Question for college grads

[Christina]

I employ almost none of what I learned during my extensive fencing training in the swordfights I find myself in these days, but I am firmly in the camp that says you should learn the rules before ignoring them.

That's what I learned at jazz college.

[JonFromMaplewood]

A literature class focusing exclusively on James Joyce's  Ulysses so I could get through the fucking thing.

[yesno]

I had such a class.

Classes are good for things you wouldn't learn otherwise. Science classes are a tricky thing. Are they at the popular level you can learn on your own by reading a book or doing a Teaching Company course? Or are they building blocks to a career in the field?

[Louis Lame]

If you're 60+ in the US can you enroll in courses for free?

[Steve of Bloomington]

I employ almost none of what I learned during my extensive fencing training in the swordfights I find myself in these days, but I am firmly in the camp that says you should learn the rules before ignoring them.

That's what I learned at jazz college.

At jazz college I learned it's not the notes you play that matter, but the notes you don't play. So I put down the saxophone for good.

[Steve of Bloomington]

I had such a class.

Classes are good for things you wouldn't learn otherwise. Science classes are a tricky thing. Are they at the popular level you can learn on your own by reading a book or doing a Teaching Company course? Or are they building blocks to a career in the field?

There's always the Khan Academy, although the course list is kind of overwhelming. http://www.khanacademy.org/

What specifically interests you?

[fonpr]

So I put down the saxaphone for good.

Todd Snider - Talkin' Seattle Grunge Rock Blues

[cavorting with nudists]

A literature class focusing exclusively on James Joyce's  Ulysses so I could get through the fucking thing.

I had such a class.

As did I. Really glad I took that one.  Also a course in Dostoevsky taught by Czeslaw Milosz, so that I can actually say I have read The Possessed and The Brothers Karamazov.  Good times.

[Steve of Bloomington]

I did drop out of jazz college before I learned to spell saxophone, though. Then I drank scotch whisky all night long, and dined behind the wheel.

[buffcoat]

This thread is jazz, with all the be-boppin' and scattin'.




Which is the fencing class when you get to slap the other dude across the face with the sword.  I want to learn that one.


For now, I'll have to settle for foiling you all with my rapier wit.

Now I have to go to the zoo to see the great épées and watch Buffalo play hockey.

[fonpr]

For now, I'll have to settle for foiling you all with my rapier wit.

Very sharp double pun, Buff.

[Andy]

I have a technical business degree (construction science) and I often feel like I'm not as well rounded as my other friends who got degrees in somewhat softer subjects (especially my wife who has a philosophy degree and no interest in philosophy.) I'm currently working on my MBA, which won't do much of anything for me in my career field, but I like school and I like learning.

I would live to take an astronomy class or some other interesting class like that. I'll bet if you went to the professor and explained it to them theyd let you audit whatever class you wanted to. No need to pay for the class if you're just in it for the knowledge.

[dave from knoxville]

You can sit in on my class any day, Andy. Heck of a commute though.

[Bryan]

For the past six months I've been back in school. I did an arts degree (linguistics & literature) and did in fact use my linguistics in the work I'd been doing over the past several years. But I'd been increasingly feeling like I didn't really know how to DO anything, and so I'm studying cabinetmaking now. I'm not 100% committed to working in that field, but am enjoying learning about it. In fact, I'm enjoying it far, far more than I enjoyed any other type of school that I've done in the past

[buffcoat]

Warning about astronomy classes, though - it's a lot more physics and a lot less NOVA than you would hope for.  I know from experience.

I did not take the lab despite my university having a world-class planetarium, so maybe that's my fault.


I hated school, though I love learning.  I was always bored.  I'm planning to teach a class at UNC after I "retire," which I hope is in the not too distant future.  At least that's what Tim Ferris says.


To pick a class, I'd look at the type of thing you spend the most Wikipedia time on and find a class that specializes in that type of thing.