>> No.11826712

>>11826502
all that potential and you choose slavery studies and humanitarian intervention

>> No.11828323

>>11825955
I'm a stemfag with a postgrad degree. You're having a laugh if you think capitalism isn't going to squeeze us all over the coming decades. Everyone who isn't already millionaire-rich is going to be turned into a pajeet-tier proletarian or unemployed.

>> No.11828385

>>11828323
It really sucks, man. Tough to find something to get up for in the morning these days.

>> No.11828395

>>11828323
tfw Marx was right about proletarianization
after all

>> No.11828410

>>11828385
im personally looking forward to the spiritual revivals that will come as a way for the newly dishevelled classes to find purpose in their lives

>> No.11829355

>>11826254
>In the UK it's easy to get a job with any degree.

Really? A lot of positions these days seems to ask for a 'relevant degree'