/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.2472506]

How many of you are actually majoring in English/History/etc?

Enjoying it?

[Anonymous No.2472507]

I'm not

[Anonymous No.2472566]

English lit major.

I basically get to do /lit/ stuff for school. Why wouldn't I enjoy it?

Probably gonna work at Starbucks forever though.

[Anonymous No.2472576]

Nope.

IR here.

[Anonymous No.2472660]

>not keeping this stuff as strictly a hobby

[Anonymous No.2472667]

Majoring in Civil Engineering here

[Anonymous No.2472678]

>>2472667
That was my plan until I took the SAT without studying.

>690 reading
>LITERALLY 800 WRITING
>530 math

sigh. History major now, really enjoying it but no idea what I'll be doing with it.

[Anonymous No.2472684]

English Literature and Cultural Studies major here

If I don't make it into academia I'll probably just kill myself.

[Anonymous No.2472692]

>>2472684
>that feel when you look up grad school admissions statistics for your uni

fml. i can't afford to go anywhere else because it's the only uni around and i gotta keep living with mom and working at target.

[Anonymous No.2472707]

>>2472692

You don't meet those requirements?

I haven't taken the GRE, but there's really no reason to not have a 4.0.

[Anonymous No.2472714]

>>2472707
Those are not "Requirements", they're just averages. Meaning out of over 100 people with roughly those scores, less than 1% are admitted.

Thinking of taking the LSAT at this point. Law school admissions at my uni are more like 25%.

[Anonymous No.2472717]

>>2472707
>I haven't taken the GRE, but there's really no reason to not have a 4.0.

grade inflation school much? you're bound to get some B's here and there if you're going somewhere that isn't a joke

[Anonymous No.2472728]

>>2472717

Yeah, my school's pretty terrible, actually.

[Anonymous No.2472730]

>>2472707
>there's really no reason to not have a 4.0.

Maybe in high school.

[Anonymous No.2472736]

>>2472730
>>2472728
>>2472717

What the fuck are you guys talking about? The only reason you should get less than an A in anything is because you're a bad student. You don't study enough, you don't show up to class, something. There's literally no reason to not be getting consistently 95%+ in all classes.

[Anonymous No.2472737]

Probably moving into law next year.
My best subjects are English and History.
Is it a good idea?
Is law a good career choice?

[Anonymous No.2472743]

>>2472737

You shouldn't be asking others if law is a good career choice. You should be asking yourself, 'is law what I want to do?'

If anybody drops $44,000 on education just so they can make the most amount of money, they're going to be pigeonholed into doing something they don't like and hate the rest of their lives. It really is disheartening when I see people saying they are doing a major because 'i don't know' or 'it pays a lot'

[Anonymous No.2472746]

>>2472736
Someone's never taken something graded on a curve.

I literally haven't heard anyone say this stuff if they've actually been to college, and so I am reporting your post, for you are more than likely underaged (and possibly asian, eww).

[Anonymous No.2472751]

>>2472736
What's your major

[Anonymous No.2472754]

>>2472746

Maybe you hang out with morons, I don't know. All I know is that I got a 97% on my calc III final, plus extra credit bumped it up to a 105%, plus he curved it so an 83% is an A instead of 90%. I don't know, maybe my university has a case of the stupid math students. I thought the average level of intellect would rise from high school to college, but I am surprised to see that it has possibly dropped

>>2472751

I'm the civil engineering guy

[Anonymous No.2472758]

>>2472754
Taken Statics yet?

[Anonymous No.2472759]

>>2472758

Last semester

[Anonymous No.2472760]

>>2472759
Let's see your grade.

[Anonymous No.2472766]

>>2472759
>not being on the quarter system

[Anonymous No.2472769]

Nope, med here. And, even though most colleagues are plebeian idiots, I'll have them before pretentious edgy hipsterfucks anytime

[Anonymous No.2472770]

I want to be an art major but I'm going through a
>goddamn everyone else is so much better than me at this and oh god my portfolio will never look like that
crisis right now. Doing surprisingly well in my history class at college though.

[Anonymous No.2472775]

>>2472769
>implying anyone who's not a 'pleb' is a 'pretentious edgy hipsterfuck'

you're a hoot

[Anonymous No.2472774]

>>2472770
History is the shit, do it nigger, fuck art

[Anonymous No.2472783]

I'm thinking about majoring in English. I'm afraid I'll never have a job.

Should I just major in Econ and get a minor in creative writing or literature?

[Anonymous No.2472789]

English major in America's best English department. You bet I'm on cloud nine.

[Anonymous No.2472802]

>>2472783
>teaching
>academia
>law
>generic business shit if you have connections
>starbucks

[Anonymous No.2472821]

>>2472760

Here you are good sir. I don't know if you guys will consider UMD a pleb school, it seems pretty cool here. You can see here that because I was able to skip math, physics, and chemistry, I am able to splurge in classes like film and jazz while completing the 130+ credit major

[Anonymous No.2472826]

>>2472802
The arrogance of acting like you know what a person's career opportunities are.

[Anonymous No.2472839]

>>2472802
I went to a moderately expensive prep school. Good business connections?

[Anonymous No.2473000]

I'm heading into a history PhD program next year with full funding. I'm pretty excited.

[Anonymous No.2473037]

>>2472576

interdisciplinary International Affairs program here

Hoping to secure a good internship for next summer

[Anonymous No.2473055]

>>2472766

>quarter system

Oh, God, I fucking wish.

This is why I'm going to PSU for grad school.

[Anonymous No.2473058]

>>2472821

Well that explains it, you are taking joke courses like Jazz Studies and Film

[Anonymous No.2473068]

>>2472783

If you are serious about writing or have a life long hard on for writing/talking about Literature, do English

[Anonymous No.2473171]

Classics and Philosophy here

thinking of changing philosophy to Linguistics, though

[Anonymous No.2473189]

i got my associates in english last year
of course, it's worthless
but, i had fungetting it, graduated at the top of my class, made some great friends, and actually made about 5 grand in left over tuition money
i mighht go back this fall to get my teacher's license
but i hate kids

that reminds me, I should be working on one of my novels instead of talking to you stupid cunts

[Anonymous No.2473264]

Majoring in history. I love it, but I'm not looking forward to unemployment.
Oh well, as long as I have a roof over my head and a book in my lap I'll be fine.

[Anonymous No.2473266]

>>2472789
what uni?

[Anonymous No.2473279]

What do you do with an English/history degree?
Does grad school always follow?
Im good at these kind of subjects, but I honestly don't understand how I'll ever get a job and it kind of worries me. Getting a major so I can work for some random/generic company would suck. Working for some random/generic company is exactly the kind of job I just left.

[Anonymous No.2473283]

>>2473279
I'm >>2473264, for reference.
I figure after college I'll continue my research on the subject I'm considering writing about, while probably working as a TA or something to fund my studies/give me library access.

[Anonymous No.2473304]

>>2473283
that seems enjoyable actually. I want to be in a position where you get paid to do research/write. I suppose a lot of people want that type of job, so it seems difficult to actually land something like that. I'm unsure of how to begin.

[Anonymous No.2473315]

>>2473304
Get really close to your professors. Tell them you want to write a book and that you could help supplement their own research.
As long as the guy isn't some aspie that should convince him.

[Anonymous No.2473385]

Classics and French.

No. I would rather be majoring in English and Neuroscience.

[Anonymous No.2473388]

You all are or should be majoring in cheezeburger.

[Anonymous No.2473391]

I'm a computer science graduate student w/ research appointment.

[Anonymous No.2473499]

>How many of you are actually majoring in English/History/etc?

Journalism major here.

>Enjoying it?

No -there are some barely literate people in the program. I'm beginning to suspect these are people who somehow formed a political opinion or aspire to being sports commentators, and thus thought it fit to major in journalism.

I'd rather be an English major; to be totally honest, the two are interchangable. The only difference is that journalism (at least at my uni) is much more job-placement oriented i.e. there's a lot more dithering in the English department, and not much support. I'm feeling very strongly about minoring in it though, I have to take some English classes just to break the utter banality of some of these journalism classes.

>pic is I dunno, just finished Welcome to the NHK at the recommendation of an acquaintance.

[Anonymous No.2473510]

>>2472789
I remember reading in the now-infamous Literary Salons article in the NYT about some freshmen at Barnard that get internships at the fucking New Yorker their sophomore year -I raged hard.

[Anonymous No.2473526]

Decided to go to tech school to become an electronics technician seeing as how the market is over-saturated with undergrad folk.

>going to college
>not majoring in a STEM field

Enjoy your debt and no jobs.

[Anonymous No.2473536]

>>2473526
Yeah, an entire graduating class of barely-competent engineers sounds like a dream.

[Anonymous No.2473567]

People who are majoring in engineering because of expected income or things they read on 4chan are complete faggots.

[Anonymous No.2473580]

>>2473567
I agree. I am an engineer because I like it and find it incredibly interesting.

[Anonymous No.2473593]

>>2473000
Fellow historymajor here. You still around bro? I'm transferring to UCLA or UCB for history next semester..

I want to do a masters and maybe a PHD, what are the costs like?

[Anonymous No.2473604]

>>2473593
Not the guy you asked but you should never ever ever ever pay for graduate study in any liberal arts field unless money is no issue. Not just because you'll have debt without a guaranteed means for paying it off quickly but more because the best programs don't take anyone without being willing to pay at least their tuition and in most circumstances a stipend as well (often with graduate assistanceship and teaching duties thrown in). The schools who expect you to plop down your own money are lower tier and are known in academic circles as degree factories. So unless you want a vanity degree don't bother.

[Anonymous No.2473645]

I'm enjoying English very much. I'm in Denmark so I think it might be a bit more varied major than in an English speaking country, since it's only 1/3 literature and then 1/3 culture and linguistics.

I'm thinking of minoring something in the sciences though. Just to be safe :3

[Anonymous No.2473655]

I dropped out of college because I don't want to be an engineer but at the same time I see no reason to keep paying money for a degree in English or history, especially you can't do shit with either unless you get advanced degrees. It doesn't seem worth it.

[Anonymous No.2473658]

>>2473536
>>2473567

I can't stand the presumptuous generalization made by liberal arts majors that all STEM majors are somehow shallow materialists living in some kind of cultural ghetto. I've always attributed it to the fact that most liberal arts majors would probably rather be majoring in something deep like mathematics or physics but can't because they are probably lazy or intimidated by having to take a whole year of remedial math to catch up, and so deep down inside they are regretful or jealous of those of us who have the skills to investigate the frameworks of logic and the universe on a fundamental level - even though a lot of us are shallow materialists and choose not to, the questions we are enabled to ask and test are much more broad and meaningful than "why some dead guy wrote that thing 200 years ago?" And unlike philosophy majors we're able to come up with objective answers for some of our questions.

People who study computer science, math, physics, etc - at least at the graduate level, are playing around with stuff like Universal Algebra, Formal Languages, Evolutionary Programming, Neural Nets, and Artificial Intellegence - which I can assure you - are way more "mind altering" than anything I've ever found in literature.

[Anonymous No.2473660]

What if I told you we could flip coins over the phone and no one could lie? What if I told you it's possible to prove something without revealing anything about the proof other than "it's true?" Sounds like religious mumbo-jumbo right, or some kid of play on words? It's a "Zero Knowledge Proof" and it happens all the time when you make a secure connection online.

Or how about fractal dimension? There are constructs with non-integer dimension (the Sierpinski Sieve exists in the Log_2(3)th dimension). Get this - there are things in-between 2D objects like squares and circles, and 3D objects like cubes and spheres. The poof for this absolutely blew my fucking mind.

Don't you want to feel what that's like? You will regret not knowing. Somewhere, in the back of your mind, you want to know. Just like your brain knows that religion is bullshit and doesn't make any sense, your brain also knows that there is a deep logical framework waiting to be explored. It really is an incredibly beautiful thing. Just start with Algebra 101 if you have to - there is even beauty and depth in that.

Ex-liberal arts major trying to convert people.

>>2473604
Also what this guy said. I'm the CS gradstudent guy and they are basically paying me to go to school. I'm working on Homomorphic Encryption using Ideal Lattices. Government Research Grant here I come.

[Anonymous No.2473663]

>>2473658
>can't stand presumptuous generalizations
>makes presumptuous generalizations

Either the person you're replying to is wrong for doing it, and therefore you are also wrong, or you are both correct in doing it.

You don't get it both ways. Maybe your assertion that you can come up with objective answers shouldn't be made until you can actually assert objectivity rather than a knee-jerk "NUH UH YOU ARE"

[Anonymous No.2473670]

>>2473660
that's rad

so is the liberal arts and so are social sciences

knowledge is rad

[Anonymous No.2473675]

>>2473663
I saw that coming the second I wrote that and wrote it anyways.

:)

[Anonymous No.2473676]

>>2473658
You're assuming that everyone goes to college to alter their perceptions of the universe, which isn't true. I'm not a history major because I suck at math or am lazier than anyone else, I'm a history major because I love it.
Have I ever wished I was good enough at math and science to be the next Carl Sagan? Of course, I feel like any conscious person who says no is lying. But that doesn't make me jealous. If I had to work numbers all day, I would hate it. But I actually enjoy spending all day on history, I like spending 12+ hours with Thomas Jefferson's writings.

tl;dr I'm not a STEM major because I hate math or anything, I'm not a STEM major because I enjoy history more.

[Anonymous No.2473679]

As long as you're pursuing knowledge in college, I'm fine, whether it's liberal arts or math or science or whatever.

But god forbid you major in Film Studies. Speaking as a cinephile I can tell you right now that that shit is a waste of time.

[Anonymous No.2474153]

>>2473658
>too lazy to take a whole year of remedial math to catch up

yeah pretty much, even though i know i could do it if i had the willpower

doesnt mean i dont fucking love literature anyway and pouring coffee

[Anonymous No.2474177]

I'm just finishing my English under grad degree, I'm going to do a ComSci masters though.

[Anonymous No.2474184]

>be a philosophy major
>be top of my class, know professors really well
>be invited to ethics conference at Princeton
>ride on a plane with all of my professors and talk philosophy, etc
>meet Peter Singer, Russ Schafer-Landau, John Searle, etc.
>Have 5 letters of recommendation to grad school from professors with national name recognition
>have 3.78 GPA
>write a great honors thesis
>waiting for acceptance letters

[Anonymous No.2474190]

>>2474177
how does that even work

[Anonymous No.2474195]

I don't know whether to study:

>Philosophy
>Politics
>Economic & Social History
>Public Policy

Choose for me unifags.

[Anonymous No.2474199]

I'm majoring in Literary and Critical Theory and getting certified in Digital Arts and Culture. I have this disgusting delusion of becoming a successful writer, though. In agreement with another poster in this thread, if I don't get into academia I'll probably just walk in front of a train.

[Adorno !VGOK6fUxDA No.2474201]

>>2474184

>Ethics

Have fun with your shit subfield.

[Anonymous No.2474213]

>>2474201
>implying that my actual subfield is ethics
>implying that I implied my subfield is ethics and I didn't just say I went to a conference
>implying that my subfield isn't phil. of language and logic

[Anonymous No.2474225]

>>2474213
what university?

[Anonymous No.2474227]

>>2474225
Ohio State University.

Trying to get into Michigan, Wisconsin-Madison, or Ohio State for graduate school.

[Anonymous No.2474236]

Not majoring in something useful.
I seriously hope you guys DO do this.
I majored in sociology. Now I work as a cook in Denny's.
>that feel when you work beside the people who didn't graduate high school and yet are far superior people to those you went to uni with.

[Anonymous No.2474257]

>>2474227
>Ohio State.
Check this pussy bitch.
Youngstown State muthugga.

[Anonymous No.2474362]

I dunno whether to major in Chem or History.

Chem would require an extra year because I gotta catch up on some shit but I enjoy it and idk.

[Anonymous No.2474375]

>>2474227
Same here. First philosophy class next quarter, an honors seminar on objectivity. Thinking about doing a minor in philosophy of science. Have fun in grad school!

[Anonymous No.2474392]

>>2474227

>UW-Madison

Props, I hope you get in. Their Masters program is fucking dope.