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

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

> 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.

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.  :-/

> 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.  =^)

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.)

YHL