[Dirty Martini]

And did you end up with the first subject you picked?<br><br><br><br>
And are you doing now, after school, anything related to what you studied in school?

 

[remilard]

I read a book about video game programmers in the 70s so I picked computer science. I liked calculus so I switched to math.<br><br><br><br>
I am doing something related to math.

 

[Brandon]

<span style="color:#008000;">Sort of a long, convoluted story so I'll try to summarize.<br><br><br><br>
I graduated from high school in 1991. I wanted to be a barber. I went to hair school, with the agreement to my family (grandfather was gonna give me money to go to college while I worked as a barber) and so my original major was philosophy, because I was intrigued by it. I lasted one semester, and decided that college sucked and I'd rather party and get my own place and move the hell away from my dad and stepmother.<br><br><br><br>
Fast forward 6-7 years. I burned out on barbering, and decided to go back to school. From the 7th grade on, I'd been very into music, and performing music. I decided to pick up where I left off, and major in music performance in percussion. Well, another long story made short, I discovered that all of the time I'd spent not practicing had taken a toll, and that I sucked big time.<br><br>
I'd gotten used to having personal time (read: not in a practice room) so that wasn't a good thing for me.<br><br><br><br>
During the whole thing (including high school) I'd been a student of the Spanish language. I enjoy Spanish music, culture, etc. So, there I was, hating practicing scales on a marimba, and loving my Spanish 1115 class, and kicking ass speaking this beautiful language. I woke up one morning, and decided to follow my heart, whether it was practical or not.<br><br>
I spoke with an advisor in the Modern Languages, Literatures & Linguistics department who was the Spanish undergrad advisor, and one day later I was officially a Spanish major. I poured myself into it, and 4 years later, I was walking across a stage, with a tassle on my hat switched to the other side, recieving a diploma.<br><br><br><br>
I applied for over 40 different jobs after graduation that were related (or semi-related) to my field of study. All were rejected. I had 3 interviews, count em, 3. No go's. My resume is good, I had (have) a glowing letter of reference from my former boss, it's just that nothing panned out for me.<br><br>
(there's probably about 1000 posts from me on the subject if anyone is bored enough to dig that deep).<br><br>
It came to the point that I *had* to have a job, so I went to a deli near to where I live that was hiring. Turns out that there are a lot of spanish speakers there, so I at least get to speak the language that I love on a daily basis. It's not my dream job, and I don't really feel that I've been treated like I should have been, but it sort of pays the bills for now.<br><br><br><br>
Bottom line: I chose my major based upon my heart, and my interests. I love being bilingual, and I hope that I eventually get to work in a capacity where my studies will pay off. And the friggin' $20k that I took out in student loans, but that's another subject.</span>

 

[gas4]

I decided to go for psychology because I thought it would be interesting, but mainly because people had always said that I seemed to have an interest in it, ever since I was a child. I kind of didn't know what else to do so I went with their recommendations and turns out they were right - I love it. I guess they knew me better than my adolescent self knew myself (if that makes any sense).<br><br><br><br>
I'm still studying, this is my second year of postgradute study, so I guess I could technically be considered to have continued to work in the field after finishing my degree. Of course I'll be doing that anyway next year.

 

[Skylark]

During my family's bicycle trip from Ohio to Boston, MA, in June 1999, I would write the daily update emails to send to friends and family back home. Once or twice, my dad wrote the updates. When we returned, my loved ones kept telling me how much they enjoyed my updates (colorful and detailed) over my dad's (cut and dried).<br><br><br><br>
I started thinking, "You know, maybe I don't really want to pursue a career in music. I could get into this whole 'telling people what happened' thing." So, when I started college in August 2000, it was with the intention of majoring in journalism to be a newspaper reporter. However, at the time, I was a 17-year-old high school senior attending college on the Post Secondary Education program. I was not sure I would stay at that college, and I knew many others had a high school foreign language requirement for enrollment. I took Spanish 101 my first semester, not expecting to like it. I fell in love with it instead.<br><br><br><br>
I spent as many credit hours on my Spanish minor as some people do on their majors. Because I had never had Spanish before, I had to work my way through 101, 102, 201, and 202 before I got to 211 (Intro to Spanish Lit) which began to count toward my minor. Spanish there requires 21 credit hours of <i>upper level</i> classes. I stayed an extra semester to finish all the requirements both major and minor, but I would do it all again.<br><br><br><br>
I'm now a newspaper reporter. A few times I have used my Spanish in the course of my job, but not on a daily or even weekly basis. I use it far more in my personal life.

 

[codemonkey]

I majored in Math. My first semester of college I took calculus and fell in love with it. My minor was computer science. I'm a software engineer so it's kind of a combination of the two.

 

[cftwo]

I was undecided on my major when I started college. I thought about History, I thought about Math, and my dad kept telling me I should try philosophy. Like a lot of teenagers, I thought that if my dad recommended it, I would avoid it. I took a course in philosophy my sophomore year and thought, "This stuff is neat!" and ended up declaring my major by the end of the semester.<br><br><br><br>
I got my Ph.D. in Philosophy, so I did stick with it in the long run. Now I do higher ed research (social science stuff) and teach philosophy on the side. So, I have sort of stuck with my major.

 

[Poppy]

I double majored in finance and marketing. I wanted to be sure to be able to get a job upon graduation, and I did. I worked in investments and money management for years, but hated the greed and the competition. (It is very true - the rich keep getting richer!)<br><br><br><br>
Due to some personal issues at home (sick child), I bailed on the rat race about 10 years ago. I started taking some art classes for the very first time in my life, and to make a long story short, I'm now a working artist.<br><br><br><br>
I still use my degree. I manage our household investments and budget. And I have a much better understanding of what it takes to be an artist from a business perspective than nearly any of the other artists I know. I'm actually thinking of heading in that direction someday - as a business consultant for young artists.

 

[synergy]

I was undecided when I first started, and I was just taking a variety of social sciences and humanities classes. My problem was that I found them all fascinating. Then I discovered Anthropology- the study of Man literally, but more specifically- the study of culture. Culture is an all encompasing term and the field of Anthropology studies pretty much every covered in the social sciences, humanities and even the hard sciences in some cases.<br><br><br><br>
So I got a degree in Sociocultural Anthropology. I am now working in Management at a theatre, and I am taking grad classes in project management in the fall. Anthropology is related to both and I use the main research method 'participant/observation' on a daily basis.

 

[Tesseract]

I was undecided until the very end of my freshman year. I was sitting in the quad having a sandwich for lunch one day and it hit me that ever since grade school, when we had been asked to do some sort of reseach paper, I had always picked bioloy topics, even in clasesthat weren't science-related. How the brain works. How genetic engineering works. The anatomy of spiders. And so on. I always liked plants and animals and leanring about them. And I was a budding environmentalist, and I had big dreams of saving the world with alternative wastewater treatment systems and sustainable agriculture and cool stuff like that. So I picked biology.<br><br><br><br>
But unfortunately, I wanted to collect a paycheck instead of spending my life begging for funding. And after graduating, I found that biology degrees don't really pay unless you go to medical school. So I went to law school instead and now do something completely unrelated to my undergrad major.

 

[catswym]

i was always into science. learning things, figuring out how the world works, animals, etc.<br><br><br><br>
anyway, when i was 8 i thought i wanted to be an md. by the time i got to high school, i thought i wouldn't be any good at that, so i decided i should get my phd. but having thought about med school for so long i had already thought about what major to be. a lot of premeds major in bio but i wasn't so into standard bio, i was more of a chem person.<br><br><br><br>
so, i decided biochem, altho i had no idea at the time what that meant. i went into college a declared biochem major, and that's what i graduated with.<br><br><br><br>
now i'm getting my phd in biochem. i have no idea what i want to do longterm, however.

 

[Astarte]

I'm one of those lucky ones who decided early on and went on with it because it never occured to me that I wanted to do anything else. Fine arts, focus in drawing and painting. I had that decided in high school and just went ahead with it. I've always been doing it and I just couldn't fathom doing anything else with my life. The exact way that'll translate into a career has yet to be seen.. I'm looking into illustration, concept design for film/video games and figurative art in a gallery setting. It's not out of the question for me to do all of those things, just depends on the opportunities that present themselves. I finish school in two weeks!

 

[slp2b]

I was always interested in the medical field. I got my associate degree in health sciences and planned to transfer to the university nursing program. I was told that it would be a semester before I found out if I was accepted (the program is so impacted that every semester there are about 500 applicants for 40 spots). I had to sign up for some other classes in the mean time. I looked at all the other health majors and decided on Speech Language Pathology. I only planned on taking the classes for one semester until I got into the nursing program, but once I started taking the classes I realized it was a better fit. I still get to work in the hospital (with patients who have had some kind of traumatic brain injury or stroke). I will be helping them to recover their ability to communicate. I will have better hours and get paid more too. I have not regretted once making the change. I am getting my BA this semester and in January, I will be going to grad school for my MA. Two and a half years of that and I will be working. In case you are wondering why I am going to school now, it is because my son has Tourette's Syndrome and Asperger's syndrome and I had to be available to pick him up from school when he was having a really bad day or take him to various doctor appointments. Then there was also all the IEP and other school meetings. I just figure that being an SLP will be my second career (being full-time Mom was my first).

 

[Daral]

At first I was into physics, but after taking one college course in physics (intro to quantum), I decided it was way too much work for me, so I switched to computer science and have stuck with that since. I'm minoring in physics anyway though. Still in college.

 

[asp3]

I wanted to be a commercial pilot and learned the best way to accomplish that goal was to become a military pilot. So initially my goal was to get a degree in math (a subject I was good at and enjoyed) and then enlist so that I could become a pilot.<br><br><br><br>
After talking with a number of people I learned that my allergies would probably prevent me from getting into any flight training programs. I was in junior college and it only cost $15 a semester for health fees (this was pre proposition 13 California) so I stayed in junior college an extra two years exploring other interests. I was a cinematography major for a couple of semesters and then a photography major for a semester.<br><br><br><br>
I eventually got into San Francisco State as a math major. I didn't enjoy my first upper division math class, so I switched to computer science and graduated with a computer science degree. I've been in the computer industry for 24 years now. I used to be a developer, but I'm now in technical support. I love the field even though my current job isn't that enjoyable.<br><br><br><br>
I gave up aspirations in photography and cinematography because the fields were so competitive and I didn't think that my interest was as keen as others I ran into when pursuing those classes.

 

[codemonkey]

Hey slp2b, my son has asperger's syndrome too.

 

[gaya]

I wanted to be an md or medical scientist so i majored in clinical science, psych and took the required pre-med courses. Then I decided to get an ms in clinical science. I thought having an ms would be good for med applications plus, I really enjoy clinical science. Now, I'm definately leaning towards research (didn't know I would love it and actually thought it would be boring to a certain extent) but it's hard to let go of the md path due to all the time and effort I put into preparation.

 

[Dirty Martini]

<div class="quote-container"><span>Quote:</span>
<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by <strong>Astarte</strong> <a href="/forum/post/0"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style=""></a><br><br>
I finish school in two weeks!</div>
</div>
<br><br><br>
awesome! <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/images/smilies/thumbsup.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title=":up:">

 

[Dirty Martini]

Good stories so far <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/images/smilies/smiley.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title=""><br><br><br><br>
I picked math when I applied, because I wanted to be a math teacher.<br><br>
Then, I added computer science as a double-major because I enjoyed programming.<br><br><br><br>
Midway through my JR year I had a crisis and quit school and lived with my parents in Germany (my dad was working for the DoD). Worked on base and traveled. Got interested in international politics and economics and went back to school a few months later.<br><br><br><br>
Graduated with a BA in International Relations, hoping to go into the Foreign Service. Failed the FS exam, got a job with a software company, and still got to travel around internationally for years. That was pretty sweet.<br><br><br><br>
Got bored, so I decided getting my MBA would be a good idea. Put myself through school and now I manage a team of 10. w00t. It's not related to my undergraduate degree, but I certainly use a lot of stuff I got in grad school.

 

[gaya]

Amy, did you enjoy getting your MBA? What was it like?