dusqi

I am finishing off a PhD in decision making (mix of psychology and behavioural economics). I recommend being ruthless and logical when choosing a degree. In recessionary times it's a mistake to study something for the sake of interest. Find a course that leads to a job; it's the difference between having employers lining up to pay you >£30k/year and having the choice of where to live (engineering, statistics, computer science, pharmacy is a good choice too), and interning for no pay for years wherever you can find a position (psychology). The same applies for studying for a Masters - do your research first. I sat in on an occupational psychology course with more than 150 Masters students in the room, and some occupational psychologists came in from the business world and said that there are around 6 occ psych positions available in the whole of the UK each year. Also, don't believe people who say there's a shortage of people studying this or that (e.g. physics, chemistry). There's only a shortage if physicists or chemists are being paid £30k/year straight out of university and then going on to earn £70k in 5 years. They are not. I lived with some chemists - they are on 6 month temporary contracts paying £18k/year, interspersed with periods of unemployment. For some jobs the people in them seem to get paid a lot (management consultants). This might fool you into thinking there's a shortage. There is not - competition is fierce. Although management consultants are still paid a lot, the downside is that you get worked into the ground because as soon as you let up they'll replace you with someone younger. Some people enjoy it, but others don't want their life to revolve around work for 5 years (it is difficult to imagine how taxing this really is. You'll be moved around the country every 12 weeks, you'll work 12 hours per day for 6 days per week, you won't be able to find a gf/bf because you'll have no time to meet one and no time to keep one if you do meet them. Your old friends will have quaint things like hobbies and houses and family bbqs and kids, and you will not). That's actually a really good reason to study something in demand. It's not just about the salary, it's also about how you're treated. If you have recruiters e-mailing you positions every month, then your employer will treat you with respect. He'll try to make sure you're fulfilled. You'll get special things like free tea/coffee - small things that make a difference. But if your employer feels like he's doing you a favour by letting you work in his firm, then he'll treat you like you're replacable. Think twice about going to grad school: http://100rsns.blogspot.co.uk/ "In 2010, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, there were 33,655 Americans with doctorates collecting food stamps." There are between 300 and 800 applicants for every tenure-track position in American universities.

Woo Team GB :) Third in the medals table right now

Someone already said that they don't like foreigners talking about US healthcare, so read into this what you will from a Brit... Healthcare has never been something that I ever worried about. None of my friends talk about it. You get ill, you go see a doctor or you go to the hospital, and that's it. Americans talk about co-pays and deductibles and jobs with health insurance and pre-existing conditions and medicare and medicaid and going bankrupt... and it just seems like a huge headache to me. I find it bizarre that Americans apparently like this. There are plenty of stats which say that Americans pay twice as much for their health coverage, and overall they have a lower quality of care. Although... Americans pay such high prices that it subsidizes health research. So you guys pay thousands of dollars for a vaccine that the rest of the world gets for a few hundred. So keep up the good work: world socialized medicine, subsidized by the good ol' USA.

I know you're trying to be a little dramatic here to get him to consider some other possibilities, but c'mon, now you're just making yourself look silly if you really believe this. Mostly I take offense to using the word "idiot" to describe people with differing viewpoints. It's that type of arrogance that makes politics nasty. All of my friends (including me) have jobs thanks, and I also vote (although I do it in the UK). My point was that the Internet is homogeneous, so if you want to get an idea of the types of views people actually have and where they get their information from then you do have to "leave the house". My experience is that despite the occasional troll online, offline you'd be surprised how many people have ridiculously stupid opinions (on all sorts of issues). So, I'm calling them stupid not because they're conservative (you assumed that), but because they don't use the Internet so they probably don't have political debates and instead they get their political views from celebrities, sitcoms, or reality TV. That's really another assumption, but I understand where you are coming from. This really has nothing to do with Conservatism or Liberalism, (after all, I personally identify as a British Conservative, and I'm here), but rather to do with the quality of the sources that people get their political opinions from. Debating with real people who can answer back is strictly a better source than TV or any one-way media. The movement of the internet up the generations will eventually mean that we can be online and get the full spectrum of opinion, not only from the youth, but from the experienced. This will take time, and can't be accelerated in any meaningful way, but it is improving. Exactly. The Internet is full of debate, and usually people are encouraged to give their view point (it annoys me when I read a news article online and it doesn't have a comments section). One-way media is very limiting and I think it leads to all sorts of strange opinions because people have a view point that they never tell to anyone, so it never undergoes any critique. Then they get to the ballot box and vote for a party for a bizarre reason. For example, when I talk to real life people who aren't particularly interested in politics, they'll say things like "he looks nice" or "he's a Muslim" (in the case of Obama, which is obviously untrue). That's how they decided who to vote for: looks and lies. So I find it a bit disheartening to sit on the Internet and have reasoned debate, and then realise that an overwhelming majority of the population votes based on ridiculous reasons. I'm not sure what to do about it. Anyway, that has been a bit of a cynical aside. Feel free to continue your election talk :)

Noice.

I know you're trying to be a little dramatic here to get him to consider some other possibilities, but c'mon, now you're just making yourself look silly if you really believe this. Mostly I take offense to using the word "idiot" to describe people with differing viewpoints. It's that type of arrogance that makes politics nasty. All of my friends (including me) have jobs thanks, and I also vote (although I do it in the UK). My point was that the Internet is homogeneous, so if you want to get an idea of the types of views people actually have and where they get their information from then you do have to "leave the house". My experience is that despite the occasional troll online, offline you'd be surprised how many people have ridiculously stupid opinions (on all sorts of issues). So, I'm calling them stupid not because they're conservative (you assumed that), but because they don't use the Internet so they probably don't have political debates and instead they get their political views from celebrities, sitcoms, or reality TV.

Here is my experience of politics on the Internet: I sit around, debate a few issues, and feel like 90% of the people around me, including my friends, all have the same views. Then an election happens and the party that doesn't share my views gets voted in. Moral of the story? Non-Internet users are idiots, and don't waste your time preaching to the converted.

Start planning for the end of college straight away. Getting an internship in the summer of first year is important in order that you can get a better one at the end of second year, in order that you can get a job by the end of third year.

Hai Wyrmy, Lead, Oregg (I still spell your name like the American lady pronounced it... I don't even remember who the American lady was now), MPM, 1 man army. Mad pretty much summed up my current life - PhD in the psychology of decision-making hopefully finishing around December (always good fun to have a laugh at the bad decisions that people make), and run an FB app that tests personality (also a good laugh :P ). Technically I never left tip.it, although I only post a few times a year. I have found it fascinating to read about what people are doing nowadays!! If you dropped them then they'd disappear :P Otherwise people could trade unfairly by dropping an item and having their friend pick it up.

Hiya, I remember you :) matt and mad are still around, but not really here. try the book of faces or the twitterosphere.

I am interested in what you're doing, but I don't plan to read these blogs frequently. Update your FB!