DailyDirt: Are College Degrees Useless Now?
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
The education industry seems to be ripe for disruption. Although it's undeniable that higher education and advanced technical skills are correlated with higher salaries, more and more parents and students are questioning the real value of college. If college is merely another step in the process towards applying for a job, some folks think colleges should be a bit better about actually being able to match employers with recent graduates. On the other hand, if college is more about making social connections and laying the foundations for a rewarding life, perhaps acquiring hefty student loans to do so isn't the way to go for that. Here are just a few links on getting a college education.- Should college students focus on "vocational degrees" that might land them lucrative jobs after they graduate? The number of business majors in the US outnumbers liberal arts majors by a 2:1 ratio -- but instead of worrying about what majors are the highest paying, it might be better to work on graduating in 4 years and learning some fundamental skills. [url]
- Does college really prepare students with the skills necessary to succeed in the workplace? It depends on who you ask. A poll of academics says colleges do a great job. A poll of business leaders and the general public suggests the opposite. [url]
- If college isn't worth all the trouble and expense, what else can high school grads do? Self-directed learning is getting more attention as the resources to educate yourself online become easier and easier to find. Hackademics need to be really motivated, but they can save thousands in college tuition if they can develop practical skills on their own. [url]
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Filed Under: academia, college, degree, education, hackademics, tuition, university, vocational degree
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no!
'I never let schooling get in the way of my education!'
Mark twain
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Re: no!
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Not for every career path
Of the people I've hired or interviewed for jobs, the ones that stand out and end up being the most valuable to the company aren't the ones that went to college to study Computer Science or a related discipline. It's those who were hacking away teaching themselves to code when they were young. If someone waits until college to begin learning how to code, they're already well behind others, and it's also a pretty strong sign that they don't really have the passion for it.
In addition to that, in a fast-changing area like computing, texts and professors teaching are always several years out of date. College can give people an understanding of the science behind software, but as far as being able to write code, most graduates are basically worthless. College really doesn't do anything for preparing someone to be a useful developer.
I suspect this is true in many other disciples as well.
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Re: Not for every career path
We do just fine.
Although I did get started by working at said company as an intern. College education may not be worthwhile, but internships most definitely are. Higher education should be focused more on that, IMO.
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Re: Re: Not for every career path
Learn by doing in the end for pretty much anything and everything is the only way. Even a Doctor has a long Internship after all the learning. Collage is good where it makes sense. It's just such a huge industry now.
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Re: Re: Re: Not for every career path
I think you need to go to Collage and lern some speling and capatalizashun.
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Re: Not for every career path
I find that I have learned a lot in the past 5 years on the job, but I find that what I learned in college (especially the six semesters of advanced math and various data structures and algorithms and software engineering and networking and operating system courses) has been very critical to my success in the field. It's all very subjective depending on what type of development you're doing and how much of your time is spent writing code versus doing R&D or algorithm development or fine-tuning or anything of that nature.
Being a good developer is about more than just being able to sling code. (Almost) anybody can cut and hack a pile of shit together with some proverbial duct tape and baling wire. But there is also no substitute for real time, on the job training. It takes a very committed self taught person to follow good programming habits and procedures when tinkering by themselves versus the skillset of larger group collaboration efforts.
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Re: Re: Not for every career path
But everyone keeps feeding the monster. Well, they can't say they haven't been warned.
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Useless for what?
It's only in the last 30-40 years when a degree suddenly meant employability except in specialized fields (the "professions"). Except it never did mean employability. We've all been taken in by a combination of education salesmanship and corporations who thought they could offload their training costs onto the public dime.
Turns out, the corporations were wrong, good employees are trained, not hired ready-made. Universities never were designed for career skills.
Universities are designed to grow knowledge. And it's only a small portion of the population that are suited / inclined towards this sort of life. For those who are suited, universities and the degrees they grant are incredibly useful. They form the backbone infrastructure of modern science.
But if you go in thinking you are going to be prepared for some other life, you're going to be disappointed.
Spend 4+ years of your life doing *anything*, and you'll be well prepared to do that thing. If you want a career, go get four years of work experience. If you want to think, get a degree. Both are useful options. The only "useless" thing about degrees is that people think they are intended as credentials rather than a mark of achievement.
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Re: Useless for what?
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Education?
It might be better to decide on the careers you would like and then take the necessary program to accomplish those, but what does high school contribute to one determining what career one wants?
Yes I meant the plural careers. In today's world one may not be enough.
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Useless like high school
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College Degrees Useless?
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Get your degree, or die frying...
http://blog.chinadaily.com.cn/blog-135031-8345.html
As for the comments about coding - lets not kid ourselves, they are the type of excuses used to outsource most coding work overseas, or to increase the number of H1-B visas.
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just get a degree
Now, unfortunately lots of companies see the BS/BA as the minimum entrance requirement so spend the least amount of money as you can, get A degree, then go after your passion
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College has minimal value here is why...
Institutionalized Education is too cookie cutter to add significant value to most individuals. They do add some value, but not worth the expense of attending. Mix in the natural inclination of humans to add "indoctrination" to the courses and you basically find that you paid more money for brainwashing than information.
And single largest glaring flaw of all. The idea that a piece of paper has so much value that no matter how much Experience you have it cannot be replaced. Education should never be more than introductory, Experience trumps it greatly. And if you can add in good aptitude on top of that experience... well now you have an (actual) Expert. Far too few of these, and all to often downplayed or ridiculed by the very institutions purporting to create them.
And as far as I.T. goes... by the time you finish graduating 2 years later... technology has already started to become obsolete.
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Economics
http://freakonomics.com/2012/07/30/freakonomics-goes-to-college-part-1-a-new-freakonomics-ra dio-podcast/
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too many colleges and shools altogether
STOP all government grants for worthless classes and bad degrees, now!!
companies want skilled workers let them train in house and totally free to the hired workers..
the out sourcing and the h1g visa must!! * stop .
tax the rich and let it trickly down to the workers .
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LAW OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND ??
got too many graduates and no jobs therefore close up them schools.
if them companies truly needed workers they will train on the job and pay for your time, anything less is a big lie..
stop the government subsities -grants for worthless classes.
non profite -for profit school its all the same ,close them worthless classes now.
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