College May Not Be Worth It Anymore • Hacker News Board

Re: College May Not Be Worth It Anymore

#221

Post by mkirklions » Thu, May 17, 2018, 5:36 PM UTC

ManFromUranus wrote: post #146

mkirklions wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do they think they are being useful? From twitter posts, it seems like they know their crap is the same as everyone else, but they want the Adsense money. Idk, twitter Personal Finance is a cesspool of shitty adsense/amazon affiliate filled blogs.

Some blogs are clickbait simply to capture clicks, or maybe the blog is to pad out somebodys resume and the content may as well be lorem ipsum boilerplate becasue nobody is ever going to read it anyway, but having a blog is better than not having a blog (most of the time). IF you have even ONE good article to show somebody then they tend to assume that your entire blog will have around that level of quality. So is wa…

I basically dont read the crap anymore.

I tried getting into twitter, but it turned out to be spam.

Re: College May Not Be Worth It Anymore

#222

Post by ikeyany » Thu, May 17, 2018, 5:36 PM UTC

jknoepfler wrote: post #120

Half-assing anything usually isn't worth it. Given that most Americans half-ass their educations, why would we expect doubling down on half-assery to pay dividends? If working hard towards a degree at a decent school stopped paying dividends, that might be news.

> Half-assing anything usually isn't worth it.

The people who bullshit their way into high paying jobs beg to differ.

Re: College May Not Be Worth It Anymore

#223

Post by TAForObvReasons » Thu, May 17, 2018, 5:36 PM UTC

eanzenberg wrote: post #209

derefr wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I really want my doctor to actually have an MD How do you feel about the fact that doctors from foreign countries need to requalify in the US with a whole ‘nother MD program here? Even if they’re from a country with as-or-more stringent requirements, and decades of experience? “Higher education” is sometimes, in hiring, a dog-whistle for “enculturated to the US because they attended college here.”

I fully agree with the US decision. I want my MDs to pass some baseline aptitude set by US regulation and if a governing board decides a country cannot meet that then those doctors need to re-apply.

This applies to technology as well: I want the people writing code that will be deployed in $CRITICAL_SITUATION to pass some baseline aptitude test set by US regulation, ideally with some ethics component. Unfortunately, no such thing exists in software and there's a surprising pushback.

Re: College May Not Be Worth It Anymore

#224

Post by nimbius » Thu, May 17, 2018, 5:37 PM UTC

speaking as a lead auto mechanic for a chain of shops, please for the love of god quit sending everyone to college. You're making it impossible to find anyone whos worked outside a starbucks.

It takes on average nearly a year for us to do any meaningful hiring. We dont drug test, we dont do a background check in most cases, and we certainly dont care about credit scores. If we did, we wouldnt hire anyone at all. we just watch your work for the first 2-3 months to make sure you're not full of snake oil.

we care about your experience, but we're more than willing to teach. Two of my junior shop techs are changing oil and aligning tires, but before this one of them had a masters in Biology and the other had an anthropology degree. As someone who has always had a tool in hand I cant conceive of whats gone wrong in the college sphere but it terrifies me to think of what drove a woman who once worked on genetics to come work for me.

And for those of you out of college and out of work, please take a look at using your hands. You wouldnt believe how many trades pay close to six figures that are incredibly understaffed. Plumbers, ironworkers, mechanics, maintenance techs, you name it. in most cases a lot of these jobs will pay you to learn the trade. You might not get a cozy office chair, but at the end of the day how many people can say they helped helped build a bridge or fix someones flight home on the week of a big holiday?

Re: College May Not Be Worth It Anymore

#225

Post by [deleted] » Thu, May 17, 2018, 5:37 PM UTC

freeopinion wrote: post #184

j_gu wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So why then does the US military place people according to the ASVAB?

College degree and ASVAB results are not similar criteria at all. They serve completely different purposes. A college degree shows an ability to complete a specific course of discipline. It does not really even indicate aptitude in the discipline. Just the ability to follow through and complete the requirements. I suppose it shows a minimum level of aptitude in that you didn't give up hope and quit. ASVAB doesn't ind…

[deleted]

Re: College May Not Be Worth It Anymore

#226

Post by VikingCoder » Thu, May 17, 2018, 5:37 PM UTC

oh_sigh wrote: post #202

citilife wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Veterinarian programs specific limit how many students they accept, because if they didn't, their graduates wouldn't be able to afford a living wage. Other majors need to catch on. Medical schools do the same thing, but that's also what's causing a burden on the medical system. I truly blame most of the medical expense increases in the U.S. on them and medicare (which sets a base price and everyone else must make u…

Vets can easily make 100k+ in rural areas where the median wage is in the 20s or 30s. You could double the number of vet grads and vets would still be able to make a comfortable living.

With the median wage being 20s or 30s, what's the median debt?

Do you know how much student loan debt vets have?

https://www.studentloanplanner.com/veterinarian/

Also, I have several veterinarian friends, and about half of them are absolutely struggling financially. Do you have personal contact with some, just out of curiosity?

And if you're curious, the suicide rate for vets is very high. We could argue the reasons, but I don't think it's unreasonable to say that money contributes.

Re: College May Not Be Worth It Anymore

#227

Post by VikingCoder » Thu, May 17, 2018, 5:38 PM UTC

justin66 wrote: post #204

VikingCoder wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe let people pay for Art History degrees if they want to. And the free program should be based on Merit, and career demand.

Scholarships. That's the concept you're grasping for.

Sure, Federal Scholarships. Lots of them.

Re: College May Not Be Worth It Anymore

#228

Post by [deleted] » Thu, May 17, 2018, 5:38 PM UTC

mkirklions wrote: post #212

whataretensors wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Failed out of engineering= they didnt care I don't even know how to respond to this... my friends didn't fail out from a lack of effort. You also don't know this but all of my old friends are Mexican - so you are implicitly saying the reason they didn't succeed is because they are lazy Mexicans. I don't think you intended to take this stance. You likely got tricked with everyone else into believing in social constr…

Nah, it had nothing to do with your personal racism toward your friends for being Mexican. If you didnt pass math and engineering, you didnt care enough. Your friends treated college like high school or worse. If you did 100% of the homework, read the chapter before class, studied for tests, you wouldnt be failing out of college. At worst case, the classes are hard enough you get a C or D in a class. But that isnt en…

[deleted]

Re: College May Not Be Worth It Anymore

#229

Post by selimthegrim » Thu, May 17, 2018, 5:40 PM UTC

prometheuspk wrote: post #157

VikingCoder wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe let people pay for Art History degrees if they want to. And the free program should be based on Merit, and career demand.

Thats what they do for high demand degrees like Engg and Medicine in Pakistan. In Govt. colleges education is virtually free if you are admitted on merit, else you can go for self finance

And then what do you when most of the female medical students drop out and get married because the degree was just a tool in rishta negotiations? Why should working poor subsidize a status game?

Re: College May Not Be Worth It Anymore

#230

Post by snovv_crash » Thu, May 17, 2018, 5:40 PM UTC

freeopinion wrote: post #184

j_gu wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So why then does the US military place people according to the ASVAB?

College degree and ASVAB results are not similar criteria at all. They serve completely different purposes. A college degree shows an ability to complete a specific course of discipline. It does not really even indicate aptitude in the discipline. Just the ability to follow through and complete the requirements. I suppose it shows a minimum level of aptitude in that you didn't give up hope and quit. ASVAB doesn't ind…

> It does not really even indicate aptitude in the discipline.

I don't know what standards are like in the U.S., but at least where I went to university a good 30% (of those who were in the top 20% of the highly selective entrance exam) ended up getting kicked out because they didn't pass enough courses in their first or second year.

Yes, for some people it was an inability to concentrate, but I also know a few who put in more than the minimum hours but for some reason it just didn't 'click'.

I don't know if the US is suffering from grade inflation which lets through people who should have been failed, or if you are just in a bubble of people who are successful, but what you describe is nothing like what I experienced.