The topic of your major surfacing in casual conversation.

glennmagusharvey

@Neo_Crimson > When people find out I'm studying Chemical Engineering, they confuse my
job for that of a Chemist. Chemical Engineering is more physics than
chemistry.

Yeah, it's more like mechanical engineering with a side of chemstry.  When I first studied chem eng, I thought it would be more like what I later learned was actually materials science/engineering.

...wait, you're studying chemical engineering?  I guess you're trying to become what I could have become, but was too much of a wuss to.

RedEyedAbyss

Engineering Physics tends to invoke "You poor thing" reactions since people tend to know it as being "that really hard degree". People barely bring up what it's useful for, which is the other part of the stereotype: a dearth of career options. Then again, I've been told it would be useful outside Alberta since there are jobs in areas other than oil and gas.

Icalasari

^^^^^ That reminds me:

Occupy Intelligence!

glennmagusharvey

Occupy enemy base?

IanExMachina

Sociology.

A lot of people only have vague understanding of what it actually entails, however the wide range of studies is great for general discussion about many factors in society. (Gender, sexuality etc etc.)

Gelzo

"When people find out I'm studying Chemical Engineering, they confuse my job for that of a Chemist. "

By chemist, you don't happen to mean a pharmacist, right? Probably not, I guess. That would be weird.

Wait a minute, Alex isn't majoring in swords, is he?

Math is pretty cool. Haven't taken any classes since high school, but they were some rather advanced classes. I think my arithmetic has gotten steadily worse, but I can still understand my brother's algebra homework well enough to help.

It might be good for me to talk with some of the computer science majors. I've been thinking about going into computational linguistics, the kind of stuff that involves machine translation and search engines and whatnot, seems like that's where money is, but the two comp sci courses I've taken were a little hard for me to grasp at times, and I'm not sure if I have the chops for it.

DYRE

Maths.

In addition to the "Holy shit how do you do that math is so hard uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaa~!" there's also the people who figure that that means they should just ask me to do random arithmetic, for some reason.

DonZabu

I'm gonna see if I can get into the advertising industry without a degree.

God help me.

Ponicalica

there's also the people who figure that that means they should just ask me to do random arithmetic, for some reason.

I haven't seen that in a while, thank goodness.

Gelzo

^That must be obnoxious. It's like people learning that you speak a language and ask you to say something in the language. It's surprisingly hard to think of something.

^^How does that work?

DonZabu

^ You're expected to bring in a portfolio of your advertising work (or speculative work if you've never had the actual job before) to any given job interview so that they may judge your chops. Supposing my stuff is good enough, I might be able to get a job straightaway.

Or that doesn't happen in the slightest, but I can at least try.

Gelzo

I guess it couldn't hurt to try, huh? Good luck. For some reason I always like hearing stories about people starting decent careers without going to college.

Icalasari

If my laptop wasn't breaking down I'd have a far stronger portfolio (I already sent three requested images to someone who works at ACAD who has connections). Alas, I had to submit two pieces of older work and a piece I had finished recently (End of October deadline)

Damn laptop >.> I could have had a huge piece done in time...

LouieW

Chagen,

I think it is a matter of people generally not knowing a lot about areas that they do not specialize in rather than them being idiots or having a mental disability. Given that most people probably lack a good deal of knowledge outside of their area of expertise, I feel like it is probably reasonable to cut them some slack. For example, I doubt many of the best lawyers are experts in chemical engineering (and I would guess that few of the best chemical engineers are experts in law), but that does not make them stupid.

By the way, I think this topic is pretty interesting, if only as a way to hear about people's different specialized interests, so props to Gelzo for making it.

Shichibukai

History and politics is relatively uncontroversial, but I hate some peoples' assumption that all politics students are bound to be raving politically-correct leftists. Considering my own political dispositions, it pisses me off, but it comes as no surprise in an atmosphere of cultural marxist academia. 

Chagen

"It's like people learning that you speak a language and ask you to say something in the language. It's surprisingly hard to think of something."

THANK YOU.

I friggin' hate when my mom does this. And when I can't pull out a German sentence quick enough, she tells me that I'm not studying enough.

MillerCross

Yeah, knowing English is suffering.

Bastion

People just tend to move on after I bring up my major, probably thinking to themselves "Huh. No way you're ever going to get a job."

If they did, they'd mostly be proven right by my track record so far.

MillerCross

Which is...?

Also, it's downright amusing how many college students we have. Specially considering this board rather...immature nature.

Gelzo

I am a paragon of maturity.

DonZabu

^

Bastion

Which is...?

I was in an individualized study program, mostly taking courses in psychology, anthropology and writing. 

Topically: one time when I mentioned psychology, a cute blonde girl asked "So what's wrong with me?" It was about 2 am and I was in the middle of an all-nighter, having only left the library to get waffles at a diner, so I thought of the perfect reply "Nothing at all, baby *cheesy wink*" a few seconds too late.

RedEyedAbyss

"Also, it's downright amusing how many college students we have. Specially considering this board rather...immature nature."

How many post-secondary freshmen have you hung around? Maybe it's just Canada, but this is par for the course.

V...I hate you all.

Gelzo

The correct answer is that she's a woman.

Bastion

MadassAlex

Wait a minute, Alex isn't majoring in swords, is he?

---

I'm majorly swordy.

Following a couple of semi-botched years of uni, I don't have a major. Swordsmanship would be something pretty major in my life that I study, practise and could be trusted to speak about, though.

Gelzo

I guess it's a shame people stopped using swords in warfare after World War II.

MadassAlex

My area of study goes back much further than that, though. By World War II, sword technique had already atrophied to such an extent that there was never any going back. Except as historical curiosities, the techniques from that era aren't really worth much study. The golden years of swordsmanship in Europe started c.1350 and ended c.1650 -- almost four hundred years ago. After that stage, warfare reforms began to chip away at the relevance of all close combat weapons, swords included. By the 19th century, most true battle technique had been lost and replaced with pompous duels between ignorant gentlemen. The 18th century was the last dance of the swordsman. It was also the century in which the last treatise on the longsword was published. Kinda poetic; the golden age began with the longsword and swordsmanship died hanging on to it.

Stormtroper

I haven't had this happen to me. Mechanical engineering sounds boring, I guess.

Gelzo

You're right, you are majorly sWORDY!