A Question On Some Majors

[BG45]

Obviously, I don't have the money to pay for my masters because I'm a sister and my community takes care of that.  However, this past year in the Catholic School I was teaching in, there were four of us studying for various masters degrees in education.  The lay women studying were doing so on the salary of a Catholic School teacher... which is not a lot!  Some employers will provide assistance in obtaining a higher degree and there are different programs that lots of schools use that combine work and study to offset the cost... 

 

I'm not saying its easy - I work full time, I'm a sister full-time, and I'm a student as well, but it has definitely been worth the extra work.

 

again, just keep an open mind.

 

and Congrats to you BG45!

 

Thanks!  :)  And yeah, it's good when people will have companies pay to help them...I do not envy the others in your program trying to do it with the salary of a Catholic school teacher.  Nor you, with all the work AND school.  But trust me, it's worth it!  My uni I'm at now runs three different Masters programs for my field:  Online, satellite campus, main campus.  While I don't teach at any of the Masters level classes, it's interesting still to hear people's varied stories on why they're there and who is paying for it.  It's amazing how it just sort of comes up unbidden.

 

Trust me bro, enter the seminary. 100% job security. ;)

And in some dioceses, 4 weeks of guaranteed vacation per year.  :P

[PhuturePriest]

Trust me bro, enter the seminary. 100% job security. ;)

 

I'm thinking about it a lot, actually. I'm just thinking perhaps I should go to college first so I can have a stable job to fall back on in case I discern out of the seminary.

[Sister Marie]

How much time do you have until college FP?

[Byzantine]

I'm thinking about it a lot, actually. I'm just thinking perhaps I should go to college first so I can have a stable job to fall back on in case I discern out of the seminary.

 

Also, I know this might not be the case for big Latin Rite seminaries, but think about the college experience you might be missing too. This, of course, is considering the Byzantine seminary, with roughly 10 guys total studying there.

Edited July 16, 2013 by Byzantine

[PhuturePriest]

How much time do you have until college FP?

 

Two years.

[BG45]

Two years.

 

God bless you, you are every entrance adviser's dream student to be thinking of all of this now.

[Sister Marie]

Then definitely keep your options open... you still have time to decide what you want to do.

[PhuturePriest]

God bless you, you are every entrance adviser's dream student to be thinking of all of this now.

 

Haha. I've always been one to think really far ahead.

 

Then definitely keep your options open... you still have time to decide what you want to do.

 

Yeah, I'm definitely going to keep my options open. Simply thinking about chemistry and civil engineering is shocking for anyone around me, as I always swore I would never do anything that had to do with math and science. But in the past year I've started to love math and science, so I've been looking in those directions.

[CrossCuT]

Thats awesome! :)

Keep exploring, you have lots of time.

[ChristinaTherese]

I had to take a class about future careers in chemistry while I was a chem major last spring. I don't remember too much (sorry, I didn't want to take that class at all), but I do remember this: Dr. K said that if we went to grad school for research and did not get paid for it by the school, we were doing things wrong. As a research student, you have the requirement (I'm pretty sure) to do research in grad school. This makes money for the school. Our prof said that the question should not be, "how much does it cost" but "how much is the stipend". This, however, is not true if you want to go into medicine. But you don't seem to be thinking of medicine, so you should be able to do grad school easily if you want to.

 

Oh, and I don't know about bio. But if you're doing research (which, yes, involves running experiments), you should also be able to get a stipend.

 

And my brother was looking specifically for work where his employer would pay for him to get a master's degree in electrical engineering. I think that he was also told by his profs that if the employer wouldn't pay, he was doing it wrong. (Unless, of course, he didn't want a master's. I'm honestly not sure if he's going to go for one now. But that's a whole other story....)

[Byzantine]

Make sure you do the communications with your admissions counselor. Apparently some people's parents do it, and it apparently earned me a large number of points that I was the contact for my counselor.

[Basilisa Marie]

Almost all people go to grad school because the school pays for it by having some kind of assistantship where you help a professor do their research or teach their classes. Only very rarely do you, yourself, pay for grad school.   I'm sure many people would argue that it's stupid to go to grad school if you'd have to pay for it yourself. 

 

Don't rule it out, because right now it's starting to look like a master's is the new bachelor's.  You usually can get a lot more money by getting a grad degree, even if you go back for it later on. 

[PhuturePriest]

Make sure you do the communications with your admissions counselor. Apparently some people's parents do it, and it apparently earned me a large number of points that I was the contact for my counselor.

 

Without question.

 

Almost all people go to grad school because the school pays for it by having some kind of assistantship where you help a professor do their research or teach their classes. Only very rarely do you, yourself, pay for grad school.   I'm sure many people would argue that it's stupid to go to grad school if you'd have to pay for it yourself. 

 

Don't rule it out, because right now it's starting to look like a master's is the new bachelor's.  You usually can get a lot more money by getting a grad degree, even if you go back for it later on. 

 

Okay, thanks. My sister just told me not to because she said it's expensive, but if you get assisted than I don't see a reason to be afraid of it, really.

[Lilllabettt]

When I was your age I wrote a letter to admissions at Notre Dame.

They sent me back a personally written letter full of wistful life advice about not thinking so far ahead that I miss the present moment, blah, blah, blah, nothing that I was interested in hearing at the time.

I wish I'd kept it. It was really nice but also kind of hilarious.

[Vincent Vega]

I remember you saying before that you were having some issues with math. Are those resolved now? The three majors you're talking about -- particularly chemistry and especially civil engineering -- require a pretty decent mastery of some advanced mathematics.

[PhuturePriest]

I remember you saying before that you were having some issues with math. Are those resolved now? The three majors you're talking about -- particularly chemistry and especially civil engineering -- require a pretty decent mastery of some advanced mathematics.

 

I think this is at least the ninetieth time I've had to explain this. :P

 

I was struggling with math because I had to learn it out of a book. Anyone would struggle if they had to do that. I'm actually good at math, I just suck at learning it out of books.

[Basilisa Marie]

I think this is at least the ninetieth time I've had to explain this. :P

 

I was struggling with math because I had to learn it out of a book. Anyone would struggle if they had to do that. I'm actually good at math, I just smell of elderberries at learning it out of books.

 

Well make sure you have good professors. :)  Some of the ones at my college embraced the "teach yourself" method. 

[PhuturePriest]

Well make sure you have good professors. :)  Some of the ones at my college embraced the "teach yourself" method. 

 

I'll get a tutor if I need one.

[Lil Red]

So, I've been looking at majors and looking them up. However, the internet is pretty vague, and I'd like to hear from some people who have real experience with these majors. The majors I'm looking at are chemistry, biology, and civil engineering. I'd like to know what exactly you do with each of those majors, what kind of work I would be doing, how I would be doing that work specifically, etc.

 

Any help is appreciated.

 

don't blow things up. 

[PhuturePriest]

don't blow things up. 

 

But... but... explosion are fun!