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The whole argument of "bubble" is not about importance of higher education, rather, it argues that the cost is not justified. As a side note, I applied Facebook for internship when I have taken no CS classes in my college at all, and they accepted me. I am not sure how "true" his last paragraph about applying job in Facebook without a degree would be.
Vivek went to American Society for Engineering Education Engineering Deans Institute. I am not really sure what kind of response he was expecting other than the one presented to him. Ask HN, is it really an unbiased article when you take their responses, and not for example, students or recent graduates ?
Tom Katsouleas "It is during one’s undergraduate years that one discovers oneself, where one fits into the world and what it means to be human."* Four years and $200,000 for a piece of paper and a false understanding of where you fit into the world.
Or, in my case, less than $25,000 for a piece of paper, some very valuable formal instruction that I draw on today (and, more importantly, knowledgeable people who at the time could put it into a context I could understand), some great contacts, some great work experience, an environment where I could take the time to build projects to improve what I know about my profession and my craft without worrying about making…
This is my experience as well. Admittedly, it was probably closer to $80,000 after everything, but it gave me exactly that environment.
I'm 4 years out of school, and I've made back the cost of my piece of paper.
There is no control group. Why not pick 40 very bright young people and give half of them $100K to start a company and the other half $100K to stay in school and complete their education? That would be a really interesting and exciting experiment. I wish someone would do it.
I would be very interested in this experiment, but subsidizing a student's education in the US doesn't give you a 'control' group, but a very privileged group.
There is a price where Harvard makes sense, however $250K isn't it.
2. We are in a bubble, sort of. It's not like the tulip bubble or a housing bubble where the product can be sold to a "greater fool", unless you consider the bump in hiring a degree provides to be a "sale". The education bubble is something different: panic-buying fueled by parents who are terrified that their kids will end up insignificant, taking orders rather than giving them, if they don't attend the right schools.
It's actually a bidding war over educational cachet and access to limited resources, coupled with much, much higher expectations of the "college experience" (that drive costs up even in the cheaper schools). My grandfather paid $300/year ($4000 today) to go to CMU in the early 1930s. There was also no expectation that it would provide a state-of-the-art, 25000-SF gym, a cafeteria serving better food than most restaurants, and an expensive blow-out concert with free beer every spring.
Tom Katsouleas "It is during one’s undergraduate years that one discovers oneself, where one fits into the world and what it means to be human."* Four years and $200,000 for a piece of paper and a false understanding of where you fit into the world.
Or, in my case, less than $25,000 for a piece of paper, some very valuable formal instruction that I draw on today (and, more importantly, knowledgeable people who at the time could put it into a context I could understand), some great contacts, some great work experience, an environment where I could take the time to build projects to improve what I know about my profession and my craft without worrying about making…
People get so wrapped up in their college's ranking in US News that they don't bother to find out which colleges are good enough. It's kind of a silly rule, but I usually tell people that, as long as their college has a basketball or football team (no matter how horrible they are), it's probably good enough.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or, in my case, less than $25,000 for a piece of paper, some very valuable formal instruction that I draw on today (and, more importantly, knowledgeable people who at the time could put it into a context I could understand), some great contacts, some great work experience, an environment where I could take the time to build projects to improve what I know about my profession and my craft without worrying about making…
Even a public school education (at in-state rates) will run you 40-50k minimum these days.
A lot of the rest was paid for by working during school--I had the lame little jobs during school, but I also participated in Google Summer of Code and had a pretty healthy consulting company that I started and operated, employing friends of mine when I had more work than I could handle. Like I said--less than $25,000 for the whole kit and kaboodle, thanks to what really amounted to not a lot of work to make that happen. (It also had the nice side effect of giving me a really nice resume.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or, in my case, less than $25,000 for a piece of paper, some very valuable formal instruction that I draw on today (and, more importantly, knowledgeable people who at the time could put it into a context I could understand), some great contacts, some great work experience, an environment where I could take the time to build projects to improve what I know about my profession and my craft without worrying about making…
>Or, in my case, less than $20,000 for a piece of paper, some very valuable formal instruction that I draw on today (and, more importantly, knowledgeable people who at the time could put it into a context I could understand), some great contacts, some great work experience, an environment where I could take the time to build projects to improve what I know about my profession and my craft without worrying about makin…