EVERY bachelors degree qualifies you to be a teacher in Texas, as-long as you take a summer-long prep course which you can do online for about $500. AND there is strong demand for teachers in middle of no where Texas.
After two years you are fully certified and you can then transfer to other states or become certified in other fields.
Fuck...if I could afford it, I'd become a professional college student.
I dropped out of high school in my sophmore year and enlisted in the USMC...and went to Vietnam. I got my GED when I came home, then got a union apprenticeship and went to work.
I tried going to school a couple of times over the years, but my work schedule would never allow it.
After I got hurt a few years ago, the work comp folks forced me into a "retraining program," and I fought it tooth & nail...I DID NOT want to go to college or any flunky trade school.
I never suspected, going to college was a fucking blast!!
I enjoyed the challenges of learning something new every day...of competing with the youngsters for GPA, (I know it doesn't mean shit...except to me) and finishing every class with one of the highest total scores in the class.
If you don't enjoy going to college, you're doing it wrong...
Since you are at least 55 you can probably do just that. Just get done with your BS and get into grad level work. You get paid enough to live a modest existence and you get to learn all the time, best yet, if you'll be receiving social security before you're done with your studies.
EVERY bachelors degree qualifies you to be a teacher in Texas, as-long as you take a summer-long prep course which you can do online for about $500. AND there is strong demand for teachers in middle of no where Texas.
After two years you are fully certified and you can then transfer to other states or become certified in other fields.
And those other states are only going to give you a provisional certification. Let's say you teach math, then come to NY. They'll say "that's nice, you can teach for 3 years. But at the end of those 3 years, you have to have a master's degree, including 12 credit hours at the master's level in mathematics, this, this, this, this, this, this, and this course in education, this training, that training, this training, and that training."
I have been going part time for the past 8 years, I feel your pain OP.
This is my last semester and I will have my BS finally. Although I am already in my career, I saw the handwriting on the wall that my current position will be automated within the next 10 years, hence why I started going back to school.
If anything, Gen Ed requirements should be pared down so you can spend more valuable time in your major.
Stick with it. I had to go back to school for a Masters, but now that I'm out and got a proper job because of my degree it was more than worth it. I feel sorry for the people from my school that dropped out and/or didn't go back to school during our little employment "dry season". They've been dicking around for 1-2 years thinking they'll find work, and now that work is coming back they're having trouble convincing employers they're better than the people who have actually been doing stuff the past year or so. It's tough but should be worth it.
I would imagine he is talking about his non-major requirements. I didn't care much for mine either, but I did try to pick things I was interested in and were going to be relatively easy to pad the GPA. I ended up taking econ (I had some interest there) and I also took 3 semesters of Spanish because I knew they would each be an easy A.
I do too. I got burned out in grad school and left shortly before I would've graduated with my MSEE to make some real money. Now, after working in the corporate world for 15+ years, I appreciate school more and wish I could go back full time.
I do kind of feel bad for those who do nothing but go to class and don't get involved with extracirricular stuff in college, especially as things are in the economy today. Hate to say it but if there has ever been a time where it's all about who you know and not what you know it's now.
It took me a long time to understand the value of all those "worthless" classes outside of your major.
If you only want to take classes in your major then a technical/vocational school is a better fit. A degree in most fields is less about what you know and more about what kind of a person you are. Were you able to apply yourself during those years, including through the boring classes? Life will not always be exciting at work.
Are you a well-rounded person? There's this shift in a lot of industries where techs are given more responsibility with respect to the skills they are able to do, in order to free up the more educated staff to work on complex problems. The ideal qualities of this more educated group include being a well-rounded person. Being knowledgeable in more than just your trade allows you to be a better critical thinker. I think you'll find a lot of the top positions in your industry require strong multi-disciplinary competency as well as excellent interpersonal skills. Even as an Engineering major for example, the knowledge you gained during your Psychology and Communication classes will be useful when working in a team. With increasing globalization those other seemingly random classes may help you build rapport when working with foreign clients.
If there's an industry that exemplifies this I think it's medicine. For those not familiar with the entrance criteria into medical school (for the US), you must have a bachelors degree but it doesn't matter what field it is in. In fact, arts majors actually have greater matriculation rates than in the hard sciences. You do have to take the prerequisites which are relatively difficult for most people and do well (average matriculation GPA into an MD school is around a 3.6), but doing well in these classes alone will not get you into ANY program.
8.5% of applicants with 39-45 MCAT scores and 3.8-4. GPA were not accepted ANYWHERE. These scores are absolutely outstanding yet not a single med school thought they were a good candidate (most people apply to over 10 schools, some people apply to upwards of 20). A 39 MCAT score is a top 1% result of a self-selecting incredibly smart and driven population on a very difficult exam. Average matriculation score is a 31 and average on the test is a 25.
Yet despite these phenominal scores (they really are spectacular) their overall worth is very low because they're not well-rounded. They probably did not volunteer in their community or they have lackluster leadership experience, or they only took classes in their major. You can earn a 4. in one of the most difficult Biology programs in the world, score a 45 (a perfect score) on your MCAT, and will still get denied places if that's all you did. In this example you would probably have a better chance of admission if your major wasn't in Biology (to show that you know more than Science).
Those classes outside your major are more important than you think.
[edit] According to those same charts, someone got accepted into med school with a <=2.19 GPA and a <=17 MCAT. The adcoms valued this person more than Mr. Perfect bookworm above, most likely because they had good multidisciplinary and interpersonal skills with strong community involvement.
I always have, im getting close to being done but I feel like im just dragging myself though it. So sick of bull shit classes and teachers and memorizing tons of usless information because someone else told me I should.
Wait until you're a big boy and you're stuck doing a small fraction of what you did in college over and over and over, 8+ hours a day, 5 days a week. You'll wish you were back in school.
It took me a long time to understand the value of all those "worthless" classes outside of your major.
If you only want to take classes in your major then a technical/vocational school is a better fit. A degree in most fields is less about what you know and more about what kind of a person you are. Were you able to apply yourself during those years, including through the boring classes? Life will not always be exciting at work.
Are you a well-rounded person? There's this shift in a lot of industries where techs are given more responsibility with respect to the skills they are able to do, in order to free up the more educated staff to work on complex problems. The ideal qualities of this more educated group include being a well-rounded person. Being knowledgeable in more than just your trade allows you to be a better critical thinker. I think you'll find a lot of the top positions in your industry require strong multi-disciplinary competency as well as excellent interpersonal skills. Even as an Engineering major for example, the knowledge you gained during your Psychology and Communication classes will be useful when working in a team. With increasing globalization those other seemingly random classes may help you build rapport when working with foreign clients.
If there's an industry that exemplifies this I think it's medicine. For those not familiar with the entrance criteria into medical school (for the US), you must have a bachelors degree but it doesn't matter what field it is in. In fact, arts majors actually have greater matriculation rates than in the hard sciences. You do have to take the prerequisites which are relatively difficult for most people and do well (average matriculation GPA into an MD school is around a 3.6), but doing well in these classes alone will not get you into ANY program.
8.5% of applicants with 39-45 MCAT scores and 3.8-4. GPA were not accepted ANYWHERE. These scores are absolutely outstanding yet not a single med school thought they were a good candidate (most people apply to over 10 schools, some people apply to upwards of 20). A 39 MCAT score is a top 1% result of a self-selecting incredibly smart and driven population on a very difficult exam. Average matriculation score is a 31 and average on the test is a 25.
Yet despite these phenominal scores (they really are spectacular) their overall worth is very low because they're not well-rounded. They probably did not volunteer in their community or they have lackluster leadership experience, or they only took classes in their major. You can earn a 4. in one of the most difficult Biology programs in the world, score a 45 (a perfect score) on your MCAT, and will still get denied places if that's all you did. In this example you would probably have a better chance of admission if your major wasn't in Biology (to show that you know more than Science).
Those classes outside your major are more important than you think.
[edit] According to those same charts, someone got accepted into med school with a <=2.19 GPA and a <=17 MCAT. The adcoms valued this person more than Mr. Perfect bookworm above, most likely because they had good multidisciplinary and interpersonal skills with strong community involvement.
No, those classes are not important. The whole line of being well rounded is crap. It's a lie to make you have to spend more money. It's all about money. They could give two shits about how well rounded you are.
Wait until you're a big boy and you're stuck doing a small fraction of what you did in college over and over and over, 8+ hours a day, 5 days a week. You'll wish you were back in school.
I dunno about that, I don't wish I was back in school...at least I make good money doing repeated bullshit instead of paying people to let me memorize bullshit.
I'm about 7 years removed from college now (FUUUUUUU), and can't imagine having to go back.
Even the classes I "liked" and was good at were too easy and eventually felt pointless to take anyway.
College sucked. Always broke and never able to have any fun at all. Now that i am out and working in the field, i have lots of cash to go out and have fun. If friends invite me out for a beer, it is now because i can drink with them instead of just be a designated driver who doesnt spend a single dollar the whole night.
Oh there's entry level jobs alright. Problem being there's 2928347271 people with 5-10 yrs of experience recently laid off that are ALSO competing for those entry level jobs... Wait til you graduate, it gets worse, us new graduates simply can't compete in this job market with no prior job experience... (Well if you hire me, I'll GET experienced! I'm a quick learner! Right? Right?!)
QFT! I'm hiring for a temporary position right now, which I would consider somewhat entry level if it were a full time position. We're getting people with 5+ years of experience and even some with MS degrees applying.
I agree, college is a waste of time. My IS program is also in the Business Amin college, which makes no sense to me. I've thought a few times about looking for an IT job in the public sector and leaving this behind. Alas this isn't a good time to be looking for an IT related job. I've kept an eye open but I haven't found anythign worth it yet. And considering I'm almost a Senoir it seems kind of pointless to drop out when you're so close to being done. Worst case I'll graduate with 3 years of work experience.
I agree, college is a waste of time. My IS program is also in the Business Amin college, which makes no sense to me. I've thought a few times about looking for an IT job in the public sector and leaving this behind. Alas this isn't a good time to be looking for an IT related job.
What kind of job are you looking for? There are TONS of IT jobs in just about every discipline imaginable in my market. I'm kind of shocked at the number of openings to be honest.
It depends on what your major is IMO. Obviously, I want my doctors to go to college and have extensive training. Ditto for engineers whose products we use. Does that mean that the entire curriculum is right? No, I don't think I really benefitted from some of my non-major classes.
On the other hand, I think many jobs in the real world which "require" a college degree could hire someone with experience and the company wouldn't miss a beat. There is no need for someone who has 10+ years of documented IT experience, for example, to need a degree to win a position over a new grad with only a couple of years of experience. I'd take the 10+ year veteran every time assuming his references checked out.
What kind of job are you looking for? There are TONS of IT jobs in just about every discipline imaginable in my market. I'm kind of shocked at the number of openings to be honest.
They probably have stupid requirements and no applicants who qualify. I was working as a qc chemist when my employer was purchased by a larger company, and the new company was trying to fill entry level jobs with people who have 10 years of quality control experience. That was back in 2007 when the economy was going good. Retards running the show, i tell ya.
College sucked. Always broke and never able to have any fun at all. Now that i am out and working in the field, i have lots of cash to go out and have fun. If friends invite me out for a beer, it is now because i can drink with them instead of just be a designated driver who doesnt spend a single dollar the whole night.
College sucked. Always broke and never able to have any fun at all. Now that i am out and working in the field, i have lots of cash to go out and have fun. If friends invite me out for a beer, it is now because i can drink with them instead of just be a designated driver who doesnt spend a single dollar the whole night.
Not everybody was as broke as you. I didn't have much money, but the money I did have was controlled to where I COULD have some fun with it. I mean we were a little spoiled because we were next door to Coors brewery, so "going out for a beer" meant "free beer at Coors today"... but we still went out to eat and stuff. I never had to live of Ramen and shit like some people claim is a part of college.
They probably have stupid requirements and no applicants who qualify. I was working as a qc chemist when my employer was purchased by a larger company, and the new company was trying to fill entry level jobs with people who have 10 years of quality control experience. That was back in 2007 when the economy was going good. Retards running the show, i tell ya.
Sometimes, companies have internal candidates to fill the positions but corporate policy dictates they post the position externally anyway. To make it nearly impossible to fill the position with an outside candidate, they'll put in all sorts of ridiculous qualifications that only an internal candidate would meet.
College sucked. Always broke and never able to have any fun at all. Now that i am out and working in the field, i have lots of cash to go out and have fun. If friends invite me out for a beer, it is now because i can drink with them instead of just be a designated driver who doesnt spend a single dollar the whole night.
Seriously? I went for engineering and I practically put myself through college. I worked the student cafeteria for pocket money, did internships over the summer, worked my ass off but still had a blast. You're at your physical prime, have low amounts of responsibility and huge amounts of freedom and opportunities. I got to work in various laboratories, got to check out the Pacific Northwest, meet interesting professors. It's probably the easiest place in terms of socializing. As for money, I worked and had plenty. I got into hifi and other hobbies, enough to go out with my friends, what have you. You don't need much money. Just enough for school, room, board, and car. School provides healthcare and insurance and you room with friends so that keeps the costs down.
Honestly, I cannot imagine how you could not have a good time in college unless you really did not try. As for the results, shit man, I've been able to travel half way round the world for work myself. Would never have had that kind of opportunity if I hadn't gone to Uni.
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