Is Getting A College Degree Worth It These Days?

[Lupe]

Brian Kim wrote an article called "Is Getting A College Degree Worth It These Days?"

Steve, could you write a similar article?

[impaul99]

Originally Posted by Lupe

Brian Kim wrote an article called "Is Getting A College Degree Worth It These Days?"

Steve, could you write a similar article?

I would say it depends on the industry you're going into.

If it's anything technology related, I would probably say no.

If you want to be an optometrist or heart surgeon, it's a bit hard to get licensed to practice medicine if you don't go post-secondary.

[Lupe]

"If it's anything technology related, I would probably say no."
Why?

[Dive Bomb]

I would say it is. These days, you need at least a bachelors degree to be considered for a high paying position. Unless you want to make it as your own, than college is not as critical but I think it still important for you to grow, meet people, and become educated in something that interests you.

[Rivelli]

Originally Posted by Lupe

Brian Kim wrote an article called "Is Getting A College Degree Worth It These Days?"

Steve, could you write a similar article?

Ill give you a quick answer. It depends on the industry.

[Lupe]

So which industry is worth going into?

[Sam988]

Unfortunately i think that a college degree is needed in most areas. Unless you already have a good amount of initial capital and you plan on becoming an entrepreneur or something like that where you're the boss and you don't need other people's help very much, a college degree does a big difference.

If you're considering a career where technical/specialized abilities are needed, then college is a no brainer. If you plan on working for other people, then college is a no brainer. If you plan on getting loans to start your business or something then college is a no brainer.... and so on.

I don't like college too, what i learn in a 3.5 hour class i can learn with 20 minutes of reading (i HATE listening and watching to learn, i'm much better at learning with reading and with reading we learn much faster). So it may also depend on your learning style. Because some people just can't read for more than 10 minutes without getting bored and losing their attention. I'm the contrary; i can't listen to someone speak for more than 10 minutes without having my mind wandering in realms far away from the classroom.


There are so many factors to it, if you told us more about yourself and your plans we would be able to give better answers.

[impaul99]

Originally Posted by Lupe

"If it's anything technology related, I would probably say no."
Why?

The technology field is easily self-taught. Professors mould your thinking processes in one direction, whereas self-taught you come up with some creative ways to solve problems. I don't know, maybe I'm biased. I've been programming computers since I was a little kid and in high-school my computers science teacher just annoyed me.

I hated the way he taught us to write code as it was way too inefficient. In order for him not to be be able to dissect my final project which was supposed to be done in Pascal, I wrote it in Assembler instead. It was 50 times harder to write it in Assembler for what it did, but in the end he had no idea what I did so the only thing he could mark it on was the fact that it worked.

He docked me marks because I didn't use proper sentence structure in my short comments beside each line of code. I wasn't aware that computer science class was for learning perfect English grammar.

Times change, but the year that I was considering going for post-secondary computer science courses Microsoft had a job ad section on their site and it said that they typically don't hire programmers with post-secondary education, saying that if they wanted the thinking habits of the professors students, they would just hire the professor. I believe at that time they were hiring straight out of highschool. Not sure how it is now.

[Tasaio]

The technology field is easily self-taught. Professors mould your thinking processes in one direction, whereas self-taught you come up with some creative ways to solve problems.

Yes, I very much agree. In fact, some profossors refuse to teach programming--they want the students to learn "how to learn".

Too many students go to university assuming that they're going to be taught programming. But they end up being taught the theory of...computer science. Programming is not computer science.

WRT the OP, I would say a degree is only necessary in fields like medicine and engineering. Tech, languages, and humanities can be easily self-taught.

[Plato]

No, you should become a pro skateboarder I reckon. You'd get to wear very comfortable shoes to work.

[wolverine]

I also think it depends on the type of person you are. Personally, I learn best with other people around -- I learn well from listening/watching combined with reading and practical exercises -- I'd prefer more interaction than university provides, but it has far more than just book-learning. Also, I'm a chronic question asker -- I find it much easier to learn by asking questions, arguing, and having either my question/suggestion confirmed or rebuffed with the correct answer. This mostly applies for things with actual answers -- maths, engineering, some other science. Other times, I just like to engage in dabates with no actual answer, such as the current limits of science. (Also philosophy, but only with people not versed in formal philosophy terms, which I don't know.)

For people who don't learn well when around other people or who learn in other ways that I can't think of specifically now because it's late, sorry, then perhaps university is not the right path. As others have mentioned, it also depends on the industry -- arts generally doesn't need a degree, maths/science/engineering generally do, medicine and law and such definitely do! (Sorry, don't know much about non arts-, science- or engineering-degrees, not my area of friends or knowledge.)

Or university can simply be a place to be an adult without the pressure of holding down a job, and you can learn who you are, what you're interested in and the people you like to be friends with in a less cuthroat environment than the business world. I'm doing that sort of stuff alongside the academic stuff.

It depends on who you are, where you want to go and where you are now.


Wolverine

[pianoperformer]

Actually, I would say that the arts cannot be self-taught. I'm only coming from the perspective of music, but with an instrument, one at least needs lessons, and usually one can find the better professors giving lessons in universities. Of course if you can find just that, without needing to go for the theory and such (that you can learn by yourself), then that's fine. But at least in the performing arts, one can't get far without lessons, unless one is already very experienced with technique and interpretation.

I agree with everything else people are saying, though I wonder if not having a degree might make things a lot harder on oneself, since some employers only higher those with a degree, assuming of course you are looking for an employer and not planning on starting your own business, at which point I'd say it doesn't matter.

[wolverine]

Fair point, pianoperformer. I'll rephrase: some aspects of some arts can be self-taught. Writing, painting etc can be learned by just practising and by informal or semi-formal education (reading, short lessons etc). On the whole, though, the arts area is one where you could, theoretically at least, learn to be good in your chosen area without a formal degree. Again, comparing to science/engineering (sorry, don't know any others well enough to comment!), where you need to know your stuff because lives can depend on your work later on. (Why is it that souls depending on work isn't counted as important, such as being 'rescued' or suchlike by art or even PD?)


Wolverine

[Brutha]

Why is it that souls depending on work isn't counted as important, such as being 'rescued' or suchlike by art

Art often isn't made with the intent of rescuing people.
There are also no studies that show that it does rescue more people than it leads in darker thoughts.

I'm only coming from the perspective of music, but with an instrument, one at least needs lessons,

There are many successful musicians that don't have an degree in music.

WRT the OP, I would say a degree is only necessary in fields like medicine and engineering. Tech, languages, and humanities can be easily self-taught.

Isn't engineering tech?

[pianoperformer]

Brutha,

I didn't say musicians need degrees, just that they generally need lessons in order to have good technique and musicianship, and one of the best ways of getting such lessons are through a university.

[Calculusaurus]

Having a college degree will open lots of doors. I think it's more than just "worth it".

"To each his own", I know, but college is a once-in-a-lifetime experience in itself. If nothing else, it's a great way to establish connections and build a network if you're really concerned about the professional-worth of college...

[WageMage]

As it has been noted, for professions where licensing and such are required... you're pretty much stuck with the "traditional way" - universities and so on.

Tech... well, I'm a fairly senior programmer at the moment, and I've had no formal training, but... it was an uphill both ways, miles barefoot in the snow journey... sure, you can reach a fairly good level of proficiency with the tools and languages and even best practices... but sooner or later, something non-trivial is going to up and bite you on your tender bits.

Most of today's line-of-business applications are trivially done by someone not trained in computer science... a good craftsman can knock them out one after the other without much problem. Then... you get a delivery-optimization algorithm thrown in (traveling salesman kind of thing), or you have to write something that really scales, or requires knowledge of FSA, compiler/language design or some other math-heavy or algorithmic-heavy task... and you hurt.

I found myself seeking tutoring in math and some darker corners of computer science time and time again... sure, I could have just picked it up for myself, but in the heat of a project... best to spend the money and get tutoring: it's quicker, and the poor CS TAs I've used charged far less an hour than I did.

I've been doing this for a while, and I've probably spent far longer studying stuff than I would spend at the university - perhaps getting a degree up-front would have been... easier. But it also might have killed my love for computing... and wouldn't excuse me from having to learn good practices and pragmatic problem-solving (and decent languages) the hard way.

All in all it's a personal choice, I think - you'll have to pay your dues one way or the other, it's up to personal style and opportunity the particular path you chose to stagger through