<p>Creekland - playing MJ with 3 is the best! I’ll PM you and try to explain it, but my group sometimes prefers it to playing with 4. The strategy is a little different but it’s all good!</p>
<p>That is too bad that there’s no music minor available for your S, hsmom2dncrs.</p>
<p>This time last year my D expected to major in physics. Current plan is major in genetics, minor in French. I think this intention is a good fit for her and she may well stick with it, but I’m also keeping in mind that many students change major multiple times. So we’ll see.</p>
<p>Creekland - Did you try teaching psychology in high school?</p>
<p>Amtc - thanks!</p>
<p>Texaspeg - no. A bit has happened in the Psych world since I graduated. My timeline stops a bit before theirs, plus, my courses (beyond the basic) were more aimed toward Occupational Psych. Those classes have probably helped me more in teaching high school than any of my other subject classes though. Of course, my AF training didn’t hurt either… Between the two I tend to have no problem with control in my classes. ;)</p>
<p>I’ve always thought it would be fun to sit in on middle sons Brain and Cognitive classes… he keeps me up to date on some of the things he learns. It’s a VERY interesting field.</p>
<p>Just wrote and attempted to post a lengthy post about my DD wonderful experience at SUNY Buffalo. She just finished her first semester at University at Buffalo, which is not the same as Buffalo State. Anyway for some reason the whole post was wiped out. Oh well so frustrating!!! I will try to highlight what was in my first post.
University at Buffalo is actually in Amherst NY which is a very nice suburb.</p>
<p>Easy to get home to LI via Jet Blue/ Her dorm is only 15 min from Buffalo/Niagara airport.</p>
<p>Campus divided into North and South Campus making campus very easy to navigate</p>
<p>Really nice dorms for Freshman and Sophomore and for Junior and Seniors beautiful on campus garden apartments!</p>
<p>Many dining options/ recently opened new dining hall by freshman dorm that is the equivalent of an international food court with fire place and lounge area.</p>
<p>Campus includes medical school, dental school, engineering school which is ranked 54th by US News while Watson at Binghamton ranked 102nd, pharmacy school, law school, business school, architecture school</p>
<p>Close to Niagara Falls, Toronto and 6 malls including a Galleria Mall</p>
<p>DD has become involved in both Hillel and Chabbad</p>
<p>One of the best features SUNY Tuition for both instate and out of state residents is a GREAT value!!!</p>
<p>Mihcal1: That reads like a treatment for a proposed sitcom! “UC Math Major” LMAO!</p>
<p>mihcal–that is a story for the ages. Love it!</p>
<p>mihcal,</p>
<p>You get “choosing a major (or having a major chosen for you)” award of the year.
Sadly, I get “moronic choosing a major” award.</p>
<p>I went to a CC for two years as a drama major. Discovered dance at age 18. Auditioned and was accepted into private univ. with great $$ as a musical theater dance major. After knee surgery in fall of my soph year (had to take a quarter off) and a drop in $$, I needed to transfer.</p>
<p>I had plans to major in communications since I really enjoyed speech. Um, when I was applying to local state uni. I accidentally checked the wrong box and ended up in communicative disorders…I kid you not. Yeah! How do ya like them brains?!</p>
<p>It did work out well as I became a teacher for deaf and hard of hearing students (stepped out of PS teaching when my oldest was born) and I still use my ASL skills to interpret…</p>
<p>But still…</p>
<p>sbj–that is another great story!</p>
<p>texaspg–am I allowed to congratulate you on being a mod?</p>
<p>cama - glad to hear your D had a great first semester. I really do like JetBlue. We took it few weeks ago, on time both ways and loved the seats.</p>
<p>D2 is one day away from being done with her rush. A lot of ups and downs this week. She kept the family posted via text, even H got into it by asking questions, but most of his questions were kind of off (good participation though). Her favorite one is on her pref list (last round today), so tomorrow she will know. Fingers crossed.</p>
<p>LOL on the “good participation” points for your DH oldfort! That’s great that he tried.</p>
<p>I was pretty sure I wanted to be a Political Science major. I toyed with the idea of doing a double major with Chemistry. After my 1st Chemistry class, I realized that being a Chem major meant living in the science building.</p>
<p>I ended up as a Political Science/History double major. The hard decision for me was when I was trying to decide what to do with the degree. I thought about PHD programs, law school and Public Policy programs . I spent hours the summer before my senior pondering my choices before deciding on the Public Policy.</p>
<p>jmnva - my son was similar with the Chemistry. He went in planning on Chem or Chem Engr and it took about one class for him to realize he enjoyed computers much better! He was counting down days on his FB for the first semester of how many classes he had left!</p>
<p>Wish we could get JetBlue to this area - my middle son flew it this summer and loved it but we’ve never lived anywhere it was available sadly.</p>
<p>Good luck to your D, Oldfort! My D goes back on Monday to start Rush. Yikes. </p>
<p>sbj–another awesome major story. Seriously, these are hilarious. </p>
<p>I think my daughter’s had the longest break of anyone, and she’s actually going back early for Rush. I could have her for another week!! It’s been so nice. Though when she’s back we need another car. First World problems.</p>
<p>On the topic of our own majors, back in the early 70s I set out to be a physics major. After the first semester of sophomore year, I finally realized that while I enjoyed working physics problems, and was good at them, I hated labs and was pretty bad at them. This did not seem like the right setup for a future in physics. So I thought about what else I’d taken that was something like working physics problems but didn’t require any hateful fiddling with real world devices. In the early 1970s, computer science filled the bill! Thus I became a happy computer science major.</p>
<p>Younger readers may be slightly puzzled by this. How could computer science not involve working with real world devices? Back when I became a CS major, it was a very new major (not even offered at many universities) and people always said “You’re majoring in WHAT?” when they asked my major, because they didn’t know this was even a major. Sounds funny in 2013, I know.</p>
<p>Computers at that time were gigantic, expensive machines that resided in large, specially air conditioned rooms at very large corporations and universities. Few people were admitted to the physical presence of the machine. Users submitted our programs to the computing center on card decks, to be run into the computer by a staff person. You returned later in the day to pick up your cards and the dot-matrix printed output. It was in ALL CAPS of course. And you always hoped earnestly that it did not simply report a missing semi-colon in your program. Then it was back to the keypunch…</p>
<p>wow some great stories on here today! </p>
<p>Texaspg- congrats on moderator you will be great I am sure. </p>
<p>oldfort- good luck to D today… and to jaylynn’s D next week.</p>
<p>I changed my major 4 times before becoming an education major… My mom joked that I was running out of choices. Still managed to get out in 5 years and transferred schools in the process. Only taught for a semester as I hated it in the end lol… I think it was due to taking a job in an inner city school, I was not tough enough</p>
<p>I went in planning to do pre-nursing. Then, I found that I really enjoyed chemistry and thought about switching. Back in the stone age, my mother called UCLA to see if she could find a chemist to ask him about what life was like in that field. He said,“Oh your daughter must have liked chemistry type things as a little girl”. My mom said, “Well, no”.</p>
<p>She interviewed him and found out that he worked mostly in a lab without interaction with people. She told me all that he had said and gave me his phone # in case I wanted to know more but she thought I really would not want to work sequestered in a lab. So I switched back to nursing and there I have been for over 30 years. I love being a nurse.</p>
<p>One thing I think our kids need to know is you don’t always know what it is like to work in the major you have chosen. </p>
<p>When I became a nurse, I really didn’t know what that meant or what I would be doing. Even throughout school, the practicums feel like a school classes. It wasn’t until I really worked in the real world that I realized that it was the perfect field for me.</p>
<p>I have really enjoyed the “how I picked a major” stories! Keep them coming!
Here’s mine–I ended up with a double major in English (my love) and an unexpected Sociology because the darn head of the department kept giving me As and I was ALL about the easy A, with minors in Psychology and Philosophy because I liked sitting around and bs’ing and did it well. What a useless bunch of specialties. Philosophy especially, I always tried to take a class on Friday afternoons with one specific Philosophy prof who I strongly suspected was under the same level of, ahem, “happy feeling” as I was (it was Friday, after all, and I went to a rich kid party school on a merit scholarship).<br>
Fun days, glad I had them, glad to have come out alive, and glad they’re over!
I guess the majors/minors weren’t totally useless, I ended up going to our state’s flagship law school. Everyone was completely shocked that I got in–I test well but they didn’t know that, and I never really talked about my GPA. I also dated a very rich, gorgeous stoner, so everyone assumed my goal was to be his three-martini SAH wife/mother to his kids someday. Turned down his proposal my first year of law school. Hmmm, wonder where I would be now if that HAD been my goal? He has not aged well…</p>
<p>Question for all of you experienced parents…especially Cornell parents if available…my son (2016) has decided not to join in Greek life…and finds himself utterly alone in his residence hall (lives in Court Hall). He says he’s fine, but now his good friends are not available for dinner or other social activities as they are rushing. He felt that a fraternity would be too distracting (he’s ADD) and to be honest, as we were GDI in college, I think he felt he should be as well. He has applied to be a Resident Advisor for next year-and in his interview essay he spoke very poignantly about the divide in the residence halls once rush begins and how this affects the students. He is home on the first Saturday night since going back to school–this wouldn’t have happened last semester. Should I be worried? Should I encourage him to reconsider?</p>
<p>My major story: started out in physics. After one month, I could not imagine taking any more classes from this prof, so I finished the class but switched to chemistry, which I absolutely loved and received an ACS major.</p>
<p>However, along the way I found out I was 3 credits (1 class) shy of a math major, but the class I needed was not “fun”, so I refused to take it. I was 21, really stupid…</p>
<p>2nd semester senior year: bio chair calls me in for a “chat” and I am very nervous as I don’t know him well and his class has been difficult, though challenging in a good way. Ms. Dentmom, I would like you to apply for a bio major as you meet the minimum credits needed for a major! Uh, really? I have taken ZERO botany classes, even with the intro classes (took 2 of 3), and I am missing some of the required courses. Oh, doesn’t matter…because you are grandfathered in with the OLD requirements and the dept is awarding you a second major.! He just happened to have the paperwork done and it only needed my signature. Way to bump up the bio majors! So I had a double major with bio 1 and 2, micro, genetics, invertebrates, birds.</p>