Re: CHAT: University Advice (was Re: A bit of advice)

"Thomas R. Wier" wrote:
>
> <Tom gets on soapbox for LONG speech>
>
> Robert Hailman wrote:
>
> > 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.
>
> Computer science is obviously a big field, and a growing one.  There's
> a lot of room both for making money and for theoretical work.  One of
> my best friends is currently thinking about doing research on finite automata
> (he's absolutely brilliant:  he got a 1600 on the SAT twice -- the second time
> just to see if he could do it -- and got his first B in a class just last semester
> for the first time since, I think, fourth grade, and he's my age, 21).
>
Y'see, I'm not that smart. Also, some of the finer details of Computer
Science bore me to death, but with Ling. little does.

> > 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.
> >
> > In terms of difficulty getting accepted, Linguistics is probably the
> > easiest. The U of T website
>
> I'm assuming this means University of Texas (not University of Tennessee, nor
> University of Toronto).  About these others I can't say much, but much of
> the following will apply in very general terms.
>
I meant University of Toronto. I should have been more specific. Damn me
and my Toronto centric view. However, I haven't decided on a university
for sure, so I read everything you wrote with great interest.

<snip - referring to U of Texas, but good advice as to what I should be
prepared for, although it may not end up that competative at Toronto>
>
> There aren't as many jobs out there for linguistics degrees that require more
> than just a college education.  However, I know the UT linguistics department
> always has lots of signs in the department from Internet start-ups and big computer
> industry firms like IBM that need linguists to help on computer processing
> of human language. These can pay pretty well, especially since Austin's
> unemployment rate is around 2% right now.  Among other jobs, there's:
> audiology (working with the hearing impaired), speech pathology (same but
> speech), the teaching of English as a second language, among others.  There's
> more information about this here:
>
> <http://www.utexas.edu/depts/linguistics/undergrad.html>
>
Thanks for the page. The U of Toronto website doesn't give any career
related info.

> > 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.
>
<snip - Texas specific, but good to know>
My school has one US History course, but I don't know if it applies to
that goal.
>
> Once you get into the university, I would advise you not to take more than 12 or 15
> credit hours per semester.  It used to be the case that students could take much more
> than this and survive. My own grandfather took 26 credit hours in chemical engineering
> at Rice during his senior year back in the '40s. That was, however, excessive even in
> those days, and mostly because he could handle multiple labs at once.  Since then,
> the amount of work that goes into every credit hour has increased significantly, so you
> don't want to overburden yourself.   Moreover, if you're going to have to hold down
> a job during these years, you want to be as flexible as possible in not taking too many
> hours.  You just never know what could come up to screw up your grade.  (I know
> one Russian guy from my highschool takes 22 hours now, but he's insane, because
> aside from the fact that he's a Stalinist he gets about two hours of sleep each night, plus
> lots of catnaps. This is no way to run your life! Good ol' Ilya, he can quote Eugene
> Onegin and master astrophysics, but can't order his life. He's quite, quite nutty.)
>
Excuse me for my ignorance, but what precisely is a "credit-hour"? I
have an idea, but I don't know the definition. Either way, I could see
how I wouldn't want to take too many courses.

We all know someone like this Ilya of yours, but the ones I know aren't
Stalinists and get more sleep than that.

> Naturally, also, you don't want school to be your life.  You want to have fun
> and time for relaxation.  This is not only natural, but necessary: the quality of
> the work you put into your classes will be directly affected by external factors
> like the amount of exercise and sleep you get, as well as simply not being stressed
> out.  Burn-out is bad.  You don't want it.  I get around this in a lot of ways.
> I'm a member of the UT College Bowl club, which is something like a jeopardy
> game except for teams. I'm also a member of the *Mimung Society, an Indo-
> European language and culture group.  Getting together in groups like these is
> a great way to meet new people and broaden your horizons.   Also, I try to
> vary the kinds of work that I do.  If I get bored or tired of, say, Greek, I go
> on to anthropology or history or something entirely mindless, like TV.  Mindlessness
> can be a good thing sometimes.  Or I hang out with friends. Anything, really,
> just as long as you feel satisfied that you aren't overdoing yourself.
>
But of course. Relaxation is key, I've learned that if nothing else in
high school.

> So, what about after that?  Well, right now I'm planning on doing a 30 page honors
> thesis in linguistics about the Indo-European Urheimat.  That's a good thing for grad-
> school, just to have it, no matter what grade you actually get on the thing. (Well, no,
> that's not quite true:  if your thesis is that, you know, the IE peoples were originally
> Atlanteans, you won't get in.) Gradschools usually like to see some original work by
> the student applying, and so I'll be sending that along with my application. I'll also be
> sending along some work I did on Mam.  I'll also be taking a free prep course for the GRE
> offered by the university here, since I'm not a terribly good test-taker when it comes to
> standardized tests.  That's something I neglected to do back in highschool for the SAT,
> and I regret it.  One thing I've noticed a lot of gradschools require is extra foreign languages,
> above and beyond the one you take in undergrad school.  I've already taken German
<snip - gets U of Texas specific here>
>
> As for good gradschools, that depends on where your interest lies.  I like grammatical
> theory and historical linguistics, and one of the few places that's strong in both
> those areas is UPenn, so that's my first choice. I'm also thinking about UCLA,
> MIT and Berkeley and UT.  The last I'm doing as only a backup, because you don't
> to want to have intellectual incest with the same place for both your undergrad and
> PhD.  MIT I'm not sure I like, nor that I could get in, because everyone there seems
> to take Chomsky's diktat as gospel, and I've heard that Berkeley has had some really
> seriously negative infighting in the department in the last couple years -- something about
> two professors refusing to teach the other's students or something. Really bad and
> unprofessional.  But I've heard only good things about UCLA and UPenn. Anybody
> want to give *me* advice now? :)
>
I haven't thought to much about gradschool yet, I will when I come
closer to finishing the undergrad program.

> Well, I'm getting jittery, and my sentences are seeming to ramble into Nietzsche-like
> obscurantism. It's almost 3am, and I need to get some sleep before my class tomorrow.
>
That would be a good idea.
> </soapbox>
Oops. That means my whole reply to this point was marked soapbox too.
>
Well, thanks for all the info. Even if alot of it is UTexas specific, I
haven't decided on a university yet, so I'm open to info on any
university from anyone who has had some experience there.

--
Robert