TorilMUD Forums

Anybody here from or around Belgium? After I take my GREs in the Summer, I'm almost guaranteed acceptance into Leuven; so I'm wanting to be prepared for the move as much as possible. It would also be nice to know somebody so I'm not completely out of place when I get there.

Living about 50-60 kms north of Leuven, on the other side of the border with the Netherlands. You going to study medicine?

Naled wrote:Living about 50-60 kms north of Leuven, on the other side of the border with the Netherlands. You going to study medicine?

Nope, going there for my M.A./Mphil in philosophy.

That's just your excuse to smoke weed without consequence for a long time. Let us know when you get back to the states to study for a real degree. :P

Yasden wrote:That's just your excuse to smoke weed without consequence for a long time. Let us know when you get back to the states to study for a real degree. :P

Rofl! Nah, I quit smoking a long time ago. Kids will do that to you. I was actually looking at U. of New Mexico for my Ph.D.

UNM is a good school. I grew up in NM, and had several friends in the Albuquerque area. The weather is all over the radar there, from 110 sometimes in the summer to 8 inches of snow in the winter. You're pretty close to the southern most point of the Rockies, so it's not quite the flat barren desert like most of the rest of the state.

I believe there is some pretty decent skiing in that part of NM.

Yasden wrote:UNM is a good school. I grew up in NM, and had several friends in the Albuquerque area. The weather is all over the radar there, from 110 sometimes in the summer to 8 inches of snow in the winter. You're pretty close to the southern most point of the Rockies, so it's not quite the flat barren desert like most of the rest of the state.

Yeah, one of my professors was telling me how cold it gets there at times. But, they have one of the better Eastern Philosophy programs in the country, so I'll bare with it for a few years :) If I like Belgium enough, I may just stay over there for the remainder. The only problem is the strength of the dollar. I'd be getting loans through U.S. banks and then having to convert to Euros... And, I hear the cost of living in the Dutch areas of Belgium is pretty high, so I'm hoping that the dollar recovers a bit within the next year or so.

Corth wrote:I believe there is some pretty decent skiing in that part of NM.

Yep, the closer to Utah and Colorado you get, the better it gets.

okay carl, time for me to speak up. WTF dude, you quit smoking because of kids right? You want to give them a better life. You don't want to be a burnt out loser who vegetates all day and lets his kids run wild. I'm cool with that, but dude, come on. What in the world does one do with a PHD in Philosophy? You gonna bring down 100k a year because you can ponder over the meanings of string cheese compaired to individually sliced cheese? Get a real job, make real money, and damnit, pick up your fuggin guitar again.

that being said, florida is nice :) enjoy.

Well if hes smart enough maybe he can become a philosophy professor. It might not be a 'real job' but the pay if awfully good and you don't have to work too much.

But then again, for every philosophy professor there are probably 10 overeducated philosophy students waiting tables...

Lol, you guys have a lot of faith. A philosophy PhD is actually a very nice degree to have and Leuven is a great school to get a masters. And with an ending GPA of only around 3.1 (3.7 interdepartment), I don't see myself getting into Stanford or NYU. Plus, Belgium would be a great experience for my kids.

Larem: I still do play the guitar every once in a while -- just not in a band anymore and probably wont be again. Also, I think I'd be very happy teaching philosophy at the college level. I can't think of one person who doesn't like to talk about the stuff, so seminar classes will be great. I plan on enjoying my life, so the whole get a job that pays money isn't really an option. I have a second interview for a planner position, but I don't see myself choosing it over Belgium and will only have it for saving purposes.

Also, you people that know more than me about economics. Do you think the dollar will recover at all by next fall? I know it's hard to guage with the changing of the presidency, but I'm really worried about switching over savings and student loans to Euro.

I think the dollar will recover.. but nobody knows for sure. If your concerned, invest your savings in commodities such as oil or precious metals. Commodities, being tangible goods, historically will hold their value against a declining currency. In effect, you would be swapping currency risk for investment risk.

I love false assumptions, so I thought I would check...

However amusing the stereotype of the unemployed philosopher is, it could hardly reflect employment statistics less well. As the American Philosophical Association reports, only 2.3% of philosophy majors were unemployed, based on National Research Council data for 1995. That's less than half the national unemployment rate at the time. So philosophers are employed at a rate that easily bests average. While not all employed philosophers work in educational institutions, 79.7% were. As for the rest: 6.9% worked for a private company, 4.4% were self-employed, 4.6% worked for a non-profit, and 4.1% worked for government.

and this too...

The University of Virginia's Office of Career Planning and Placement reports in "A Comparative Study by Major of Law School Admission Test Performance," that the average LSAT (Law School Admissions Test) score for a philosophy major at that school was approximately 15 points higher than the average for any other major. In addition, the American Medical Association conducted a study in which they found philosophy majors had the third highest acceptance rate into American medical schools. York University investigated philosophy major's performance on the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) and also found philosophy majors performed an average of 5% better than the average. In the verbal portion of the exam, philosophy majors scored higher than all other fields, including English. The quantitative portion of the GRE is historically where humanities majors do poorly, however philosophy majors still performed higher than social science majors with the exception of economics.

Good luck Kifle

I was a philosophy major, and though I hated the subject, it certainly was extremely good preparation for law school.

corth, dude, you have just made me sick man. You have stated that prelaw school you were a philosophy major.......i'm sure other lawyers were other things too............none of which was an ethics major.............

i hate democracy and all those who support it. Including lobbyists, polotitions, lawyers, and irs agents.

people get raped by democratic governments everyday, but no one seems to care until it happens to them. I care, even if it doesn't happen to me. That's something this world needs more of i think. Philosophy aside, I believe there are good and evil choices people make, evil is winning, good needs a full heal, or a restore. Will belgium do that? no, they will make bagels and ricola comercials

Yeah, polotitions suck!

Must try a belgium bagel!

I don't have to worry about polotitions. I don't even think they play polo there -- let alone enough to have polotitions regulating the polotical beurocracy.

Also, it's all about the waffles, man. Why else would I move there? It's not like they have one of the most prestigeous research libraries for philosophy in the world or garanteed-job PhD program with a storage basement full of Edmund Husserl's unpublished works waiting to be translated.

Translating Husserl.. that sounds like loads of fun! Waffles.. shrug. :)

It's all about the pommes frites!

Corth wrote:Translating Husserl.. that sounds like loads of fun! Waffles.. shrug. :)

Eh, it may be mind numbing, but the PhD would be easy to obtain since not a lot has been done with his material and phenomenology is pretty fun. Also, the job security you'd get out of it is worth the price of admission. And seriously, how could you not be excited about waffles with strawberries and whipped cream every morning?

dude, go to IHOP already

let me bowl this past you, yer wife's 10 year class reunion is next summer, you gonna leave the country just to return in less than a year?

what does she think about it? Besides the fact that while you're elbows deep in philosophical crap, she can meet some interesting foreign men with wierd names and even weirder clothes? hrm....can i go with you?