(no subject)
Dec. 11th, 2006 09:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
labellementeuseOkay, so I know what you all want to read desperately right now: me, struggling with my timetable for next year, and my plans for the year after that.
So for the past two or so years I've been doing a BA/BSc majoring in english, philosophy and mathematics, respectively. (Actually, the BA was originally in linguistics, but it kind of bored me so I switched.) After two years, this is what I have that's relevant (I also have some french and a little extra linguistics, but who cares):
LING/ENGL101: Int. to the English Language
ENGL1something: Shakespeare
ENGL2something: Nineteenth Century Environments
PHIL134: Logic
PHIL208: Logic A
PHIL209: Logic B
LING/PHILsomething: Semantics
PHIl233: Epistemology and Metaphysics
MATH105: Mathematics 1A or 1B or something, anyway, it's a double paper and it's pretty much all you need from first year maths
MATH221/222: (making one full paper) Algebra and Cryptography, and Groups and Symmetry
To graduate with my stated majors, I probably need to spend at least two and a half more years in my undergraduate degree. So my question to you, dear friends (and I would really appreciate advice in this, actually): is it worth it? To spend nearly five years on an undergraduate degree, burn out on what I really like doing, and then spend another however many years getting a postgrad degree at Victoria? And then probably go somewhere else and get some more education? Or would it be smarter to cut my degree down to a BA in Philosophy and English, uproot from Canty and head up to Victoria to do postgrad in 2008? Maybe finish off my undergrad Maths at the same time? (this mostly seems attractive to me because - home in wellington! creative writing programme! good philosophy!) one other thing, I don't even know if I can do that this year. I've totally overloaded on papers every year so I should theoretically, but --
The other thing I'm majorly stressing about in a silly way is: what the hell papers should I take? If I do want to graduate at the end of this year, I'm faced with the prospect of getting at least two third year papers in both English and Philosophy, plus the second-year English poetry writing paper (I got accepted, by the way! \o/) . Third year papers are worth 28 points; second-year is worth 22; so that comes to, hrm, 134 points. I can maybe fit in one more second year paper, bringing me to 156; they'll make faces at me, but I can totally handle it, I did 154 this year and I only got that one C+ because I stopped going to classes. I can do better, really, and I can handle three papers per semester. I think. Especially if it's two third years and one second year - above and away my best mark this year was also the paper with the highest workload by a LONG shot, I just need to like my classes.
So! Assuming they let me, this is what I'm definitely doing:
Semester One:
ENGL2something: Poetry
Semester Two:
PHIL3something: Philosophy of Logic
So... I get one second year and one third year phil, and two third year English. Assuming they let me into third year English, I only have a couple English papers (but my marks for them are pretty great - A+, A-, A+ - so they'll probably be nice to me. Maybe.)
WRT: Phil, I feel like I should do proper core philosophy stuff like, you know, history of philosophy and ethics, but what I'm *really* keen on is the political philosophy paper - especially since I'm considering doing postgrad at Vic, you know? I mean, while ideally I'd carry on with Logic, I don't know what the logic is like at Vic and, well, in Wellington pols is really employable. It doesn't help that all the second semester 200-level PHIL papers are, you know, Philosophy of Art and greek philosophy and junk like that. All the stuff I'm actually interested in, like Philosophy of Science, Ethics, and Political Thought are all in the first semester. the only things in the second semester I'm faintly interested in are Biomedical ethics and... actually, no, that's it. Although I suppose I could use the Greeks. you don't get more core than the greeks. I suppose I should do PHIL301: History of Philosophy in the first semester, but... ugh. BORING. Contemporary Political Philosophy looks more interesting - and useful. ALTHOUGH I could do 371: Ethics. But then I'd end up doing Ethics and... Biomedical ethics, which, um, not really the direction I'd been planning on taking my degree, although I suppose Biomedical ethics would be really easy.
And on the ENGL side of things, naturally they're not offering the one thing I really, really want to do - romantic poetry and prose. In fact, funnily enough, they're not offering a lot of papers next year. Damn you, staff cuts. Damn you to hell. ALTHOUGH OH HOLY SHIT: ENGL313: CULTURES OF THE SUPERNATURAL. I am so there, I am so there, look at those texts, guys! okay, god, SO doing that paper. So all I need is a second semester paper - I'm really pissed off, by the way, that my favourite lecturer EVER is on some kind of candyass sabbatical next year and only teaching at 100 and 200 level. :( But, yeesh, the second semester papers frankly suck. NZ Literature, Postcolonial writing, and Eighteenth Century Worlds? Meh. :-/ Postcolonial could be quite cool, but I doubt it would be. And I don't know any of the lecturers. I want Huw Griffiths and Jed Mayer! Why aren't they lecturing, damn them?
I suppose I could do two third year English papers in the first semester and two third year Phil papers in the second, but that would mean totally blocked-out one kind in each semester and I frankly don't find that prospect attractive, although then I could do the Nineteenth Century Novel paper... but the Phil second semester papers suck again, so no.
Oh, woes, kids. *dramatic sigh*
Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is a lot of pointless blether about nothing whatsoever. Suck it up, most of it's under a cut.
Also, interesting fact: I've started to have anxiety nightmares about being late for work. I've had nightmares every night this week and it's really starting to stress me out, because they leave me tired enough that I... sleep in, and am late for work. In my defense, I start work at seven am most mornings, which means I have to be out of the house by half past six. it's not hard for me to be late. But... eh. it's creepy because I've never had nightmares like this before! And on that note I'm going the hell to bed.
So for the past two or so years I've been doing a BA/BSc majoring in english, philosophy and mathematics, respectively. (Actually, the BA was originally in linguistics, but it kind of bored me so I switched.) After two years, this is what I have that's relevant (I also have some french and a little extra linguistics, but who cares):
LING/ENGL101: Int. to the English Language
ENGL1something: Shakespeare
ENGL2something: Nineteenth Century Environments
PHIL134: Logic
PHIL208: Logic A
PHIL209: Logic B
LING/PHILsomething: Semantics
PHIl233: Epistemology and Metaphysics
MATH105: Mathematics 1A or 1B or something, anyway, it's a double paper and it's pretty much all you need from first year maths
MATH221/222: (making one full paper) Algebra and Cryptography, and Groups and Symmetry
To graduate with my stated majors, I probably need to spend at least two and a half more years in my undergraduate degree. So my question to you, dear friends (and I would really appreciate advice in this, actually): is it worth it? To spend nearly five years on an undergraduate degree, burn out on what I really like doing, and then spend another however many years getting a postgrad degree at Victoria? And then probably go somewhere else and get some more education? Or would it be smarter to cut my degree down to a BA in Philosophy and English, uproot from Canty and head up to Victoria to do postgrad in 2008? Maybe finish off my undergrad Maths at the same time? (this mostly seems attractive to me because - home in wellington! creative writing programme! good philosophy!) one other thing, I don't even know if I can do that this year. I've totally overloaded on papers every year so I should theoretically, but --
The other thing I'm majorly stressing about in a silly way is: what the hell papers should I take? If I do want to graduate at the end of this year, I'm faced with the prospect of getting at least two third year papers in both English and Philosophy, plus the second-year English poetry writing paper (I got accepted, by the way! \o/) . Third year papers are worth 28 points; second-year is worth 22; so that comes to, hrm, 134 points. I can maybe fit in one more second year paper, bringing me to 156; they'll make faces at me, but I can totally handle it, I did 154 this year and I only got that one C+ because I stopped going to classes. I can do better, really, and I can handle three papers per semester. I think. Especially if it's two third years and one second year - above and away my best mark this year was also the paper with the highest workload by a LONG shot, I just need to like my classes.
So! Assuming they let me, this is what I'm definitely doing:
Semester One:
ENGL2something: Poetry
Semester Two:
PHIL3something: Philosophy of Logic
So... I get one second year and one third year phil, and two third year English. Assuming they let me into third year English, I only have a couple English papers (but my marks for them are pretty great - A+, A-, A+ - so they'll probably be nice to me. Maybe.)
WRT: Phil, I feel like I should do proper core philosophy stuff like, you know, history of philosophy and ethics, but what I'm *really* keen on is the political philosophy paper - especially since I'm considering doing postgrad at Vic, you know? I mean, while ideally I'd carry on with Logic, I don't know what the logic is like at Vic and, well, in Wellington pols is really employable. It doesn't help that all the second semester 200-level PHIL papers are, you know, Philosophy of Art and greek philosophy and junk like that. All the stuff I'm actually interested in, like Philosophy of Science, Ethics, and Political Thought are all in the first semester. the only things in the second semester I'm faintly interested in are Biomedical ethics and... actually, no, that's it. Although I suppose I could use the Greeks. you don't get more core than the greeks. I suppose I should do PHIL301: History of Philosophy in the first semester, but... ugh. BORING. Contemporary Political Philosophy looks more interesting - and useful. ALTHOUGH I could do 371: Ethics. But then I'd end up doing Ethics and... Biomedical ethics, which, um, not really the direction I'd been planning on taking my degree, although I suppose Biomedical ethics would be really easy.
And on the ENGL side of things, naturally they're not offering the one thing I really, really want to do - romantic poetry and prose. In fact, funnily enough, they're not offering a lot of papers next year. Damn you, staff cuts. Damn you to hell. ALTHOUGH OH HOLY SHIT: ENGL313: CULTURES OF THE SUPERNATURAL. I am so there, I am so there, look at those texts, guys! okay, god, SO doing that paper. So all I need is a second semester paper - I'm really pissed off, by the way, that my favourite lecturer EVER is on some kind of candyass sabbatical next year and only teaching at 100 and 200 level. :( But, yeesh, the second semester papers frankly suck. NZ Literature, Postcolonial writing, and Eighteenth Century Worlds? Meh. :-/ Postcolonial could be quite cool, but I doubt it would be. And I don't know any of the lecturers. I want Huw Griffiths and Jed Mayer! Why aren't they lecturing, damn them?
I suppose I could do two third year English papers in the first semester and two third year Phil papers in the second, but that would mean totally blocked-out one kind in each semester and I frankly don't find that prospect attractive, although then I could do the Nineteenth Century Novel paper... but the Phil second semester papers suck again, so no.
Oh, woes, kids. *dramatic sigh*
Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is a lot of pointless blether about nothing whatsoever. Suck it up, most of it's under a cut.
Also, interesting fact: I've started to have anxiety nightmares about being late for work. I've had nightmares every night this week and it's really starting to stress me out, because they leave me tired enough that I... sleep in, and am late for work. In my defense, I start work at seven am most mornings, which means I have to be out of the house by half past six. it's not hard for me to be late. But... eh. it's creepy because I've never had nightmares like this before! And on that note I'm going the hell to bed.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 09:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 12:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 09:42 am (UTC)I mean, she is sharp as a very pointy knife. BUT DROWN YOU. IN THEORY.
Still, you should totally do that course cos OMG.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 12:01 am (UTC)And, seriously, Buffy! Angel! Coraline! nothing is going to stop me taking that course.
Ah, Tis The Season To Go Mental With Stress
Date: 2006-12-11 09:43 am (UTC)So, yeah, don't know how best to get you to your goal. But you'll do fine, you're obviously a remarkably clever person.
Hey, you should do whatever it was that put you in Wellington, then I could boogie on down and say hi some time.
As for nightmares. I used to have serious problems when I was a kid and one of my mum's friends gave me a mental technique that helped. Ge tthe nightmare, fold it up, put it in a mental box, then put that in another, over and over, and then put the box away. It really got my mind cleared so I could sleep again.
AHHHHH, CORALINE!!!
Date: 2006-12-11 09:45 am (UTC)Re: AHHHHH, CORALINE!!!
Date: 2006-12-12 12:05 am (UTC)yes, I am totally doing it and I'm excited. :D
I don't know, man, I feel like I'm either too focused or not focused enough, I really miss Wellington so I do want to come home but I also don't want to leave my friends here... who knows, I might not even be able to graduate yet, we'll see. :-/
no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 09:52 am (UTC)...heh, I'm preachy. I apologise. Do what feels right, I say, and what gets you where you want to be, when you want to be there.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 12:07 am (UTC)you might be right about overloading myself, though. Hm.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 10:07 am (UTC)What's the ultimate plan here? Where is this taking you as a life direction? (apart from postgrad and further ed). That may give you some idea of what to do next.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 12:09 am (UTC)no, seriously, I have not the foggiest what I'm going to be doing when I get out in the real world. That's why postgrad is, um, enticing.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 01:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 01:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 07:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 10:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 10:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 12:12 am (UTC)Anna Smith and Annie Potts are doing the Supernatural paper, Postcolonial is done by Philip Armstrong, C18th Worlds is by Erin Mackie and NZ lit is by John newton. I've never had any of them, you?
no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 08:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 04:24 pm (UTC)I NOW SHUDDER AT THE THOUGHT OF WRITING ESSAYS. I THINK THIS HAD TO DO WITH A VERY BAD TA THAT KEPT TELLING US WE WERE ALL GOING TO FAIL. AFTER THIS YEAR, I WILL NEVER EVER HAVE TO WRITE ANOTHER ESSAY AGAIN . . . until my senior thesis, that is. If I do write essays, they'll be arts essays, preferably in English because I can't stand social science essays.
Hehehee. I have anxiety attacks sometimes that make my heart palpitate and then I find it difficult to breathe. I don't know how to get rid of them either because they're a relatively recent event. I had a bad dream last night. It involved sex with my exboyfriend. o.O.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 06:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 06:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 06:42 pm (UTC)Then specialist ones like Law or Engineering take 4 years.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 06:47 pm (UTC)The university has it set on my registration that I'm doing a 3 year degree (its the default, I think), but pretty much everyone does four years or more here. I still have to go in to tell them I'm not doing a three year degree xD. I don't think Honours and non-Honours here have much of a difference, other than Honours students get to write a thesis paper and non-Honours don't have to . . .
no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 06:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 12:15 am (UTC)I LOVE writing essays. they are so EASY. Especially take-home essays. Essay exams can be a little stressful if you don't know what you're getting into, but take-home/assignments? Yum.
o.O O.o
no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 05:49 pm (UTC)The paper looks cool. Do it :)
As to "is it worth it?"
It depends what you want it for. Will it help you get a better job? Probably not. Do you love learning and want to study all this stuff while you're young so it will stay with you? Then it's a great idea. Going to uni is also a wonderful way of avoiding the real world (says someone who spent seven years there).
I guess what it boils down to is what do you actually want to gain from your education?
no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 12:18 am (UTC)I don't knooooow! Everyone keeps asking me and I don't know what to say. I don't even know where I'm going in the slightest.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 07:55 pm (UTC)And don't worry too much about work. You've never had a history of being late yet, you'll manage. *has to go to work soon, doesn't want to*
no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 12:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 06:29 pm (UTC)