Is an English degree from Stanford a waste of time?

>>8601800
occasionally

>>8601800
English degrees and all like it won't get you a job and you can study them independently now. Whats the point? You can gain the same amount of knowledge for free on your own as any Stanford course.

>>8601816
First of all, an English degree from a top 10 university on the planet is going to land you a job somewhere. Maybe a BA from Mediocre State won't get you the internship at the cushy publishing firm, but a BA from Brown or another elite school will.

Secondly, unless you're the rare autodidact with powerful connections, discipline, free time to study and practice, and a source of fast and useful feedback, elite universities are going to be more helpful when it comes to getting published than bumming it own your own.

Agents are looking for the Stanford graduate who has the blessing of his nationally acclaimed professors and a great manuscript, not some no-name dropout of a second tier state school with a great manuscript. Sad but true.

First year at Duke for English, I thought it would be a bad idea as well, but I see now that the sad truth is, no matter hat you major in at an elite school, you'll be offered a well paying job. You may not be living the dream but by no means should it hinder the chances of getting a job.

At the level of education the top 10's provide, your degree begins to matter less to the corporate world.

>>8601800

it's certainly a risk but with a lot of tenacity and maybe a little luck it can work out

>>8601912
solidly given. follow dis man, ohpee

How did you guys even get admitted to these universities?

>>8602383
Good grades
Seizing opportunities and extracurriculars
Sucking up as much as possible in essay
???
Get admitted into duke

>>8602405
What? There are plenty of people that do this and still don't get admitted. I know they try and rate each portion of your application numerically and then decide from there, but... *sigh* this is useless I give up

>>8602420
i do wonder how much being legitimately interesting as a person counts towards admissions. I slacked off in high school due to severe anxiety and depression (literally being present in the school building was traumatic for me), am trying to transfer admissions.

>>8602383
go to a state school
pick a bullshit major
pick classes carefully
free As
dont fuck up your standardized test
free admit into a top grad program

getting in for ug is a different beast though, its basically impossible and only for savants and tryhards

>>8602383
OP here. Dropped out of highschool. Hit community college with working experience, and a focused mindstate. Extracurriculars out the ass. Straight A's. Several minority scholarships awarded. Had my essays revised multiple times by professionals. Transferring next Spring.

English is what I'm "good at," but I can't help and feel like I should do something more useful.

>>8602456
A lot of people go CC -> State and transfer in for the last 2 years of UG at a top school. You just need to get grades and apply for cool internships and shit.

>>8601800
Yes.

Are rich friends from Stanford parties a waste of time? Emphatic no.

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>>8601800
Just having any degree will get your foot in the doors of a ton of jobs as long as you dont take 6 years and go 100k in debt to get it

>>8602617
Do you think you would have been admitted had you not had working experience and minority scholarships?

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>>8602383
Yeah I feel really bitter about having to work my fucking ass off after living an abusive childhood just to get to community college meanwhile people far less intelligent than me get these comfy college lives and then they come on here to make threads about sartre or stirner or nietzsche, and laugh at me for reading Aquinas.
I'm considering suicide.

>>8602802
>>8602802
Definitely not. I was the conventional underachiever and my family was poor. If I continued high school, I would've gone to a shitty uni and dropped out with debt. Having time off allowed me to learn a trade, fuck around, and make mistakes without it truly affecting me. All I gained was experience. I always knew I'd return to school. Once I felt it was the right time, I went in prepared. The scholarships helped my academic transcript look better; you'd be amazed at how few take advantage of opportunities/resources at community colleges. I feel like my admissions process was cake in comparison to how competitive it must be for high schoolers.

>>8602834
I agree senpai. I remember asians shanking each other trying to get into schools my senior year of high school but with the TAAG program in california as long as I completed my 60 credits of IGETSI units I was almost assured a spot at like 30 schools

>>8602834
I see, I'll have to look into it. Thank you so much anon.

>>8602814
>abusive childhood
"daddy smacked my bum bum when i was shoving bread in the video player"

Thinking of applying to Northwestern ED because it'll be easier to get into than Yale.
Will I have similar job opportunities or decent ones out of college with a BA in english?

>>8602660
It boggles my mind how seemingly intelligent, reflective people are so out of touch with reality. A top tier college will open doors no matter what you study. Make friends and you will be fine if you are pleasant and fun to be around. Your degree shows that you are able to apply yourself and not a complete idiot. That is enough to land a good job.
Unless you are a socially retarded aspie, but then humanities are not for you anyways.

>>8602814
That takes the edge off my own bitterness. Getting diagnosed with ADHD *just* too late to do anything about it is slightly better than going full Catholic.
>>8602795
>pic
It's worse than that: they both think the other race is worse for the exact same reasons. Stormies think Blacks are brutish, amoral and monstrous, which is why they're subhuman—while BLMs think Whites are brutish, amoral and monstrous, which is why they're subhuman.

>>8601800
A waste of Stanford.

>>8604159
but one group has FBI crime stats to back up their claims and the other does not

>>8602442

Not one fucking bit. That's consolation people give themselves to feel better. Sad truth, but accept that people don't become doctors with personality. Prove that you can work hard and do shit.

>>8605376
Oh, so the racist power structures back up the racists's POV... literally why we need BLM in the first place

>>8602442
>le smart but lazy
>my autism is "clinical depression"

go back to readit

Stanford sucks at English. Maybe at Harvard or Princeton it might be worth something, but Stanford humanities is the epitome of the liberally-brainwashed shit that we all hate.

>>8604166
Upvoted.

>>8606230
>(((FBI))) racist power structure
blacks are fucked because their own families fell apart and 70% of their kids are born out of wedlock

literally can't express how much better my life has been since I attended Oxford. I went to a state school and gradually became the stereotypical moody, withdrawn sensitive type who both despises the quality of his immediate culture and feels a weird pride for having been raised in a sort of anti-intellectual and brutal environment. I was all set to take my Russell Group humanities BA and spend my life working as an anonymous, insecure wageslave forever thankful of being offered a job and forever too insecure to pursue my creative ambitions. The chip on my shoulder had become something of a wedge, and I felt too out of place regardless of my environment, too resentful and bitter to even attempt to make it in the artistic world. Then I finally applied for Oxford and got in to study an English MA, with reassurance that should I work hard enough a career in academia or within one of Oxford's affiliated companies would be almost guaranteed. I turned up as apprehensive as usual, and the first few days were spent regretting my decision and desperately feigning a cultured personality. But then I realized that the people there were just interesting and that the snobbery and exclusivity I had anticipated was just a myth borne out of my working class upbringing. I've since graduated, having spend the year dining in grand halls with groups of interesting people, dating several girls (one of whom, a petite Russian whose family traces back to the aristocracy, is now my fiancee). I work four days a week at a publishing company and earn £38k a year. I regularly meet up with friends from my college and visit Oxford for nights out and for meetings with my professors. The Martin Eden-esque novel I have been writing for two years has been selected for publication at a major British publishing house and, honestly, I could not have imagined a few years ago how great life could be. I come on /lit/ and see how pathetic you all are and just shake my head and chuckle. If I saw you guys on the street I would of course throw you a penny or discuss Bukowski or whatever "realist" writers you enjoy, but ultimately I would be able to tell within ten seconds if you're an Oxbridge grad and would dismiss you as a potential source of good company if you are not. I never thought I'd know what it was like to be objectively better than somebody else, for the value of my existence to be superior to the value of a stranger's, but now I do and I've never been happier. People are awed by power and prestige. All I need to do is mention the university I attended (if only for a year) and they immediately begin to hunch and look at their feet because they know they are in the presence of greatness.