Academic (or other) backgrounds of AH denizens

[32aa]

IQ is utter bunk.

Em

Not if you ask Joe Biden.

"I think I probably have a much higher IQ than you"

 

[jaykaythree]

BA in English.

I don't have a master's as such, and no thesis, but I do have 33⅓ percent of a master's in each of three fields (statistics, English, and secondary education). It's a lot like how Tom Sawyer managed to finagle a Bible.

 

[JuanaSalsa]

To answer the original question, I've got a master's in one obscure kind of engineering and a PhD in another obscure kind of engineering. I went at the bull shit, more shit, then piled higher and deeper, lol. Now I'm just wallowing in the shit.

I skimmed the whole thread and just want to lend my support to the assertion that IQ tests measure processing speed. What you do with that is a whole other matter. Interest, focus, work ethic, are as important if not more to actually getting things done.

Geeks v. Nerds: I thought geeks are collectors and fanboys and nerds are interested in actually learning and making things? There was so much nerd bashing, someone has to take a swing at the geeks.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

Scoring high enough in high school English classes and on both the ACT and SAT, I got out of the usual college freshman English class. I earned my undergraduate in a branch of engineering (not electrical!) and then earned my master of science degree in a specialty of that branch at another university.

Since storytelling was always a goal with me, I wrote my own very detailed D&D campaign that I ran for a group in college and then an expansion of that for a group in grad school. When my first novel really never went anywhere after years of trying, I finally joined an online writing group to help improve my skills. Though I suspect some would disagree, I think that and a lot of practice (and online publishing) over the past twenty or so years have helped my writing ability a lot.

 

[DeLaFaye]

It took me about a decade to finally finish my BA in English Lit because I kept switching majors the semester before I was due to graduate. I'm about a semester away, or had been, from degrees in history, biology, and psychology.

I finally graduated after doing a legislative internship for a PIRG focusing on waste-to-energy resources. I was just ready to move on to law school after that. My honors' thesis was on Post-Colonial Nigerian Lit & Discovering Identity if anyone wants to discuss Oyeyemi.

Moved to San Diego for law school. Dropped out after my first year. Loved the research, technical writing, and arguments, hated the people. Through a very odd and fortunate series of events I ended up working in costume design for a stint. Took a few relevant courses and fell down some peculiar rabbit holes. I have a few IMDb credits, though most of them are just for indie films.

Life got weird. Now I write.

 

[Beholders_Eye]

Only two stories so far, but for the record, my field and training before I retired is/was Chemical Engineering. I had written a ton of technical reports, manuals, etc. I find that writing stories is harder work than I had expected, thus the low output. But I do plan to write some more. I am in awe of the many good writers here on Lit and take inspiration from you guys.

 

[PandemicReader8]

Undergrad work in engineering, advanced degrees in engineering and business. And I audit two to three courses - writing or history - year, as time allows.

 

[DrHappy]

I have a Ph.D. in a Science & Engineering related field. My daily life includes chemistry, physics, and data systems. My wife suggested that I submit some stories here.

 

[Older_Pervert]

See Luthor, Lex.

It doesn’t make you real either!

 

[Duleigh]

It doesn’t make you real either!

But being Moral makes you smart.

 

[onehitwanda]

But being Moral makes you smart.

what does being immoral make me, then?

 

[Duleigh]

what does being immoral make me, then?

Fun.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

But being Moral makes you smart.

But not necessarily in a provable IQ way.

Over in England we have a plethora of people in positions of power that, on the face of it, should be smart with the educational advantages that they have had, and yet, in terms of the nonsense they claim to believe are demonstrably dim.

But usually when we go down this path people then get defensive and the arguments turn political, so let’s use the tragic example of Sam Bankman-Fried (Scam Bankrupt-Fraud).

He graduated from the most prestigious university in America…and will soon be in Jail for fraud, proving that in spite of all that supposed academic intelligence…he was neither moral, nor smart.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

what does being immoral make me, then?

Being immoral in a saucy way is very different to being immoral in a dumping toxic waste way.

Wait-a-minute!

It was YOU with those barrels at the duck pond! For shaaaaaaaaame.

 

[onehitwanda]

Being immoral in a saucy way

it's true, I am frequently very saucy.

And those ducks totally had it coming.

 

[Older_Pervert]

what does being immoral make me, then?

Fun!

 

[lc69hunter]

Undergrad degree, Electrical Engineering, Masters degree, Accounting with a specialty in Tax Law.

 

[Duleigh]

But not necessarily in a provable IQ way.

Over in England we have a plethora of people in positions of power that, on the face of it, should be smart with the educational advantages that they have had, and yet, in terms of the nonsense they claim to believe are demonstrably dim.

But usually when we go down this path people then get defensive and the arguments turn political, so let’s use the tragic example of Sam Bankman-Fried (Scam Bankrupt-Fraud).

He graduated from the most prestigious university in America…and will soon be in Jail for fraud, proving that in spite of all that supposed academic intelligence…he was neither moral, nor smart.

Mr. Fraud was what we call "Book smart" and used those honors to convince people he was honest. The people he scammed were considered to be smart too, and look where it got them. How stupid to you have to be to ignore the #1 rule of investing "If it looks too good to be real, it is." those people aren't getting a dime back, and they're going to have to pay back their investors out of their own pockets. And to make matters worse, Mr. Fraud may not do a day of Jail Time because he's got what we call "Graveyard Smarts."

I know a fellow, so damn dumb he barely graduated. He'll tell a lie for no reason other than it sounded good to him at the time. He'll steal your work and publish it as his own without a second thought, he's accomplished nothing in his life but the people around him make sure he get recognition because he's got "Graveyard Smarts" meaning - he knows where the bodies are buried.

Geoffery Epstein had graveyard smarts, until someone else got the list

 

[onehitwanda]

I wish I could remember who first pointed it out to me, but fellow D&D nerds will recognise that there's a massive difference between Int and Wis and there's a reason those silly spell-flinging bookworm mages need the former but not the latter.

 

[WyreBendr0417]

After graduating high school, I spent the next two years in a trade school learning machine shop. I became bored with the pace and dropped out, learning the trade much faster from the people I worked with and being hands-on. I then enjoyed the next thirty-plus years as a machinist and toolmaker in the metalworking industry.

 

[Littletoo]

I’m not assuming everyone on here is college educated, but talking about majors is a shorthand for your background.

I majored in Biology and then did a Masters in Structural Biology. I did some literature-related classes as an undergraduate, but not many. My professional life has nothing to do with creative writing. I have always read voraciously though.

I was wondering how many people here majored in English, or have worked in a literature-related job.

What about other backgrounds?

No ulterior motive, just curious as ever.

Em

BA English, MFA Dance Performance, MBA Fine Arts Management

 

[Littletoo]

BA English, MFA Dance Performance, MBA Fine Arts Management

 

[CiaoSteve]

Majored... sorry, I mean graduated... in Microbiology and Virology

Was told at school that writing just wasn't my thing. The teacher probably had a point

 

[SeraphNocturne]

I didn’t make it to college. My mother had copious amounts of physical and mental illness, so at sixteen I went straight into the workforce and was essentially paying all of our bills until I turned twenty, and moved away. My siblings all followed me because I’ve essentially been “mother” in our family. I did do relatively well through school, with Reading and English as my strongest points.

I eventually dropped out, in part because working full time and school were an impossible combination, but primarily because my mentality just wasn’t there… I got my equivalency diploma a year after I would have graduated and scored in the 98th percentile for English and Reading Comp.

Today, I’m a sushi chef. I spent a lot of my younger years in the restaurant/hospitality industry before I finally settled into the career. It pays decent, but I do often feel under-appreciated—like most kitchen positions in the culinary world, it is a very male dominated field. I actually intend on establishing my own business based around sushi, in the future, and eventually taking college courses for Psychology—my field of interest before life kind of had its way with me.

 

[vanmyers86]

Bachelors degree in English, about 15 years as a newspaper reporter, and another decade as an editor in the public sector. Thinking about a change to mental health counseling to close out my career years - scary to go back to grad school at this point, but one great thing about life is that we get to change course when the scenery gets too predictable.