Poll: Is your 4 year degree more useless than mine?

[Sadaiyappan]

So go back to school and get another degree.

 

[AdamK47]

I've been very happy with my 2 year degree. I knew exactly what I wanted to do after high school. Went the fast track with a two year degree and spent the other two years working doing contract jobs.

2 year degree + experience >>>>>>>>> 4 year degree + no experience

 

[mav451]

I've been very happy with my 2 year degree. I knew exactly what I wanted to do after high school. Went the fast track with a two year degree and spent the other two years working doing contract jobs.

2 year degree + experience >>>>>>>>> 4 year degree + no experience

What kind of work do you do?

 

[AdamK47]

What kind of work do you do?

Lottery winner

 

[SooperDave]

degrees are worth a crap if it gets you a job you like or at least offers you a decent lifestyle.
I just work construction with no degree, i live typical middleclass but its rather sad some of the guys i've seen work with me that have 2 and 4 year degrees in something.

I remember when the tech bubble burst in Silicon Valley there were guys with degrees that were making $150k+ starting new careers in construction making $50k. Working outdoors everyday isn't for everybody. I don't think many lasted.

 

[Elbryn]

I remember when the tech bubble burst in Silicon Valley there were guys with degrees that were making $150k+ starting new careers in construction making $50k. Working outdoors everyday isn't for everybody. I don't think many lasted.

it could if you worked at initech.

 

[Jeff7]

it could if you worked at initech.

Fuckin' A, Peter man.

 

[rh71]

my company just wanted to verify i finished a 4-year degree... they never even cared what it was in (COM).

 

[SearchMaster]

One of my former students is majoring in film studies. Unless Siskel or Ebert die, I can't figure out what you would do with such a degree. "you'll study film history, theory, and criticism, as well as the basics of film production."

A friend of mine from college got this degree and he's done pretty well with it.

 

[krunchykrome]

A friend of mine from college got this degree and he's done pretty well with it.

a rare case - might as well start forget college and practice basketball hoping to make it into the NBA

 

[AstroManLuca]

Bachelor of Science, Scientific and Technical Communication

I'd say mine is worth a lot more than yours. Why did you even bother? It's perhaps even more useless than Art History.

 

[IGBT]

mabe you could be a community organizer!! then run for president.

 

[destrekor]

Two quarters away from having my Bachelor of Arts. Major: International Studies w/specialization Security and Intelligence. Minor: Military Science.

Could have dual-minored with Russian if I would have elected to take two additional, English-taught classes (my major requires 2 above 104, the minor requires those same 2 above 104, and 2 culture classes... I think, brushed it aside awhile ago)... then again, it's going to be a struggle to even pass the Rus 405 and 407 courses. Should have taken French. lol

I have no idea what I am going to use this degree for. My intent was to go Active Duty in the Army, and if I wanted out in 4 or 8 years, or in general just didn't make a career out of it, I planned on using the general concept of a 4 year degree with Commissioned Officer experience to secure some kind of career position.

Still have no clue what my regular work week job will be now, as I am going Army Reserve and well... need to have a civilian job.

 

[Skel]

My girlfriend’s friend got a BA in “women’s studies” which I can say I didn’t even know was a possibility. After not being able to do anything with it, she’s now working on getting her masters in it. I get in trouble with the girlfriend by saying she’s majoring in student loans.

 

[Jeff7]

B.S. in Mechanical Engineering Technology. I had a job offer in-hand a week before graduation. It was for a job that was in my field, as well as a bit outside, bleeding over into other fields of engineering, so it stays quite interesting.
I would say that's somewhat less useless than the OP's degree.

My girlfriend’s friend got a BA in “women’s studies” which I can say I didn’t even know was a possibility. After not being able to do anything with it, she’s now working on getting her masters in it. I get in trouble with the girlfriend by saying she’s majoring in student loans.

It's something of a nice self-sustaining cycle for some of the less-useful degrees: Most leave the program or leave the discipline, either to find better majors while still in college, or else to find crappy jobs outside of the field. The remainder are those who go on to teach the (arguably?) useless subjects to the next batch of students - such as this friend going for a Master's degree.

yea, I don't understand this either - why earn a useless degree? It cracks me up when people major in english, music, history, etc and then complain about not being able to find a good job.

Fun thought about history studies: the only reason they exist is because, like in too many cases of software development, people suck at documentation. If we did better documentation of daily life, just think, we could improve the efficiency of the future by (mostly) eliminating the need for historians.

 

[InflatableBuddha]

Completed a Bachelor's in Sociology, with a minor in Psychology. Not exactly applicable to work, but it has made me a more well-rounded person with better critical thinking and problem solving skills.

A few months after graduating, I went to a technical school and completed a certificate in Technical Writing, which is directly applicable to my job.

That said, I've never regretted my degree. University is a life-changing experience (not just academically), and if your grades are good enough, you should attend. That said, it would be nice if university education wasn't so bloody expensive.

 

[PingSpike]

may i ask what field? my degree in phil is pretty worthless right now.

I assumed the field was Hamburglary.

 

[Imp]

Civil engineering. After graduating, unemployed for months (wasn't looking), worked as an admin assistant for half a year before 4 more months of unemployment, then got work as a technician (3 year college diploma).

Have to say I'm not as qualified for this job as the college diploma people since most of my studies were general knowledge, and more about management. But the degree probably helped me beat out over 400 other applicants, and now that I have experience within the company, I have an edge applying for the engineering entry level job. if I get it, nice 20% raise will be coming my way.

 

[PingSpike]

Fortunately for him Siskel did die.

WTF? When? That's rough. Long live the thong song.

 

[*kjm]

You need one more choice in your poll.......


My 2 year degree is definitely more useful

 

[zinfamous]

I was working towards Criminal Justice. My GPA wasn't good enough to get into the program and I left school with 106 credits. I returned 3 years later to finish my 120 credits and get the BES to have the degree when getting into law enforcement. I didn't get into law enforcement...so it was all for not.

"naught."

yeah dude, you need to get back to school.

 

[Kadarin]

While it sounds useless from the standpoint of others not taking it seriously, it sounds useful in that you potentially got exposure to a lot of different subjects. This might make you an effective generalist, where there is potentially some value in that if you have a job that benefits from bringing different disciplines together.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

One of my former students is majoring in film studies. Unless Siskel or Ebert die, I can't figure out what you would do with such a degree. "you'll study film history, theory, and criticism, as well as the basics of film production."

You become angry that you're degree is so worthless, and then make a career out of reviewing old terrible video games.

 

[L00ker]

I never bothered to go to a 4 year school, did some courses at some community colleges a while back when I got my CCNA but that has since lapsed and I am operating on experience at this point (30 years old) and well into $100k+ a year without any formal degree or anything. I have almost thought about trying to get some joke Bachelors only so I can get an MBA but other than an MBA a bachelors wouldn't yeild anything for me now that I don't already have...

 

[ShawnD1]

I doubt it. I have a Bachelor of Elective Studies. It's not hard to figure out what school I went to if you search for the degree. LOL. The main requirements of the degree are:

- Completion of a minimum of 120 semester credit hours with at least a 2.0 grade point average

- At least 45 semester credit hours of upper division (300/400) level courses

- No more than 60 semester credits can be earned in any one discipline

So the whole point of this degree is to have no specialization at all?

You become angry that you're degree is so worthless, and then make a career out of reviewing old terrible video games.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKgSF0BNFrU&feature=related