It's a freaking WRITING CLASS!

[Exaspera]

Try 4 years and $150k...one English degree later and I realize I should've gone to culinary school.

LOL! My MFA and $1.50 will get me a soda out of a machine! But I finally did get a job that required it...after 20 years of doing other stuff.

[LadyAndreca]

Try 4 years and $150k...one English degree later and I realize I should've gone to culinary school.

$100k and 5 semesters studying engineering and 3 studying chemistry before I finally admitted I couldn't handle the sciences. I was so miserable...I just can't do advanced calculus. Now I'm studying music and sooooooo much happier. But that was another thing I was discouraged away from in high school--I was nudged away from the arts and into the sciences,and told I'd never make any money in the arts, there were too many people doing it and I wasn't special enough to stand out enough to make Big Money.

I cannot tell you how much I wish I could go back in time and slap my guidance counselor around...it's so hard for me to have any confidence in my performances because I keep hearing that voice in the back of my head telling me that my chances of someone liking my voice enough to give me a job after school are tiny. Now I know that it's all training and experience, I've GOT the ability, I've just got to beat that stupid voice. It was very hard, and at the same time amazingly liberating, just to say "I don't care, I'm doing a degree that makes me happy" and do music in the first place.

[AccountingDrone]

Try 4 years and $150k...one English degree later and I realize I should've gone to culinary school.

At least you would spell everything on the menu correctly

[Muses_nightmare]

I was nudged away from the arts and into the sciences,and told I'd never make any money in the arts

This was what happened to me all through high school. I was looking into graphic design and people kept telling me that you could never make money doing arts. Which is utter BS. There are tons of things I can do after I graduate. People kept wanting me to go into the medical field. Which is something I'd never ever consider, I hate hospitals, and I generally don't want to deal with people in that fashion. It never held any interest for me.

School I'm going to now is $35 000 for an 18 month course. Not a degree program either, though they recently brought one in. And I've discovered that I really love design. Which you know is a good thing considering that's the field I'm going into, but I've found I like it more than English, which was my original plan.

[Magpie]

But that was another thing I was discouraged away from in high school--I was nudged away from the arts and into the sciences,and told I'd never make any money in the arts, there were too many people doing it and I wasn't special enough to stand out enough to make Big Money.

With music it isn't just that you can't make Big Money (and frequently not enough to live on just from music). It's also that it's an insanely hard degree. See, for engineering you rarely have to do more than 60 hours in a week. My SIL did a year of business before she switched, and according to her the rule of thumb is that you oughtn't do music unless you'd be miserable without it. At least once she switched, all that practice time was for her degree, instead of distracting from it.

[LadyAndreca]

With music it isn't just that you can't make Big Money (and frequently not enough to live on just from music). It's also that it's an insanely hard degree. See, for engineering you rarely have to do more than 60 hours in a week. My SIL did a year of business before she switched, and according to her the rule of thumb is that you oughtn't do music unless you'd be miserable without it. At least once she switched, all that practice time was for her degree, instead of distracting from it.

The music students at my school tend to fall into the categories of "those who'd be miserable without it" and "those who love it enough to do it despite the downsides". (I'm in the second category.) All-around, we're a pretty practical bunch; it helps that our professors are all current music industry or orchestra members themselves and don't candy-coat things for us.

[BaristaTrav]

No one should think less of you for going to a CC. I started at one, because I was a) broke and b) didn't have the best high school grades. Well, I got my AA, transferred to "real" college, graduated cum laude, got a good job in a good field, and am now halfway to a master's that I will also likely receive with honors. There's no shame at all in going to community college. It is true that drop out/fail out rate for most CCs is high, but unless you're the one dropping out or flunking, who cares?

[Exaspera]

No one should think less of you for going to a CC. I started at one, because I was a) broke and b) didn't have the best high school grades. Well, I got my AA, transferred to "real" college, graduated cum laude, got a good job in a good field, and am now halfway to a master's that I will also likely receive with honors. There's no shame at all in going to community college. It is true that drop out/fail out rate for most CCs is high, but unless you're the one dropping out or flunking, who cares?

Actually, a CC may also be good for weeding out those who were not sure about getting a higher education in the first place, or not serious about it.

[AriRashkae]

Now if only I could get someone to hire me.

Geez, you two can come over here and help me redo these 2 houses (after we get the estate crap settled and the little pukes out of the way)! Of course, I have to convince my father to let strangers tear the walls down, since he's controlling interest in the estate right now.

[Chromatix]

At least you would spell everything on the menu correctly

Ah, but *that* depends on what language the menu is in:

Spaghetti bolognese (Italian)

Paté au foie gratin avec les pois frais (French, and that probably isn't a real dish or even correct grammar)

Lihapullat perunakastiketta (Finnish - it's meatballs in mashed potatoes)

킴치 (Korean - kimchi, their traditional fermented spiced cabbage)

...and so on.

[RetailWorkhorse]

Geez, you two can come over here and help me redo these 2 houses (after we get the estate crap settled and the little pukes out of the way)! Of course, I have to convince my father to let strangers tear the walls down, since he's controlling interest in the estate right now.

SQUEE~! Demolition is my FAVOURITE thing to do! *Rubs hands together* I can also rip out a whole roomful of both PLASTER (HATE) and sheetrock in relatively large pieces so I don't leave a great big damn mess everywhere.

I miss doing remodels so hardcore it's not even funny.

[Magpie]

Can you do it without leaving raised bits in the drywall in the next room? (It's how I got my map of the world wallpaper, so it worked out, but still...)

[lwb]

I was nudged away from the arts

Grrrrrr.......I HATE this! (Disclaimer: I teach Math and Computer Information Systems at a two year technical college.) Telling someone they should not do what they want to do because they might not make a huge amount of money? In my CIS classes, I'll tell people, if you don't want to do something with computers, DO SOMETHING ELSE. The most common response? "But I was told I'd make a lot of money doing computers!" If you hate a field, why force yourself to do it, just because "someone" said you'd make money? If everyone did the jobs that "make money" who'd do other things? OK, I'll just hop down off my now.

[RetailWorkhorse]

Can you do it without leaving raised bits in the drywall in the next room? (It's how I got my map of the world wallpaper, so it worked out, but still...)

Why would demoing one room leave sheetrock in the drywall in the other room?

[AriRashkae]

Why would demoing one room leave sheetrock in the drywall in the other room?

Enthusiastic wielding of a sledgehammer?

Seriously, all the walls here need to be town down, rewired, and generally just fixed. But Dad's a territorial packrat embarassed by his hoard. And we're at least living here to the end of the school year, now that Grandma's passed. Ah well. I love my family, I love my family, I love my family....