Thread: After college?
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YTNUKLR YTNUKLR is offline
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Neuroergonomics is certainly a very interesting field of study. The biological basis of perception is quite interesting. Plus, it has engineering-related applications with cool things like cars and ships, planes and trains!

I am not ruling out going to graduate school-but I am all but ruling it out for now. I will probably come back to school later, but I have had enough 2 am homework and programming projects to tell me it's time for a bit of a break. There is a whole world of things happening around me, all around the planet, and I've been in school for 18 years straight.

If I do grad school, I want it to have an application. Theorizing just for the sake of it, to become a professor, or to do research in some journal that will be read by 10 people in the field, is not my idea of a worthwhile endeavor. Of course, there are worthy pursuits in grad school or in professional schools. Perhaps one will strike my fancy. Operations Research sounds like it could be a fit. I want to have a real, tangible impact.

In short, I have too many interests to make my decision easy. I can write, but I don't just write. I can do math and solve problems, but I don't just do math and solve problems. This is why I didn't just do engineering (too many obscure problems on beams and thermodynamics I will probably never see again), and this is why I didn't just do PoliSci (I feel it is inherently vague, lacks formalism, and some of the students lack work-ethic, or brains).

Interests:
-Well, for one, Porsches or machines in general. I worked for TRE, and have built a number of 911 engines and gearboxes. It's very interesting, but it lacks long-term sticking power. The market is limited, and generally, mechanics are not engineers. I love to tinker in the garage, weld, build, and wrench, but being covered in car gunk 40 hours a week, no thanks. I also like cruising around, but should cars be life?

-Computer Science. Programming and the ideas of complexity theory or numerical analysis of programs, run-times and data processing are inherently interesting. I do not care for "electronics engineering" or circuit design or whatever, although it's pretty cool that humans can do this really complex stuff.

-Economics. Loved my Econ classes. But, I don't want to just build math functions to research economic behavior (that is what Econ grad school looks like). Econ grad people generally study Math in college and not econ.

-Accounting. I could probably get a job doing some kind of entry-level thing, but visions of "Office Space" come to mind.

-Business is interesting, but I don't have experience working with a firm. Business seems to be something you "just know", not something you study in school. I think I have somewhat of a knack for it.
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Old 11-23-2009, 08:44 PM
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