Ask me about being Valedictorian

[oneeye13]

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Honestly, I thought it was too harsh on those who participate in the special olympics.

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Wynton,

Consider the average mathematical ability on twoplustwo. Now consider the quality of the average post.

--disj

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zomg we are math supergeniuses because we are on 2+2

[fish2plus2]

do you get a higher premium at a sperm bank if you tell them that you were a valedictorian?

[black_russian]

HOLY [censored] you are smart! Congrats!

That is what you are looking for right?

[aheravi]

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what do you do with an English major?

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"You want fries with that?"

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well played

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I dunno. I think wrong approach. We're supposed to ask him questions.

How about, "Can I get that super-sized?"

[disjunction]

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Honestly, I thought it was too harsh on those who participate in the special olympics.

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Wynton,

Consider the average mathematical ability on twoplustwo. Now consider the quality of the average post.

--disj

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zomg we are math supergeniuses because we are on 2+2

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See?

[oneeye13]

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I am graduating today after returning to school after years of doing 'other' things. I have a GPA over 3.9, and I have been elected as the valedictorian in my course of study.

I am concluding a degree in English looking to pursue my Phd in literary studies in order to become a professor. Ask me some questions as to how I did it, or some general questions about school or how I rock.

[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

-Jay

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it sounds like you are so busy, where are you going to find time to save the world?

what is it like to be a human like the rest of us, only superior (they should have a name for that... superhuman maybe)?

[AJay2000]

Sorry it has taken so long to reply. Yesterday was incredibly busy, and I did not have a chance to get back on here.

Also, I apologize for posting what some may consider a 'not so thinly veiled' brag post. I wasn't trying to brag, and OOT is the only forum I really like/read.

To answer some questions:
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How old are you?
Why did you take a non-traditional route to college?
What other things did you do while not in school?
What changed your mind to return to school?
What school are you graduating from?
Where are you going to to grad. school?
Where and what do you want to teach after grad. school?



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1. 31
2. Mainly the non-traditional route because I dropped out of school twice before and I never enjoyed it. (Although I'm not sure people ever 'enjoy' school)
3. While not in school I pursued music as a singer and songwriter. I was also a professional golfer for a few years.
4. While working in the golf business, I realized that if I were to be as successful as I wanted to be, in whatever field I chose, then I would be better suited having a degree. It was also something that had been hanging over my head for so long that I wanted to get it done and over with.
5. I am graduating from the University at Albany.
6. Right now my top two choices for grad school are Emory and UC-San Diego. I have a year before I decide though, so that may change.
7. I am looking forward to teaching at the university level at some point, but that is at least five years down the road and I'm not sure where I'd like to teach and live yet.

Thanks to all the supporters, I am going to read through the rest of the thread and see what I missed.

Also: I didn't know doing all my reading and handing my papers in on time made me gay, but, who knew?

Peace,
Jay

[AJay2000]

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what do you do with an English major?

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Become a waiter.

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I have been for a long time.

[dethgrind]

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I know several engineers with 3.9X GPAs. Maintaining a 3.9+ in a tough major such as engineering is quite an impressive feat. Bragging about your grades in english is analgous to boasting about winning a race in the special olympics.


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Way too harsh. Most of these engineers would be not be near the top of their class if they had majored in English or literature of any type. And I'm assuming native speakers.

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I know a lot of engineers that were bored in English class. I know I slept through mine. So I have to agree with this one but not for the reasons you assume. Forcing an Engineer to major in English is like putting a former Marine that served in Iraq and is now playing college football in a balley dance class. It just doesn't work.

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You mean ballet, or belly?

If you mean skill sets are different, you're correct of course. If you mean that having one skill set guarantees or even implies having another, you're not.

Having poor to mediocre language skills is extremely common -- no less so among people with notable mathematical ability. It works the same way if you flip it around -- poor mathematical ability is very common among people with very good language skills.

The bias on this board, given its nature as a poker site, leans heavily toward celebrating mathematical ability, and its heroes tend to be people who are great at poker, which certainly leans more toward math than language. When asked the values of one skill set versus another, the self-selected forum members here are usually pretty darn happy to vote for themselves and not just affirm some sort of primacy for and celebrate their own skill sets, but go to war against the talents they may not have and therefore find necessary to denigrate. Egos are surely fragile things, and maybe it's easier over all just to not take chances on them.

In other words, I think most football players would fail miserably as either ballet or belly dancers.

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This discussion reminds me of a couple threads from a while ago with sklansky, pzhon, brucez, and others. The general feeling was that hard science types are more well-rounded in their education than humanities students. Here is a good quote:
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A good many times I have been present at gatherings of people who, by the standards of the traditional culture, are thought highly educated and who have with considerable gusto been expressing their incredulity at the illiteracy of scientists. Once or twice I have been provoked and have asked the company how many of them could describe the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The response was cold: it was also negative. Yet I was asking something which is about the scientific equivalent of: 'Have you read a work of Shakespeare's?'
I now believe that if I had asked an even simpler question -- such as, What do you mean by mass, or acceleration, which is the scientific equivalent of saying, 'Can you read?' -- not more than one in ten of the highly educated would have felt that I was speaking the same language. So the great edifice of modern physics goes up, and the majority of the cleverest people in the western world have about as much insight into it as their neolithic ancestors would have had.

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Here are the threads:
1
2

[AvivaSimplex]

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6. Right now my top two choices for grad school are Emory and UC-San Diego. I have a year before I decide though, so that may change.

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Are those good (top ten) schools for english? I'd be surprised if they were.

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7. I am looking forward to teaching at the university level at some point, but that is at least five years down the road and I'm not sure where I'd like to teach and live yet.

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Just a heads up. Particularly if you don't go to a top tier school and work with one of the best professors, you'll consider yourself lucky to get a tenure-track position at Fargo State Technical College.