<p>Love mihcal1’s “How I Picked my Major.”</p>
<p>SteveC - I just ignore clergy spouse invitations. However, I only receive them by mail or email. I didn’t realize I was getting off lightly!</p>
<p>weatherga – I didn’t word that clearly. The lunch is at council, the invitation came in the mail (from our bishops’ spouses–two wives and a husband)–W read it to me. I just don’t think that W understands that coming from the “civilian” side of the fence (vestry and one search committee), my experiences with the diocese aren’t quite the same as hers.</p>
<p>I was in a boarding school in a major city. I was going to study english literature in a major city in a well known school. My mother said you are bright enough to do engineering and if you choose not to do it, you are welcome to come back home and go to what amounts to a neighborhood community college. I sucked it up and did engineering to continue living in my favorite city.</p>
<p>texaspg, did you end up going into an engineering career?</p>
<p>Lilmom - yes, got a masters, worked for about 7 years in the environmental engineering area and moved into IT after that.</p>
<p>Mihcal-- best major story ever. I didn’t declare a major until the last possible moment (2nd semester junior year). I though I wanted to be a psych major til my first psych class. Then I farted around in the sciences. When I didn’t choose a major, my dad tried to ground me long distance. My grandmother only wanted to know why I didn’t have a Chinese boyfriend yet. My mother, an artist, was mystified in general. All my friends were graduating but many were going to law school and more school appealed to me. So I cobbled together a double major in Zoology and History of Science with a French major and went to med school. My husband was the exact opposite super-focused premed type. It’s a wonder we every got together. Partially because I still might be faffing around as an undergrad except I was running out of roommates because my friends kept graduating.</p>
<p>(I only took an extra semester but it felt like a lot more)</p>
<p>A bit late, but sending happy thoughts to the D and S going through fraternity/sorority recruitment.</p>
<p>texaspg – Moderator? Should I say “congratulations” or “I’m sorry”? 
</p>
<p>Hmmm, MS engineering converted to IT … sounds eerily familiar.</p>
<p>texas- I will echo Steve’s salutation to you (whichever is the appropriate one)</p>
<p>I was like jaylynn’s H, knew what I wanted to do since HS, and still doing it today (no IT for me)</p>
<p>good luck to oldfort’s D and others with rush. It starts this weekend for my D, I think she is going to do it, but I don’t think she is actually signed up yet.</p>
<p>Mihcal–what a great story!!! And texas–congrats (is that right?).</p>
<p>stevec - I am sorry is probably more appropriate! The weight of trying to be mean is pretty heavy.</p>
<p>D & S going back this weekend. D was bummed from making more B’s than usual. Don’t think she made more than a couple of grades as low as B+ in HS. I told her that I made more B’s my freshman year than I was used to when trying my best, which I had been, but that it got better after that. Not that B’s are bad at a tough school. Telling S I had a semester I had to prove myself in after letting things slide dangerously for the major I was in. I realized when mine was, want to make sure he does. Let’s all remember we are blessed if our kids aren’t on drugs etc.</p>
<p>TPG congrats! One of our 2016 parents graduated to moderator! </p>
<p>Love the “how I got my major” stories.</p>
<p>COngratulations, TP . . . just don’t go sending too many people to the group W bench ;)</p>
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<p>Ok, I’ve got about 8 pages of this thread to catch up on this morning (haven’t yet… been looking at more recent threads). We had state testing last week in school (no computer time!) - along with sending middle son back to UR - and catching up on other things. Youngest just took off for Jamaica this morning (5am), so we’re actually childless for a week. I feel kind of free! Hubby and I have tickets for a comedian and dinner tonight…</p>
<p>So… to catch up or putter and work on my “to do” list. Hmm.</p>
<p>Catching up went more quickly than I thought (and was far more fun than starting my “to do” list!!!).</p>
<p>Let’s see… books? This semester was my cheapest ever. Oldest (junior) got all of his from fellow students and was happy to pay for them on his own. He’s now taken over paying ALL of his college on his own from his jobs (well, and merit aid, etc) as he’s very eager to be the adult (with our blessings). We still cover his cell phone and insurance plus local taxes, but that’s it. He’s been very good with the stock market (in games) and is thinking of doing some for real. We’re debating helping to fund his start up.</p>
<p>Middle was able to use books from 3 of his 4 fall classes as they continue. Of his 2 new classes, one doesn’t have books. The other cost us < $50 used online. We let him keep the $$ he made selling the book from his 4th class to a classmate. We still have his other expenses, but there sure wasn’t much for books. I wish it could continue this way!</p>
<p>Majors? Oldest started wanting to do microfinance in a third world country, so started with business and international development. He still has the business (with accounting cluster), but I think he dropped the international development to a minor. His new fiance probably isn’t the third world type based upon what I’ve seen, so I suspect he’ll be working an office (accounting) job when he works either before or after his CPA. Whatever they choose is fine by me.</p>
<p>Middle has wanted to be a doctor since 3rd grade and hasn’t wavered yet (other than maybe wanting research). He went to UR thinking either neuro or brain and cognitive for his undergrad major and now tells me he thinks he wants brain and cognitive + minors in sign language and spanish.</p>
<p>Me? My dad worked for IBM for a year (sabbatical from teaching) working with their brand new personal computers (eons ago) getting them set up in some trial schools. When he returned to teaching, he saw that my high school was one of their trial schools. We had one of the first personal computers, so I was ahead of the game learning to use them and all about them as a teen. Naturally, my major was Computer Science… UNTIL I got into one sophomore class and the prof said, “I hope you enjoy what you’re doing as you’ll be doing it every day for the rest of your life.” Uh, NO!!!</p>
<p>I was also AFROTC (scholarship), so couldn’t just “change” my major. They had to approve it. I switched to Physics… Physics came with a math minor (had to add one class) and for my electives I opted to take Psych classes (something TOTALLY different, so a nice switch for my brain). I ended up with enough Psych classes to get a minor (or so I thought). When I looked at my transcript a few years back I found that they actually gave me a major in it. I had no clue they had done this when I graduated (and probably missed the ceremony for it - I went to the Physics one - large state school).</p>
<p>So, officially, I have Physics & Psychology (really outdated now!) as majors and math as a minor. In the end, I got dismissed from the AF medically (asthma, but they were doing cut backs, so…), worked in industry until having kids, stayed home until my youngest was 3, then started working in our public high school (science and math). I’m still there.</p>
<p>In another two years with an empty nest? Hubby and I want to sell our place and travel. He prefers a sailboat. I prefer a small RV (not a huge one!). We’ll see. He can work online (engineering) and has his license in a couple of states - it’s easy to get it in others too. Me? I’m not sure yet. Maybe online tutoring or something. We might also head overseas and work in third world countries ourselves, but it will depend some upon what’s up with our family.</p>
<p>For now, I’m a bit envious of youngest heading to Jamaica (and 70 - 80 degree weather), when we’re supposed to have the coldest weather we’ve had in a couple of years… (Only two years until we might be able to move… May the real estate market come back!)</p>
<p>ps I do love Mahjongg… hubby does too (one of the rare guys who plays). But even if my mom joins us, we’re only a 3 some instead of 4.</p>
<p>Ok… I ended up writing a book… sorry!</p>
<p><em>giggle</em> saintfan</p>
<p>One more day with S! It’s been a very lazy month. He has too much stuff to take the train, so H will drive him and they’ll go out for lunch near campus. I hope that he and all our kids have wonderful second semesters/quarters!</p>
<p>My S is on track to major in Engineering and wants a minor in math. He’s getting a big push from the music department, particularly his piano prof, to pick up a major in Music Performance. As you can imagine, the subset of classes which overlap between these majors is quite small! He’s also already at 20 semester units (had 21 last semester.) Although the music major would qualify him for another scholarship (which his piano prof has already offered him if he majors), it would most likely mean adding a 5th year. That would seem to negate any advantage of the scholarship. We are kind of talking our S out of adding the music major. He loves music, I see it always being a part of his life, but I don’t know what advantage the degree would have. Unfortunately, there is no music minor available.</p>