Edumacations

[Southtown]

How many of you have degrees and/or what kind are you pursuing? And what jobs came as a result? I find myself wondering where all this wonderful knowledge comes from on the forums.

 

I got a two-year AAS in electronics/computers in '99, but I don't do computers for a living. I spray lacquor finishes on cabinets. LOL It turns out that programming or net-adminning would require butt-loads more schooling. I don't think I'd enjoy it THAT much.

 

I ask because I'm considering more education, but for a job in a science field. I think I'd really enjoy an investigative type job, analystic, or even field dirty work. But if I invest in more school, I have to make it pay off, since I have a wife and two kids to think about these days.

[rockytriton]

I have a bachelors in Computer Science. I'm seriously considering going back to college to get a degree in physics though.

 

Any job in a science field will require butt-loads more schooling, with lots of math to boot!

 

Also, showing your kids that education is important is a payoff as well.

[Southtown]

Tru dat. So we're kinda in the same boat huh?

[pgrmdave]

I'm in school, pursuing a degree in Computer Science.

[Southtown]

Would that be for prgmng? nyuk nyuk nyuk

 

I shoulda got a bachelors, but I was just a kid and wasn't thinking.

[rockytriton]

I was just a kid and wasn't thinking too, I just finished my bachelors when I was 28 and I'm 30 now. And when I was working on my bachelors I had a wife and two kids (still do!).

[Southtown]

Haha! I just turned thirty last month. We must be long lost twins. :confused: :confused:

[cwes99_03]

I have a bachelors in physics from a well held private college. I work on computers for a local municipality in the city i got my degree in.

 

I've thought about going back to get my phD to do more with physics. The problem is that it would take away from my time with my religious studies (surprise there right).

 

As of now I'm only 24, graduated with my BS two years ago. Joined the site, so that I could still talk and learn new things in science without spending 18 hours a day teaching undergrad and doing research. Plus I'm not too sure what field i'd be most interested in, i've such a broad interest.

[rockytriton]

Maybe you can set out on a quest to prove the existence of God, you can be like that Physicist from "Angels and Demons". Hell, maybe in the process you can create an anti-matter bomb that can destroy the world just like he did too!

[GAHD]

My education is books, books, books, 'papers', and more books. remember, it's not how you get the education, it's how you apply it.

[cwes99_03]

Somewhere someone taught you how to teach yourself, no? Your insight might be welcome on the http://hypography.com/forums/social-sciences/4139-education-part-ll.html thread.

[Jay-qu]

I havent finished high school yet... 1 more week :hihi: so most of the stuff that we discuss here on the forums is beyond my formal education and in the realm of my self education from books and the internet

 

Though next year I will be going to university to study astro-physics and astronomy! cant wait!

[rockytriton]

you start with astro-physics the first year of college?

[Erasmus00]

you start with astro-physics the first year of college?

 

I'm sure the first year of a physics/astronomy undergrad includes an intro to astronomy, intro to mechanics, intro to electricity and magnetism.

-Will

[CraigD]

I was an English major for 1 year, then a Fine Arts major for 1 year, before changing to Math and getting a 4-year BS in Math back in 1984. I took all of the Physics classes I could cajole my last small, Art-focused college’s Physical Science division into offering, and a couple of independent study classes in Astronomy, a longtime hobby of mine.

 

Other than a smattering of professional “continuing education” pseudo-classes, professional (computer) convention workshops, and a single quarter of Business school (I was writing a GL/AP system, and wanted to know what my end users were talking about) that’s been it for me. My rather unstructured formal education gave me pretty good self-educating skills, so I’ve picked up a modicum of additional Math, general Science, and Liberal Arts knowledge in the past couple of decades. I’ve read about about a half dozen textbooks in those 20 years, several tens of popular Math and Science books, and hundreds of periodicals.

 

With my youngest of 3 kids now 21 and financially independent (barring emergencies), I’m beginning to consider returning to school in a serious way. My major obstacle is “money addiction” – I’m making an astonishing (based on my 1982 expectations) amount of money basically indulging the hobby I’ve had since I was 15 years old – programming computers – and have equally astonishingly come up with ways to spend it nearly as quickly as I make it.

 

My education/career path is fairly typical of people my age (born 1960). For some time, now, I’ve noticed that it’s much harder for young, moderately educated folk to get decent entry-level programming jobs than it was for me in the 1980s. Also, through the early 1990s, I knew several well-paid programmers who had only a 12th grade education – true, old school hackers, in the pre-pejorative sense. Around that time, hiring and promotion practices seem to single them out, despite some of them having top-10% technical skills, driving every one I knew out of the profession. I think that’s unfortunate, because the best programmers, in my experience, more often than not have the least formal training in the field, while many of the worst have advanced degrees in Computer Science.

 

When I grow up, I wanna be a PhD of Math, and spend all my time just being deep. :hihi:

[Jay-qu]

This is directly from the monash website - I think you choose 4 units per year, the ones below are the Astro-physics/Astonomy part of the corse but you also must complete a certain number of units in maths and other you can also choose to include other areas such as Quantum Concepts and the like.

 

# ASP1010 Earth to cosmos - introductory astronomy

# ASP1022 Life and the universe

# ASP2011 Astronomy

# ASP2062 Introduction to astrophysics

# ASP3012 Stars and galaxies

# ASP3051 Relativity and cosmology

# ASP3222 Physics for astrophysics

# ASP3231 Observational astronomy

# ASP4100 Astrophysics honours part 3 (project)

# ASP4210 Astrophysics honours part 1

# ASP4220 Astrophysics honours part 2

[cwes99_03]

Know what you mean. The least formally trained have a knack for figuring things out on their own. While a bit of learning from a couple of books can open the doors to programming today. Largely one has to go back to the beginning of programming. This takes time, access to older software, and largely those are accessible in a classroom at a university. Unfortunately i couldn't sit through the bloody boring remedial computer science classes. So i chose physics. Now I work on computers because I finally found someone willing to give me a job in anything.