General Chat / College Thread

I guess it would depend on what you're going for. I have a degree, and it in no way has helped me get a job. In fact, at one point, I was forbidden to do an apprenticeship course because I had the degree. In England, there's plenty of skilled jobs (i.e. electrician, plumber, bricklayer) that don't require degrees, and they pay very well - often much more than entry level graduate jobs. I have to agree with Steve.

^Particularly the bit about mastering anything yourself. To me, university was just going to lectures, listening to tutors tell you stuff that could be found in books/online, and then self-teaching myself the rest. A great place to socialise, but a complete waste of money.

The diploma means a lot in the US. You can learn/master almost anything yourself, but you can only get a piece of paper certifying that you're skilled in it by paying 80k to some school and going to lectures for four years.

The diploma means a lot in the US. You can learn/master almost anything yourself, but you can only get a piece of paper certifying that you're skilled in it by paying 80k to some school and going to lectures for four years.

A diploma means virtually nothing in this country. I thought it was common knowledge that a high percentage of graduates never end up in the field they studied. Like Chocotopian said, more times than not your degree holds you back. If you're dead set on going to school, I recommend a community school. It's basically high school continued, but at least you're learning the same things at a fraction of the cost.

That's because a fuckton of people get degrees in stuff like Philosophy, English, Communications, or Women's Studies because they're easy. So a bunch of people have these degrees that don't have specific careers attached to them and just having a degree would get you at least above those that didn't, even if your degree was unrelated. Look at how many people graduate from your school with each degree each year to get an idea for which markets are getting the most saturated.

Yeah, there's still plenty of fields that do require specific degrees. I understand that a diploma won't hold a ton of weight to you if you're not pursuing a  profession- or license-based field, but for any headway in a field like architecture, engineering, medicine, or law, you need a professional degree. Basically, you need a degree if you plan on following a career that requires a professional standardization to properly train and equip its "professionals." 

Besides, I may be biased as someone who's  been attending a four-year university (five, in the case of my degree), but the experience and knowledge gained from it is invaluable, as long as you make the right choices in what you choose to pursue. 

As a PhD student and aspiring professor, these threads always interest me. My expertise is in structural engineering, so if anyone has questions about that, I'd be happy to answer. I could answer some general civil engineering questions as well, though I am certainly less knowledgeable about the other civil sub-disciplines.

college degrees are the new high school diplomas, seriously. it's easy to not see that if you have one.

that's what you get when everybody can go to college

Not everybody right? Since it costs a shitload of money?

Only in America, apparently. If my mother hadn't died and left a trust with all of her assets for my brothers and I, I would be nearing $50,000 in debt, and I have a year-and-a-half left to go just to get my B.S., and I want to finish at least a Master's degree before getting serious about a research position somewhere. My oldest brother attended UCLA for law, and despite my family having full savings for each of us some twenty years ago, he had over $120,000 in debt a few years ago, and is still paying it off slowly despite making upwards of $200,000 a year at his firm. He's lucky though, he had the connections to get a fantastic job right out of university, and has been working something like 12 hours a day average every day since then.

Everyone should be able to go to university, and European countries take this far more seriously than the U.S. Like I said, even though my family is relatively wealthy, I would still be massively in debt trying to go to school, because I sit in the valley between having low enough income to get a lot of scholarships, and having high enough income to actually pay for school. Here, especially in Montana, even high school graduation rates aren't that great, which is insane to me. High school was so piss easy, I had way more shit than I could handle going on in my life and I still graduated with a 4.12 GPA.

I digress. College degrees are almost de facto expected now, but the cost is still prohibitive. Either it'll eventually equalize or the system will collapse. Who knows which. All I know is moving to Germany or the UK is looking better and better.

Yes that was my point. I think it is ridiculous that you can go and try to become rich, but only if you're rich. 

it is ridiculous that you can go and try to become rich, but only if you're rich. 

you understand America perfectly

This is also the country where we have career politicians, which is just absurd.

I am studying Sales Engineering in Germany, unfortunately no more time for RCT2

one week until i hear the results of my early decision application!

decisions, decisons man...

i have basically two full ride scholarships now, one (the school i WANT to go to) will give me full ride with a campus job and maintaining a 3.0, the other one will give me full ride, let me keep my TOPS/Louisiana grant money and do it without a job, basically putting me at 30k dosh once college is done

i'm still in the choosing fase here, economics/bussiness seems interesting right now, but i still have to  take a look at what the nearby univeristies have to offer in terms of law/geography/history

Geography <3

Social geography @ UvA, Gijs!