<p>Bachelors in nutrition to please my mom ("what are you going to do with it?") Master's in International Nutrition because I wanted to travel.
Job in Yemen Arab Republic: surprisingly pleasant, but decided against a lifetime of overseas work.
Back home, married, took some business courses and worked for a big co. in marketing research.
Quit when 2nd kid arrived, did the "mom" thing (quite enjoyable) in U.S. and in Costa Rica (hubby's overseas assignment)
Have been writing and editing since 1996 and am in the middle of an MFA degree program. (Thus future career: famous author?!)</p>
<p>BS in Zoology and Ph.D. in Immunology.</p>
<p>In high school I was president of the Science Club, which tells you everything you need to know about my social standing in the high school hierarchy.</p>
<p>In college I thought the young Jane Goodall was really hot, and I liked animals, so I majored in Zoology. Fortunately, that major also required me to take a fair amount of chemistry, and it was my chem minor that actually qualified me for a research lab job after graduation. Through that job I got interested in Immunology research and thought about going back to grad school.</p>
<p>So I prepared for grad school for two years by taking even more chem courses on the side. Eventually, at age 29, I quit work and went back to grad school full-time. I graduated four years later with a doctorate in Immunology. Since then I've worked in biotech R&D, kind of going back and forth between cellular immunology and immunochemistry. For the past two years I've been back in immunochmemistry, conducting clinical trials for FDA approval of new immunoassays.</p>
<p>BA in Biology (cncentration in biochem and molecular genetics)
Certainly prepared me for grad school (ScM in Biochem- thesis work in immunology; PhD in Medical Microbiology- thesis work again in immunology).
Always worked, even when kids came along. Worked 14 years in pharmaceutical industry in discovery (pre-clinical research). Helped bring Asmanex and Nasonex to the market. For the past 10 years am faculty at staste med school doing resaearch on prostate cancer, now branching into pancreatic cancer. Creating experimental therapeutics for the future.
Did my BA help? Without question. The BA at my college helped in particular, being more molecularly oriented, rather than a series of survey courses in bio. Each course was self-contained- biochem cell bio, genetics, molecular genetics. Took grad immunology as a junior, put me on the path of my grad training. Also, 6 credits of lab research with a prof as mentor were required for the Bio BA. Really big help for grad school. Until coming here, worked as an immunologist. Still teach it to grad students. Love the field but now am devoted to finding treatments for cancer.</p>
<p>BFA Modern Dance. Eventually got an MLIS, then teaching certificate. Worked as school librarian for 9 years, then moved into the classroom. No regrets!</p>
<p>I have a BS EECS degree. Worked in software engineering out of college at an up and coming telcom company with benefits to die for. And I loved it so much I couldn't believe they were paying me to do that. Over the years I went into management, didn't like it, went back to engineering, was courted over to marketing because I could build programs while talking, and apparently could look presentable to customers. My final job was a dream job. Corner office, part time, all the toys I wanted, travel to exotic places, lots of face time with executives, all who knew my name. (I believe my official title was demo queen...) But when you have little kids at home...I retired. Now the kids are big, first one off to college in a few weeks, youngest in 8th grade. I'm thinking of what I can do now (Other than golf, tennis, and lunch with the ladies...). Yeah, I lead a charmed life.</p>
<p>I have a degree in Accounting that I have never used. I realized my junior year that I did not want to be an accountant and wanted to change my major to US History. My parents told me I wouldn't be able to find a good job with the history degree, so I was the dutiful child and finished in accounting. I have always had jobs that required a college degree, but they weren't particular about the major. I should have done my own thing instead of listening to my parents-but that's life.</p>
<p>Accounting</p>
<p>I'm a CPA so it was necessary. But I wanted to be an accountant so I wouldn't have changed. Others are very surprised since I don't act like an accountant.</p>
<p>I majored undergrad in Poli Sci. Nixon resigned three weeks before I arrived and I had just seen him in person..was a military kid during the peak Vietnam years. My college cribbed together a class entitled WATERGATE for fall term. One of my new friend's father was unemployed..Nixon had fired him for his refusal to use the IRS to report on Enemies. Strom Thurmond could be seen visiting our campus often. I wish I had completed my degree in science and stayed in hard science and just read newspapers and attended cultural arts programs and picked up electives. It seems to me now that I majored in the 70s. China is no longer in a Cultural Revolution, the Berlin Wall has fallen and much of my coursework is as obsolete as the old world map and old names of nations. I feel like a John Le Carre novel on the Cold War...still appreciate the author but probing the cold war characters is no longer part of the landscape. Looks like Iraq is going to obliterate our folly in Vietnam.
I liked being around the extroverts in the social sciences but as I age up I regret not sticking it out with a hard science when I was care free. I honestly had never read an editorial in a newspaper in my life before arriving at college, so frankly kids don't arrive at the same starting page when they get to college. I had some major catching up to do. I didn't know the word Renaissance and had never looked at paintings or art.</p>
<p>Social Studies Education, as for whether I use my degree obviously I use it every day. I can't think of anything I'd rather be than a teacher.</p>
<p>wharfrat2, Thank you!</p>
<p>Fascinating thread! I'll be reading it for days! And, I thought I was the only one with twists and turns.</p>
<p>I majored in Electrical Engineering with a sub-emphasis in computer engineering. I also took a lot of economics courses because I enjoyed them. I was hired into HP for a technical marketing job which did not turn out to be marketing in any way. Mostly, it was phone support, and I hated it (although I loved HP). It took me 3 years to find a back-door entry into a software R&D lab and for the next 3 years I rose in the ranks by completing an MSCS in my off hours. After 4 years as a manager in the same lab, I quit to raise my kids. When I wasn't spending as much time on the kids, I gave some thought as to what I really wanted to do after they were gone and decided that I could not stomach starting the whole CS process over again (learning Java, going back to programming, etc.). Instead, I decided to pursue the old interest in business and economics and took a bunch of accounting courses. Now, that my youngest is applying to schools, I am applying for jobs in the accounting field. Don't know yet how this will all turn out, but going back to school in accounting was fun!</p>
<p>I was a political science major. I went to law school after I graduated with the primary goal of making lots of money. I practiced in the litigation department of a big Southern California firm and absolutely hated it. I switched to the District Attorney's office and loved it (I took a $100,000 per year pay cut and it was worth it).
I married my law school boyfriend and I've lived happily ever ever. I'm now a stay-at-home mom, but I will probably go back to the DA's office in a couple of years.
What would I change? It was stupid to choose a field for money. I should have taken more psychology classes...it would be useful for any parent. I wish I had worked in the admissions office for work study...that would have been interesting.</p>
<p>I am a life-long English major ( role model : Garrison Keillor). I am a teacher of EFL at a European university. Never regretted all those years of reading and talking about good books.</p>
<p>My degree is a B.S. in Social Studies Education (secondary) and I loved being a teacher for many years! My M.A. is in American History. Our kids have complained for years that almost all vacations have been a history lesson of one sort or another (gee...that couldn't have been the plan!?) You never stop being a teacher!!</p>
<p>I thought I wanted to be a painter/sculptor until I took a summer course at a top 25 uni art department. I had the facility but not the mental steeliness to face that blank canvass/lump of clay again and again.</p>
<p>I chose the next best thing: art with plumbing, otherwise known as architecture. I did the BArch program first and absolutely loved it. Primary and secondary school bored me to distraction. I was very happy to be in design studio for 16 hours a week of formal instruction.</p>
<p>When I was about 20, my cognitive lights went on (I swear I can remember the feeling) and my ambition lit up like a rocket. I am too shrimpy and the wrong gender to have wild ambition as an architect, but I perservered and have been very very successful. </p>
<p>I opened my own practice in New York City when I was 28--the same year that my first son was born. I maintained my professional career, but I did dial my ambitions back to accomodate the childraising. From 1986 through to 2004, I worked at a low hum--with high level materials and clients. In 2004, after my first son left for uni, my work started taking gigantic leaps. Coincidence? anyway, I'm pinching myself. There are an infinitesemal number of female architects designing towers. I am tickled to be one among the few.</p>
<p>Ignoring so many conventions about the male-oriented profession, I ended up with what some would call a cavalier attitude toward conventional practice. I moved the practice twice--once intending to open a branch office (which became the home office) and once because I wanted to have a different lifestyle. Given the utter folly of that last move, I should have been relegated to kitchen additions--but the opposite happened. I ended up with the biggest work of my career.</p>
<p>I love the all-encompassing nature of architecture and I would study it again in an easy minute. I love the fact that architecture is an old man's profession. At 50, I feel as though I am on the threshold of my best working decades. That is a thrill and a half.</p>
<p>DH studied architecture but never got a professional degree--not too dissimilar from curmudgeon. He ended up being swept away by his professional career.</p>
<p>Started out as a physics major. Then heard that the job market for physics PhDs would be determined by the number of deaths and retirements of existing physics PhDs. Then majored in math, but didn't really like proving theorems. Finally rediscovered economics (had taken a course in high school, where I got my only high school A+.) Liked that it used math but had real world applications. So my BA is in economics with a minor in math.</p>
<p>So then I went to gradual school for a PhD in economics. Left after 5 years with a MA and ABD (all but dissertation). I've been a business economist ever since, and still enjoy the profession. The only thing I'd change is to pick a thesis adviser who was not as nice and knew more about my dissertation topic.</p>
<p>Music history, theory and piano performance. I work primarily as an accompanist and collaborative pianist with some teaching on the side.</p>
<p>My major as an undergrad was Operations Research (OR) and Industrial Engineering (IE). I had never heard of OR before starting college and wandered into it while taking sophomore engieering survey courses ... and luckily went to one of (at the time) few colleges that offered OR as an undergaduate major. For me this was a great major because it leveraged my intellectual strengths and taught me skills in how to think about complex problems in a very structured analytical way so fact based solutions can be determined (as opposed to relying on hunches).</p>
<p>My first 10 years or so of work I did OR/IE type work but then these same skills provided a great foundation for heading back to B-school ... an ability to provide sturcture and analytics to large complex problems is a highly valued skill in management.</p>
<p>Frankly, I believe for anyone planning on going to B-school having an OR/IE background is a much preferred undergraduate degree than a business degree. The MBA will be somewhat redundant to the undergraduate business degree ... while an OR/IE background provides an analytical approach to business problems and the MBA can then provide either deeper analytics or add skills in the management of human capital.</p>
<p>I double majored in English and chemistry - how's THAT for an unusual combination? I chose English because I loved to read and write, but I chose Chemistry because I figured the job market would be better. When it came time to choose a field for graduate study, I went with my head and picked chemistry (again - career prospects and long-term security. At the time I knew PhD's in English who were literally pumping gas.)</p>
<p>So I got a master's in organic chemistry and went to work for a large pharmaceutical company (until said pharmaceutical company laid off 20% of its work force and closed my site! So much for that long-term job security.) Interestingly, though, I earned the most accolades in my previous career as a result of my writing ability, not always my chemistry skills. </p>
<p>My current job has nothing to do with chemistry and more to do (again) with writing skills. Funny how things work out. Oh - and I'm working on my first novel, too!</p>
<p>I started out as a Biology major and switched to Biochemistry, a field I was not aware of until college, since I found that aspect of science most interesting once I began my studies. I had no interest in becoming a physician, unlike most of the other students in my major. I earned a Ph.D. in Pharmacology with a toxicology emphasis, and, after a few years of academic post doctoral/research associate experience, I have worked for a government agency as a toxicologist for the past 22 years. My job involves evaluating the health risks of environmental contaminants and developing guidance and standards for them. I also get involved with managing research projects and working on special topics when toxicology expertise is needed. It is a good job for me, as I enjoy researching and synthesizing information, and I have worked on some very interesting and high profile topics. Additionally, a government career is a good choice for working mothers, as the hours are more regular and there is more flexibility than in comparable jobs in the private sector. There are many, many professionals and managers up to the highest levels who are working mothers in my agency. Also, although I didn't appreciate it when I was younger, I am now realizing that, although my salary was not as high as it might have been in private industry, my benefits will be excellent when it is time to retire.</p>