What PhD are you getting?

WTF school do you go to where you're only in 3 months a year?

Technically computer science but the topic of my thesis isn't locked in yet, I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do. Could also potentially be concidered economics (or math maybe).

I'm assuming the Dutch system is similar to the German one. For many fields (i.e. not stuff like medicine) you have pretty much 0 mendatory classes. The grade is 100% or sometimes a little less based on the final exam so technically you can just show up to that, ace it and be done. Was like that for all my business, econ and CS classes. Most non-CS classes where 100% final exam grade, some CS classes had a 20-50% midterm programming assignment or something similar.

Of course studying for 7-9 final exams worth an entire semester of stuff to learn at a time isn't exactly fun so those weeks were pretty much hell. Usually all those in a span of two weeks, my worst was 4 of them on a single day

cool. that sounds not easy.

Yeah uni is definitely the way to go, meet a ton of people and pretty damm easy if you are intelligent. I did law in NZ and had i think 12h class/week (went to about 4) and 80% of each paper was assessed by an end of year exam, so each class generally only had one assignment during the term. So 4h/week, plus 4 assignments (couple days each), plus exam cramming. And I got TWO shiny bits of paper (3 now).

What's the deal with studying in Europe for those who aren't Euros? Surely overseas students pay exhorbitant funds? I know NZ is roughly 3k/year for NZers but 10-15 for foreigners (I think). Also, anyone know how much study costs in Canadia, and how easy it is to get student loans (as a Canadian citizen).

i'm going to have to agree with this. unless you're beating mid/high stakes, grinding out small stakes for your life is awful. it's way too volatile and i do feel much happier in life now without poker. i'd love to get back into it though as a side thing maybe playing a few live events a year and cash game here and there but to grind out small stakes again putting in 100k hands a month i don't think i'll ever do. sure the amount of free time and the ability to "work" whenever you want was great, but is it worth the stress of grinding at this level? probably not.

up until poker ended, i didn't necessarily have any direction in life and was content in the grind. but now it's opened up my eyes to what my priorities really are since it has ended. it's forced me to move on and understand that life can't be a party/vacation every single day.

it's what clown said. I studied finance and major now in logistics / business management at the university in Bruxelles.

There are like a couple (group) tasks, but all the rest is just determined by one test at the end of the semester so I only learn a week prior to that exam and ship it. The only thing that sucks is writing the thesis. Just did a couple of interviews with ballernerds that are way smarter than me for my thesis and will probably finish it next month -_-

@fryke: studying is f cheap in Belgium (university costs 750 euro a year. Holland is 1500 for a year). Just add your living expenses and some books (lol books never necessary but whatever I buy them to save my conscience). Difference between the US & West EU is that it's really really hard subsidized by the government to give everyone a chance to get a good degree. Since I'm dutch and I live in Belgium I get 7000 euro a year from the dutch government to study here

+1 million. well said.

Pretty sure that attending university as an American abroad will be rly expensive, just as its expensive for foreigners to go to school here...

My main issue with school is that there isn't a topic of study I care really care about. While I was in school I took classes on almost every sort of subject and I did not find any of them really compelling or interesting. Sure some were less painful than others, but overall I just didn't/don't care.

As for poker vs. school/working, I do find much more fulfillment in poker because I do view poker as an end in itself rather than as a means to money. I like competing and improving at poker. When I am out at dinner or lying in bed trying to sleep, at least in the back of my mind I am also thinking about my play earlier in the day or how I can improve my overall gameplan. Poker is fun and its much more fun than most other things I have done earlier in my life.

I am currently going back to school to get my alternative teachers certification, which is essentially an education masters for ppl that didnt major in education. So far its super easy, just hope I can actually find a job.

Lol at euro prices, this is only a 2.5 month course and still costs around 7k.

Yeah this is/was the same for me. Kind of a big reason why I reduced poker quite a bit, just can't stop thinking about it once I play which kind of consumes me :P

I think this is a "skill" that can be very usefull in science/math but I can't be bothered with getting yet another degree. I'd kind of like to see how well I'd do in the most abstract/purely theoretical form of math I can fined though.

Not really sure why it would be? What expenses would you have that are different than mine?
- I share an appartment with 2 friends which costs us around 330 euro a month.
- food is up to you offcourse, but I go atleast one time a week on restaurant.
- fitness membership is 250 for a year
- Travelling is really cheap as in a year with the train (Leuven Bruxelles) costs 100 euro, but I hate trains or any form of public transport so I just take my car and pay happily for gas, because f trains and losing time.
- Studying costs 750 euro for a year.

Everyone speaks english here and in Belgium especially, because we are almost trilangual (dutch / french / german). All my classes are in english and I only have english books / slides and even the exams are written english. Again the main difference is that education is a lot subsidized over here where in America / UK etc. it's way less.

Leuven is full with erasmus students. Like the first 2 rows are always full with asians that are just too smart obv. But you wouldn't be the first one lol.

Also the university of Leuven (Where I live) is regarded as one of the best of (holland / belgium).

I've stated it numerous times in here, but it would be a no brainer for me personally if I'd have to choose between either:

- to get f by the government and have a loan for 20 years of my life paying of my debts for studying.
- Study abroad, have an experience that companies regard really high, save money, get pussy cause you are a foreigner and girls dig that obv.

+ you'd have the oppurtunity to hang out with me which is awesome obvious

It varies greatly from country to university etc. For example, every university in Ireland is ranked in the top 500 worldwide, but tuition and fees will only cost about €5k/yr. Plus you get to live in Ireland and have the craic.

If you throw in free man whoring coaching, I'm sold.

well you'd have access to my 2 best friends who are the biggest manwhores alive (100+ girls each and all A+ material). I'm worth nothing compared to them and I'm happy with that. On another note I did do that pirate girl I posted here before First time for me that I did such a young girl lol and she allowed me to go anal aswell.

Most undergrads are about $2500-3500 per semester for a decent school (UBC, U of T, McGill, U of A, UVic.

Crazy that you only pay 3k/year for law though. I'm paying $10k and my school is the cheapest in the country.

lolol 1k $ in belgium for law!

damn, looked it up and university rly isnt THAT expensive in most places. Now my problem is that my grades when i was at university were absolutely godawful, hopefully I can find a decent university to take me XD

Not necessarily looking now... Maybe sometime in the near future tho

you're planning to go back to school?

idk, what else would I do with my time

I don't care about getting a job... I would be doing it for fun

2012 Go back to school thread

yeah but



courtesy of klink

meh imo.

even on my biggest winning nights, I still felt a little void inside with my direction in life. I mean don't get me wrong, the money I made in poker was nice... and I love money just as much as the next guy.

This concept varies person to person though. Some people have no problem just grinding out nearly the same stakes forever and occasionally scoring big.

Even as I was moving up in stakes, I still felt like I wasn't really accomplishing anything really meaningful/productive in my life. I was just getting better at a game, which in turn produced more money.

But like I said, there are others who have the completely opposite view of this and I can respect / understand that POV because I lived it for a while.