Education

[pegkerr]

Gacked from klig. I'd be interested to know what the level of formal education is among my LJ friends. I'm not snobby about education - I'm very well aware that a piece of paper is only part of the story.


[Poll #349908]

Leave details of your areas of study in the comments if you so wish.

Edited to add: I'm sorry I didn't have choices that fit some of the experiences that you have recounted, i.e., still in junior high, still in high school, finished some college but have no plans to complete, etc.

But I just wanted to say that you are all pretty damn impressive. It's been very interesting reading about the wide variety of your education and experience. Thank you, and congratulations to all those of you who have recently completed degrees!

Comments

[pnh.livejournal.com]

Oh, no offense taken! It's just an Amusing Thing that persistently comes to the attention of those of us who bailed out of the educational system early.

[copperwise.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. That's why I read everything from physics textbooks to tabloids. You never know where your next plot is going to pop up...

[jbru.livejournal.com]

I picked "completed an undergraduate degree" though I don't have the piece of paper. I spent three years at the U of MN figuring out I didn't want to be an Electrical Engineer. Since then, I figure my 15+ years of employment are enough to qualify me as having a degree. I just wish people looking at resumes thought so.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

Degree in English and History (and inevitably, I work in the computer industry, because there's no jobs for people like me!). I keep toying with the idea of going back and getting an MFA in creative writing, but I suspect I'm tempermentally unsuited for an MFA program. :)

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I did almost a year's worth of community college, but that was while I was in high school so I don't have an AA degree. But I have a BA in theatre and an MFA in playwriting, so I think I've got the three main types of colleges covered.

I'd love to go back to school to study Japanese, because that's probably the only way I'll ever get fluent, but that's a pipe dream at the moment. I just don't have the time. But that's why I started watching anime, and when one of my bootlegged episodes didn't include subtitles, I was mostly able to follow it anyway.

[avengangle.livejournal.com]

Having been a National Merit Scholar and my high school's valedictorian, and other various things, including a Board of Regents Scholarship, a Presidential Scholarship, I'm in my fifth year (unplanned) in undergrad. My degrees are in music history and literature and music theory. What am I going to do with these degrees? Why, go to law school, of course! As much as I adore musicology and music in general -- and despite the fact that I'm actually pretty good at analysis and stuff -- I decided (a couple months ago) that music academia is too in-the-head for me and I'd like to go out and be involved in things, rather than in my own tiny little world. So, law school. It's a good generic degree, I guess.

(Although I'd like to point out that the average starting salary for Ph.Ds in musicology is over $10K a year higher than the average starting salary for a lawyer. So, by going into a field that is supposedly more marketable, I will be making less money. Explain that one, please.)

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

I've got an Associates. Going for the Bachelor's now. (the bachelor's I started working on in /1991/. Ahem.)

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

Have a BS in language arts education and a Masters in Library and Information Science. As additional info, my husband has a BS in both physics and electrical engineering and a PhD in astrophysics.

MKK

[kinetikatrue]

I have attended five colleges for varying lengths of time and managed, so far, to all-but-achieve an associate's degree in general studies(I'm there but for the paperwork). I was, for part of that time, a Comp Sci major, but gave that up when I decided that, really, I didn't want to program for a living, thankyouverymuch. Now, I noodle along taking a class or two at a time(currently: Ancient Greek. Whee!), though I have continual ambitions along the lines of going back to school full time and just doing those final two years of a BA in something. Classics. Linguistics. Cognitive Science. History. Mathematics. Anything. Well, maybe not anything, anything. I also have sneakier ambitions of grandfathering my way into an MLIS program without getting a BA first, but I'm not sure how well that would work in practice, so it tends to get to be the pipe-dream option.

[silme.livejournal.com]

BA English, minors in theatre and psychology. With the BA, I also earned my first Colorado teaching license (it's renewable every five years). Eight years later, whilst teaching secondary English full time, I earned my MA in Education -- K-12 Reading and Writing. It took four years since I was working full time.

Last summer, I earned Qualified Teacher Status in England. I moved here in 2000 (British husband) after having taught in Colorado for 17 years. I first spent two years at an American school near London, but the commute was too far. Therefore, in September 2002, I started at an English school. With my degrees, experience and having observed a lesson I taught (in England, they make you teach a half hour lesson as part of the interview process), they hired me. In order to earn more money, though, I needed to obtain a teaching license here, and I finally jumped through those hoops.

Btw -- good luck with Planned Parenthood. When I was still in Colorado, I moonlighted for seven years (from '93-'00) at a women's health clinic aimed at low-income women. I loved working there.

[ame-chan.livejournal.com]

currently doing an undergrad degree in History, but wiht the intention of completing my MLS immediately thereafter.

[akamarykate.livejournal.com]

Bachelor's in Elementary Education, minor in English Lit; Masters in Ed Psych/Gifted Ed.

I wouldn't mind taking more classes, but I'm not sure I'll ever want another degree.

[perimyndith.livejournal.com]

Bachelors' in History and Asian studies; Master's in International Studies focused on China. I mainly did the Masters' because the first two felt inadequate (my undergrad school was not known for either subject) and because I had no idea what else to do with myself.

[sangerin.livejournal.com]

Graduated in April with Bachelor of Laws (Honours)/Bachelor of Arts (Honours) and a Diploma in Modern Languages (German). In three weeks I'll finish a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice and then I'll be admitted in November to the Supreme Court of Victoria (Australia) as a Barrister and Solicitor. And then I'll finally be able to work and earn a little money.

Somewhere in my future is a PhD, and a degree of some sort in theology. I'm just not sure exactly *where* in my future.

[sheryll.livejournal.com]

Certified Library Technician, 2 year college course. Of course college and university are very different animals in Canada.

[baylorsr.livejournal.com]

Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. Presently employed as an executive assistant.

Yeah.

[wintercreek]

Just started my senior year of undergrad. I will have a BA in English Literature in May 2005.

Not sure where I'm going after that; depends on how many applications I fill out and who accepts/hires me!

[kayre]

Bachelor's in English Literature, Master's in Theology.

[elfundeb.livejournal.com]

You already know I have a law degree, but I recall that while there I considered it to be "learning a trade" so I was never sure that the J.D. deserved the lofty phrase "postgraduate education." Though I did write a published paper that hardly anyone read, so I guess it counts.

I do take pride, however, in being the first of my family ever to do postgraduate work, and even more pride in the fact that my sister followed my footsteps (sort of ) and obtained a real M.A.

[volkhvoi.livejournal.com]

Just graduated with a Ph.D. in modern (military) history from the University of Glasgow (UK) this past July.

Truepenny's comment that it's "eight years of bloody-mindedness" is absolutely dead on.

[tigergladys.livejournal.com]

Currently in school for a BS in biology, but at this point, it'll take me 5 years to finish, while financial aid runs out after the fourth. So chances are slim that I'll be able to afford $45K a year and actually finish.
Why 5 years? Two major changes (biology to chemistry and back again), terrible advisors, a knack for choosing courses that are fascinating instead of courses that are useful, the school being tightlipped on how to go about signing up for things you need to graduate. Overheard two professors talking in the department office about their plan to make it impossible for one kid to ever graduate by denying him projects until he gave up and went home. I'm feeling very discouraged at the moment.

[resqdog51.livejournal.com]

I'm one of the ones you don't have a choice for -- I've completed nearly 10 years of college, but only have an AA because 90% (or more) was aimed purely at education and it was only in the last 2 years of it that I went back and went "what do I need to get a degree, anyway" and finished up the last two courses mixed in with other stuff.

*grin*

[mark356.livejournal.com]

At the moment, I don't fit into any of those categories. I never completed formal high school (will get GED in November), so I can't claim even that level as of now, but I'm enrolled in courses at Boston University as a non-degree student with the hope of being a degree student somewhere soon.