Soon this will all be behind me.
So I got the news from my university Dean’s office about a week ago, I’ll get my degree early…but the catch is that I will be getting a B.A. in Microbiology with a minor in East Asian Studies and English, instead of the B.S. in Microbiology with a minor in East Asian Studies. Perhaps there is not much of a difference in a B.A. from a BS, but the fact that my degree is going to have Art instead of Science really eats at me. Whether or not that is going to affect my chances for employment remains to be seen but I attach more prestige to the B.S. than the B.A. even if the difference is only going to be two classes. I know that ultimately though I have no one to blame for this other than myself, I transferred with too many credits and took about a quarter’s worth of classes I did not really need that I only took to keep my options open. I had gambled on the idea that the student population would not mushroom the way it did. I already went over the unit cap so it was pretty much a forgone conclusion that they would boot me out with a degree as the Dean’s Office held all the cards and had no incentive to let me petition for excess units once they figured out that went around them the first time and will be 2.5 units over the 225 cap. Certainly if I had been more focused on getting a B.S. I could have gotten it, and the fact that I did better in my minor classes than my major classes did little to help my lost cause. Most of the anger and bitterness has subsided, but in the end I find it mildly irritating all the same.
The Yuri I never saw,
The Muto that I never held,
The bath I never had,
and this University’s lack of Hasegawa speaks for itself. (adapted from an insult to the 1st Cavalry)
I’ll try to keep the bitterness to a minimum but as most of you boys and girls are in college or going to college, don’t make the same mistake I did, plan your course work out like your life depended on it, and try to avoid classes you don’t really need. Also if you are going to transfer do not bet an over achiever in community college and transfer with as many units close to the minimum as you can. I went in with 114 when I only needed 80 right off the bat which they pruned down to 90.5 units. The other issue was that I took a major in which the only interest I had in it was disease causing organisms, the rest did not interest me terribly much and I took it because it seemed more useful and could help me find a job that made decent money. If only it were like Moyashimon in that there was a lab course with instructors like Haruka and Muto, if only… Still it was also around this time when I had my fate handed to me by an enemy that I could not defeat in a civilized non-violent manner that I also finished Fancy Lala. The military teaches you how to roll with punches, but sadly they don’t really teach you how to deal with the bitterness and the anger of defeat.
Remember when you considered your crayon art to be good?
Okay so maybe getting old has some perks.
I am Quattro Bajeena I am looking for a man named Char…Have you seen him?
So before I compare my miserable existence to that of the protagonist of Fancy Lala, the anime was an oldie from 1998 about a girl named Miho who gets the power to magically conjure up clothes she draws and turn into a 15 year old Miho. She starts out as a model and eventually gets to release a single before the magical creatures that granted her mastery over space, time, and matter went on into the next temporal plain. It wasn’t a commercial success but I liked it very much since I like genki never say die characters like Miho, it also helps that she has fantasies that are very similar to Hosaka’s though since Miho predates Hosaka by ten years I think that perhaps Hosaka took a page from Miho-nee when it came to letting his imagination run riot. It’s a good old school anime to watch if you haven’t strangled the child within. Overall it was an experience for Miho that came to an end at which point she was powerless to fully reclaim what she had, though the lesson is probably that she still has time to grow up to be Lala and she needn’t such into it. Funny how kids wish that they could be adults and when they become adults all they want is to be a kid again. I liked it a lot because of the bitter sweet end, Miho, might not see Lala for another six years, but life went on, after her adventure was over life went on there was no need to despair because she still a had a number of years to enjoy being a kid.
Things were so much simpler when I was nine…
Say does that magical pen work backwards?
Whatever happened to see through clothes anyways?
Maybe it was a happy coincidence that I finished Fancy Lala around the same time my plans for the future were rendered moot with one swift stroke from the Dean’s pen in the NO box. Just like how Miho’s stint as Lala ended abruptly and just as she peaked, my college life will soon effectively come to an end and like Miho I will have to figure out what to do from now on. Where as Miho would someday see Lala again on her 15th birthday, I cannot afford to do this college thing over again nor do I have that much time to devote again. Soon I will fully enter the real world instead of residing in the dual existence of college drunkard and GI Joe. Graduating early is both a blessing and a curse it means that I won’t have any civilian employment when I get out, and judging by how dismally everyone else is doing I should be grateful that I have already enlisted and have rank over the new crop of recruits who are signing up now to make ends meet. At this juncture I don’t know what I want to do depending on how the job search thing goes, and as I have mentioned before I can still beg Uncle Sam for a job (which he will surely grant so long as he gets to decide where it is I shall work), just sooner than I had ever intended. One great thing about being shoved out is now the constant pressure of having classes seems to have abated. I hear they call it senioritis and it certainly feels good since I know I can’t alter the fate I was handed. The BA I supposedly get in March (I didn’t file for graduation on time because I did not know I was going to graduate or that IGETC fulfilled the foreign language requirement) represents in many respects a tactical victory in that I am no longer losing money paying tuition, but represents a strategic defeat in that I did not get the degree I wanted. Ah well more time for animu and mango I suppose, I just hope that a B.A. in a science is not totally useless because that would make this a very costly Pyrrhic victory.
Impz is that you?
You’ll see Lala again Miho…
Plus you won’t have to wait the full Ten Years After.
Well in the end I hope you kids learn from this old man’s academic equivalent of Lake Trasimene. Still like Miho I can look off into the setting sun, one chapter of our short existences has closed, we may have tasted bitter defeat, but so long as we have the capacity to endure this glorious struggle is not yet over. I’ll always have Moyashimon to remind me of the lab that never was, and Fancy Lala reminded me that I still have a future. Maybe God is trying to tell me something I have prayed for an end to college and now I got it. I just didn’t expect God to use Fed-ex overnight shipping. So far this year I have been promoted, robbed, and now I am graduating earlier than expected, there is something oddly amusing and mildly miraculous about what has occurred in my ho hum existence in the first part of 2009. Now to pray for Title 10 orders for a billet in Honolulu…I want certainly want Honolulu, but given how God seems to have an odd sense of humor IMHO, I suspect I will get Title 10 orders…to someplace just as sandy but with horrible beaches… I at least have a future being a more active Jolly Green Giant (though more like Disgruntled Tan Dwarf) that gets to stride to the farthest corners of the earth on Uncle Sam’s penny it’s almost like a dream come true.
Still I wonder if every college graduate who got their degree during hard times goes through this. Perhaps there are a few of you who are older than dirt that can attest to Next War-itis What Next-itis?
Skip Beat post later if Impz is still MIA on it.
31 Comments
Jesus, that sucks. While my goal of getting my Magister in Social and Economic History also won´t be exactly a guarantee of future employment, at least I can take the course I want for it, instead of some dean cutting me off randomly.
I hope everything works out for you, Crusader.
Ah, College.
Planning ahead is great and makes life so much simpler – if you know what you want to do. Last year I thought I wanted to be an engineer. After futilely batting away at calculus for two semesters, I changed my major to International Studies and am currently futilely batting away at Mandarin. At least this way when the reds take over the world I’ll be able to negotiate a deal with them in their own language.
woah, off-topic, which anime caps are shown here !?!?
That’s too bad about the BA. I know as a BA myself, I tend to respect BSs because of of this image that they worked really hard. Then again, I kinda think that college is a time to have fun and that people who work hard in college are silly. Come to think of it, I didn’t study hard but I didn’t have fun either, so when it comes down to it what happens next is up to you. I guess…
Ah, college. I remember those days. If only I knew then what I know now I would’ve torn it up a little more instead of doing the ‘responsible’ thing and plan everything out. I graduated college in 2000 **gasp**. The best thing you can do to avoid What-Next-itis is to just keep on moving. The way I approached it was to secure a job BEFORE graduation. By the time you hit senior year, you’re already a marketable commodity (depending on your major of course). So use that time to go on interviews during the year. It helped me secure a position about 6 months before I graduated. That way I got out, and jumped right into working. In these times especially, the key is getting SOMETHING. Once you’re out there, you now have ‘experience’ (regardless if it’s valuable or not). It’s easier to secure a better position a little later. Good luck with your Title 10 orders Crusader.
“and try to avoid classes you don’t really need”
That’s kinda, i dunno. I can;t really agree with many of your points but the one above just bothers me more than others. I mean, electives are great. Abusing them, maybe not. They are a great way to relieve stress from a semester full of heavy courses, or they can be used to explore things that may interest you.
As with everything else in life though, it should be taken in moderation and careful planning is important.
But hey you’re still actually young and you have a whole life ahead of you. And heck many people graduate with a degree in something not really related to thier work 20 years down the line. Sure it’ll help abit with that all important first job, but its not something that’s gonna kill your chances.
Hihihi.
In Germany we stay in university for 5-7 years, then reach the Master / Diplom, listen to as much as possible lectures. We don` t do assignements alone, minimally in pairs (my software architecture assignemnt was with 3 others – quite funny saturdays).
We don`t pay fees at all, so we study because of interests, because of the interest in knowledge! As I study Bioinformatcis with Diplom, we often visit lectures from philosophy to theology to chemistry, physics, mathematics just because of interest (KI etc). Its too fascinating, if I could, I would make also a Diplom in theoretical mathematics, biochemistry, history.. *sigh*. Some of us study two whole Diploms (this is really stressful).
We do not have a schedule (eh but in the 2 years of start.. somehow one has to learn the bascis), we are forced to take each year – only at the end of the (5-7-?) years, we have to make the exams in the right areas. Areas, but not detailed lectures ^^. So I can stay home, if I want or go to university, if I wish, it doesn`t matter (only for the future of course, but it`s up to me, what I want to do).
If one is not able to live with this freedom, poor guy, this person will stay in university 10 years or so. Leaving university after 4 years is near a joke here in Germany, because even when your parents are poor, the country will pay the living costs for 5 years for you.
At the end, you will need classes, you never thought of. Knowledge widens the horizon. The more you can get, the farer you can reach out
.
Crusader, don’t worry. In the long run, this is just a minor defeat. After all, it doesn’t matter what degree you’ve got, it’s what you have in your head.
Check out this guy’s titles:
http://wiki.lspace.org/wiki/Ridcully
And the list of all titles: http://wiki.lspace.org/wiki/UU_degrees
Titles such as Bachelor of Eldritch Lacemaking show an interesting feature – it’s only for show and formalities. If you want to conquer the academic world, then you’re one step behind your expectations.
But that’s it – these titles mean little outside the walls of the world’s universities
Ah, sorry to hear about that. My own graduation is on the horizon (May), and I got there by not planning anything, switching majors and adding them at random, and transferring in way too many credits. But a History/English double major from an ag/mechanical school with a “developing” (i.e. nonexistent) liberal arts program isn’t the hardest thing in the world to get, either.
And don’t worry about missing that Moyashimon Animal Science lab. I started out in Animal Science, and we palpated a box that was constructed kinda like a cow’s back end. You had to get to Animal Repro to work with actual animals. And no real ag school would have given him a wimpy little covering like that–your arm’s the only things that going in, and you’ve already got a glove on. No need to cover your clothes!
@Crusader
Well, finally getting out of academia, eh?
Yeah, to be honest though the BA/BSc distinction usually does not matter once you’re out in the world. I could have graduated with either, took the BA, and found it was just a notation on paper…
As for your options, have a look and see if there is anything you like in the world…
Or you can be like Calawain and I and go BACK to professional/graduate school (Law, med, MBA, MA etc) and then come out and print money. Knowing the Imperialist Military-Complex down there you could probably convince the Navy to pay for it (Ok, there’s probably a contract/obligatory service involved, but hey, paid for!)
Promotions, mmm good. Finally a full OF-1 as of Wed.
By the way, Hawaii/Iraq/Afghanistan…anyone of them, bring your surfboard, growl “Charlie Don’t Surf” and it’s all good.
I would not worry too much about it. Most jobs just want you to have the background. Whatever job you end up taking, they are going to want to train you their way anyways.
I haven’t taken my science requirements yet in which will last a full year so I’m taking those like in my third year. I’m taking every art class available and worthy of my time especially Typography and Art Concepts. If my future lab classes are like Moyashimon, I might take them in the fall.
Even if you graduate early, which is a plus, you would still feel bitter and slightly unsatisfied for getting a B.A. instead of a B.S. because your original intention was getting a B.S. But still, FedEx? That shows how much compassion the school had for you, huh? ^^
My Dad knew a Comp. Sci. grad with a BA instead of a BS. Supposedly, he had to endure a fair amount of hazing from his colleagues at SGI because of that single letter’s difference. But really, performance counts, not the degree. The best engineers I know started out as technicians, much like mustang officers, and not all of them have a college education.
As for job prospects, you can ride out the storm in grad school and be some professor’s b*tch. . .
That’s funny, at first I was going for a BA in Biology, but instead got out with a BS. I took it in order to avoid the language requirement, lawl.
Oh yeah, still don’t have a job in my field, BTW.
urgh… the “future” – don’t even want to hear that word…
I didn’t even realize that you Could get a BA in microbiology. If I saw “B.A. Microbiology UCLA 2009″ on a resume, I would assume that it was a typo. Did you perhaps attend one of those wacky liberal arts colleges?
As improbable as it sounds, I have a BS, BA, MFA and a JD. The BS was an almost complete waste of 3 years of my life. Actually, the BS ended up causing me a sleepless night or two as it almost kept me out of my law school of choice. My BS was awarded by university X. The law school at university X had an admissions policy that encouraged academic and cultural diversity, or some such nonsense. The fact that my useless BS was from university X actually made it more difficult to gain admission to law school X. I was forced to endure the wait-list.
Other than memorizing the phone number for Zachary’s Pizza, I do not believe that I learned anything useful during those first 3 years of my collegiate career.
dts
btw, i live in hawaii. just mentioning it’s honolulu.
@cspdelta: “bring your surfboard, growl “Charlie Don’t Surf” and it’s all good.”
lol
and sorry to hear that crus, but i’m sure it will be all good in time.
Can somebody tell me what anime is the 2nd to 5th pic is from?
@tommykn, queryman101:
It’s Moyashimon, believe it or not. I just used Google
job market sucks, so yes, comrade, if you are able to get some graduate fellowship, you could possibly ride out the next turbulent 2-3 years in hopes that obama-sama gets things fixed up and some jobs for everyone in place.
Congratulations on your early degree, Crusader!
People would be much more interested in your experience and skill rather than the second letter of your abbreviated degree. Don’t waste your time “eating yourself up” over it.
The attachment of prestige to BS over BA is BS
Yes, it is important to plan your coursework, but it is also essential to really understand what kind of career you are heading for. Many people enjoy taking classes in a certain area, but the actual work may be very different from taking the classes. That is why it is very important to do some shadowing/volunteering/internship to really understand what it will be like in real life. Also it is important to understand that job opportunities for people with certain bachelor degrees are very limited and one has to pursue graduate or professional school to get a decent position.
Hmmm… like grendel, I didn’t know you could get an B.A. in microbiology. Congrats on the degree though.
@magnuskun
I just gave notice to my superiors of my willingness to help out after March, they should have a rough Idea of what they can do with me by tomorrow. Otherwise one of the E-7s knows people who work at one of the Federal labs.
@Ian K
I suppose one will probably find who they are in college, it helps to have a better grasp of what you want before hand though. I am sure the Reds would like to negotiate with you for your substandard wage at the lead based toy factory next to the fake milk farm…
The rest of us will not fear the Red Menace.
@tommykn
Moyashimon and Fancy Lala.
@animekritik
The only edge I have over the rest of the BS guys is that my English minor implies that I can communicate better in writing…
@Polaryzed
Indeed I am trying to move furiously forward I just hope I don;’t go off a cliff…
@Cokematic
Depends on what kind of college you go to, some are more stringent than others I know the Engineering majors have no unit cap at all, so they get to have more classes in whatever if they want to. The other thing you also have to consider is if you can afford to stay in college longer than necessary.
@Mel
If only I lived in Euro-land, ah well different strokes for different folks, but I get the sense that I’d much prefer the way you guys do things.
@Eonir
Now there is an idea emigrate to one of Prachett’s stories. It’d be an interesting experience to say the least.
@Erin
I had very high hopes when I transferred from Chemistry to Microbiology, ah well at least I got away with one major change. If I were to go into agriculture I’d prefer to use something MECHANICAL.
@cspdelta
I have had enough of studying and taking midterms for now maybe someday in the future, but for now I’d rather just work instead of cram.
Grats on your promotion, even if I am obligated as enlisted to salute you in the field.
@Ashley
I’ll soon find that out I suppose, I hope your job search will go or had proceeded better than mine.
@soyahoney
my university is already populated the more people they kick out the door the better it will be for the university as a whole, not many get out in four any more for the sciences, I was on my victory lap, only they did not want me to complete the fifth lap.
@august
Unless the professor in question is like Muto or Hasegawa I’d sooner decline. Hehe hazing, how bad can it be? It’s probably like boot camp only I can shout back.
@ItAintEazy
You and me both it seems, ah well I guess having my foreign language requirement don counted against me in this case.
@olivia
If only we could go back to the past…
@grendel
Apparently you can, supposedly it was meant for the sleaze bags who went out to promote drugs and pre-med guys. Ah well if this BA is from one of the more venerable UCs in California it must be worth something… I hope.
@catface210
I hear it’s expensive, but the hard reality is Uncle Sam cares not where I want to go, but where I need to go…
@queryman101
Moyashimon, it’s fairly recent so you can get subs.
@lelangir
I am dog tired of studying and tests, if need be I’ll ride this one out in the military, at least I am making money instead of losing money or ate best breaking even…
@Kitsune
Indeed if I knew then what I knew now I probably would have been better off. Still I really dislike the word Art…makes me seem like a hippies.
@TJ
Me neither though my professors say it makes no difference in the greater scheme of things. i hope they are telling the truth though.
I can say this – I never had that issue in university, even with me taking a full course-load and a half. I’m still surprised they have B.A.’s in what is supposed to be a science field, though… and one that’s more scientific than PoliSci.
@ crusader: true and true. Both parents are doctors and have lived in hawaii since college, so yeah. We’re here now. Finished off paying for the house something years ago too. So it’s all good. But yeah, a little expensive.
Don’t sweat it. Every university has its own policies for awarding BA vs BS. As far as future employers are concerned, a bachelor’s degree is a bachelor’s degree.
All I can say is: congratulations on getting a degree! At the end of the day, a bachelor’s degree is a bachelor’s degree (as people have said) and the fact you took extra units probably made you a more rounded person. Pity your Dean didn’t appreciate it.
I am in that limbo state of ‘job’ where at college I did a subject, didn’t like it, did another, screwed up and didn’t work hard and guess where I am now? Would like to go back to college but a: can’t afford it. b: not sure if they will accept me.
Never thought it would get to this stage several years down the line. I only have myself to tick off for being an idiot. So in conclusion – congratulations again for the degree (regardless of BA/BS – although I can understand the ‘art’ can be a thorn in the side) and also a job.
@Haesslich
So what did you major in then, Scientology? I guess some guys have all the luck, some guys have all the pain, some guys get all the breaks, me? I do nothing but complain.
@catface210
Good to hear that some people were responsible to pay off for their homes, and in Hawaii no less.
@Jonathan Tappan
Time will tell…
@Kip
I can understand where the Dean’s office was coming from though, they simply had too many people staying beyond the four years and the out in four programs has produced few results. You could do what I did, work for Uncles Sam, and he’ll pay for it, or at least most of it…
@Crusader
Thanks for the sniper check bro =)
Seriously though, get out and about and see where life takes you. I took two years off for “self-discovery,” army and anime (it’s research for anthropology, I swear) before the evil Law School.
Ah good old “at government expense”…I trust your Orderly Room-Fu is good…
college. i just started a year ago and i’m getting tired of it. i hate the required minor subjects, they just eat up your time. good thing you are over that already.
well congratulations on your degree. i think BA sounds good too. now i;m thinking why i decided to go on BS adv psy rather than just taking BA psy, so now i’m attending a zoology class. rrr.
so good luck to you. ^^
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