The Uni Thread

[Lewis]

Grad courses at decent universities in the US go further in terms of material than a standard UK or Australian degree. Obviously there are plenty of individual fluctuations.

It's a non-issue, because a post-grad student in Aus/UK will learn relevant stuff independently over the course of their research degree, but there's no doubt that (on average) a US student who has finished their PhD coursework has covered more ground than someone starting a research-only PhD after a focussed undergraduate course. Obviously there are exceptions, etc., but the material does go further. If you do a coursework Masters degree after a standard undergrad course, you've probably covered about the same amount of territory worth of coursework.

I can only comment on the sciences, of course. That's an important caveat.

There is probably something in that as far as a broad knowledge goes (I always wonder how you would approach teaching those 'World History 500-1500' survey courses that they all seem to offer, and which I never encountered), but thesis topics would surely end up about the same. They have to meet the same basic requirements, and, on a more practical level, by the time you are good enough to be submitting it how many people will there be in your department capable of telling you new things about it?

[ItalAussie]

Yup. If anything, I think the standard for British and Australian PhD theses is a bit higher than US theses, judging from ones that I've read and people that I've talked to. Because it's only part of their training, it doesn't quite have the same magnitude as the "this is everything" monographs in our system.

They're still very good, of course, because all PhDs further knowledge etc., but I think there might be more expected on our side.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Ugh.

[Jimmy Floyd]

What qualification are you working towards?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

English Language & Communication and History degree.

What I do after that I don't know. The plan was to do a PGCE to become a Primary school teacher but I'm not so keen now.

[John]

You must have the most limited vocabulary of anyone ever to have studied for a degree in English.

[Magic]

Surely that's the point?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

You must have the most limited vocabulary of anyone ever to have studied for a degree in English.

I save my vocabulary for essays.

I'm a man of the people outside of academic writing.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

So I have to select my units for next year in the next couple of days and my main decision is dissertation or not.

Choices for English for the year are:

Child Language & Communication
Chunky Language: Investigating Formulaic Sequences
Meaning and Context
Forensic Phonetics
Global Englishes

Clinical Linguistics
Language Processing
Debates in Pragmatics
Gender in Language and Communication
Communication and cultures

Two from each list are needed and I'm thinking Child Language & Global Englishes and Gender in Language and one of the others bar Debates in Pragmatics.

Then History:

Dissertation (10,000 words)
Extended Essay (5000)
Everyday Lives: an Intimate History of Twentieth Century Women
The 1956 Suez Crisis: Causes, Course and Impact, 1945-1962
Popular protest, Riot and Reform in Britain, 1760-1848
Migrants and Minorities in Britain: 1688-1850
The American Pacific Rim: Colonisation, Conflict and Connections, 1800-present

Bodies and Sexuality in the Early Modern Period
How Victorians Saw the World Abroad
Princes and Paupers, 1760-1820
Witch-Bottles to Wishing-Wells: The Material Culture of Everyday Ritual
Thinking with History: Applying Historical Insight to Real Life Issues

It's two from each list (or just one from the second if I choose the dissertation) and I'm thinking either Dissertation/Extended Essay & Everyday Lives with the Witch Bottles and Bodies if I don't do dissertation.

Part of me is worried that I wont be able to do a dissertation and I have no idea what I'd do it on. The only sort of idea is propaganda within comic books.

[phonics]

I'm thinking Child Language & Gender in Language

Then History:
Bodies and Sexuality in the Early Modern Period
Thinking with History: Applying Historical Insight to Real Life Issues

...

[Lewis]

Part of me is worried that I wont be able to do a dissertation and I have no idea what I'd do it on. The only sort of idea is propaganda within comic books.

Fortunately for you, Tony Shaw is probably the best historian of popular media and propaganda in the country.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Fortunately for you, Tony Shaw is probably the best historian of popular media and propaganda in the country.

The chance of me getting him as my supervisor is seriously low though. Apparently he only supervises like 3 or 4 a year.

Geezer is a hero.

[Lewis]

Then make it happen. E-mail him as soon as possible (preferably right now) saying that you are sat looking at your options, and that you would like to do a dissertation on whatever it is (throw in some shit about wanting to test yourself on an extended piece of work), and ask if you can have fifteen minutes of his time to meet and discuss whether it would be viable, and, if so, to get some advice on possible approaches. Don't ask him to supervise you now. Go and meet him, make it look like you're interested, and the question of supervision will inevitably come up if he considers it a goer.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Well we had a module choices fair type thing today and I sat down and spoke with him for a few minutes.

He reckons it's viable and he gave me a few ideas.

I'm not going to do a dissertation on it (I'll do the 5,000 word extended essay) and tie it in to world war II probably.

[Adamski]

What kind of job would you expect to get having covered those type of topics at university?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

What kind of job would you expect to get having covered those type of topics at university?

It will be an English Language and History degree so it's pretty open despite the wide range of topics.

I went in wanting to be a primary school teacher but now I'm not so sure, although I'd still like to work with kids.

[Adamski]

You could have become a teacher after a couple of years of college instead though, no? Definitely sounds like a varied course, I wouldn't know where to start with some of it!

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

You could have become a teacher after a couple of years of college instead though, no? Definitely sounds like a varied course, I wouldn't know where to start with some of it!

I tried some primary education degrees but I failed the interview stages.

[phonics]

You could have become a teacher after a couple of years of college instead though, no? Definitely sounds like a varied course, I wouldn't know where to start with some of it!

He freaked out when a woman sat in a chair next to him and you want him to teach?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

He freaked out when a woman sat in a chair next to him and you want him to teach?

I 'freaked out' in the sense of saying to myself 'oh for fucks sake, not her' because I despise her. I'm also not mental with kids.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

The coursework for the module is a 4,000 word assignment which is a case study of one L2 speaker of English (your choice who this person is) and assesses (primarily through interviews) to what extent he/she is a core member of their culture. As this is worth 100% you submit a first draft by Week 8 for me to give formative feedback on so you can improve and edit your draft before final submission.

In terms of topics, we cover the following from an ICC (Intercultural Communication) perspective:

- facets of the concept of culture
- stereotyping
- cultural practices
- data collection (to help with your assignment)
- language and identity
- verbal and non-verbal communication
- Othering and barriers to ICC
- Conflict and face theory

Ugh, I guess that module is out.

[Lewis]

Well we had a module choices fair type thing today and I sat down and spoke with him for a few minutes.

He reckons it's viable and he gave me a few ideas.

I'm not going to do a dissertation on it (I'll do the 5,000 word extended essay) and tie it in to world war II probably.

That's good. Plus you're in a better position to keep getting feedback on it now.

[randomlegend]

I wanted to give med school a last shot after I'd got treated for my depression, in the hope it was the depression making med school shit rather than med school making me depressed.

It's still just shit though. I just wanna leave and do something else, but given all the years that have gone into it and all the effort it seems nuts to throw it away now. I feel like I'm probably going to fail anyway since I have absolute no motivation, so maybe I should just jump before I'm pushed.

[Pepe]

How long do you have left? If you do finish, do you want to be a doctor? What alternatives do you have or have you though of?

[Offshore Toon]

I wanted to give med school a last shot after I'd got treated for my depression, in the hope it was the depression making med school shit rather than med school making me depressed.

It's still just shit though. I just wanna leave and do something else, but given all the years that have gone into it and all the effort it seems nuts to throw it away now. I feel like I'm probably going to fail anyway since I have absolute no motivation, so maybe I should just jump before I'm pushed.

How much longer is left? My situation isn't too dissimilar but I only had a year to get through.

[Lewis]

More importantly, if you binned out of it now, how much debt would you have accumulated for nothing?

[randomlegend]

A year left, but the thought of finals makes me want to just do myself in now.

I don't really care about the debt, to be honest.

No I don't want to be a doctor. I have no idea what I would do instead.

[Pepe]

Do you want to be a doctor? No point in finishing if you don't. Also, just because you have done something that makes you miserable for a while doesn't mean you have to keep doing it forever just because 'I've already invested so much in it.'

[randomlegend]

No, I really don't want to be a doctor. But the reality is if I leave now I'm 25 with essentially no qualification beyond A-level (I think I'll have some trash-tier unclassified degree in Medical Science or something).

Really what I want to do is work with food.

[Adamski]

Then quit and go to catering college for a year, get a job as a pot washer and work your way up.

[Offshore Toon]

Just accept that most of the next year is going to be shit and do it. It'll be character building.

[Pepe]

No, I really don't want to be a doctor. But the reality is if I leave now I'm 25 with essentially no qualification beyond A-level (I think I'll have some trash-tier unclassified degree in Medical Science or something).

Really what I want to do is work with food.

Then get the fuck out of there and start working with food. Your medical qualification will do fuck all for you in that field. Also, 25 is still very young, no need to beat yourself up because omgz I have no qualifications.

[phonics]

I'm not sure working in a kitchen under extreme pressure is the ideal workplace scenario but I'd rather my baker had a breakdown over my croissant than my doctor during my open heart surgery I guess.

[randomlegend]

It's not that I find it too 'stressful', I just hate it.

[7om]

Aside from hating it, have you got the ability to pass and come out of it with a proper qualification? If yes, I'd personally consider hating something for one year and getting the qualification just in case it was something you ever wanted to go back to.

[randomlegend]

If I stick it out, then I'll be a doctor in just over a year.

If I'd enjoyed it up until now and was only now hating it I could stick a year, but I've been at it like this for years now. It's so soul destroying. I really am sure I don't want to be a doctor to be honest.

[Lewis]

If you quit now you're just another faggot with a whisk. If you become a doctor first then you have a ready-made gimmick, and you can lie your way into opportunities by claiming to have ended your medical career to follow your true passion.

[Offshore Toon]

People would actually lap up the whole 'the chef is a doctor so you know its healthy' shit.

[Pepe]

Chef? Let's not get carried away here.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

As soon as he starts though 'Dr Christian' would muscle in.

[Spoonsky]

Then quit and go to catering college for a year, get a job as a pot washer and work your way up.

Just accept that most of the next year is going to be shit and do it. It'll be character building.

Take Adamski's advice. Apply Offy's to it.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I have two 2,500 word essays due on Monday afternoon and I've got absolutely no motivation to do them. Doesn't help that I only need around 30 marks on each to pass the units.

Explain both code-switching and diglossia, and the reasons why speakers may practise such phenomena.

How well did Britain deal with the consequences of the demobilisation of its armies and navies between 1688 and 1815?

They're not even that hard but I really cannot be arsed

[Lewis]

That second one is the sort of topic you pick without actually thinking about, and then when you come to doing it you realise you've actually committed to writing about unemployment and bread prices.

[Magic]

I have to renew my certs before August. I really don't want to do it like last time, where I took about 6 pages of notes per chapter, mind maps and command references ().

I got 15/21 on my pre-study gauge test so think I'm in good stead, I have all the experience now unlike last time.

[Pepe]

#engineerlife

[Magic]

Of course I meant to say does anyone have any studying tips.

[Pepe]

Adderall.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Just cheat.

[Offshore Toon]

Take the text you need to learn. Read it multiple times. Then start to condense it more and more, but with each stage test yourself to make sure you're not missing out any crucial information. Ideally you'll condense it to the point where you have just one page of notes that you can remake as soon as the exam starts. From there, its easy street since you've practically got all the material in the exam with you.

[Raoul Duke]

Beware primacy & recency - revise the stuff in different orders as you'll tend to remember the first/most recent stuff, while the opposite will be harder to recall