71–80 of 128 posts
Just a few words from the other side of the table: I have the highest respect for students sitting there who juggle college, family, sometimes job, after having worked for a while already. It’s wonderful to have someone listening because of a conscious decision rather than just following the obvious next step. Interact with your professor, ask questions, I’d hope most will try to be supportive, especially when you’re…
I started an MS in applied math in my very late 30s only having a BS in CS. I did it one class at a time, and it was relatively easy to juggle with work and family. At the time, I was looking at a lot of jobs that required an MS, which was the original motivation for starting it. I ended up not needing it in that way, but it has still been instrumental in my career and I don't regret it. I paid out of pocket and it h…
If you wouldn’t mind - could you elaborate how it was instrumental in your career and how long it took?
I went straight to work and didn't get to college until 41/42. I'm working on my undergrad and plan to continue to my masters. I've found it incredibly rewarding for two main reasons. First, since I have a career already, I'm free of the pressure to go to school for career purposes and can focus on something I enjoy, which also provides immense value to what I'm doing every day (I chose philosophy, much more relevant…
I'd rather have open ended assignments. Ones that give moral dilemmas, and challenge their solutions. Make me think about something In a perspective I haven't thought of before. That's a powerful tool.
But that's how academics works, the culture wants tests and assignments with check boxes.
I went straight to work and didn't get to college until 41/42. I'm working on my undergrad and plan to continue to my masters. I've found it incredibly rewarding for two main reasons. First, since I have a career already, I'm free of the pressure to go to school for career purposes and can focus on something I enjoy, which also provides immense value to what I'm doing every day (I chose philosophy, much more relevant…
> (I chose philosophy, much more relevant and practical than I think many realize). As others have already asked, could you expand on this? Very interested.
Philosophy gives you a set of meta cognitive skills that help everywhere. It teaches you how to think. It shows you what class of problems are soluble, and which are things where we just have to accept tradeoffs. And it’s really focused, in a funny way, on economy: does your argument actually do something? Does this theory offer clarity and bring us closer to truth? If not, well, why are you wasting your breath on it? Philosophy teaches you to see that some avenues are fruitless or just kinda not worth the effort.
Also, non-practically, it shows you the full depth of wonder in the world. Wherever there is capacity for thinking to be done, philosophy says, you can elucidate something important to our human condition.
I keep circling back to the premise that I want to do a graduate degree in Philosophy or maybe History. Something that really interests me, rather than an MBA or a STEM degree (undergrad is STEM).
Looking forward to seeing the comments here.
I went straight to work and didn't get to college until 41/42. I'm working on my undergrad and plan to continue to my masters. I've found it incredibly rewarding for two main reasons. First, since I have a career already, I'm free of the pressure to go to school for career purposes and can focus on something I enjoy, which also provides immense value to what I'm doing every day (I chose philosophy, much more relevant…
Philosophy is essential, how it's taught is unfortunate. In my philosophy class it was almost all about the history of philosophy, not the reasoning behind it. Assignments and tests were all about time periods, the specific names of philosophical ideas, from whom they came from, etc. I'd rather have open ended assignments. Ones that give moral dilemmas, and challenge their solutions. Make me think about something In…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you expand on how you found philosophy practical?
Just to offer a counter-point to the others here, I've personally noticed that quite a few people who study philosophy (either formally or via self-study) tend to become "disembodied". Formal reason becomes king, even when informal methods are more appropriate for solving the task at hand, and the intangible becomes irrelevant, even when it matters deeply. Perhaps things would be different for someone in their 40s, w…
I went straight to work and didn't get to college until 41/42. I'm working on my undergrad and plan to continue to my masters. I've found it incredibly rewarding for two main reasons. First, since I have a career already, I'm free of the pressure to go to school for career purposes and can focus on something I enjoy, which also provides immense value to what I'm doing every day (I chose philosophy, much more relevant…
> (I chose philosophy, much more relevant and practical than I think many realize). As others have already asked, could you expand on this? Very interested.
I also found that I could consistently get As in humanities courses with ~20-40 hours of work per quarter (the time to write 1-3 papers) once I picked up the skill of "writing like an academic", vs my CS courses which continued to be challenging and require a ton of effort to succeed in up until my graduation. My senior year, for example, I had some core-requirement course about theater -- I attended zero classes and did zero readings until I sat down to write the paper, and I got As with compliments from the professor on how well-written my papers were. YMMV.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you expand on how you found philosophy practical?
Teaches you to think in ways that other courses won't.