@britt I don't know what their background was, but it's always struck me that many authors are the equivalent of modern day philosophers. They write commentary (sometimes scathing) about the current state of the world. Terry Pratchett's writing is especially this way and is done generally for the sake of comedy but it definitely does make a person think (or at least did me).Philosophy majors that I've met mostly seem to be historians and not actually about critically thinking about and examining the world, pondering difficult ethical dilemmas, etc. Maybe that's because it's a solved discipline or something, and there's not a lot of exploration left to do.It sucks that you've had a bad experience though. I am not a fan of places that take your money and aren't willing to give you the support you need to succeed.