Building from Doc’s post yesterday: How much education do you liberal elites really have?
I’ve got a bachelor’s degree. In journalism, for all the good it did me. I spent more time downstairs at the newspaper than I did in class.
I’ve thought about grad school, off and on, and Mr. A’s in the middle of his master’s program right now, but to be honest after three and a half years I was climbing the walls and ready to get out and just start working. School and I didn’t hate each other, but we weren’t BFFs either.
A.
BA, History; BA, Philosophy
In 5 months I will receive:
MA, Philosophy
Masters of Natural Resources
a job?
Three-fourths completed B.S. in physics.
…
[30 year gap]
B.A. in political science (cum laude)
J.D. (cum laude).
I don’t make much money, but every day I encounter a reality that reinforces my career as a DFH.
High school diploma. I didn’t like college and dropped out quickly. (Definitely not elite, and liberal is up for discussion.)
I just finished A.A. at City Colleges of Chicago. I start an R.N. program in Fall ’12.
I know you can’t put pineapple in jello after trying it several times.
Non-trad gone back at 56, going for B.A. in visual arts, concentration in art history. Managing editor of school web news, pushing – hard – to take the paper back to print. Covering student government and the effects of Walker’s budget cuts.
Life is interesting.
BSEd in history, 1969.
MA Special Education, 2008.
(as my son graciously said at graduation, i may not have been the oldest masters grad, but i was the one with the longest gap between bachelors and masters.)
BA in Econ, UT Austin – took over 7 years, flunked out twice
BS Nursing, good grades
JD
BA Lib Arts (American Studies)
BS RadioTVFilm writing
UT Austin
Supported ex during her grad school.Plan was she would do so for me. But shit happened. Don’t think there’s enough payoff to try it this late
Lessee, after a very rocky start–flunked out a couple of times–came back, got a BA in English, went to grad school on a fellowship, got an MA in English, and promptly became unemployable. So, got a flow course certificate in municipal water system design from the American Water Works Association, a Michigan mechanic’s license, a national master mechanic’s license, trade school certificates in machine shop and CAD, taught myself to stick- and TIG-weld, etc.
BA in history as a returning student at LSU.
JD from Tulane, wish I had done something else but what can ya do at this point?
BS Computer Science and Electrical Engineering (Double Major)
MS Computer Engineering
ABD (All But Dissertation) Molecular Biology (and that dissertation isn’t going to happen)
B.M. in piano performace, M.M. in performance and pedagogy. Thought on and off about a DMA, but the only reason to do so is if I wanted to go into academia. I’m lucky enough to do what I love for a living, though at times it seems as if the interest on my loans builds up faster than I can pay it off.
Dropped outta high school in 11th Grade. Served the country.
Eventually a BA in Political Science at University of Wisconsin as a transfer from LSU. Took me 16 years in all (Freshman in 1982, graduated in winter 1998)…part of that was $$$ — I mostly paid my tuition with cash I earned working…part of that was I really didn’t mind being a student, especially at UW, what with the libraries, the SERF, the Union…
Wouldn’t mind going for a law or master’s degree (history or econ if I could handle the math), but probably can’t work around my job, not that I’m complaining.
My job, by the way, has nothing, nothing, to do with my degree.
2 BFA. painting + illustration. 6 yrs. 85-89, 92-94. no degree 1st time + exra fine arts classes. no academics. of course academics at art school different. i except a history degree when i finish reading my 1891 encyclopedia britannicas. right? RIGHT?!?
dropped out of (“took some time off”) Architecture School after three years (BArch 5 yr program). Biggest mistake I ever made and the nonly thing in mife I truly regret. Have tried to go back 4 (count ’em FOUR) times and just. can’t. do. it.
predictably pumping gas
dropped out of (“took some time off”) Architecture School after three years (BArch 5 yr program). Biggest mistake I ever made and the only thing in my life I truly regret. Have tried to go back 4 (count ’em FOUR) times and just. can’t. do. it.
predictably pumping gas
CORRECTED Spell Check is my friend
So I get to come out again, huh? 😛
High school (City High, Iowa City — Go Little Hawks!)
BS Math & BS Physics (U of Iowa — Go Hawkeyes!)
MS Math & MS Physics (U of Iowa)
Ph.D. Physics (U of Iowa)
postdoc at U of Iowa
got caught smoking pot at work, got fired, went bankrupt, got kicked out of my apartment, moved back in with my retired parents, went through several substance abuse treatment programs
postdoc at Mayo Clinic (and now you see why I believe in second, third, and fourth chances)
moved out, started rebuilding my career, got engaged to a wonderful guy
and for my next trick…???
of course, through all this, the advice of a certain internet goddess or two has helped 🙂
High School drop out.
I am what my professional educator friends refer to as “self educated’.
In other words, I read a lot.
Before the Reagan years, experience was valued as highly as education when applying for work. Currently I would not qualify for an interview for an entry level job in the career field I retired from.
Two years college, 32 years as writing and editing in the weekly newspaper biz. No better way to learn how local government works.
BS Civil Engineering
MS Civil Engineering – Environmental specialty
After 25+ years consulting for other firms/industry am now happily self unemployed (actually doing OK providing design work for several small environmental firms)
BA in Art, BA in Environmental Science from Trinity University. Been working for the same company since I graduated and am thinking I will retire in two years. What I do has nothing to do with art or the environment. Oh well. I make art and cook to soothe my soul.
Sporadic stops and starts in various colleges 30+ years ago. Nothing to show for it. I did graduate from 2 different police acedemies though, one with highest honors, and I spent a semester at Gallaudet (even though I’m not Deaf) about 15 years ago. Now, I make art for a living so none of it is really applicable anyway.
And I’m so sorry I missed the Secret Santa!!!
B.S. Bus Admin, 1979, Hawaii Pacific College (University, now). That was eleven years after I started my freshman year at the U of Arizona in Fall 1968. Enlisted in the Navy for 2+ years and then spent 3+ years as a Dept. of Defense contract drone on Kwajalein in the interim.
Graduated HS. 🙂 While serving in the USAF, I took classes I liked, CLEP’d those I didn’t want to sit through. The year I retired, they said I only needed a speech class, so I took that exam and they gave me an AAS from the community college of the Air Force. It has no real purpose. I am currently taking classes to become a pharmacy technician. My goal is to go back to work after having to give up my post military retirement career due to the dreaded C word.
BA Mathematics with honors
MS Computer Sciences
ABD (all but dissertation) Computer Sciences with Bioinformatics emphasis
…and they’re all from the same school, too. Oy.
BA Biology, Colorado College
Considered grad school a number of times, but the world is full of unemployed PhD biologists. Discovered photographing the natural world is more my style.
BA from UNO. English degree. Six years.
MFA from UA Fayetteville, in Fiction. Four years.
PhD from UA Fayetteville. Comp Lit. Five years.
Now I teach writing, WLIT, History of the English Language, Chaucer, and what the fuck ever in Fort Smith, Arkansas, to desperate ex-factory workers whose jobs have been shipped overseas. They’re all training to be computer programmers and home health care workers and office admin professionals, which — around here at least — will pay seven or eight bucks an hour, replacing their previous jobs, which paid $15 – $20/hour. But this year the state voted a lottery is, so WAH-HOO!
Sometimes I get a little depressed.
BA, MA, Ph.D. all in music composition and theory. Now I teach at a conservatory, so my training actually applies to my job.
BBA in Accounting. Started off in Engineering, but I am not precise enough. Took 5 years total.
B.S. in Accounting 1976
CPA in 1979
Unemployed 2011
What a lot of comments on this one – very interesting.
High School diploma, one year of college. I’ve often wondered what would have happened if I’d gone to Chicago as I was ‘supposed’ to do after my year off. Instead I went to Delaware for one year then went back to spend time and work with my family in the UK (I’d left when I was 4). Came back two years later and have been working with computers ever since.
I”m lucky – live in a beautiful part of the country, working for myself, doing a job I really enjoy, meeting and helping so many interesting people.
I’ve never understood the hatred of the “common man” to education. Especially in conservative circles. When I was on jury duty, the defense attorney repeated would identify that the plaintiff’s experts were college people – with the typical conservative sneer.
But if being ahead in education is what is gonna keep America in a position of leadership (and if you believe that, you’ll believe that we’re tops in the world in education, healthcare, etc.), then shouldn’t we encourage education? Have a PhD at least compare equally with sports?
Or in the elections, do the repubs hate the educated because they look at the facts?
BTW – Bachelor of Chemical Engineering (GA Tech), Master of Pastoral Studies (Loyola, New Orleans) and Master of Library and Information Science (USC – not the fake one on the west coast, but the gamecocks – though I was surprised that while in Grad School, I didn’t tend to make any effort to take part in going to sports events).
BS Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
MS Computer Science
I’m retired now, but I still do some reading and tinkering to keep my brain working.
Served two hitches in the Army, then went and got a BS in aeronautical engineering, then an MBA. Definite liberal.
Two undergraduate degrees (employer wouldn’t sponsor me for an MSc, weird as it’s only two years as against three).
Modern History BA 1982, MA 1986 but a cheaty Oxbridge MA for which you basically have to turn up in the right place at the right time with a gown.
Social Work BSc 2010
Hmmm.
Dropped out of wildlife biology (seriously)’72. Returned for agricultural journalism ’78 and earned BS ’80. Went to work in the field stayed there earning a decent living. While still working, returned for MS in ’06. Statistics hurt but got the degree in three. Helped me get current position. Will work ’till I die.
BJ/Magazine 1990 from Mizzou, then stuck around for two more years to get my MA in English/Creative Writing. I had planned on making a living writing novels, but I found out I loved the smell of printing presses and worked in the printing industry until the end of the nineties. I got out before print was even beginning to run a fever and used my MA to teach English and Philosophy at my local community college. Had I known then what I know now, I would have gotten my PhD before I left school for the “real world.” Now I’m hoping to get a seminary doctorate someday in the future, but I’ve got four more kids to put through college before I get to go back. I’ll go back to school after I retire from the CC; I just love school and will always be a part of it until I’m either dead or too addle-brained with old age to remember anything any more.