2010-11-12, 12:45 AM
Do you ever know how much knowledge will be useful down the road? Do you think that you'll actually be getting a job as an IT major? Do you think that you'll actually be happy for the rest of your life just being a server operator, system operator, or networks adviser? Most humanities courses will be useless, except for a small subdivision that requires statistical analysis and graphical interpretation. To be honest, data assembly and rate mapping is cross-applicable to numerous fields. Whether measuring the rate of enzymatic catalysis through Michaelis-Menten or the crude birth rate / crude death rate, seeing graphical trends and abstracting how the original equation would look from a derivative would be an important skill in any field.
So many students study something and think they'll get a job relevant to that interest. But the thing is, you never really learn anything terribly significant in undergrad. You're not given adequate funds to practice experiments more than once, not able to use the best equipment for your thesis on chaperone proteins, and you're never really treated seriously by anyone in the University regardless of how smart you appear to be. When you want to be involved with professors, you'll most likely be blue balled after they initially promise you a wonderful time in bed. College exposes you to several truths that make you realize that you could be the smartest guy in class... but that doesn't mean anything to anyone... including the professor. You could also really want to participate in research, but it doesn't mean that you'll ever get an adequate opportunity to perform in the environment of your choice. The University itself is a giant bureaucratic system where paper pushing, thesis mongering, fund cutting, and other sorts of everyday office politics gets in the way of genuine research. And undergrads are nothing more than an extra sore on most professors' "To Do List."
So many students study something and think they'll get a job relevant to that interest. But the thing is, you never really learn anything terribly significant in undergrad. You're not given adequate funds to practice experiments more than once, not able to use the best equipment for your thesis on chaperone proteins, and you're never really treated seriously by anyone in the University regardless of how smart you appear to be. When you want to be involved with professors, you'll most likely be blue balled after they initially promise you a wonderful time in bed. College exposes you to several truths that make you realize that you could be the smartest guy in class... but that doesn't mean anything to anyone... including the professor. You could also really want to participate in research, but it doesn't mean that you'll ever get an adequate opportunity to perform in the environment of your choice. The University itself is a giant bureaucratic system where paper pushing, thesis mongering, fund cutting, and other sorts of everyday office politics gets in the way of genuine research. And undergrads are nothing more than an extra sore on most professors' "To Do List."