Those are specialized degrees and obviously require lots of time and of course the pay off is huge but doing some generic or pointless degree seems to be a waste of time and epically money to me. Actually Handymen/construction type workers earn more money than you think. There is a current shortage of skilled laborers and so demand has risen. These people earn serious money, even by backhanded tax free methods. So which is it? spending many years and ££ for a chance at a big payday or start small and build your life from scratch and have a sustained future.
The top earning professions are Doctors, Lawyers and Engineers, and in that order too. I couldn't even stand looking at an eye injury in a photo, so I won't be a medical doctor anytime soon! I have lots of friends doing Law and goodness, how boring have they turned out to be. So I'm sticking with engineering baby! WMD design Cheesecake?
Not at all. Not everything is about the pure willingness to learn. Some of it is about being able to make huge amounts of money very quickly so you can retire early and spend more time living the life you want. As for builders, craftsmen, etc. Yeah. They earn hell loads. The average builder or plumber who came into the tool supply store where I used to work would be earning around 45-50k a year minimum - and this was in a small town and ignoring whether any of them were actually any good. Compare that to my wage and I'm very sad. Didn't Will Harris study Law at Oxford or something?
A few years ago one of my friends was a philosophy major. Last we heard, she was supervising a vegetarian kitchen somewhere. If you want to do philosophy, be prepared to take it to higher levels. My advice is to double major. Maybe politics or law as well.
You have to wonder whether a large subset of people who choose to study philosophy might just be stereotypical hippies/stoners who like to over-intellectualise everything. Working in a vegetarian kitchen sounds about right for those people... That of course doesn't mean that a philosophy degree isn't useful.
Come now Joe, the only reason you went to Lancaster Uni was to follow me. Just kidding, actually I really liked my four years at Lancs. The campus is big, but not too big, the town is large enough without being a huge sprawl and when the general population out number the students only 2 to 1, you know you're in for a student friendly town. I'd disagree with Joe when he says there are no clubs. Off the top of my head I can list four major ones (The Sugarhouse, Toast, Liquid and the Carleton counts (ish, it's in Morcombe, which is next door, but it's practically funded by Lancaster Students)). Club type bars number in the fair few, and traditional pubs are literally one every 100 feet in the town center, there are dozens. Given it's not a very big town (30,000 population or there abouts) that really adds up. The gig scene aint great, but Manchester's only 30 minutes away by train. The campus itself, which in all fairness is actually pretty lovely for a 60s built one, is not in the town, it's about a mile south, but the endless stream of 24 hour busses means it's never an issue. The campus takes about 20 minutes to walk from one end to the other, and houses nine bars (including one in the good pub guide). Given most campuses have like one student bar, and Lancs has nine, it's not bad going. The Uni's college based, everyone's a member of one of the nine colleges, and it gives you a nice sense of identity. Personally neither me or Joe ever partook in anything college based, but there's loads of opportunity to take part in the college community, and they all do have a really good community if you want it. Lancs does have it flaws, it isn't as huge or as vibrant as a city Uni, and it doesn't have the rich history an old Uni does, but generally there are few things I can fault it for above and beyond any other Uni. Personally, I think it's great. And no, it certainly isn't a dive, very green and you can see the snow topped mountains in the lake district across morcombe bay on the bus ride into town, which gives you an idea of how pretty the lake district is (it's a half hour bus journey away from Windermere). As pointed out earlier, for some degrees it's ok, though nothing great, for others it's brilliant. It's got arguably the best Management School in the country, and about the 30th best in the world. Really, the management school there is awesome, I can't recommend it highly enough. Really though just check the Times lists for a good guide to all the unis in terms of academia. Basically, Lancaster Uni is a uni that is particularly good at people interaction. The social factor at Lancs is second to none, and I've talked to people who travel around unis to get impressions of the the social aspects, and they agree. The college system really lends itself to community building if you're into that, the campus is full of bars and resteraunts and cafes, and there are huge green grounds to have BBQs and chill out during the summer months. The town is full of places to hang out, and the Uni has a huge list of social clubs for doing everything under the sun (there's even a LAN Gaming club). If you plan on doing Uni alone and not socialise, Lancs will be a pretty boring experience, but if you're looking to get to know lots of people and have a great time through socialising, Lancs is a pretty hot choice. Oh, and by the way, apply to live in Pendle, it's the best college. Edit: This is Lancaster:
