Re: advice re university

> Roger wrote, among other things:
> Hope this helps. And I trust others who are little closer to modern times
> will comment-- the Matts Pearson & McLauchlin, Dirk, the man at Cornell*
> whose name I can't locate just now........   Keep the faith. Roger Mills
>
> *I think I meant Rochester-- Sally Caves' student.  The "man" at Cornell is
> obviously Yoon Ha Lee.
>
This person in Rochester would be me, although I'm not sure how helpful I
can be considering I'm only a sophomore.  In truth, when I saw Robert's
message, I thought "Ooh, maybe I'll get some advice, too,"  since I, from
time to time, ponder the Future.

But, ironically I was talking with my undergraduate adviser yesterday about
grad school, careers, the like ("the Future").  I learned some interesting
tidbits--that he felt there was a weeding out process after graduate school,
i.e. that people go through grad school, get there Ph. Ds, then try to get
on at some (or various) universities, don't, and give up.  Also according to
my adviser, linguistics really expanded in the 80s, and now there are fewer
jobs open, since there are a lot that are filled by people with tenure who
aren't going away anytime soon.

But lest that be too discouraging, the advice that I got from my adviser
(and from other people here at the University of Rochester) is to find
something you really love and go with it.  It will either lead you on your
chosen path or to a path that is equally as acceptable, and perhaps more
interesting.  This bit of advice sometimes is a downer to me, since I start
questioning whether I really have found an area that I truly love, but then
I need to remember that all the various things that I discovered upon going
to college.  One would be this list--I had no idea it existed until Sally
pointed me to it.  College, thus far, certainly hasn't exactly been what I
expected it to be, but it has been a path that is "equally as acceptable"
and definitely "more interesting" that I figured it would be, and most of it
I found by just pursuing my interests.  Life, of course, isn't quite as
simple as that sentence would have you believe, but it is a way of dealing
with the difficulties which lie ahead.

--Doug