On Exam Week: Danish Edition and Eight Days

Well, it's that time of the semester again -- time for my Exam Week post!  Exam Week: Denmark Edition.

It's hard to believe it's already that time of the semester - four months has gone by so fast that it almost makes my head spin.  I've been in five countries, eight cities, and four airports in the last four months.  I've watched the days in Denmark go from never-ending summer nights (no seriously the sun didn't set until like 10 pm) to three hours of daylight (if you're lucky and it isn't overcast).  I've gone to the ballet at the Royal Theatre, a beer tasting at one of only seven Trappist breweries in the world, a party at the EU (although that was kind of a trainwreck because there were issues with wiring and food, whoops), and more.  And I've met some truly amazing people.

Yesterday, someone asked me what my favorite memory of this semester was.  It's a pretty close call.  The single greatest moment, potentially one of the greatest moments of my life, was right before Halloween.  We went to the Halloween village at Tivoli, and there is a ride at Tivoli called the Himmelskibet or Star-Flyer.  It's a really tall swing ride.

It looks kind of like that.

Anyway, it was dark, and we went up on the ride.  When we got to the top, I could see the entire city of Copenhagen, all lit up, and it felt like we were flying over it.  It was absolutely magical.

The other competitor for my favorite memory was sitting in Grand Place is Brussels on our long study tour.  It was our first day there, sunny and warm, and a bunch of groups were picnicking in the square.  We had some time to kill, so we found a Belgian specialty beer shop and a chocolate shop, and grabbed some drinks and chocolate and just sat in the square, enjoying the weather and the wonderful opportunity we had to take a trip with our core class.

It's been amazing to think how this semester has flown by, and while I am really excited to get home to my friends, family, and a phone plan that doesn't charge me 50 cents a text message or decide to sporadically not work, there will be some things I will really miss about Denmark and my time here.  I'm just going to have to work hard to bring the best parts of my time abroad home with me.

Now, I really need to stop procrastinating on working on my international law paper.  Except not really.  Who assigns a paper due Christmas Eve (Heidi, if you somehow find this, you are a wonderful professor and I love your class, but REALLY?)?  Eight days left to pack, study, write, Hobbit, and get in all the sightseeing I still haven't done.

For those my darling readers suffering through Exam Week out there: Good luck, stay sane, and remember that it will be fine (and if it's not, at least it's over).

Procras-Dane-ating,
Rachel Leigh

On My Fake Major

It's no secret that I'm a Political Science major -- I blog pretty often about politics (although I do try to keep it non-partisan (...I said "try," people, no writer is without bias!)), and it even says in my bio that I'm an "aspiring political activist."  I am quite proud of my studies and the work I hope to do in the future, and I'm not ashamed of my major.

Which is why I get really annoyed when people treat me like my major isn't real.  I almost feel like I didn't even really choose my field; Political Science chose me.  By the time I came to college, the gravitational pull in that direction was so strong that no one I went to high school with even has to question what I decided to major in.  I chose my major because it's what I'm passionate about, because the work I do for it is good, and because I'm very excited about what doors it may open for me when I graduate.

So let's get down to the nitty-gritty of why people seem to think my major is "fake."

My favorite question, by far, is, "What are you planning to do with that? Become the President?"*  Now, if you're an Actuarial Studies major, an Astrophysicist, or studying Chemistry with plans to take up Pharmacology later in life, feel free to ignore this part of the discussion -- your unemployment rates are literally zero and you are therefore pretty much exempt from this whole issue.  You will always have jobs because your fields are either too depressing, too boring, or too complicated for the vast majority of students, so we will always need people like you!  Go you!  But if you are planning to major in pretty much anything else, you can expect your job prospects to be pretty grim.  Almost every field sees an unemployment rate of around 7%.  Interestingly enough, the unemployment rate for students with Political Science degrees?  6%, according to a study done by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce**.

Let's face it, there are only so many Fortune 500 companies in the world to run (incidentally, there are 500 of them), which I'm pretty sure means that, even if everyone in charge of every one of those companies either retired or died, there STILL wouldn't be enough available positions for all of the Business School graduates from just my tiny University alone from the last three years.   So I guess that makes your "job prospects" question a moot point.  I appreciate your concern.

The other major (get it?) question I get a lot in relation to my major's legitimacy comes down to the number of units in my major.  My major has a 10 unit class requirement (which equates to about 35-40 credits for all you crazy credit-system students out there), which is, admittedly, on the lower end.

There are a few reasons I think this complaint lacks legitimacy.  First, we're all still required to complete the minimum 32 classes to graduate that everyone else is.  We don't suddenly get to call it a day after a year and a half.  Second, part of the reason the major is so small and flexible is because they encourage us to pick up minors, second majors, research, or study abroad semesters, and they want the major to be flexible enough to accommodate that.  I actually feel bad for some of my friends in the hard sciences or business programs who just don't have the flexibility to go abroad.  Third, and in my opinion, most importantly -- trying to take an entire semester of Political Science courses is crazy.  If your brain doesn't explode from all the readings (which often contradict each other because theories contradict other theories and often those contradict practice), your fingers will probably freeze up and develop early-onset carpal tunnel from all the papers you'll write.***

It's not that I think other majors don't deserve credit -- I absolutely do.  Most students I know work hard and get stressed, and everybody has their own skill sets.  I, for one, am glad my best friend from high school is the Engineering major and I am not, because I would build bridges that would collapse and kill people.  But while most people I know in my field recognize and respect the legitimacy of other majors, it makes me sad that we don't get the same respect in turn.  Our skills are different than yours and our paths and passions took us in a different direction.  Why does that make us any less worthy?

Studiously yours,
Rachel Leigh

* Leaving aside the fact that very few of the Political Science majors I know want to become politicians.  That's a post for another day (one which is currently in the works).
** Source: http://graphicsweb.wsj.com/documents/NILF1111/
*** Shout out to Dr. Dagger and Dr. McDowell for combining to make me write more papers as a first semester freshman than many of my friends will write their entire time in college!

On the Best Advice I've Ever Gotten

On of the best pieces of life advice I've ever gotten was delivered to be as part of a speech the summer when I was 13 years old.  It was my first summer at the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth at their site at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA.  Our then site director, Bret, was discussing the CTY Honor Code.

The Honor Code was kind of all-encompassing -- be tolerant, do your work, go to class, don't lie, don't break stuff, don't have sex anywhere at any time because you're all 16 or younger and we don't want to explain that to your parents, etc.

But the good advice that I got came when Bret said he wasn't going to read us the whole Honor Code because it boiled down to one thing: "Don't. Be. A. Jerk."  Before you do something, think about if it's something a jerk would do, and if it is, don't do it.  All the other rules, he felt, naturally followed from this one.  Making trouble for the RAs meant being a jerk to the RAs.  Not respecting someone's religion, sexuality, etc, meant you were being a jerk to them.  Not going to class made you a jerk to your instructor.

And it makes sense.  This rule is kind of fundamental -- just don't be a jerk.  We usually know what makes us a jerk to somebody, and it's a good, simple rule to follow.

I'm reminded of this because of a struggle my friends who are still at CTY are going through, trying to hold on to some traditions that the administration is trying to ban.  My heart goes out to them.

Wishing you a three-tiered layer cake of Safety, Learning, and Fun
Rachel Leigh