Well, I went to...

[Tshern]

Edit: Add all schools in! So no need to be a former/current university student. Extra courses you took after you graduated? Add them in! Anything you did, but never graduated in? Add them in!

Let the great education thread begin!

The point of this is for people to step in, tell where they study or studied, what did they study, why and so forth. Feel free to add anything that is even remotely on topic, I am not expecting a great invasion of excited nerds to take over this one.

Since I am here, perhaps I should also start.

Going to the Aberdeen University, the pride of all of UK, and doing Politics, International Relations and Economics. I hear you gasping, but that really is the case, Tshern studies social sciences. Went to an international high school and decided it would suck to throw all that away, so I applied abroad. An English-speaking country was a good start and since moving within the EU is so easy, I picked the UK. England and Ireland had terrible tuition fees for the most part and Wales is boring I picked Scotland. Got accepted to a few places, but picked Aberdeen, a town where no-one I knew lived. Well, this was proven to be false right before I moved in when I heard a classmate of my studies here, but still.

So far so good. A lot of things to learn and making friends is a lengthy procedure, but I guess great many people go through the same process, implying maybe even I can handle it.


Your stories?

[awaken DM golem]

Perhaps I'm posting too early on this topic, because my "route" has been at least as strange as some of my posts.

I went to High School. I shouldn't have; it's a complete waste of time.
Sociology via dinner table conversations.
Paid my own way through school, bad move.
I studied with Ivan Illich ---> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Illich
Truly a great man. Not many Philosophy jobs floating around, and yet I can read books (heh).
I should have gone to Berklee Music college in Boston, not the California school.
And/or I should have gotten as cheap as possible a Math/Science based teaching degree,
because employment is 100%, and there's a shortage, and the pay is great relative to mumbling off hangovers. 2 + 2 = Too much you twits.
{ ... insert if anyone's noticed I don't write well smiley face ... }
I've enjoyed my C.O. education more than any other.

[Johannixx]

I busted my ass in the PSAT and SAT tests, and got an academic scholarship to Arizona State University's honors college.  I graduated Magna Cum Laude from the business college with a bachelor's degree in business computer information systems.  Then I got a job and realized how little they actually teach you in college.  At least I took a lot of philosophy and sociology courses that were valuable as a primer for understanding people.  I took harder math courses in high school.

[Tshern]

Then I got a job and realized how little they actually teach you in college.

I've heard of this too. With a few exceptions (like medical school), the people who graduate seem to lack confidence and the kind of in depth knowledge required in their jobs before they have worked for a while.

[CountArioch]

College is less about learning actual stuff and more about learning to bullshit people into thinking you know said stuff.  At least, that's what every person with a graduate degree has told me, except they usually phrase it different.

[PhaedrusXY]

I graduated Magna Cum Laude from Western Kentucky University with Bachelor's degrees in Recombinant Genetics and Chemistry. I received a PhD in Biophysics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and then did a post-doc for Columbia University. For that post-doc, I was actually located at Sandia National Laboratories for political and historical reasons, and was officially a no-fee consultant for them. I'm now doing a second post-doc at Virginia Tech, and trying to amass enough published papers to finally get a real freakin' job.

I also worked as a lab tech at a couple of different places for the three years I took off between undergrad and grad school in Salt Lake City, Utah.

My research has focused on understanding structure-function relationships in redox proteins, and engineering proteins for use in biosensors and enzymatic biofuel cell applications.

I definitely wouldn't agree that you don't learn much in grad school. You do learn more about what you don't know, though, which makes you feel like you don't know a lot.

[altpersona]

I graduated Magna Cum Laude from Western Kentucky University with Bachelor's degrees in Recombinant Genetics and Chemistry.

yay cinci tech

=========================

Hillbilly highschool, yipee

~ 2 years of specialized electronics schooling via the navy.  (EDIT: 2 or 3 biggies about 3 - 6 lesser, if i get squirely i might post my ACE equivalences, but i dont feel squirely atm..)

AA - general studies from American military University. it was pretty much complementary, i think my total cost was under 500 bucks.

currently  at Ohio U. Southern. 115th? best national school in the country (really i find that sad.) no major, focus or concentration... just draining my GI bill.  

i support the good will hunting method of education (library card).

[Ruam]

I definitely wouldn't agree that you don't learn much in grad school. You do learn more about what you don't know, though, which makes you feel like you don't know a lot.

Erasmus programme)

[BowenSilverclaw]

High school, currently studying philosophy in Nijmegen (the Netherlands).

[SixthDeclension]

High school Senior in America currently. Graduating in June so I can get the fuck out of here. Finally.

[PhaedrusXY]

The further I have come, the more I realise what Socrates was talking about, I know more now than ever before and yet I now realise that I only know such a small fraction of everything, since now I know enough to ask questions that not a single human can answer, and it is awesome!

That's what I was trying to say, actually.

[awaken DM golem]

... Western Kentucky University ... Genetics and Chemistry.

Hey, my Mom's from around there.
You know that Genetics and Chemistry and Physics only work 99.8% of the time, don't you ?!
 
(fundamentalist reference)

[PhoenixInferno]

Public HS in New York City, Bachelors & M. Engineering @ Cornell in Mechanical/Aerospace Engineering.  Currently @ a large aerospace firm (there aren't many left, so you can guess within 3 tries, I bet).

[Tshern]

Public HS in New York City, Bachelors & M. Engineering @ Cornell in Mechanical/Aerospace Engineering.  Currently @ a large aerospace firm (there aren't many left, so you can guess within 3 tries, I bet).

Without any checking, Cornell is around the top 15 universities in the world, right? Of course it is all subjective, but as far as I know Cornell is always up there with likes of Oxford and Harvard.

And I actually recalled you did aerospace something. Hence, if you want, you are a big part of my revolution!

[Nanshork]

High school education in a small town in Texas.  Currently an Information Systems major (No focus on programming, lots of focus on everything else.  Very generic degree and I'm not learning a lot) at a small university in New Mexico.  Recently realized that what I want to go into is biomechatronics, which I didn't realized was a real field until less than a week ago.  Like I said, recently.  Going to take some engineering courses and see how that works out.  Have no clue what I'm going to do when I graduate except that working at an IT Helpdesk fucking blows.  And the thought of Graduate/ PHD programs scare me to be honest.

[CountArioch]

I went to high school in a place that was 50% rich kids, 50% hardcore fucking mountain people.  Did terrible in classes, but squeaked by with a 1.3 GPA.  Then I live on the road for a while hustling.  Wasn't too bad, although a bad week could leave you hungry and stranded until you found a new gig.  It was nice to live out of the system, I miss not being accountable to anyone and not having anyone find me except who I wanted to.

Started college and did fairly well (3.8 gpa), but dropped out because my live-in girlfriend lost her job and needed me to work full time.  The idea was to go back when she got a job, she didn't find one for about three-four years because it was beneath her to flip burgers and she had to have a good job with benefits.  So I worked at a 4 MGD wastewater treatment plant for a couple years, eventually ascending to Chief Operator.  After that was over and done with, went back.  I'm really taking a shit the last couple semesters, I really want to go to grad school, but I'm not sure if anyone's going to like my GPA (sitting at 2.900 right now.  Although I have no doubt in my mind that the GRE's will be at the very least slightly less painful for me because I just test exceptionally well.)  

I'm currently at Blue Ridge Community College, and will transfer to Virginia Polytechnic next fall.  Major in Biology, minor in Chem.  Although I'm more interested in evolution and speciation, but I was told by many high up people that I have a knack for chem that a lot of bio majors lack and that a minor would be an asset.  

As for grad school, who knows?  I know I can teach in this shithole state with just a bachelors in math or science, and they will forgive a substantial amount of student loan debt if I teach for a couple years.  I would like to, but I just don't know if I can hack it, working and going to regular college is about killing me.

[Meg]

4 different high schools (all in 1 year- sophomore year), 3 public in Maine, 1 private in PA.  Tufts University for Geology.  Cambridge College for my M.Ed.

The more schooling you have, the more you learn how much you don't know.  That's why I have so little patience for bratty know-it-all high school students on the internet.  Their immaturity screams through every sentence they write.

I've decided my career switch will come in 5ish years when I go for my PhD.

[Meg]

I'd also love to include additional training/ learning in this thread.  I go to a ton of conferences for work and learn some really cool things and I'm sure others do too.

For example, I went to the Bioneers conference last weekend- a focus on environmental topics.  Heard over and over horrifying stats about the evils of the bottled water industry.  I wasn't a fan already, but it really is one of the big, easily fixable wastes in our world.

[Tshern]

4 different high schools (all in 1 year- sophomore year), 3 public in Maine, 1 private in PA.  Tufts University for Geology.  Cambridge College for my M.Ed.

The more schooling you have, the more you learn how much you don't know.  That's why I have so little patience for bratty know-it-all high school students on the internet.  Their immaturity screams through every sentence they write.

I've decided my career switch will come in 5ish years when I go for my PhD.

May I ask which year is the 'sophomore' one? Sorry, but I am new to the concept myself. Nevertheless, I apologise for my immaturity.

And please, feel free to change the topic to something more appropriate. I agree this should contain more than universities, because university students are, in many countries, a minority.

Edit: Meg: I changed the first post as to encourage more people to post. Hope this has an effect.

[altpersona]

freshman
sophomore
junior
senior