Hey guys, I will be going back to school this September and I am looking for advice and opinions on what classes you think I might be interested in. I have always had a bit of interest in philosophy/human nature. In high school I was really interested in Physics. But NOT all physics, the parts I enjoyed were the subjects that kinda tripped me out, like learning about Einstein and relativity. Not so much the classical 'box sliding down an inclined plank' physics, although I was good at it. Is there a certain branch of physics I might be interested in that has to do with perception of reality or combines physics with philosophical stuff??? I'm not to interested in the engineering side of it, like statics, or electrical circuits either. I'm 22 years old and have an associates degree in mining and geological engineering, but I dont feel that I am really passionate about it(I enjoyed geology in theory but in practice, when it comes to looking at and studying rocks I find it far too boring). I am going back to school to try and find something that I am really interested in, the way I used to get interested in things in high school. I am also a little interested in trying things I have never done before, like the arts, or business, or even taking a course in french. I remember being really into learning about other cultures in high school. With what I have told you, do you guys have any advice to share with me on what courses you think I might be interested in?
Whatever you do, make sure it's a working degree. So many people do undergraduate courses in something with little to no work in the field- often due to the idiosyncrasy of course itself or due to over satiation of the market place. I did two years of a music degree. I realized later on that I wasn't going to get anywhere with it, so I dropped out and am now studying again for a business one. That's my advice. But make sure it is something you're passionate about, first and foremost.
Based on you saying you are interested in human nature psychology, philosophy, and anthropology are good courses and the 101 or general material of those courses usually fulfill general academic requirements somewhere, so you don't even have to necessarily major in them if you want to go into like buisness which might take you further $ wise with your degree. I majored in psychology and I found alot of courses incredibly interesting and you learn alot of theories and studies speaking on human nature and mind. I took courses in the other 2 fields I mentioned as well. From those courses I found Philosophy is interesting but sometimes its really abstract to grasp and there are rules of logic to follow and ways to respond properly and address certain arguments. I took a cultural anthropolgy course and that was interesting it started with pre hominid species like austrolopithicus africanus and Neanderthals and worked through various cultures, comparing many of their ideas and views on life to ours.
Thanks for the advice guys. I just got the letter of acceptance an I am working on registering for courses right now. The only ones I have decided on for certain so far are Intro to Philosophy, French, and Anthropology. I looked at psych courses but most are already waitlisted, except for ones at night and odd hours.
if you don't know what your own interests are, you're never going to be entirely gratified with what anyone else tells you they should be. there IS a science called geophysics, that looks at really macro geological principals, and measure's things like a planet's axial tilt, plate tectonics, how mountains are formed, ways of measuring things like this. i don't know how much opportunity there is as a career field, but from what i understand its more about figuring out how to measure geological processes, looking for ways to predict them, and all that sort of thing. i think it usually involves going to really remote places with a lot of fancy 'toys'. you might still have to do some actual lab stuff with rocks as part of it, but a lot more of it would involve analyzing things like space probe data and setting up and monitoring sensor arrays on the ground and things like that. cultural anthro is cool too, which sound more like the direction you're leaning, which is all about what people take for granted about how they live, and people from different places think about each other and themselves differently. archiology when its about figuring out the cultures of people who lived in a place in the past from how they built their houses and where they threw their trash and what was in it, is also a kind of anthro.
