Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with undergrad

What did you do with your degree?

mellifluous — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:13:36 -0800

Have you managed to turn an undergrad degree in the humanities/liberal arts into a satisfying and intellectually challenging career? Please tell me about it. I'm finishing up a social science/humanities degree (philosophy/psychology/cognitive science, if it matters.) I'm considering graduate school, but I'd like a sense for my other options - what can I do with my degree? Standard answers like "education, research, law, academia, marketing, etc" are vague, and of little use in forming a concrete plan. I'd like some specific examples of possible paths (the more details, the better), and some reassurance that my degree is at least somewhat useful.

So I'd like to hear how you turned your liberal arts/humanities/social science degree into an intellectually challenging and reasonably fun career, one that utilizes abilities like:
- writing clear, succinct prose
- research skills
- reading and summarizing abstruse/academic material
- analytical/problem solving skills
(etc.)

I should mention, also, that I've taken some computer science courses - I don't want to become a programmer, but if you have a relevant job that requires some modicum of technical skill, that's fine.

I'm not looking for something particularly lucrative, but extra points if your story doesn't involve a dying industry (e.g. print journalism.)

Extra, extra points if it's a career that I've probably never heard of.

Say I wanted to become a medical illustrator...

biochemist — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 08:13:35 -0800

Say I wanted to attend graduate school for a degree in Medical Illustration... what should I start doing now, as a freshman in undergrad, to insure that happens? I'm interested in the Johns Hopkins program, which only accepts 4-6 students a year.

I know I have four years to think about this, but I firmly believe that I need to plan early for graduate school, regardless of what path I take.

I've read over the admission requirements, but I want to know what really makes an applicant stand out. Does volunteer work matter? How about research? Internships at a graphic design company? Do they care if your graphic design classes were over the summer at the local community college?

I won't be taking drawing classes until next semester, and I'll be starting graphic design next year or over the summer. Will I be putting myself at a disadvantage to those who took them all 4 years? It isn't too late to switch classes, but I'm wary of dropping the pre-med requirements because if I change my mind I'm automatically a year behind.

Note: I'll take any advice, it doesn't have to be geared toward JH's program.

Undergraduate clinical psychology experience?

DeucesHigh — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 15:47:17 -0800

I'm a junior in college looking for clinical psychology experience in the Philadelphia area for this summer, especially in and around the Main Line. Where should I inquire? I have looked at my college for resources, but they're very research-oriented so I haven't gotten any leads. I've also done a few searches on here for Psy.D information but nothing has come up on the experiences that people have had before entering those programs.

I'm pretty open as to what kind of setting but definitely am interested in the counseling rather than research field. I'm stumped on where to start looking. Also, what sort of duties are given to undergrads? Specific places to inquire would be welcome! Also, any insight on whether clinical experience is suggested before Psy.D programs would be helpful--I do want to get experience and make sure I like it anyway but I'm getting conflicting information as to its necessity.

--Ms. DeucesHigh

Are journalism students completely screwed?

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:32:54 -0800

Given the never ending stream of bad news coming from print media companies, what is the realistic job outlook for a college student who will be graduating with an undergrad print journalism degree in the next 1-2 years? In other words, am I completely screwed? I'll be graduating in the fall of 2010, with no plans for grad school. Assuming I want a career as a writer/reporter in journalism proper (mainstream newspaper, magazine or online) and not in a related field like marketing or PR, and assuming I am skilled in this regard, what can I expect the job market to look like when I graduate?

Getting objective advice on this from within the J department at my school is rather difficult, as they would seem to have their own reasons for making things seem rosier than they appear (e.g., they certainly want to keep their own jobs in academia and not have to experience this for themselves).

Having said that, one of my professors recently told the class that we are actually in a very good position, since media companies will be interested in hiring new grads on the cheap to replace costlier veteran employees. Sounds plausible, if not terribly reassuring in the long-term.

On the other hand, an employee from our city paper recently spoke to the class, and pointed out that the paper has been under an editorial hiring freeze for the past two years, with no current plans to change that policy.

Given what we know now and making an educated effort to look ahead, how panicked should I be?

The Blunder Years

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:27:46 -0800

Two-parter undergrad question: is it worth it to transfer? How can I stop from burning out? In high school I spent a lot of time and energy buttressing my case for admission to an elite college. I took a ton of AP classes, got good marks on my ACT, cultivated recommendations, and did a few extracurriculars. It worked, and I was admitted to an extremely elite small liberal arts college on partial scholarship. Unfortunately, this didn't work out due to what can only be described as a massive collusion of at least five mostly unrelated factors and what might be lightly termed "blunders," and what's more, the story of what happened cannot be told without making me seem either insane or dangerous.

I am now attending my local state university, which I had expended all that effort in high school to avoid attending. To put it mildly, it lives up to my worst fears: the social atmosphere is suffocating, the professors are mediocre at best, and the entire city it is in is filthy and smells like dead things.

I could transfer, but I already am a Junior and I would have to do at least one addition year as most schools require two years worth of credit at their institution in order to graduate. Furthermore, my family's financial health, once robustly middle-class, has declined somewhat. Hence the first question: is it worth it to transfer to a place I might like? if so, can I get scholarship money? is there anywhere I can transfer to that won't ask too many questions about my past or will avoid asking for recommendations from my current institution?

Second question: if not, how can I prevent myself from burning out? I hate waking up every day here, and I find it harder and harder to engage myself in my schoolwork, but I'm afraid if I take time off I will simply never find the interest to return to college. For example, I have a large take-home test due tomorrow that I did not start until 9:30 tonight (it's 1:00 AM now) that so far has only one of ten questions answered. It's not quite a time management issue, since I spent a good amount of that time staring blankly at the materials and even more time just thinking about the test, nor is it anxiety, as I have been faced with similar positions before and met the challenge. It's obviously too late to save this test— luckily the professor's policies mean that there will be none-too-harsh penalties for late work— but how I can prevent myself from finding myself in this position in the future?

Possible relevant factors include being in a humanities major, taking classes year-round to get myself out of here faster, having a college GPA that hovers between 3.0 and 3.5, a desire to go to library school, living off-campus, having no car and not living in a public-transport friendly city, being otherwise unemployed, and already being in therapy, thank you very much.

Thank you for your answers. Anonymous on account of it revealing personal information that I am still trying to keep out of general circulation.

How to 'fess up to slacking off.

jacalata — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 22:24:54 -0800

I haven't done any work yet, but I swear I will soon - (how) do I tell my thesis advisor? I'm doing my final year Engineering thesis, but I haven't really done anything yet. I'm always a terrible procrastinator and work to deadlines, and the sheer size of this thesis project makes me panic and stare at the wall when I just start trying to break it up into tasks. I have weekly meetings with my advisor where she asks me what I've done, and I talk about the deliverable for that week (meta stuff like a Lit Review, a project timeline, etc) and gloss over the actual work that I thought about doing but didn't. It's week 9 and I haven't even run half of the software I'm supposed to be working on yet.

On the bright side, I recently saw a doctor and got some antidepressants and an appointment with a psychologist (not just thesis stuff). I'm trying to cancel the job I had lined up for midyear holidays so I can spend them working on my thesis instead. It's not due till October, so I'm pretty sure (assuming meds and therapy help) I can get back on track. But I feel ridiculously guilty and don't know how I can tell my advisor where I'm actually at. (I think I'll have to, really, because some of the questions I need to ask are obvious 'I'm just getting started' material).

Summary - I don't want to go into gory personal detail and tmi, but I don't want to just give a glib "by the way, I haven't actually started yet. How do I turn this thing on?" So, what's a nice medium? What does she actually want to know? Should I not bother trying to say anything until I can say 'I have started doing x' instead of 'I'm going to start doing x' (in case I don't follow through)?

Shakespeare isn't Old English, students.

oflinkey — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:52:41 -0800

I am looking for good, undergraduate-geared resources, articles or book chapters that overview 1) the origins of the English language, 2) Old/Middle/Modern/Contemporary English and things like the Great Vowel Shift, and 3) language development in humans. I know of a lot of research and have a couple of books on these very subjects, but these might be too much for my undergrads. These topics are not central to the course. They are supposed to have an awareness of these topics, not a mastery. I want them to be able to recognize them, and maybe develop an interest, which they might pursue themselves, but this is strictly intro only (their text books are not cutting it).

Any suggestions are welcome. Magazines, academic journals, TV programs, academic or popular books are all acceptable. I have some inquiries in to colleagues, but I thought I would ask the Green as well. Thanks!

How do I get over my academic past?

Asherah — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 14:49:30 -0800

Is is a good idea to be blunt about academic missteps during my undergrad? I'm applying to several BSN/MSN combination programs for Nursing and my undergrad GPA counts significantly. Many schools only consider your last 60/90 units and for me, that means we're looking at below a 3.0. Since then I've taken over 45 semester units of Bio, Chem, Epidemiology, Pharmacology, Pathophysiology etc. In addition to the undergrad GPA, they look at your science GPA (I have a 4.0), clinical experience and leadership experience (I feel I am covered in those areas as well).

Regaring my personal statement(s), how blunt should I be about how my undergrad GPA came to be so low? I really wasn't focused during that time academically and wasn't feeling at all motivated to do well. I honestly didn't think I'd be going back to college for quite a while for further education. Should I simply state that and elaborate why this time its a whole new ball of wax and I have a clear idea of my path and why I want it? Is it really that simple?

Note: I do not want to lie and make up some personal emergency/situation that distracted me, as that was not the case and although it might help me get my foot in the door I just wouldn't feel good about it.

Dude, where's my undergrad physics research?

authenticgeek — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 13:05:35 -0800

What are some part- or full-time experiences I can have with physics research in the bay area while still an undergrad? I'm an undergrad in the bay area working towards transfer to Berkeley and physics degree. I feel like my undergrad classes are moving too slowly and I happen to learn and work better when working towards a related goal which is why I'm trying to find some lowly position in physics research. I realize that I'm not much use to physics research as an undergrad but there must be at least a couple programs that want to foster undergrad interest, right?

I know about Berkeley National Lab's SULI and CCI programs. The next time they're open for applicants is for the summer so I'm looking around for something part-time for the near future and full-time for the slightly more future-future.

Post-Baccalaureate College Admissions in Biology

palmcorder_yajna — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 12:11:45 -0800

Does anyone have advice for a thirty-something with an art history degree who wants to go back to school for a B.S. in biology? Having reached the rather advanced age of 33, I have come to the realization that I have missed my calling, and that life simply cannot go on without my going back to school to pursue a career in biology. My research tells me that, in order to take the classes that will allow me to make the best possible choice w/re speciaization, and in order to get the kind of research experience I'll need for grad school appliactions, I need to matriculate as a Bachelor's degree student. The trouble is, I've already got an undergraduate degree in art history. I've also got a Juris Doctorate, which I'm only sort of using at the moment.

I want to go to the U of Washington as a post-baccalaureate student, but I know that post-bac admissions are highly competitive. Does anyone have any advice for me? I'm particularly interested in hearing about experiences that the people in this older thread may have had, subsequent to posting. (The old thread's about -whether- to go back for a science post-bac. I'm past the "whether" point, and need to know more about "how.")

Here are some other things it might be useful for you to know:

(1) I'm currently taking classes at the community college. I've completed the last two quarters of the majors' biology series, and I'm in the middle of taking the first. I've also had the prep class for the majors' chemistry series. My GPA in this stuff is a 4.0.

(2) I plan to take majors' chem, microbio, math through calculus, and physics with calculus through the community college system before I start classes as a B.S. student at U-W (or wherever).

(3) My law school GPA was rather sucky, but in the classes I took between getting my J.D. and starting the majors' biology series, I also have a 4.0. (If it matters, the other classes were: An upper-level literature class that I took for fun, an education theory class, a quarter of nonmajors' biology, and 4 post-bac classes in teaching English as a second language that I took with my husband so that we could work abroad for a year.)

(4) I am in the process of joining the Puget Sound Mycological Society, which I hope will allow me to pick up some useful research and volunteer experience.

(5) I'm also a fiction writer, and some of the fiction I've sold has to do with natural history and related disciplines.

Thanks, all!

High school senior needs a real-world smackdown

aye — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 18:14:29 -0800

I'm a 12th grade senior in a public high school and live in a town where over 95% of graduates go to college. Can I get away with not going? Spare the politeness and call out my 17-year-old naivete. Some lengthy text follows, sorry in advance. I attend two schools: a big high school (just for AP classes) and an independent study program, where I go weekly to turn in and discuss homework. Big High School is very education and music-oriented, where parents regularly push their students to overload their schedule with 4-6 AP classes yearly. The independent study program is mellow, open-ended, and an introvert haven. I'm an introvert but a skilled conversationalist, with enough close friends. This arrangement leaves me with a lot of free time to pursue my interests at home.

My interests are mainly programming and photography. A few years back, I wrote most of a large cross-platform software package that occasionally appears in scientific journals. I can get production sites up in Python/Django in very little time. I code pretty stylesheets and work around IE6 bugs. I sysadmin and solve almost any problem on Linux, Windows 2000/XP/2003, or OS X.

I've been spending a third of my free time on DSLR photography this past year. A few of my photos got re-printed in small magazines, but usually not for artistic value. A lot of the programming and photography employment I see nowadays is based solely on prior work. Will the majority of employers still demand that I have a college degree?

I'm getting to the question, I promise. I live in a university town. My parents are academics. I've talked to professors on campus and visited plenty of other universities. I find most of the academia boring - (generalizing here) bleak, unprofessional, slow as molasses, with TAs and occasionally boring professors lecturing undergrads in large lecture halls. The socializing aspect doesn't interest me much either (I'm not into alcohol, I'd have to dodge every party). Four years is an eternity to me and the tuition/housing costs are crazy. I would never take Computer Science as an undergrad because it would be a colossal waste of time. But I'm easily willing to take specific university classes later in my life.

My parents are reasonable folks who would let me do just about anything as long as I move out soon. The only other limitation is having practically no college savings (which I could work around).

I guess my options are:

Ignore college completely, focus on contract-based programming/web development/computer work in the short term, and possibly take over my parent's software company later.

Apply to colleges to please my teachers (hundreds of dollars, weeks of application-filling, essay writing) and not go anywhere.

Apply, accept, attend, and likely drop out after a semester or two.

Apply, accept, force myself to attend four years, have massive debt, and risk being useless in a changing job market.

Take a one year "break" for computer-related work, and if that doesn't work out, apply next year.

Did you stay the 4-year undergraduate course? Did you drop out or never even apply? Do you regret or not regret the experience? Any relevant advice given my non-willingness to go?

Thank you, Ask MeFi!

What content and functionality makes a useful website for young people?

mhuckaba — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 23:53:38 -0800

What websites do you(more specifically undergrads/20 somethings) find the most helpful, use the most frequently, and are most likely to share with your friends? I'm starting a website geared towards undergrads/recent grads, with entertaining and informative content, news, and helpful articles, tools and guides. Not looking to make a collegehumor.com, or fastweb.com, or something like that. More like a how to guide for young adults, from the perspectives of people who are/have been there.

So basically, I'd like like some input as to how I should design the page...
Simplistic(Google) vs functional(Yahoo)
Visual(fark.com) vs textual?(Technocrat.net)
etc.

The intended structure will be similar to Slashdot's, except subdomains will have hosted content and tools in addition to news links. Subdomains will also be more visually engaging and rich.

Finally, what content, news, and functionality would appeal to you? Note that I am not going to attempt to make a new social network that emulates anything facebook or myspace already does. If any type of social network comes out of it, it will be unique in some way.

scholarships

stray — Wed, 25 May 2005 15:46:43 -0800

Okay, this is probably going to come off as kinda pretentious, but has anyone ever dealt with winning TOO much scholarship money? I'm...pleased to have this problem, but it's stressing me out. I won two major Canadian undergrad scholarships. One of them has a strict (?) requirement that I receive only $17 000 TOTAL a year in scholarship funds. I'm a few hundred over that limit.

My question is: should I fudge the numbers a bit, and lie? Will they do indepth research? Should I admit to everything, and risk losing the scholarship? Why on earth do they DO this?

I should add that I'm over because my tuition is high. My tuition is completely waived by a different scholarship, so the higher my tuition, the higher the amount of money I'm "receiving". If that makes any sense.