Academic (or other) backgrounds of AH denizens

[EmilyMiller]

I’m not assuming everyone on here is college educated, but talking about majors is a shorthand for your background.

I majored in Biology and then did a Masters in Structural Biology. I did some literature-related classes as an undergraduate, but not many. My professional life has nothing to do with creative writing. I have always read voraciously though.

I was wondering how many people here majored in English, or have worked in a literature-related job.

What about other backgrounds?

No ulterior motive, just curious as ever.

Em

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

I studied physics through masters.

 

[onehitwanda]

I majored in Physics and Computer Science. The sciences were fun but... well... Mathematics used me as a fuck toy for two years and I ended up dropping it and picking up some random credits along the way to fulfil my credits quota.

I often wish I'd done some undergraduate English. Not towards a degree, but... just for fun. And maybe some fine art as well. Ah well.

Regrets are endless, I guess.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Mathematics used me as a fuck toy for two years and I ended up dropping it

I struggled with proper math. I have a Lit friend (currently taking a break from here) who is a math freshman. I know enough to follow a bit of what she says, then she loses me entirely .

Em

 

[EmilyMiller]

I studied physics through masters.

We need to form a female scientist Lit club .

Em

 

[MrPixel]

Started in Physics, downgraded to Civil Engineering, then defected to Computer Science my junior year. But my best grades were always in English/literature classes requiring writing. And, of course, music. Should've done the music thing, but, you know, bygones.

Then most of my career was managing typesetting and proofreading operations at large printing or publishing companies. Somewhat related to creative writing, I guess. Last gig was Software Engineer for a Civil Engineering-related company. Odd how that worked out.

Mathematics used me as a fuck toy for two years...

Sounds familiar. Calculus was a particular weakness, which is what pushed me out of Physics. CivEng was a little better, but once I aced a couple of Boolean algebra classes and was programming in four or five different languages my fate was set.

 

[ycym]

Master of the Universe... uhm... Electrical Engineering. No English nor German. I just put down what comes into my mind.

 

[onehitwanda]

I struggled with proper math. I have a Lit friend (currently taking a break from here) who is a math freshman. I know enough to follow a bit of what she says, then she loses me entirely .

Em

What saddens me most is that Maths is beautiful. I see the sense of trig; I see the way the world works in cycles of sines and cosines and it is staggeringly beautiful that 𝜋 and e underpin almost everything.

Ask me to derive that, though, and oh my god fuck you so much.

 

[MrPixel]

...𝜋 and e underpin almost everything.

Yes they do. Especially π.
For fun, the fake phone number I use when they insist is 314-159-2654 (it helps to live near St. Louis!). And π-day is 18 days away. Sadly, the only local eatery reliable for pie closed last year.

 

[SimonDoom]

In high school my favorite subjects were always English and history. In college I chose a combined major of which half was English and American literature. I spent a little time as an English teacher. I then went to graduate school and entered a profession that involves extensive, constant non-fiction writing (and a lot of reading and research). I wrote some creative fiction in high school, but I wrote no fiction at all for decades until I started publishing stories here at the end of 2016. It's been incredibly satisfying. It's definitely scratched an itch.

I envy people who are technologically competent. I was good at math on an abstract level in school. I enjoyed calculus and geometry. But I'm at best mediocre at figuring things out practically. I get flummoxed by television remotes, to the amusement of my children. I can't remember phone numbers or passwords to save my life.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Studied electric engineering, majoring in Computer Science. Then did my Masters in the same field.

 

[EmilyMiller]

OK - so, based on an admittedly limited data-set, all male AH people are electrical engineers, who knew?

Em

 

[ycym]

OK - so, based on an admittedly limited data-set, all male AH people are electrical engineers, who knew?

Em

There is a strong connection to sexual current... and there is also a tense kink.

 

[MrPixel]

For fun, the fake phone number I use when they insist is 314-159-2654

I should mention that this has only been caught once, at a Home Depot near the big state college. Checkout clerk was apparently a student; she laughed when I recited the "phone number".

...all male AH people are electrical engineers...

Shocking!

 

[SimonDoom]

OK - so, based on an admittedly limited data-set, all male AH people are electrical engineers, who knew?

Em

Well, not all.

And about phone numbers: I have to amend what I said. I can remember some. Like 867-5309.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

OK - so, based on an admittedly limited data-set, all male AH people are electrical engineers, who knew?

Em

There's a much higher density of stem nerds in general than I would have guessed

 

[TxRad]

I started college on a football scholarship but broke a knee and lost the scholarship. I was working toward electro-chemical engineering. I spent almost ten years in the Marines and exited with an electrical engineering degree. Fun fact about Louisiana, to hang a shingle out as an electrical engineer, you have to have two years of land survey.

After working in the oilfields as an on site geologist, I got an equivalence degree in petroleum engineering. When computers started to show up, I self taught myself computers and programming. At 50 I took a test at a local college and ended up with another equivalence degree in computer science.

English was my least favorite of all classes. I usually cut the teachers lawn to get a better grade. There was even a lawnmower involved some of the time.

 

[Voboy]

I didn't major in English, and never even had to finish a formal English class in college. I did start one, but it bored me and the professor told me I didn't need to come there anymore.

I'm a man with NO competence in nor aptitude for STEM, at all. I'm a committed liberal arts guy. In college, I mainly majored in foozball and ROTC.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Another chance to talk about ourselves; always a pleasure! Thank you, Em.

City College of New York, class of 1977, history. That was just when everyone realized that merely having a degree was not necessarily a path to success. I even have a photo, probably taken in the 1940's, looking north. (Some buildings have since been replaced.)

https://mrmhadams.typepad.com/.a/6a015434a64eda970c0167688f0697970b-800wi

A few notable details:

1. The entire City University system was tuition-free until 1976. By that point, there were nearly twenty institutions in the system.
2. I met my ex-wife there, in the building with the white cupola in the middle foreground.
3. It has been a fruitful setting for stories, almost entirely based on fictional events, and a couple of essays (non-fiction).

 

[AwkwardlySet]

What are the stereotypes for you Western Capitalist pigs. Are only STEM students considered nerds?

 

[EmilyMiller]

There's a much higher density of stem nerds in general than I would have guessed

Yes. Totally surprised.

Em

 

[MrPixel]

What are the stereotypes for you Western Capitalist pigs. Are only STEM students considered nerds?

You haven't hung with Library Sciences majors, have you?

 

[nice90sguy]

I majored in Philosophy of Mind at university. Then I dropped out and played in a funk band. Then I got a job, and did a degree in AI.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I started college on a football scholarship but broke a knee and lost the scholarship. I was working toward electro-chemical engineering. I spent almost ten years in the Marines and exited with an electrical engineering degree. Fun fact about Louisiana, to hang a shingle out as an electrical engineer, you have to have two years of land survey.

After working in the oilfields as an on site geologist, I got an equivalence degree in petroleum engineering. When computers started to show up, I self taught myself computers and programming. At 50 I took a test at a local college and ended up with another equivalence degree in computer science.

English was my least favorite of all classes. I usually cut the teachers lawn to get a better grade. There was even a lawnmower involved some of the time.

How many electrical engineers is that now? I’ve lost count.

Em

 

[Voboy]

What are the stereotypes for you Western Capitalist pigs. Are only STEM students considered nerds?

Well, there's a difference between nerds and geeks.

A STEMmer can be a nerd, but a STEMmer is almost always a geek.

I am a proud nerd, though I can barely deal with fractions.