Good thing it's news for nerds over here.

Well you obviously didn't hear about the riots after Montreal beat Boston in game 7 in 2008. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jU56NA0yf8&feature=related [youtube.com]. Worse yet, it was only round one.

And he won't miss that much at prom. I remember mine very well because I was sober, as was my girlfriend. We got stuck helping some girl who didn't even go to our school to the hospital. Anyway, good luck Jack. You *are* learning a valuable lesson. What surprises me the most is that WAY worse things happened in my Canadian high school (i.e. teachers getting lit on fire, throwing chairs, unleashing a bunch of rats - all of which I was not a part of), resulting in not even a suspension. That this video "offended" the school is laughable.

I'm more shocked that this is a problem at a public school. I know the private schools in my area would have done something unreasonable, but a public school? Are you serious!?

Yes! I would mod you up if I hadn't commented earlier. Studying something you are passionate about gives you time to do stuff related to your degree, while also providing the tools to do so or it simply stimulates you to pursue interesting side projects. However, sometimes it is not just about the "journey, " like in your case, which resulted in a good job (and living situation) down the road. Thank you, very well said!

I actually agree with your argument. One should quit school in order to figure out what they really want to do. In fact I have made this argument to a bunch of my friends who started an undergraduate degree because their mommies and daddies thought it was a good idea. One of the reasons I mentioned my tuition costs is because it shows that I am not plummeting myself into debt (3000/year is not that hard to make on top of rent, which is also relatively cheap in Montreal).

I'm in this program because this *is* what I want to do. Obviously I am not asking anyone to agree with me (heck there is enough criticisms of the canon within my discipline, let alone outside of it) but this program is giving me a base in literature (and aesthetics), philosophy, history and poli sci. And, we actually read the texts in question, rather than being taught what, for example, Plato's Republic is about. It is not the case anymore, but it was not too long ago that the lines between these disciplines were rather blurry and that is why I think it is important, if you are interested in, say, literature, to have a base in these other fields.

While a Liberal Arts degree may not get me a job in the real world fresh out of my undergraduate (I am not being sarcastic), it is definitely a good thing to have if and when I apply to a Master's program in a more specific discipline. Also, I get to spend my years as an undergraduate figuring out what it is we've studied that interests me.

And as a side note, we read Darwin (Origin and Descent) this semester and it was awful. I actually didn't mind the reading (even if it is very dry), but you can imagine how a bunch of arts majors handled reading science.

I knew that was coming and I imagine you know what I will say. I have no plans for a job, maybe teaching or writing? I'm a musician in my spare time and I dabble in programming (why else would I be here?) and I actually have a pretty good set-up for school. I live in Montreal and pay a very minimal amount for university (about $1500 a semester, cheapest in Canada) and I'm at a small Liberal Arts College. All we do is read literature, philosophy, history and political science and then discuss it/write papers. So basically, I'm getting a degree to read (a lot) and write.

I still haven't answered your question. After my undergraduate I will probably move to Europe (I speak English, French and German) and study comparative literature or history and keep learning language (next on the list is Dutch and Russian). Mostly I'm interested in German history and Marxist history (not that I am a Marxist, but historically it fascinates me). Teaching is an extremely competitive profession in universities and I am not relying on getting a job - I know I could be waiting more than a decade - but for now I am not worried about that. i definitely enjoy what I study and even if it involved working odd jobs and living cheap for the rest of my life it would be the only way I would be happy.

Most of them do something else or go on to higher levels, as you suspected. On that note, I will stop procrastinating (my last Art History paper of the semester is due today) and get back to work. And no, I'm not in Art History (however, as I've said somewhere above, my major is just as useless), but my major includes some flexibility and offered an honours seminar that I couldn't resist.

FTA: "'The image higher education carries of itself as a large liberal-arts institution where everyone sits on the lawn and reads Shakespeare," he says, "hasn't been true since the 70s.'"

Sigh... that's my major. Not that i don't love what I study, but even if I pretend otherwise, it always hurts a little bit when I get asked what my major is and upon hearing it's in the arts I get the famous, "what are you going to do with it?" question.

No, in fact Icarus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icarus [wikipedia.org]) proves the opposite problem.