I didn't learn anything other than memorization in school. Only when I went BACK to school for the ENGINEERING degree (1980s,) did I learn how to do arithmetic in my head (the first example) and to estimate answers closely enough to know whether I probably got it right by hand. Since I am somewhat dysgraphic with numbers (look it up) that was an important skill. Score one more (however you want to add it) for the troll.
The bulk of what I do in forestry is math related. The attrition rate is around 80% in my major, but those who graduate are basically guaranteed a good job. Some surveys show 100% employment rates for graduates of the program I'm in. . .
So, when I'm in my department building, all the students are taking notes and listening to the lecture. When I go across campus to other classes, most of the students are texting/facebooking, and the other classes seem watered down. The liberal arts classes seem to be 99% political opinions and students not paying attention. The core English classes were simply remedial elementary school English, and you could not test out of them.
That graph is interesting- particularly towards the end. My program tends to have GPA's normally distributed around a 2.5 or so. None of the professors curve their class averages, and they cram in as much info as possible. We actually go outside and cruise timber, as well as do other "blue collar" type work along with more analytical indoor work. I don't go to a "famous" school, and I think that's exactly why my program (and the other STEM programs) here are successful. There's no political pressure, activism, or protests because no one cares about a state school in flyover country. Incidentally there is a huge STEM research program here- one of the better ones. . .
It's a great place to be if you want to work hard and have a good job later on. I should have my (minimal) debt paid off before I start my last year. I'll be graduating with no debt and almost guaranteed employment. I know people at "famous" schools that have a half million in debt and no realistic job prospects. They're nice people, but they'll be trapped in virtual slavery for the rest of their lives.
If my local program wasn't so good/cheap I wouldn't be going to college. I'd learn some trade and wait for the oil jobs to come back or something like that. I just want to go into semi-retirement in my 30's and travel a lot.
Ha, math gets fun when you're programming a computer to do it for you! Not only must you understand the problem, but you must be patient enough to debug it. I spend like 10 minutes typing in code and 50 minutes trying to find out why it doesn't work. I signed up for this stuff to be outside a lot and I find myself going from planning site prep (pre-planting) on a clear cut in the morning only to do data analysis in R programming language at night. . .
southtubist wrote:The bulk of what I do in forestry is math related. The attrition rate is around 80% in my major, but those who graduate are basically guaranteed a good job. Some surveys show 100% employment rates for graduates of the program I'm in. . .
So, when I'm in my department building, all the students are taking notes and listening to the lecture. When I go across campus to other classes, most of the students are texting/facebooking, and the other classes seem watered down. The liberal arts classes seem to be 99% political opinions and students not paying attention. The core English classes were simply remedial elementary school English, and you could not test out of them.
Well, I was in college a long time ago, but the same thing applied....lots of math in engineering. We didn't get to go outside and play with trees though, it was more playing with stuff in the lab, which was fun. One of my professors referred to other degrees as Underwater Basket Weaving. When I took other courses, it was read the book and take the test. With the engineering, it was an hour a page, especially for math, and a lot of head scratching and musing over concepts. Good for you in choosing something that is going to pay off.