College

[HardcoreRobot]

degree is something i used to convince someone else to pay me lots of $$$

 

[Safeway]

Don't go to college if you want to be a pawn broker.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

The life lessons I learned outside the classroom are pricesless in comparison to the lesson learned inside the classroom.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: HardcoreRobot
degree is something i used to convince someone else to pay me lots of $$$

That's what I'm hoping mine will be good for.
If I could easily make big money without serious violations of ethics (yeah, they're always a problem), I sure wouldn't be going to college full time. Maybe part time for stuff that's truly interesting, but that's about it. Philosophy - interesting, but I don't feel like getting a degree so that I can go door to door begging for food. "High, I know how to think. Can I have a sandwich, please? Or maybe even an orange peel?"
Maybe quantum/theoretical/astro physics, something like that. But getting a job that pays well in those fields, well, I don't know, does that take at least a Master's degree? And to work on the really fun projects, like the Large Hadron Collider, or experimental fusion reactors like ITER, that'd probably take a PhD.

Originally posted by: Eeezee

Originally posted by: PaulNEPats
Why do you think they call it a BS degree?

BS = Bullshit
MS = More of the Same
PhD = Piled Higher and Deeper

The truth finally comes out.

Originally posted by: Eeezee
College actually helped me decide that I wanted to go to grad school. College life is great - you don't make much money (I've been riding by on scholarship and grant/fellowship money), and the hours can suck at some times (first year of grad school and third year of undergrad in my case). However, there is very little responsibility, you get student discounts, and your schedule is usually fairly flexible. Some weeks I can head down to the beach and read there instead of hanging around my office. I can't think of many jobs that would let me do that. Ahhh college life, it's hard to beat (especially when the economy gets bad - no chance of getting downsized).

Sounds better than my college schedule. Mon-Thurs, I'm stuck on campus for 10-13 hrs. Granted, I do get nef time, like right now at my work-study job. There are often lulls in the work, and I can either do homework, or put the time to better use here.
Incidentally, I did just finish an assignment, for a measurements class; it deals with using electronic devices to measure various things, such as current, resistance, or strain in a strain gauge. It's nice being in the mechanical engineering (technology) program, but being good at the "sparky" stuff, as they seem to call it (electrical stuff). For our mechanical program, one electronics intro course is required. Most MET's hate it; I did too, but it was because it was so damned boring and slow. It was nice to have a serious GPA-boosting-class though. I only missed two test questions the whole semester, out of 4 tests + a final.

 

[E equals MC2]

Don't listen to some of the 'alternative-thinking cool kids' of ATOT telling you that college is useless.

I'm not saying what you learn in college is always full of useful and vital info. What I learned in 4 yrs of biz school were some useless crap I could've learned myself reading Wikipedia. Then why go to college? Because that's how the society operates whether you like it or not.

It's easy for degree holders to trash how useless college is. Yea, come again when you actually DON'T have a degree. 90%+ of the decent jobs are already ruled out for you in the market.

Also it all depends on your major. If it's a technical field, you can bet your ass you'll need a degree. Good luck getting into engineering/law/bio/med without the diploma. WTF you gonna do? Convince them to hire you by reciting all the formulas at the interview? (if you can even get that far).

This isn't Good Will Hunting.

 

[invidia]

Doctors need to go to college. You want a minority who is a high school drop-out who barely speaks English doing a physical checkup on you? I heard drug dealers make great pharmacists.


College isn't useless for everyone. A BS degree is gradually becoming the norm. It's the "new high school diploma". It doesn't matter what you learned or experienced in college, those stupid employers just want you to have a degree more advance than a diploma. Or licenses/certs. Suck it up, and do whatever it takes to get a decent job. Even if it means spending 30k for a degree. If you thought it was a waste, you should of planned ahead instead of jumping on the bandwagon thinking you need a degree to get a job.

 

[Xavier434]

If your OP is what you believe college is limited to then you have not learned enough yet to enter the real world (by "real world" I do not only mean your career) without having to deal with a lot of head aches. Without going into detail, college teaches a shit ton more than academics and career preparation.

 

[sdifox]

College is there to teach you how to think, the facts you learn are just bonus.

 

[yllus]

Degree holders always trash non-degree holders.

Non-degree holders always trash degree holders.

Truth of it is, for the most part university is just a hard, four-year slog. While the attempt is to give you a taste of a variety of subject areas (personally, I loved my optional history courses), the real value in that degree is in acting as proof that you get keep your nose to the grindstone over the long term, stay focused, and get a big project done. That's really not something to be underestimated, either. I know plenty of people, intelligent and not-quite alike, that lack the ability to stay serious and focused on anything and are therefore not very useful in the workforce (and their employment status reflects this).

There's a lot of smaller boons to attending university as well. It's a meeting place for like-minded individuals whom you can tap later on in life for employment, funding, advice or other opportunities. It's often a wonderful social scene. Lastly, being alumni of this-or-that university can really give you a jumpstart in the future - both in terms of as a social bullet point in your favour and in the tools that your university may lend to you (such as exclusive job postings).

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: invidia
Doctors need to go to college. You want a minority who is a high school drop-out who barely speaks English doing a physical checkup on you? I heard drug dealers make great pharmacists.

"I bet I've lost more patients than he's even treated!"

"You might have your textbook knowledge and your REAL diploma, but I've got more talent in my left claw than you've got in your whole carapace! VRRRRIIIIIIIRIIIRIIII!!!!!!"

Originally posted by: Wreckem
Why was this bumped?

I was scrolling through and read a post of mine that didn't sound al all familiar. Then I checked the date. Wow. I thought threads this old got archived.

 

[Quasmo]

Originally posted by: JungleMan1
I'm with BigJ. Here's a bright idea: Figure out what you want to do, then spend money and time on a degree. Get a degree that you can get a job with, too. Programming and chemistry are both good, but some of these music and arts majors ramble on all day about how they want to "do what they love" but usually end up waiting tables out of college. I dont think that's what they had in mind.

Also, often times the degree is not so much about what you majored in but the fact that you're smart/dedicated enough to make it through college. That's why so many people end up doing stuff that isn't really related to what they studied.

I graduate in 2 weeks with a Bachelors in Fine Arts (Film and Television). I have a great job out of school, guess I'm lucky though,

 

[invidia]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: invidia
Doctors need to go to college. You want a minority who is a high school drop-out who barely speaks English doing a physical checkup on you? I heard drug dealers make great pharmacists.

"I bet I've lost more patients than he's even treated!"

"You might have your textbook knowledge and your REAL diploma, but I've got more talent in my left claw than you've got in your whole carapace! VRRRRIIIIIIIRIIIRIIII!!!!!!"

"Jeez Zoidberg, leave some for the enemy to kill."

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

A chem Enginer with a software engineering degree could land a 6 figure job. You have to work for it, but that is one hell of a combo.

 

[Reckoner]

College is worthless, unless it's for something specialized such as law, medicine, etc.

 

[soccerballtux]

Originally posted by: PaulNEPats
College is worthless, unless it's for something specialized such as law, medicine, etc.

Only people that say this never went.

Companies require a BS in something because if you got threw college you've proven you can discipline yourself to work. It's an easy way to filter out the chaff-- they're willing to pay for the BS so you have no reason not to get one.

If the economy goes down the crapper the last thing you want is to be without an education and of no use to anyone.

 

[Bibble]

A college education increases your human capital, making you more valuable to employers. Students sacrifice four years of potential earnings and pay thousands of dollars on top of that to gain this capital.
At least, that's what I learned in economics. Although college is far from worthless, it certainly is not helping me decide what I want to do with my life.

 

[OdiN]

It's a way to get a piece of paper that says you sorta maybe know something. It's kinda stupid. My piece of paper (degree) didn't change or enhance my knowledge of what I do (I'm in IT) - it just says that I know something apparently. It's really stupid. I spent all that money for nothing than a stamp of approval on my resume. I didn't need it. Everything I learned I learned from real world experience and doing stuff myself - reading books, etc. By the time I got into any of the IT related courses in college I already knew pretty much everything they went over. I did take a class in VB which all that did was make me go and read and teach myself because the professor was a moron.

It's like purchasing a ticket to the job market or something. Really ridiculous. I can see where college is good for some people, but it really did me no good.

 

[TallBill]

The whole point of a 4 year university for most degrees is just to prove that you can show up and accomplish what needs to be accomplished for 4 years straight. If you can't get to class or do homework then you probably are not the person to be handed real world assignments with deadlines and such.