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halonachos wrote:

Melissia wrote:

halonachos wrote:I'm saying that as a Biochemist, but all organic chemistry is just drawing cool pictures of molecules and making mechanisms.

No it isn't. It's more than that-- if it was merely putting models together it'd be easy to ace It's also a matter of memorizing tons of rules of various types of reactions, which are quite complex and sometimes even contradictory.

I fully accept that for every reaction there is an equal amount of exceptions to the reaction.

MOre like for every reaction there's two exceptions, and for every exception there's three counter-exceptions, and for every counter-exception there's three "well, it depends", and for every "well, it depends" there is another exception.

Organic Chemistry can be quite easy for people who are great at memorizing a whole slew of rules, some of which are inherently contradictory. But it is NOT merely "drawing cool pictures".

halonachos wrote:How is organic chemistry hard?

Every person I know who has studied organic chemistry, including a couple PhD students, has called it hard.

It was to the point that the saying at my rather prestigious liberal arts college was "At least its not O-chem."

And chemistry majors say about O.Chem "at least it's not physical chemistry."

Which means I have lots of fun ahead of me as I have those classes lined up toooooooo.........

Well, organic was rather easy for me and just devolved into drawing formulas and mechanisms because that was how I learned them. Drawing the rules and exceptions made it easy for me, same way drawing human anatomy over and over again helped me in my A&P class.

At our school our chemistry and engineering majors are notoriously difficult so I can see how most people can see O. chem as difficult, but it was the easiest chem class I had. Most engineering majors become history majors and most chemistry majors become biology majors. Then again our chemistry department is grossly underfunded in education and our learning labs have stains on them from the 60's or 70's.

The economics department at my alma mater was like that in terms of high difficulty. Its one of the few undergraduate departments that I know of which tries to produce a normal distribution of grades in all of its courses.

There needs to be one of these for History...I can only imagine that it would be epic.

This is close.

I like how a lot of the videos include the line, "money isn't important to me".

Because teachers make gak money, and actual tenured positions that make decent money are few and far between.
These entitled douchnozzles think somehow they are special and when they say "money isn't important" what they mean is "I have a trust fund".

It just makes me chuckle on the inside, I plan on working for the government at some point and will be making less than my private sectors peers but then again I'll be getting a free education.

halonachos wrote:It just makes me chuckle on the inside, I plan on working for the government at some point and will be making less than my private sectors peers but then again I'll be getting a free education.

Assuming you work with the federal government for 10 uninterrupted years, and only took out the right public loans.

Its not so much "free" as you're repaying them in an alternative manner.


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AustonT wrote:
These entitled douchnozzles think somehow they are special and when they say "money isn't important" what they mean is "I have a trust fund".

Or parents with a solid credit rating.

If you plan on working for the government for awhile its not much of a bother.

Although Sentara looks nice and I may start out there while I'm still in school.

I'll tell you the same thing I tell everyone, don't think of it as a free education, think of its as additional pay. When people think about things being "free" they tend to ignore the actual value of those things.

For example, while I certainly could take a federal job, my second position would preclude me from anything requiring a security clearance, and therefore significantly reduce my net income; even after benefits.

dogma wrote:For example, while I certainly could take a federal job, my second position would preclude me from anything requiring a security clearance, and therefore significantly reduce my net income; even after benefits.

Second position?

I left my TA position, and now I work for a political consulting firm in Chicago as an analyst, and an NPO in Minnesota as a professional pragmatist*.



*Basically, the guy that does all the things people at NPOs tend to be bad at. Generally this means financial strategy, negotiation, and firing people.

Heh, that has to be an interesting job.

It is, I basically took it because it pays well, and my ex asked me to but its turned out to be a lot of fun.

In a way the beauty of working for the government and having a clearance is you never HAVE to be out of work. Just the clearance is a marketable asset. Especially if you can reel on a job with an agency or company who is related to any NDAs you've signed, not having to PUT you in the know helps.

Back OT, I think I've become everything I used to decry about academia short of teaching. As a History major (tha may become a Jewish Studies double by accident) and a Relgions minor with areas of interest in Reformation, Judaism and Feminist Judaism...my scholastic pursuits can be best described as "Humanities."
I'll never look for a job in the field pursue postgraduate degrees because as intellectual as I'd like to be, when the chips are down defendig my thesis is likely to develop into shouting followed by violence. Politics is probably out too...
I can't imagine wha I would have done if I'd gone to college right out of HS.

AustonT wrote:In a way the beauty of working for the government and having a clearance is you never HAVE to be out of work. Just the clearance is a marketable asset. Especially if you can reel on a job with an agency or company who is related to any NDAs you've signed, not having to PUT you in the know helps.

Oh for sure, and that's one of the reasons I had initially started down that path (I'm also an international politics and conflict specialist, so there is that.) I just got sidetracked by dollar signs.

Definitely still looking at cracking into the federal agencies.

I always wanted to work at Area 51, my logic was this; either I'll get to see all sorts of cool stuff, or I'll get to play xbox all day because its a cover up.

I don't know much about security at Area 51 beyond the bog standard "Its high." but I imagine their facility clearance (The clearance that would allow you to see cool stuff.) is pretty damn restrictive.

Yeah, but it's just a lofty dream and something that would be interesting should I end up there by chance. If I do work there I'll try to carry my own firearm because I've seen enough movies to know what happens to medical/science in these kinds of places.

halonachos wrote:I plan on working for the government at some point and will be making less than my private sectors peers

Depends on what area you go into.

dogma wrote:

AustonT wrote:
These entitled douchnozzles think somehow they are special and when they say "money isn't important" what they mean is "I have a trust fund".

Or parents with a solid credit rating.

Or "money is important but I'm going to say it's not important because that's what I'm supposed to say."

Or perhaps "money isn't important to me right now, but I'd like to be making 6 figures in the next few years."

dogma wrote:I don't know much about security at Area 51 beyond the bog standard "Its high." but I imagine their facility clearance (The clearance that would allow you to see cool stuff.) is pretty damn restrictive.

I've always kind of wondered what type of technology would be in the higher security clearances. I've actually seen some secret technology and never had to get a security clearance.

Then again, maybe the process to be admitted to the bar is higher than for security clearances, but I doubt it.

If the government shows off a piece of tech or allows it to be seen, chances are there's a better version of it that is top secret. That laser they showed that could burn through an engine in 5 minutes, there's probably one that's a lot better.

halonachos wrote:If the government shows off a piece of tech or allows it to be seen, chances are there's a better version of it that is top secret. That laser they showed that could burn through an engine in 5 minutes, there's probably one that's a lot better.

Not likely on the tech front.

Also, yes there is a better laser. They use it to shoot down ICBMs midflight. It's mounted in a 747.

Well, it was, the funding was cut because the system was useless.

dogma wrote:Well, it was, the funding was cut because the system was useless.

Er, ok.

Probably shouldn't talk about that anymore then.

Academia seems like its full of douchebag hipsters trying to be more unique and original then one another. At least in the private sector people who take charge and get gak done are the ones that get rewarded and move up. Granted there are a lot of douchebags in the private sector but only the competent ones usually get ahead. I can tolerate competent douchebags a lot more then I can hipster douchebags.

Friend of mine took Organic Chem.

He said it is not hard to understand it. It's hard just trying to memorize the vast amount of info.

I looked in his text books. And yup, said F--- that.

Making flash cards can not help you there.

Memorizing the OED would be easier.

Bleak_Fantasy wrote:Academia seems like its full of douchebag hipsters trying to be more unique and original then one another. At least in the private sector people who take charge and get gak done are the ones that get rewarded and move up. Granted there are a lot of douchebags in the private sector but only the competent ones usually get ahead. I can tolerate competent douchebags a lot more then I can hipster douchebags.

Are you under the impression that hipsters can't be competent, or that talent isn't rewarded in the academy?