Master’s degrees are the second biggest scam in higher education?

Post by trumpoline » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 7:21 PM UTC

depressedpanda wrote: post #75

wffurr wrote: post #40

My masters degree in Computer Science was incredibly educating and opened many career doors for me. It filled in a lot of gaps that my undergraduate education left, and significantly raised my profile amongst recruiters. CS might be the exception to the rule about Masters degrees though.

Conversely, I don't even have a bachelor's degree in CS, and I haven't suffered at all because of it. I got a job offer before graduating, and decided my time was better spent earning money than learning stuff I would probably never have any use for. Rather than focusing on degrees, I think it's a lot more important to focus on learning, however you don't know what's important to learn until you actually start workin…

Post by liketochill » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 7:28 PM UTC

whatshisface wrote: post #241

R0b0t1 wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should also be viewed as potentially disadvantaging people already in the US. If these programs are catering to wealthy foreigners looking to immigrate, then we're not serving whatever need may be inside the country already.

In some fields, there is no need for masters degrees at all. For example in physics you can get a bachelors and career out, or get a PhD and be a physicist (industrial or academic), but there are no jobs I can think of that a masters would qualify you for that a bachelors wouldn't.

Post by netr0ute » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 7:40 PM UTC

dehrmann wrote: post #216

parsecs wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just wondering, as someone currently preparing for SAT - why is it so easy to drastically improve one's performance on standardized tests if they predict IQ? My score was pretty mediocre (due to a year of slacking off during COVID) but after some practice I improved it significantly - does that mean my IQ is greatly increasing as well? I know of some very, very clever people who do not perform well, and the opposite…

> why is it so easy to drastically improve one's performance on standardized tests I'm going to guess you're gains plateau or you get to a near-perfect score pretty quickly. The gains you're seeing are just familiarity with the test.

Post by lizknope » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 7:42 PM UTC

the_lonely_road wrote: post #65

lordnacho wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_high_school In Denmark and some neighboring countries there's this concept of a school you can go to just to learn stuff later in life, as an ongoing thing. There's a whole bunch of themes (sports, history, etc), and often you can book yourself in for whatever amount of time makes sense for you.

We have community colleges in America that serve the exact same function. My parents love taking the astronomy courses because they come with an observatory. They have also some some criminal justice classes and a lot of art classes like pottery. They are very old. You also don’t get a degree for taking these courses but they are much cheaper than the classes are for degree track students.

Post by daxfohl » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 7:44 PM UTC

whatshisface wrote: post #241

R0b0t1 wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should also be viewed as potentially disadvantaging people already in the US. If these programs are catering to wealthy foreigners looking to immigrate, then we're not serving whatever need may be inside the country already.

In some fields, there is no need for masters degrees at all. For example in physics you can get a bachelors and career out, or get a PhD and be a physicist (industrial or academic), but there are no jobs I can think of that a masters would qualify you for that a bachelors wouldn't.