I am off to the university soon. I wonder what the best things to study will be.

I am thinking a mixture of engineering, philosophy and paranormal women studies (paranormal is a key attribute, of course). :D

Perhaps Stanford is not the best place for these studies. Any suggestions for best locations of paranormal women?

any other suggestions?

Study that which will ultimately make your parents proudest, and what ultimately will lead to you paying off your student loans -- without needing your parents to do it for you -- and then some.

It's your life. Don't drag others into it unnecessarily. ;)

Here is advice... and I am serious. Whatever you pick as your major, get a minor in mathematics. There is something about adding mathematics that makes you more valuable.

Here is advice... and I am serious. Whatever you pick as your major, get a minor in mathematics. There is something about adding mathematics that makes you more valuable.
Only if you're good at it.

I have a friend with a PhD in Mathematics. He teaches at University. He wishes he was better at Math.

For everyone else, being good enough at Arithmetic will be good enough for most employers.

Most jobs don't require degreed mathematics. Most employers aren't going to pay you for your mathematically degreed expectations.

Well the thing with a math degree is you can pretty much get a job anywhere... but it's better to be specialized in something.

A math degree would show you are not afraid of a challenge, you think logically, creatively, and are generally smart.

Well the thing with a math degree is you can pretty much get a job anywhere... but it's better to be specialized in something.

A math degree would show you are not afraid of a challenge, you think logically, creatively, and are generally smart.
Heck. Being female, young, blonde, and buxom will get you hired most anywhere, too.

aristootle, what do you like to do? if you like engineering, then go for it. I am not sure what kind of employment you can get with philosophy. maybe if you double it with education.

do you like messing around in a lab? if so, then physics/chemistry/engineering/ect would be good. education may be good if you are more interested in literature, and written knowledge. do you like dealing with computers? perhaps you can be a tech.

try and think of things that can help us get a better picture of who you are.

And paranormal women?

I really like the idea of supernatural women. I hear that Louisiana women have some superNatural powers, is it true?

I am completely with Mr G here. Go get those which lead to to money-flooding.

I am not sure what kind of employment you can get with philosophy.
When Bruce Lee was asked what he could do with his Philosophy degree, he said he can, "Think deep thoughts about being unemployed."

Study what you like and potentially can be good at.
For me the choice was law, for you it might be computer engineering or something else.

If you already had a passion for something, you wouldn't be asking this question. Whatever your passion is, your best path through life is to follow it. Even if its something your parents would discourage.

My parents discouraged me from studying music. I suppose it was not unreasonable for their generation. But they could not imagine that one day music would attain such a stature that it would be a reasonable choice of occupations, that without having to be a star one could at least make a living by playing pop tunes in a dance band and teaching children how to play, or a pretty good living by doing unattributed studio work. As a result I've spent my whole life regretting not being a musician. Perhaps I would have failed, but I consider my life to be a failure anyway so what's the difference.

Apparently you don't have that kind of passion for anything.

So I wonder whether this is the right time for you to be entering a university. You can take our suggestions and find something that is at least interesting, perhaps fun, and has the possibility of bringing a good income. But you might wake up some day kicking yourself for not getting a degree in history. Not that history isn't interesting and fun for some people, but the income thing is dicey unless you're a star and you can only become a star if you're passionate. Which goes back to my original point.

Think about how much you or your family are going to spend on a college education. You could put that money into starting or buying a small business.

You could also put a fraction of it into travel. Go see the world. Go see people who are completely different from you and your family, who have different attitudes, different cultures, different opportunities. See how they live and how they make their choices about life. And have a whole lot of fun in the process. You'll come back much more "grown up" and with a much better idea of what you want to do with your life. You might even come back with a passion. You might even not come back at all, perhaps you'll find that some other place in the world is a better place for you than this place.

If you're not going to do this, if you're determined to follow the standard track and just go to college because it's "the right thing to do," then major in one of the important Middle Eastern languages. Arabic, Farsi, Turkish, Pashto, Urdu.... There is a desperate need for translators, interpreters, and analysts of material from that region, and almost no kids in America want to go into that career. I don't know if this is still true five years later, but shortly after 9/11/2001 the U.S. government admitted that it was five years behind on translating documents in those languages. For all anybody knew, an intercepted e-mail with all the plans for 9/11 could have been sitting at the bottom of some bureaucrat's in-basket waiting to be read by the two people in Washington who are fluent in Tadjik. This situation in the Middle East won't last forever, but it will last long enough to be a good career opportunity.

The advantage of studying a language, even if you don't feel a "passion" for it, is that it enriches your life in a way that most fields of study won't. Our thoughts are shaped by the language in which we think, so if you double the number of languages in which you can think, you will find that you have vastly increased your ability to think.

I don't know where you are, but if you're an American and thinking about a career in computers, I'd suggest thinking twice. We're losing our lead in that field because what it needs now is not inspiration and creativity, which we're good at, but discipline and incremental quality improvement, which we really suck at. Some nation where people can at least spell "QA" is going to have to take over the field or the so-called "information infrastructure" will become even worse than it is today.

If you can figure out what's going to be the next I.T., and you have a passion for it, go for it. Bioengineering? Pharmaceuticals? I just think that I.T. is going to continue to be the world's big business and America can't compete.

Good luck.

If you already had a passion for something, you wouldn't be asking this question. Whatever your passion is, your best path through life is to follow it. Even if its something your parents would discourage.

My parents discouraged me from studying music. I suppose it was not unreasonable for their generation. But they could not imagine that one day music would attain such a stature that it would be a reasonable choice of occupations, that without having to be a star one could at least make a living by playing pop tunes in a dance band and teaching children how to play, or a pretty good living by doing unattributed studio work. As a result I've spent my whole life regretting not being a musician. Perhaps I would have failed, but I consider my life to be a failure anyway so what's the difference.

Apparently you don't have that kind of passion for anything.

So I wonder whether this is the right time for you to be entering a university. You can take our suggestions and find something that is at least interesting, perhaps fun, and has the possibility of bringing a good income. But you might wake up some day kicking yourself for not getting a degree in history. Not that history isn't interesting and fun for some people, but the income thing is dicey unless you're a star and you can only become a star if you're passionate. Which goes back to my original point.

Think about how much you or your family are going to spend on a college education. You could put that money into starting or buying a small business.

You could also put a fraction of it into travel. Go see the world. Go see people who are completely different from you and your family, who have different attitudes, different cultures, different opportunities. See how they live and how they make their choices about life. And have a whole lot of fun in the process. You'll come back much more "grown up" and with a much better idea of what you want to do with your life. You might even come back with a passion. You might even not come back at all, perhaps you'll find that some other place in the world is a better place for you than this place.

If you're not going to do this, if you're determined to follow the standard track and just go to college because it's "the right thing to do," then major in one of the important Middle Eastern languages. Arabic, Farsi, Turkish, Pashto, Urdu.... There is a desperate need for translators, interpreters, and analysts of material from that region, and almost no kids in America want to go into that career. I don't know if this is still true five years later, but shortly after 9/11/2001 the U.S. government admitted that it was five years behind on translating documents in those languages. For all anybody knew, an intercepted e-mail with all the plans for 9/11 could have been sitting at the bottom of some bureaucrat's in-basket waiting to be read by the two people in Washington who are fluent in Tadjik. This situation in the Middle East won't last forever, but it will last long enough to be a good career opportunity.

The advantage of studying a language, even if you don't feel a "passion" for it, is that it enriches your life in a way that most fields of study won't. Our thoughts are shaped by the language in which we think, so if you double the number of languages in which you can think, you will find that you have vastly increased your ability to think.

I don't know where you are, but if you're an American and thinking about a career in computers, I'd suggest thinking twice. We're losing our lead in that field because what it needs now is not inspiration and creativity, which we're good at, but discipline and incremental quality improvement, which we really suck at. Some nation where people can at least spell "QA" is going to have to take over the field or the so-called "information infrastructure" will become even worse than it is today.

If you can figure out what's going to be the next I.T., and you have a passion for it, go for it. Bioengineering? Pharmaceuticals? I just think that I.T. is going to continue to be the world's big business and America can't compete.

Good luck.

Amazing! you consider your life a failure?

I think you are a great philosopher and writer and I for one have benefitted a great deal from your postings.

Accounting. Enough Said.

Female anatomy. Enough Said.