Re: A bit of advice re University and such is requested

Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
>
> On Thu, 7 Sep 2000, Robert Hailman wrote:
>
> > Okay guys, as some of you know, I'm now in my second last year of high
> > school, which means I have to seriously start thinking about what I want
> > to do in university and after once I graduate.
>
> Lucky person.  Don't make my mistakes.  =p
I only make other people's mistakes if making those mistakes would be
kooky and fun.

>
> > Several months ago, if you had asked me what I wanted to take, I would
> > have told you either Electrical Engineering or Computer Sciences of some
> > sort. I've gotten advice either way on the field of Electrical
> > Engineering, and I haven't heard too much bad about Computer Sciences.
> >
> > However, some time ago, Conlanging came into my life, and I've developed
> > a keen interest in all things linguistic. So, bingo bango, Linguistics
> > now comes in to add to my confusion.
> >
> > Now, in terms of interest in the three right now, Linguistics would be
> > #1, Comp. Sci. #2, and Elec. Eng #3. This could all change, of course.
>
> You're in a much better position.  I'm a senior math major at Cornell U.
> and while math is *beautiful,* I think I've always known I'd be a lousy
> mathematician (despite a 4.0 in math courses).  I want to be a writer,
> but linguist would be next best thing...and since I have no linguistics
> classes and not enough languages, my chances of doing any sort of
> linguistics in grad school are probably pretty low.
>
That's not a problem at U of Toronto, they have loads o graduate courses
in Linguistics.

> Figure out what you want early if you can.  Within the 1st two years.  :-p
>
> At Cornell at least, the workload for CS and double-E are pretty
> stiff...mainly because you *can't* predict debugging time.  Or at least I
> never could.  Plays hob with any attempts to budget time.  :-/
That's what I'm worried about. Also, the workload of the courses I have
to take to get into those progams when I'm still in highschool is the
same, but only because their damn hard courses.

>
> > there, career wise? My ultimate goal would probably be a professorship,
> > however likely that may or may not be, but what can I do with a B.A. and
> > a Masters degree in the Interim. I don't want to get a degree in
> > Linguistics if I wouldn't enjoy any of the careers I can get with it,
> > although in a land without consequences I'd take Linguistics in a
> > second.
>
> My younger sister some years ago claimed you could get a job with the
> post office figuring out foreign addresses, but I won't vouch for the
> veracity.  =^)
And your younger sister was how young at this time? :o)
>
> Sorry I don't have more to say, but I *will* be reading others' responses
> on this avidly.  Especially since I think I may try to do a conlang
> senior project even without the formal linguistics background, *if* the
> College Scholar program lets me.  =^)  (The other thing I could do is
> writing...but having sold 4 stories so far, I don't feel I have a whole
> lot to prove to the university system.)
Regardless of the amount of content, I appreciate anything anyone has to
say on the matter.

--
Robert